One thousand thoughts ran through Charles’ mind at once, as he heard the words of the man sitting across the room from him.

This is him...

This...

His hands instinctively clutched tighter around the dragonscale dagger.

His body tensed up and shivered.

His heart beat violently as he tried to figure out what the best course of action would be.

Then, he acted.

﹂[Editor’s Authority Cast] ~ Awaiting authoritative words...

He activated his skill and roared new laws from his mouth as fast as he could.

"The beating of male hearts is not allowed!"

He didn’t think about the specifics, or how much mana would be required by passing such a law.

All he could think about was how to kill this man as quickly and certainly as possible.

The man across the room from him jolted slightly. His red eyes bulged from their sockets, and he held a hand up to his chest.

Charles almost let out a cheer.

Have I won?

Then, the man calmed down. A smile spread across his face.

Afterwards, he confidently spoke.

"Dante’s heart will continue beating."

His eyes stopped bulging, and he removed his hand from his chest.

Silence returned to the room once more.

W-what?

Charles was shocked, but then realised that he was an idiot for even being so.

He had already known that this man had a significant amount of control over the world.

If Charlotte was a god, then he was a devil.

Winning against him wouldn’t be so easy.

My laws had an effect on him, even if only for a moment. I have to use those short moments to kill him.

Charles entered a fighting stance, holding his dagger up in front of him.

His opponent remained seated, but he didn’t care. He wouldn’t wait for the man to ready himself.

It was time to test out some of his new spells.

﹂[Ancestral Silverback Cast...]

Charles focused on the space between himself and the man, and suddenly, a summoning circle appeared in the air like a portal.

The summoning circle was giant, and from it, a pure white gorilla that stood three meters tall suddenly appeared.

It landed on the ground with a great thud, creating cracks in the flooring.

This silverback was only Veteran Grade, but Charles didn’t expect it to deal any damage to the man. Instead, he simply wanted it to act as a distraction.

Meanwhile, Charles would use the opportunity to—

"The Silverback will suffer a mutation that drops its grade to Novice. It becomes so afraid of the difference in our grades, that it jumps from the window, choosing death."

As the words left Dante’s mouth, the summoned gorilla suddenly underwent a great change. Its body began to shrink and its muscles deflated significantly.

It looked down at itself, unable to believe that its strength had been taken from it so easily.

Then, it looked up at the red-haired man.

He had a single hand covering one of his eyes and was laughing maniacally. A dark shadow began to obscure his face, making him look extremely terrifying.

Following this, the ancestral silverback ran towards the window on the other side of the room and leapt through it, shattering the glass.

A few moments later, Charles felt his spell deactivate.

The gorilla had fallen to its death.

Charles was stunned as he looked across the room towards Dante.

The man still remained seated there, unmoving.

"Do you understand now? There are levels to this," Charlotte’s brother said.

But Charles didn’t care. He had already started activating his next spell.

﹂[Editor’s Authority Cast] ~ Awaiting authoritative words...

He knew that he had to be careful. If he created a law that was too difficult, he would be drained of all of his mana.

He had to create a law that would only create a slight opening for him. Then, he would use his dagger to open the man’s body.

I know!

"Being physically stronger than me is not allowed."

It was the same tactic he had used on Floor 75. The reasoning behind this was that Dante did not look physically strong. This meant that it might not require much mana from him.

Then, Primal Leverage would kick in, making his attacks stronger against those he was already physically stronger than. Finally, with Author’s Aura activated, his physical strength would also be doubled.

As he spoke the law, he immediately felt his mana supply being drained significantly. However, it wasn’t by an absurd amount!

It had worked.

Wasting no time, Charles dashed forward, closing the distance between him and the man.

This forced Dante to finally rise to his feet. He was the same height as Charles.

Before his opponent reached him, Dante muttered a sentence beneath his breath.

"I become a martial genius."

Suddenly, he entered a fighter’s stance.

Charles didn’t care. He was armed, whilst his opponent was weakened and could only use his limbs.

He stepped into range and struck diagonally towards his target.

It missed. Dante stepped backwards just enough for the dagger to whip past him.

Charles didn’t stop. He swung again, and again, in ways that felt most natural to him.

Dante dodged them all, hardly moving his body. He used his hands and forearms to redirect the attacks away from himself, making them cut only the air.

After ten missed strikes, Dante kicked Charles in the chest, sending the editor staggering backwards.

The kick had hardly any force behind it, but that didn’t matter.

Dante didn’t need strength, because his intention wasn’t to harm Charles.

The two stood across the room from each other. The red-haired man continued to smile, and shrugged his shoulders.

"Are you ready to talk? Because this is no way to treat your brother-in-law."

In that moment, Charles felt nothing but utter despair.