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 split instant,

Swooosh-!

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

However...

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

own palm, pressing

every move was clearly visible in the eyes of

casual slap of my left hand, his palm

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

be a futile effort in the

a simple movement of my head, having clearly read his movements ahead of time. The beam soon flew

hardened

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

from doing whatever he was planning on

grasping his hand,

"Give up."

felt my other's emotions run down

Duke's resistance clearly irritated

in the same ranks again. You couldn't do anything when we were of the same rank before, yet you think a small

pressed against Duke Azenoch's arm as I squeezed his hand. The Duke's face changed, but my hand continued

feel the bones of the demons crush inside

me any

back, the hand tore off of the Duke's

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

be said for the blood as it remained still in

"Huaak!"

the Duke's face twisted savagely

energy burst out of his body, converging toward the top

"H..how dare you!"

force was pushed out as a result of his

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

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

more thing before I end him. Make sure you

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

despaired at

emotions remained

Forming a thin yet durable veil

body, it didn't take me long to figure

'...Mana agglomeration.'

when Monica was fighting the elders at the Monolith. In the years since then, I had been

already tremendous strength multiplied many times as the armor

was

'Hm?'

even having a chance

a series of black blobs now. There were a

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

'What's this?'

as I tried to make out what

not important,

Listening to his words, I sharpened my gaze and

It was then...

small circles in the middle

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

Then it hit me.

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

right. Those