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

Swooosh-!

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

However...

past, the Duke was able to react appropriately as he dodged my attack by moving his

he counterattacked with his own palm, pressing it towards

an open book, his every move was clearly visible

a casual slap of my left hand, his palm

burst out of

to be a futile effort in the

only thing it 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

Duke's face hardened when he saw

teeth, he prepared to attack again, but in the blink of an eye, my hand had

from doing whatever he was

his hand, my mouth

"Give up."

felt my other's emotions

Duke's resistance clearly

me now that we're both in the same ranks again. You couldn't do anything when

Duke's face changed, but my hand continued to squeeze before it compressed it completely and I was able to

feel the bones of the demons crush inside the palm

annoy me

hand tore off of the Duke's body and blood

a brief moment before throwing it behind me, only to see it stop mid-air and fall down at the same pace time was

as it remained still in the air. Slowing moving

"Huaak!"

the Duke's face twisted savagely as he screamed

gazed toward me, a torrential wave of demonic energy burst out of his

"H..how dare you!"

pushed out

his mind, with just a casual

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

end him. Make sure you

sudden gesture of his raised his hand and I felt the

Duke despaired at the

emotions remained

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

my body, it didn't

'...Mana agglomeration.'

before, back when Monica was fighting the elders at the Monolith. In the years since then, I had been deeply impressed with her gallant and powerful

tremendous strength multiplied many times as the armor completely encased

was flooded

'Hm?'

that, my vision completely shifted without me even having

only see a series of black blobs now. There were a couple of more colorful ones inside of the arena, but that was about

that some of the blobs were smaller than others, with

'What's this?'

I tried to make

not important,

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

It was then...

are the small circles in the middle of

inspection, I observed small circular balls the size of tennis balls tucked within blobs.

Then it hit me.

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

Those