The Author's POV

"Looks like I'm not too late, no?"

Brushing my hair back, I moved to where Liam was. In my right hand was a small silver sword. It was a spare sword that Kevin had handed me before separating from me.

"Just a little…"

Liam's words left me speechless. Especially after he took out an apple and started to take bites out of it.

While he took a bite of the apple, the juices from it spilled all over his fingers before falling onto the ground.

I shook my head when I saw this.

"Here."

I handed him a potion.

"I don't need it."

"Hm?"

Catching the potion, Liam threw it back to me. His actions surprised me as I blinked a couple of times, unable to fully understand why he rejected the potion when he was clearly not in a good state.

Seemingly being able to read my thoughts, Liam raised his hand and showed me the apple.

"You see, this isn't a normal apple."

Standing up, his broken foot magically started to twist and squirm. Within the span of a couple of seconds, his leg had completely healed and he lightly jumped in the air.

"See? I'm fine."

Liam threw what remained of the apple on the floor and turned to gaze in the direction of where the demon was.

I did too.

"…Another intruder?"

Unfortunately, my surprise attack didn't seem to have had much of an impact on the demon, as he appeared to be completely unscathed.

The situation was made worse by his apparent anger, as his face twisted savagely and a powerful force enveloped the scene. Currently, we were standing in a small hall, with tall pillars supporting the ceiling.

A smoky and iron-like scent lingered in the air.

"Not bad…not bad…"

The demon spat through his clenched teeth as he alternated his gaze between Liam and I. Then, looking toward the other demons present in the room, he finally noticed something.

"Dead…"

The aura that was revolving around his body fluctuated slightly.

A thin smile spread across my face when I noticed this.

'I was right to kill the others first.'

It had been quite a bit since I had arrived here, and during the time that I was here, I spent my time killing all the demons that were in the room.

None of the demons in the room were that strong, but they still posed a liability that could cause trouble in the middle of the fight, which was why I decided to kill them before saving Liam.

'The others should also be attracting the attention of the other high-ranked demons…'

went for the core of the mana compressor, I knew that they would attract the attention of a Marquis ranked demon, and in turn, stop any reinforcements

since he was already a lot

"Where is everyone?"

to be the correct one as the Duke ranked demon seemed taken

moment that

'Let's go.'

even before we spoke as mana erupted from my body and a

[Shadow Servant]

a black disc formed beneath

Crackle. Crackle.

time, lighting crackled around Liam's body, and his figure vanished from the spot, before reappearing right in front of

his hand, he slashed toward

SHIIING—!

other hand, pressed my hand against the hilt of my

movement of the [Keiki

Click—!

sound as mine and Liam's attack landed simultaneously

Clang—! Clang—!

thing we heard after

was shocked to see the Duke rank demon blocking both of our attacks with just

do you

sinister and aged voice echoed throughout the place as his red

back, as

his wings once. His figure disappeared

had activated Eyes of Chronos he was already a couple of inches away from my

'Shit.'

to myself as my heart tightened and cold

Duke ranked demon in spite of the fact that it was already old,

strength rapidly declining, the demon

'Fucking Liam.'

world did he even think he could fight against a Duke ranked demon? He was

one second, I could kiss goodbye to

out of the situation I found myself in, I noticed what looked like a sword

'Fast.'

thought as I stared

supposed to be. For the sword to be moving at the pace that it

the demon's

hit me, but rather, he was now trying to defend himself

attack proved to be too fast for the demon to stop, and it soon made contact with his temple and dug into

normal and I saw the demon's body crash into one

Bang—!

"Haaa…haaa…"

supported his body with

'What just happened?'

thought to myself as I stared in Liam's direction with eyes

when has Liam become

our strength was rather similar, however, right at this moment, he seemed a lot stronger than he was since I had last

"You broke through?"

Liam's body, at that moment, I realized he was now

on me, as I just speechlessly looked at

he break through in that short week that we were

How monstrous.

"Haaa…haaa…yeah."

his head before placing his sword on the floor and facing the direction of