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."

a split instant, I found the Duke's face right

Swooosh-!

together, my hand thrust toward the Duke's

However...

his head to the side. It was

that, he counterattacked with his own

him, like an open book, his every move was clearly visible in the

casual slap of my left hand, his palm changed

demonic force burst out of his hand, forcing out a black beam that

to be a futile effort

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 clouds

hardened when he saw

blink of an

him from doing whatever he was

grasping his hand, my mouth then

"Give up."

twitched with annoyance as I felt

Duke's resistance

the same ranks again. You couldn't do anything when we were of

Duke Azenoch's arm as I squeezed his hand. The Duke's face changed, but my hand continued to squeeze before it compressed it completely and I was able to close

the demons crush inside the palm of

me any

of the Duke's body

for a brief moment before throwing it behind me, only to see it

as it remained still in the air. Slowing

"Huaak!"

twisted savagely

energy burst out of his body, converging toward the top of his palm in the

"H..how dare you!"

pushed out as a result

read his mind, with just a casual tap of his hand, the ball flew past my

of my head. The mana inside of my body started to

more thing before I end him. Make sure you feel how

hand and I felt the mana in my

despaired at the

my emotions

mana followed after this. Forming a thin yet durable veil that enveloped my entire

didn't take me long to figure

'...Mana agglomeration.'

seen this scene once before, back when Monica was fighting the elders at the Monolith. In

already tremendous strength multiplied many times as the armor completely

was flooded

'Hm?'

shifted without me even having a chance to rejoice at my

now. There were a couple of more colorful ones inside of the

that some of the blobs were smaller than others, with the blob representing the Duke being the

'What's this?'

I tried to make

not important, look

as my other self spoke. Listening to his words, I sharpened my gaze and paid more attention

It was then...

what are the small circles in the

circular balls the size of tennis balls tucked within blobs. Additionally, they

Then it hit me.

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

right. Those are