The Author's POV

'The situation is not looking good.'

Angelica's expression was one of gloom as she stooped down to examine Hein, who was lying unconscious on the ground at that moment.

'Luckily, he seems fine, but he is completely spent at the moment.'

She sighed in relief when she realized that Hein was fine and slowly stood up and scanned her surroundings.

The area surrounding her was completely empty, as a circle formed in her vicinity as any demons that entered her radius abruptly turned around and charged the other demons in the area with blank looks on their faces.

"What are you doing?! We're on the same si-huak!"

"Traitor!"

This was all thanks to her power that allowed her to control the weaker ranked demons.

"Report to me your situation."

Angelica raised her wrist and whispered something.

It wasn't long before she received several replies.

[Uek, I'm not holding out too well. I've lost eight of my pets already, and I'm being pushed back at the moment!]

The first one to reply was Ava, and it sounded as though she rushed when she spoke. Her manner of speaking made it abundantly clear that the circumstances surrounding her were dismal.

[I'm with Ryan at the moment, and I'm helping out from above, but the demons have already infiltrated a small par-hak!]

Leopold's audio was cut off in the middle, and Angelica's brows furrowed.

'What happened?'

A crisp voice echoed after Liam's voice. It belonged to none other than Amanda who kept shooting her arrows in the sky, killing hundreds of demons at the time.

[I'm fine for now, but I'm slowly running out of mana. I've been targeted by a few demons so my mana is depleting rapidly.]

[I'm also fine...but I'm currently fighting against five Marquis ranked demons, so I don't think I'll be fine for much longer.]

The response from Han Yufei arrived much later than the one from Amanda, and when it did, Angelica lowered her wrist and furrowed her brows.

Raising her head she looked at Liam who was in the sky and her expression turned even grimmer.

'...This is not good.'

It was at this precise moment that she became aware of the fact that the war's equilibrium was on the verge of tipping. If they waited just a few more minutes, they would all be in some very serious trouble.

Her heart unknowingly quickened.

***

Click!

The all too familiar clicking sound echoed inside of Liam's head as he felt something sharp brush past his skin. With just a blink of his eyes, he cocked his head to the right and narrowly avoided the Duke ranked demon's sword.

"You dodged that?"

A look of surprise appeared on the demon's face.

Liam chose not to respond and instead focused his attention on the Duke-ranked demon standing in front of him.

His current appearance was identical to Ren's in every way. From the structure of his body, his hair, and his eyes. He was a carbon copy of Ren in every possible way imaginable. To such an extent that Liam had the impression that he was currently in a fight with Ren.

There was only one problem...

'This...it's not fun.'

He had already fought with Ren dozens of times before. He knew almost everything about Ren's fighting style. It was effortless for him to counter his usual fast movements.

It seemed as though things were getting easier for him, even though he was in a situation that should have been getting harder.

"I don't like this."

he was voicing out his displeasure

Duke ranked demon

"You don't like this?"

"I...I don't."

his head with a clear look

how many times in the past I've faced off against Ren? It's to the point

like he forgot, but

committed all of his movements and attacks to memory at this point. Do you seriously believe that if you were to become him, it would make things more difficult

clenched his teeth and focused his attention on the fake Ren, lightning began to crackle around

the furthest thing from

producing a similar clicking sound. The Duke-level demon was barely able to parry the attack with a

Liam pursued after him.

doing isn't even that impressive. I

had been present and witnessed the scene, he would

did my sword art become as common

who were using something similar to the Keiki

have unquestionably begun reevaluating

fact that they were able to imitate

Click!

demon, the lightning crackling around his arm intensified, as did his movements. If he was fast

Clank!

got, forcing

'Not enough!'

even louder. His form, which had been visible just moments before, disappeared into the background, leaving behind only two pupils that shone

it wasn't long before they seemed to take the shape of

second movement of the [Ivorian style]

came was extremely devastating, and it was sufficient to cause the complexion of the Duke-ranked demon to change as several hundreds of blue rings appeared right in front

of vindication], elemental discharge,

when it saw the

smiled when he saw the dragon

hair on the back of his head standing up. Shortly after

fall for something like

his hand in the direction of the

enough to startle the demon because the speed at which he was

signified just how fast

was that the demon wasn't just a Duke ranked demon in

moment when Liam's hand was about to come into contact with the back of his head, the space around Liam began to crack, and

"Shit."

himself as he stopped

to appear in his field of vision. This was immediately

and was able to skilfully sidestep

simply far too many for

Spurt! Spurt!

shoulder, and right

areas. Blinking once, his vision returned to normal and it was there that he realized that his whole body was

He was clearly injured.

"Are you bored now?"

be heard coming from the direction of his far right. Instead of turning, Liam lowered

"Not talking?"

misunderstood Liam's silence for confirmation, as he didn't attack again. Instead, he slowly approached Liam who was floating in the air with a serious look

you thinking

Liam before he knew it. Secretly, the area around Liam had started to become enveloped by a darkish domain

a calm look on his face, he

"Say..."

original form. He no longer looked like Ren. In his mind, the battle was

established, it was impossible for him

about signing a contract with

again, and Liam felt his body grow lethargic once more as

appeared in the

"Sign the contract."

his eyes

"Sign the contract and-huh?"