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?"

the person was Ryan who seemed to have tears streaming from the side of his eyes. As he raised his head, he saw Leopold, Ava, and Hein also staring

were clearly trying

to process what was going on, a thin smile eventually spread across Smallsnake's face as he lowered his head back down and turned to stare at the

I'm still

sure before, but now he knew...He

part of him felt great relief

didn't last long as

Bang—!

"Ukh, shit, hurry up!"

figure who was standing not so far

what seemed

much longer. The core I'm using is about to run out

"A couple more seconds."

his body

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,

"Ready!"

desperate attempts, he was unable to fully free himself from their attacks

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

moment, Smallsnake 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

Booom—!

terrifying explosion sounded out and Smallsnake was forced to close his eyes. In the aftermath of the explosion, Melissa took several steps back and her

"Fucking hell..."

heard her curse coming from a meter away

Tin. Tin. Tin.

also hear the sound of small rocks hitting

it finally stopped. Opening his eyes, Smallsnake was met with a large cloud of

the attack and saw Kevin as well as

their clothes were a mess. Nevertheless, they appeared to be relieved as Kevin held onto a small

"I…did it…"

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

Crack—!

and tried

harder than

echoed throughout

small pieces of

think they would be this strong. For a moment, I thought

"Tell me about it."

a distance as she lay on the ground with both hands and

If another Marquis ranked demon comes, just

you think I'll be

and turned to

to do is wait for Ren and the others to come back. He told me that it might take a while, but I seriously think that

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

and Kevin knew this. Especially since he was still suffering from the after-effects of having used Overdrive. At this

to fight, he hoped Ren would

as not even a minute after he said those words, he was able to hear the sound of several footsteps

"Is it this way?"

instantly brightened. The same could be said for

confronted with a scene