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."

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

However...

past, 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,

that, he counterattacked with his own palm, pressing it towards my

book, his every move

slap of my left hand, his

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

to be a futile

having clearly read his movements ahead

hardened when he

attack again, but in the blink of an eye, my hand had already reached out and grasped his

from doing whatever he was planning

grasping his hand, my mouth

"Give up."

as I felt my other's

Duke's resistance clearly

think you can actually do something to me now that we're both 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 would make

The Duke's face changed, but my hand continued to squeeze before

feel the bones of the demons crush inside

me

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

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

"Huaak!"

face twisted savagely as he screamed

his body, converging

"H..how dare you!"

was pushed out as a result

just a casual tap of

heard a voice speak inside of my head. The mana inside of my body started to

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

gesture of his raised his hand and I felt the mana

despaired at the

my emotions

Forming a thin yet durable veil that enveloped my entire

my body, it didn't take me long to

'...Mana agglomeration.'

fighting the elders at the Monolith. In the years since then, I had been deeply impressed with

many times as the

was flooded with

'Hm?'

my vision completely shifted without me even having a chance to rejoice at my newly

There were a couple of

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

'What's this?'

I tried to make out what was going

important,

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

It was then...

the small circles in the

tennis balls tucked

Then it hit me.

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

right. Those are