"Boom!"
After Lyu shouted her urgent warning, the tavern doors burst open. A monster covered in purple crystals snorted and charged over the shattered wood toward Roland, opening its hideous maw to reveal gums and sharp teeth likewise studded with purple crystals, ready to devour someone.
Yet Roland merely raised his head calmly, watching the monster pounce as he recalled that wonderful sensation from moments ago.
As natural as breathing, as simple as snapping an HB pencil, Roland had grasped the power that truly belonged to him, grasped the gears under his control.
"Watch out!"
Even Syr, whose trust in Roland bordered on fanaticism, cried out in alarm and uncertainty at his behavior.
"Five seconds..."
Roland recalled the feeling of grasping those gears for the first time. Although specifying a number of seconds in a world where time had stopped was a little strange, he had indeed stopped time for around five seconds just now.
Not through True Magic, nor through a Contract Spirit, but through his own body and abilities, he had stopped time.
What did that make him? Was he The World in human form now?
Roland did not understand the principles behind that sensation either, but the ability to stop time had already become engraved in his instincts.
Still, stopping time for only five seconds had left Roland wanting much more. Perhaps that number was humanity's limit, but even a vampire could go beyond it, let alone him as he was now.
Watching the monster pounce toward him, Roland's blood-red eyes seemed to burn with flames, boundless ambition and power swelling within them.
He spread his arms as though embracing the entire world. Then Roland shouted the name chosen by the pinnacle of the world.
"-The World!"
The next instant, the frozen world welcomed its ruler once