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."

words, the tension within my legs disappeared. Within a

Swooosh-!

my hand thrust toward

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 margin, but

he counterattacked with his own

every move was clearly visible in the eyes of my other

casual slap of my left hand,

his hand and demonic force burst out of his hand, forcing out a

a

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

hardened when he

in the blink of an eye, my hand had already

him from doing whatever he was

his hand, my mouth

"Give up."

twitched with annoyance as I felt

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 power-up

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

bones of the demons crush

me

back, the hand tore off of the Duke's body and blood began to

behind me, only to see it stop mid-air and fall down at the same pace time was really

said for the blood as it remained still in the air. Slowing

"Huaak!"

twisted savagely as he screamed out

energy burst out of his body, converging toward

"H..how dare you!"

pushed out as a result of his

he could read his mind, with just a casual tap

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

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

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

despaired at

emotions

Forming a thin yet durable veil that enveloped

my body, it didn't take me

'...Mana agglomeration.'

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

multiplied many times as

was flooded

'Hm?'

completely shifted without me even having a chance to

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

were smaller than others, with the blob representing the Duke

'What's this?'

as I tried to

not important, look

his words, I sharpened

It was then...

small circles in

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

Then it hit me.

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

right. Those are their