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…'

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

that he really needed any since he was already

"Where is everyone?"

the

moment that I exchanged

'Let's go.'

spoke as mana erupted from my

[Shadow Servant]

forward, a black disc formed beneath my feet, and

Crackle. Crackle.

his figure vanished from the spot, before reappearing right in front of the Duke

he slashed toward the

SHIIING—!

my hand against the

of the [Keiki style]

Click—!

clicking sound as mine

Clang—! Clang—!

the only thing we heard after our attacks landed was a

our attacks with

do you

place as his red

menacing and powerful pressure suddenly sprang out from his body, forcing the two of us back, as the wings on his back

and just flapped his wings once. His figure disappeared from the spot before reappearing right in front of

was so fast that by the time I had activated Eyes of Chronos he was already a couple of inches away from my face, and closing

'Shit.'

cursed to myself as my heart tightened and cold sweat dripped

demon in spite of the fact that it was already old, and almost

strength rapidly declining, the

'Fucking Liam.'

ranked demon? He was worse than Kevin when it came to being a

was careless for even one second, I

out of the situation I found myself in, I noticed what looked like a sword tip heading for the Duke's head

'Fast.'

stared at the

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

the demon's eyes slowly moving towards where the sword

me, but rather, he was now trying to defend himself from Liam's sudden attack. Apparently, it wasn't something he

stop, and it soon made contact with his temple

to normal and I saw the

Bang—!

"Haaa…haaa…"

Liam appeared next to me as he supported his body with both knees and

'What just happened?'

in Liam's direction

has Liam become

time that I had fought him, our strength was rather similar, however, right at this moment,

"You broke through?"

at that moment, I realized he was

me, as I just

only one week has passed. Did he break through in

How monstrous.

"Haaa…haaa…yeah."

the