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 a split instant, I found the Duke's face right

Swooosh-!

my fingers together, my hand thrust toward

However...

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

own palm, pressing

him, like an open book, his every move was clearly visible in the eyes

of my left hand, his palm changed

the Duke didn't give up, as he rotated his hand and demonic force burst out of his hand, forcing out

proved to be a futile

head, having clearly read his movements ahead of time. The beam soon flew past the side of my ear, before piercing through the pale

face hardened when he saw

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

him from doing whatever he was

grasping his hand, my

"Give up."

twitched with annoyance as I felt my other's

resistance

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

my hand continued to squeeze before it compressed it completely and I was able to close my hand into

the demons crush inside the palm

me

of the Duke's body and

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 was really moving

for the blood as it remained still in the

"Huaak!"

action, the Duke's face twisted savagely as he screamed out

torrential wave of demonic energy burst out of his body, converging toward the top

"H..how dare you!"

was pushed out as a result of his

as though he could read his mind, with just a casual tap

I heard a voice speak inside of my

I end him. Make sure you feel how I

gesture of his raised his hand and I felt the mana in my body expand outwardly. Encompassing

Duke despaired at the

emotions

convergence of mana followed after this. Forming a thin yet durable veil that enveloped

itself around my body, it didn't take

'...Mana agglomeration.'

Monica was fighting the elders at the Monolith. In the years since

multiplied many times as the armor

was flooded

'Hm?'

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

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

that some of the blobs were smaller than others, with the

'What's this?'

to

not important,

spoke. Listening to his words, I sharpened my

It was then...

are the small circles

the size 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