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…'

from the others who went for the core of the mana compressor, I knew that they would attract the attention of a Marquis

was already a lot stronger than

"Where is everyone?"

as the Duke ranked demon seemed taken aback by the sudden

was right at this moment that I

'Let's go.'

even before we spoke as mana erupted

[Shadow Servant]

step forward, a black disc formed beneath my

Crackle. Crackle.

body, and his figure vanished from the spot,

he

SHIIING—!

hand, pressed my hand against the hilt of

the [Keiki style] :

Click—!

sound as mine and

Clang—! Clang—!

thing we heard after our attacks

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

do you

throughout the place as his red pupils

body, forcing the two of us back, as the wings on his back expanded, casting

his teeth, the Duke ranked demon didn't say anything and just flapped his wings once. His figure disappeared from the

activated Eyes of Chronos he

'Shit.'

myself as my heart tightened and cold

to challenge a Duke ranked demon in spite of the

rapidly declining, the demon was still leagues

'Fucking Liam.'

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

careless for even one second, I could kiss goodbye

I found myself in, I noticed what looked like a sword tip heading for

'Fast.'

I stared at the moving

had to be noted that currently, time was flowing a lot slower than it was supposed to be. For the sword to be moving at the pace that it was…it could only be

the demon's eyes slowly moving towards where the sword was

rather, he was now trying to defend

demon to stop,

I saw

Bang—!

"Haaa…haaa…"

me as he supported his body

'What just happened?'

I stared in Liam's direction with eyes

has Liam become so

at this moment, he seemed a

"You broke through?"

body, at that moment, I realized he was now

as I just speechlessly looked

has passed. Did he break through in that short week that we were

How monstrous.

"Haaa…haaa…yeah."

on the