The Author's POV

Bang— Bang—

'What's going on?'

The sound of something crashing near Smallsnake awoke him from his slumber. With each passing second, the sound became more clear, and it wasn't long before his eyes were fully open.

Blinking his eyes several times, he thought to himself.

'Am I still alive?'

He could clearly remember being on the verge of dying not too long ago.

Did he die? …or was he still alive?

"Shit!"

Bang—!

Immediately after opening his eyes, he saw a figure being sent flying into the distance, before crashing heavily against what appeared to be a large metallic door.

A muffled sound accompanied the figure's crash.

"Kevin, how much longer do you need?"

A female voice shouted.

'Who is she?'

Squinting his eyes, Smallsnake's eyes paused on a female figure that he had never seen before in his life. She had long auburn-colored hair and seemed to be rather beautiful. The way that she moved across the black marble floor seemed extremely nimble, and so were her attacks that looked extremely sharp.

No, rather, she did seem familiar, but he just couldn't seem to recall who she was.

"Just buy me one more minute!"

Taking his eyes away from the female figure, Smallsnake's eyes finally paused on Kevin, and it was then that he noticed a large red hue coming out from his body.

The hue seemed to completely engulf the area they were in, making it extremely terrifying.

'What's going on?'

Blinking his eyes a couple of times, Smallsnake turned his head slightly and finally spotted what seemed to be a demon.

"Demon?"

His groggy mind sobered up and he tried to lift up his body.

"Smallsnake! You're awake!"

Feeling a hand press against his chest, Smallsnake was shocked to see a couple of familiar figures rush in his direction.

"You guys?"

"Smallsnake!"

Before he could speak anymore, he suddenly felt something hug his body tightly.

"Ryan?"

streaming from the side of his eyes. As he raised his head, he saw Leopold, Ava, and Hein also staring at

trying to protect

across Smallsnake's face

I'm still alive,

now

felt great relief

that didn't last long as he soon

Bang—!

"Ukh, shit, hurry up!"

to belong to another familiar figure who was standing not so far from where she

standing behind what seemed

to last much longer. The core I'm using is about to run out of energy. So hurry up Kevin! I

"A couple more seconds."

while the red hue coming out from his body started to

long noticed that Kevin was up to something, desperately tried to stop whatever he was doing, but regardless of much he tried, he would always get blocked by either the girl with the short swords, Jin,

"Ready!"

he was unable to fully free himself

his sword behind his head, he took a step forward and appeared

felt as though time had frozen completely as the air around him solidified. The last thing Smallsnake saw was the look of utter terror on the demon's face as Kevin's

Booom—!

and Smallsnake was forced to close his eyes. In the aftermath of the explosion, Melissa took several steps back and her face paled as

"Fucking hell..."

coming from a meter

Tin. Tin. Tin.

Smallsnake could also hear the sound of small rocks hitting against the

stopped. Opening his eyes,

of the attack and saw Kevin

a mess. Nevertheless, they appeared to be relieved as Kevin held onto a small black orb

"I…did it…"

hand. Taking another breath, he squeezed his hand together and the core

Crack—!

sighed in relief and tried to regain some

was much harder than I

voice echoed throughout the

clothes, he cleaned the small pieces of the core he had in

were strong, I didn't think they would be this strong. For a

"Tell me about it."

with both hands and legs spread apart.

again. If another Marquis ranked demon comes, just

you think I'll be

and turned to

others to come back. He told me that it might take a while, but I seriously think that if he

depleted. The same went for their mana which was slowly recovering due to the aid of

weren't enough to completely heal him into top condition, and Kevin knew this. Especially since he was still suffering from

no condition to fight, he hoped Ren would arrive

were answered as not even a minute after he said those words, he was able to hear the sound

"Is it this way?"

voice. His complexion instantly brightened. The

they turned their heads, they were confronted with a scene that changed