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."

my legs disappeared. Within a split instant, I found the

Swooosh-!

hand thrust toward the

However...

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

his own palm, pressing it

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

my left hand, his palm changed

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

proved to be a futile

of my head, having clearly read his movements ahead of time. The beam soon flew past the side of my ear, before

face hardened

but in the blink of an eye, my hand

doing whatever he was

grasping his hand,

"Give up."

as I felt my other's

resistance clearly

we're both in the same ranks again. You couldn't do anything when we were of the same rank before,

Duke's face changed, but my hand

could feel the bones of the demons crush inside the

me

of the Duke's body and blood

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

as it remained

"Huaak!"

Duke's face twisted savagely as he

he gazed toward 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!"

tremendous force was pushed out as a

a casual tap of his hand, the ball flew past my

head, I heard a voice speak inside of my head. The mana inside of my body started to circulate in an

you one more thing before I end him. Make sure

of his raised his hand and I felt the mana in my body expand outwardly.

Duke despaired at the

emotions

Forming a thin yet durable veil that enveloped my entire

itself around my body, it didn't take me long to figure out

'...Mana agglomeration.'

once before, back when Monica was fighting the elders at the Monolith. In the years since then, I had been deeply impressed

multiplied many times as the armor completely encased

body was flooded

'Hm?'

without me even having a chance to

I could only see a series of black blobs now. There were a couple of more colorful ones

smaller than others, with the blob

'What's this?'

as I tried to make

important, look

self spoke. Listening to his words, I sharpened my gaze

It was then...

circles in the middle of

tennis balls tucked within blobs.

Then it hit me.

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

Those are their