The Author's POV

Time stopped.

The world within my vision came to a halt.

From the crowd to the noise. The only thing that stood in front of me was Duke Azonech.

Carefully placing my hand on the ground, my body slowly stood up.

In parallel with this, Duke Azonech's face changed dramatically. In a mutter, he opened his mouth.

"…Y..you were hiding your strength?"

He slowly took a step back.

He appeared to be in shock and fear.

"Not really."

My mouth automatically opened and answered.

"That's impossible!"

In a state of trembling, he screamed.

"Do you really expect me to believe that you weren't hiding your strength?"

"...You call this hiding my strength?"

I suddenly felt a wave of disgust wash over my body as I sensed my other self's emotions.

I found my head slowly rising up.

My eyes soon met with the Duke's.

"Is it really worth hiding this little amount of strength?"

"Wh...what?"

While the two were conversing, I was secretly trying to grasp what was happening around me.

It had to be noted that currently, time was flowing at a much faster rate than reality. For the two of them to be able to converse properly...just how fast were they?

Not only that, the world around me. It looked different. Everything looked a lot more colorful as I was able to catch a glimpse of the mana in the air.

There wasn't much, in fact, there was barely any mana in the air, but it was still there.

Regardless, that wasn't what attracted most of my attention.

'...Limit Breaker?'

These words...

This was the first time I had ever heard of these words, and my curiosity about them was at an all-time high.

Unfortunately, I didn't have the luxury to ponder over those words as my head glanced around the frozen space, and I suddenly found my calves tensing up.

My mouth soon opened.

"My time is limited. This amount of strength will suffice for now."

the tension within my legs disappeared. Within a

Swooosh-!

my fingers together, my hand thrust toward the Duke's throat in a

However...

moving his head to the side. It was by a narrow margin, but he was still able to dodge

own palm, pressing it

every move was clearly visible in the eyes of my other

my

as he rotated his hand and demonic force burst out of his hand, forcing out a black beam that dangerously aimed

still proved to be a futile effort in

took for my other self to avoid the attack was a simple movement of my head, having clearly read his movements ahead of time. The beam soon flew past the side of my ear, before piercing through the pale red

face hardened when he saw

the blink of an eye, my hand had

doing whatever

grasping his hand, my mouth then

"Give up."

as I felt my other's

resistance clearly

can actually do something to me now that we're both in the same ranks again. You couldn't do anything when we were of the same rank before, yet you think a small

his hand. The Duke's face changed, but my hand continued to squeeze before it compressed it

demons crush

annoy me

my hand back, the hand tore off of the Duke's body and blood began to

hand for a brief moment before throwing it behind me, only to see it stop mid-air and

blood as it remained still

"Huaak!"

my action, the Duke's face twisted savagely as

me, a torrential wave of demonic energy burst out of his body, converging toward the top of his palm in the

"H..how dare you!"

pushed out as a result of

read his mind, with just a casual tap of his hand, the

I heard a voice speak inside of my head. The mana inside of my

before I end him. Make sure you feel how I control the

and I felt the mana in my body expand outwardly.

despaired at the

my emotions remained

a thin yet durable veil that enveloped my entire

didn't take

'...Mana agglomeration.'

elders at the Monolith. In the years since then, I had been

many times as the armor

was flooded

'Hm?'

vision completely shifted without me even having a chance to rejoice at

of black blobs now. There were a couple

I observed that some of the blobs were smaller than others,

'What's this?'

as I tried to make

important, look

question remained unanswered as my other self spoke. Listening to his words,

It was then...

are the small circles in the

of tennis balls tucked within blobs. Additionally, they appeared to

Then it hit me.

'Wait, don't tell me...'

right. Those are