The Author's POV

My next set of actions was quick.

As I was dealing with a Marquis-ranked demon, every little second mattered.

Taking out a stack of magic cards from my dimensional system, I injected them with my mana before throwing them in the air.

Swiping my hand, three rings formed around the igniting cards.

By the time the cards were about to fully ignite, the rigs turned red and a small ball of fire resembling a sun was contained in the middle of the rings.

"Go."

With a simple wave, the rings flew toward the sky.

"What's this?"

Catching sight of the ball of fire, Marquis Atheora reached his hand out. But it was already too late.

BOOOM—!

A large cloud of fire bloomed in the air and accompanying it was a thunderous explosion.

The fire receded after a couple of seconds, but it served its purpose.

"Anytime now..."

"You."

Feeling Marquis Atheora's gaze land on me, I raised my head and stared back at him.

Slowly descending to the ground, he looked back at the area where I threw my attack.

"What were you trying to do?"

"Testing something."

"...You seriously want me to believe that?"

Raising his head, he smelled the air. His face changed a little.

"This sensation..."

I felt his gaze pause on me, as he carefully scrutinized my body. After a while, his eyes opened up.

"You...You're not a demon."

'Ah, looks like the cat is out of the bag...'

In order to make it seem like I was a demon, I had placed a couple of cores inside of my body. By simply creating a thin coating of mana, I stopped the demons from regenerating, and in the process, created an effect that made it seem as though I had demonic energy inside of my body.

This was a trick that I learned from my other-self.

It was quite a useful one at that as it really helped me out quite a bit. Without it, I would've probably been found out in the first month.

Had it not been for my last attack that left some lingering mana in the air, Marquis Atheora would have never found out.

"A pity..."

I muttered underneath my breath.

"I don't know how you—"

Stopping himself mid-sentence, Marquis Atheora's head snapped toward the distance. It was then that he managed to spot several demons heading his way, coming from the northern side.

His face finally changed.

"This..."

Staring at him from below, I smiled from behind my mask.

"It looks like someone noticed all of the commotions you've caused."

Not quite.

From the moment that I decided to help him out, I knew that he was going to try to silence me. Even if he wasn't, I wasn't still going to go through with my plans.

first one. That is, act as bait and lure

was a better time than to get rid

That said.

I could kill. Our rank difference was just too

need to

just like I had convinced him to ambush the Greed clan, I presented another clan with

ambushing the Greed clan,

threw was a signal

to backstab

a malicious and terrifying glare directed in my direction. Without needing to

didn't care as my direction my attention toward the opposite side, the southern area. This

should also be

and I saw nothing, my forehead started to

my timing?...or did they ignore

so, this was going to be

a burst of aura coming from

"You..."

the area around me started to twist. Turning around, I realized

'Shit...'

terrifying aura that was directed in my direction, I once again turned to look into the distance.

Chronos, I started to assess the

started to run at full throttle as I tried to figure out my

Plan A is going to be a bust. Do

"You don't."

rang from beside me. As usual, it was the other me appearing from out of

"What do you mean?"

a little bit

slight pause, his

in mind that using that power will only serve to alert Jezebeth of

"...You're right."

power, I became

clone to fight me. What if he showed

the thought made me extremely apprehensive about using my

of my thoughts, the other me continued

need to tap into that power in order to save Amanda's father. It's best if you save it for then. Not only that

the situation doesn't

"You worry too much."

head, he stared into the distance. Unlike me, he could

more minutes. If something doesn't happen by

"...Alright."

Eyes of Chronos I raised my head and met Marquis

my hand on the sheath of my sword, I activated my sword's effect, and the mana inside of my body started to

time, I activated

didn't have too much of an effect on Marquis Atheora as

from the effect, I had already gathered enough

third movement of the [Keiki style]

Click—!

same time my vision started to distort, I saw Marquis

Boooom—!

the area that I was

speed, I was unable to come out unscathed as I ended up crashing against multiple trees, and felt tremendous pain invade every part of

Bang—!

"Ukhhh..."

That said.

I had survived.

"It hurts..."

my body up a little. I had trouble moving as some of my bones were

chugged down a couple

time I recovered the demons in the distance had

have here. It looks like the information wasn't

another demon that

Gluttony clan. A clan that wasn't

them with an opportunity to deal damage to the Sloth clan, they obviously did not refuse it

sure they would believe in my plan at first, but it wasn't exactly hard

all they had to do

be considered a

That aside.

off-chance that this was also

"Marquis Exion."

those words. With narrowed eyes, demonic energy rose from his body