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."

Unknowingly, he was voicing out his displeasure aloud.

The Duke ranked demon paused.

"You don't like this?"

"I...I don't."

Liam shook his head with a clear look of displeasure on his face.

"Do you have any idea how many times in the past I've faced off against Ren? It's to the point where I can't even keep track of it all anymore!"

Actually, it was more like he forgot, but he wasn't going to say that.

"I have almost completely 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 for me?"

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

"... Unfortunately, that's the furthest thing from the truth."

He tapped his sword, producing a similar clicking sound. The Duke-level demon was barely able to parry the attack with a sword swing. Despite this, he was nonetheless pushed back.

Liam pursued after him.

"See, what you're doing isn't even that impressive. I can do that too!"

If Ren had been present and witnessed the scene, he would have likely shook his head in dismay.

'Since when did my sword art become as common as a cabbage?'

For there to be two people who were using something similar to the Keiki style...

Ren would have unquestionably begun reevaluating his life decisions.

Even though theirs were imitations and not identical, the fact that they were able to imitate it to that degree would've left one speechless.

Click!

As Liam appeared directly in front of the Duke-ranked demon, the lightning crackling around his arm intensified, as did his movements. If he was fast before, he was now impossibly fast.

Clank!

He slashed down with everything he got, forcing the Duke ranked demon back again.

'Not enough!'

The crackling sound of lightning that was occurring all around Liam's body became even louder. His form, which had been visible just moments before, disappeared into the background, leaving behind only two pupils that shone with a brilliant yellow hue.

The bolts of lightning danced wildly behind him, and it wasn't long before they seemed to take the shape of a gigantic blue dragon.

The second movement of the [Ivorian style] : Lightning Dragon.

The dragon lunged forward, opening its mouth wide before biting in the direction of the Duke ranked demon. The force with which the attack 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 him.

[Ring of vindication], elemental discharge, lightning.

The dragon, which had previously been the size of an airplane, shrunk considerably when it saw the circles for the first time, and it wasn't long before it disappeared completely.

The Duke ranked demon smiled when he saw the dragon disappear.

His smile didn't last very long because all of a sudden he felt the hair on the back of his head standing up. Shortly after that, he began to hear the echo of a chilly voice next to his ear.

"You'd think I'd fall for something like this?"

Liam extended his hand in the direction of the demon's head.

His movement was simple, as he only extended his hand, but it was enough to startle the demon because the speed at which he was moving was simply mind-boggling. Even he, a Duke-ranked demon on the verge of reaching the Prince rank, was struggling with his speed.

That alone signified just how fast Liam's movements were.

Sadly, the unfortunate reality was that the demon wasn't just a Duke ranked demon in name.

At precisely the 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 what appeared to be the pointed tips of actual swords began to materialize all around him.

"Shit."

Liam cursed to himself as he stopped whatever he was doing.

After that, different white lines started to appear in his field of vision. This was immediately followed by his yellow pupils shining with a greater yellow hue.

He then took a single look around him and was able to skilfully sidestep the white lines that were headed in the direction of his body.

Unfortunately, the number of white lines was simply far too many for him to completely avoid.

Spurt! Spurt!

Left shoulder, and right thigh.

He felt something sharp in those areas. Blinking once, his vision returned to normal and it was there that he realized that his whole body was covered in blood.

He was clearly injured.

"Are you bored now?"

The voice of the Duke-ranked demon could be heard coming from the direction of his far right. Instead of turning, Liam lowered his head.

"Not talking?"

The demon seemed to have 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 on his face.

"What are you thinking about?"

The demon was already in front of Liam before he knew it. Secretly, the area around Liam had started to become enveloped by a darkish domain which was slowly isolating the two of them.

With a calm look on his face, he carefully scrutinized Liam's body.

"Say..."

Instead of attacking immediately, his figure morphed back to its original form. He no longer looked like Ren. In his mind, the battle was over.

With the domain established, it was impossible for him to die.

"...What do you think about signing a contract with me?"

The demon's eyes shone once again, and Liam felt his body grow lethargic once more as his head was filled with soft whispers.

A contract appeared in the demon's hands.

"Sign the contract."

The demon swept his eyes across the battlefield and smiled.

"Sign the contract and-huh?"

The demon came to a halt in the middle of his sentence as he abruptly turned his head to look toward the distance, where he sensed a significant shift in the surrounding environment.

He wasn't the only one to notice the abrupt change in the environment as the entire battlefield came to a sudden halt.

Almost immediately after that, a massive yellow column shot straight up into the sky. Instantaneously, a terrifying suffocating pressure engulfed everyone in the battlefield.

Nearly everyone could feel their breathing becoming more labored, with the exception of the demon that was standing in front of Liam. At the same time, the pupils of several demons in the distance began to contract.

"This power..."

The demon gazed off into the distance while maintaining an expression of utter disbelief on his face. In contrast to everyone else present, he had an uncanny ability to gauge the intensity of the pressure that was emanating from the distance.

"That ..."

Liam weakly turned his head to look in the direction of where the pillar was coming from.

A smile spread across his face as he glanced in the demon's direction and mumbled.

"...That is the existence that I envy. "

***

''I did it...'

After suffering for who knew how long...I had finally broken through.

A refreshing feeling enveloped my entire body as I slowly stood up from my spot.

When I opened my eyes to look around, I was left stunned by what was within my vision.

'So many psyons...'

There must have been over a million distinct particles of varying hues that suddenly materialized all around me. These particles touched my body and moved around it in response to each and every movement I made.

I was able to see the psyons move away from my hand as I raised it, and it looked almost exactly like I was moving my hand through the water. It was very interesting.

'Now isn't the time for me to get fascinated with this type of stuff.'

I raised my head to stare toward the distance and it was there that my brows furrowed.

"Luckily, I didn't take too long to break through."

My vision suddenly became distorted as I took a casual step forward. With that one step, I was suddenly standing outside the walls of the castle. My gaze traveled across the battlefield, and it was not long before it was drawn to a particular demon off in the distance.

'Is that Liam?'

Next to him was a familiar figure. It was none other than Liam.

My brows furrowed even more tightly when I saw in just what state he was in. They didn't stay knit for long, as they soon relaxed.

'What an idiot...'

I muttered to myself quietly as I worked very hard to suppress the urge to shake my head. At first glance, I was able to tell that he had challenged the Duke-ranked demon on purpose because this opponent was the most powerful one on the battlefield.

Little did he know that the so called Duke ranked demon was on the verge of breaking through to the rank of Prince.

'Actually, he probably knew, but he still didn't care.'

This fact alone made it harder for me to stop myself from shaking my head.

'Even though I fixed most of his memories, why can't he act normal for once.'

This was giving me a headache.

Actually, realistically speaking, he was the only one that could've stopped the Duke ranked demon for as long as he did. Rather than being an idiot, he was the one that pretty much prevented the war from ending early.

I was just being too sensitive since he always tended to pull this type of crap.

Blinking once, I found myself standing next to Liam and the demon.

I calmly opened my mouth and said something after lowering my head to cast a fleeting glance in Liam's direction.

"Let me handle things for now."

***

Mass release 1/2.