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

Swooosh-!

together, my hand thrust toward the Duke's throat

However...

appropriately as he dodged my attack by moving his head to the side. It

counterattacked with his own palm,

move was clearly visible in the eyes

slap of my left hand, his palm changed

as he rotated his hand and demonic force burst out of

a futile effort

my other self to avoid the attack was 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 through

hardened when

blink of an eye, my hand had already reached out and grasped his

him from doing whatever

his hand, my mouth then

"Give up."

twitched with annoyance as I felt my

resistance clearly irritated

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

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

feel the bones of the demons crush inside the palm of my

me any

my hand back, the hand tore off of the Duke's body

brief moment before throwing it behind me, only to see it stop mid-air and fall down at the same pace

the blood as it remained

"Huaak!"

the Duke's face twisted

burst out of his body, converging toward the top of his palm in the form

"H..how dare you!"

force was pushed out as a result

as though he could read his mind, with just a

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

before I end him. Make sure you feel

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

Duke despaired at the

emotions remained

gradual convergence of mana followed after this. Forming a

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

'...Mana agglomeration.'

the Monolith. In the years

already tremendous strength multiplied many times as the

body was flooded with

'Hm?'

even having a chance

blobs now. There were a couple of more colorful ones inside of the

were smaller than others,

'What's this?'

as I tried to

important, look

Listening to his words, I

It was then...

the small circles in the middle of

of tennis balls tucked within blobs. Additionally, they appeared to be distributed across different areas of

Then it hit me.

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

Those