The Author's POV

"Tell me why... you have a demon on your finger."

As soon as Douglas's words faded, the atmosphere instantly froze. The echo of his words chilled the very air, creating a palpable tension.

"What's going on?"

Feeling that something was gravely wrong, Waylan looked at Douglas.

Staring at the two for a while, I tapped the ring on my finger after letting out a long sigh.

'This isn't going to be easy.'

"Looks like I can no longer hide it. Come out, Angelica."

SHUU—

At my call, black steam rose from my hand, much to Waylan's surprise. A stunning woman materialized next to me.

Having just canceled her taxing transformation, Angelica's face was extremely pale, and she barely had any strength to defend herself.

"Need a hand?"

Seeing how weak she was, I offered to lend her a hand, but she swiftly refused it.

"——!"

The moment she appeared, Waylan, who was next to Douglas, finally realized what was going on.

He suddenly became wary.

"A demon…"

A threatening aura suddenly sprang out of his body, aiming towards the currently weakened Angelica.

However, just as the pressure was about to crash against Angelica, Douglas waved his hand. The pressure instantly disappeared.

"Stop."

"Douglas?!"

Waylan cried out in surprise, evidently confused by Douglas's actions. Raising his hand, Douglas calmly looked at Waylan.

"Wait."

Turning his head, Douglas scanned Angelica up and down. A frown emerged on his usually calm face.

Opening his mouth, he asked,

"Have the demons advanced so much that their stealth abilities have become nigh undetectable?"

"It's her skill,"

I replied in Angelica's stead.

"She has a special skill that allows her to turn into any object she wants. The downside, as you can see, is her current, weakened state, where for a while she has no demonic energy in her body. However, because of this skill, it becomes extremely easy for her to infiltrate most areas."

"Oh?"

Humming in thought, Douglas took a step forward, walking towards Angelica who fearlessly stared at him from where she stood.

She seemed unafraid and proud while she matched eyes with a seemingly overwhelming opponent. She looked dauntless.

Halting a few meters away from Angelica, Douglas continued to stare at her. She coldly looked back at him, not letting her gaze falter for a moment.

"..."

"..."

Their staredown continued for what felt like forever, till finally, turning his head to face me, Douglas pointed towards the seats.

"I think we still have a bit to talk about."

Slowly closing my eyes, I looked at Angelica before nodding my head and heading back to the seats.

"I understand."

***

At the same time.

[Lock, Leviathan building.]

Flip—! Flip—!

The sound of pages being flipped echoed inside of a room.

Sitting behind a large wooden desk, dimly lit by a small lamp, Kevin's eyes darted between each page of the novel. He carefully read each line twice to make sure he didn't miss a single detail.

Before long, his finger paused in front of a certain page.

Leaning forward to make sure his eyes weren't deceiving him, Kevin's face changed from one filled with seriousness to one filled with absolute shock.

"…N-no way."

the book

three translucent yellow

Bang—!

his foot on the ground and tried to force his body to

he had

appeared towards his left. What followed the first disc was a second that stopped a bit further on the

air, ***** softly landed on the left ring before he propelled himself towards

it. The demon's face finally changed,

cry, a powerful wave of mana suddenly

"Huuup!"

[Keiki style], ***** opted to apply

his sword, he

the Baron-ranked demon was about to block the attack, using the last ring, ***** used

"Puchi!"

creating

it's not

look of

still be alive? I-I watched him

the

it possible? How could he still

it. How could he? How could he suddenly accept the fact that his friend, who he

accept such

if he didn't understand who the person

else could it be

he thought he had lost more than a

trembling lips, Kevin tried to calm

"Haa...haa... Let's calm down."

just wasn't possible for him

be a recount of

a possibility. Perhaps what he was seeing was what had happened to Ren in the

demon was about to block

"Haa…"

at the sentence, Kevin knew that it was impossible. He knew Ren's real

it was impossible for the

"Ugh..."

Kevin's head started to

groan, Kevin's knees

body by holding the top

the book started

"Argh..."

his head intensified as

hand, it wasn't

"… What just happened?"

couple of times, Kevin's

at the book

eyes landed on the book, Kevin's eyes opened widely. That was because the

of his mouth, a subtle green glow enveloped

his body explosively shot towards the demon, like

"This…"

weakly slumped back on his chair as he absentmindedly stared

It

hands, Kevin's mind was a mess. He couldn't make

of finding out that his best friend was alive,

to him, and why did he fake his

and more questions

a while, Kevin's eyes landed

knew that the answer lay somewhere

Flip—! Flip—!

flipping through the pages of the book, Kevin quickly read through every part, without missing a single detail. Now that he knew that Ren was the person in the book, he wanted to know more about what happened to him and

"Hehe…"

through the pages, Kevin's face

oftentimes be taken aback,

he read, the less his worries for his friend became. Though he was in the middle of a war, he seemed to be fine. In

and was getting along

"Hah?"

page. Frowning, Kevin leaned back slightly. The

his face turned extremely

the story, he tried his best to suppress his

face slowly started to

with the Monolith and put a bounty on me. Because of the bounty, I was forced to leave the human domain. It is

the headmaster's eyes ripples slightly. For a while, he

Bang—!

"What?!"

pounded the

clenching tightly resounded

"Union!"

turned hoarse as he glared at the book. For them to do what they did to Ren... The

bastards! How could you sell out the one guy that

when he had helped them, those bastards. Kevin's rage was reaching a

"Haa...haaa..."

paper beside him, Kevin tried his

he read about Ren's plans regarding the Union did Kevin