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."

those words, the tension within my legs disappeared. Within a split instant, I found the Duke's face right

Swooosh-!

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

However...

the Duke was able to react appropriately as he dodged my attack by moving his head to the side. It was by a narrow

with his own palm, pressing

move was clearly visible in the

casual slap of my left

didn't give up, as he rotated his hand and demonic force burst

be a futile

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

face hardened

to attack again, but in the blink of an eye,

doing whatever he was

grasping his hand, my mouth

"Give up."

as I felt my other's

resistance clearly

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

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

could feel the bones of the demons crush inside the palm

annoy me

tore off of the Duke's body

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

it remained still in the air.

"Huaak!"

the Duke's face twisted

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

"H..how dare you!"

pushed out as a result of his

could read his mind, with just a casual

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

Make sure you

felt the

despaired

my emotions remained

after this. Forming a thin yet durable veil

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

'...Mana agglomeration.'

at the Monolith. In the years since

many times as the armor

body was

'Hm?'

completely shifted without me even

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

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

'What's this?'

tried to make

important,

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

It was then...

circles in the middle of

I observed small circular balls the size of tennis balls tucked within blobs. Additionally, they appeared to be

Then it hit me.

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

right. Those are