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?"

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 at him. Their weapons were drawn out and formed a small circle around

were clearly trying

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

now he

him felt great relief

long as

Bang—!

"Ukh, shit, hurry up!"

belong to another familiar figure who

behind what seemed to be a large

core I'm using is about to run out of energy. So hurry up Kevin! I don't

"A couple more seconds."

while the red hue coming out from his body started to fluctuate wildly and

was doing, but regardless of much he tried, he would always get blocked by either the girl with

"Ready!"

end, in spite of the demon's desperate attempts, he was unable to fully free himself from their attacks and

behind his head, he took a step forward and appeared

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 attack

Booom—!

of the explosion, Melissa took several steps back and

"Fucking hell..."

coming from

Tin. Tin. Tin.

sound of small rocks hitting against the

seconds before it finally stopped. Opening his eyes, Smallsnake was met with

he could clearly see the aftermath of the attack and saw Kevin as well as

appeared to be relieved as Kevin held onto a small

"I…did it…"

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

Crack—!

in relief and tried to

much harder

voice echoed throughout the

the small pieces of the core he had in his

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

"Tell me about it."

hands and legs spread apart.

Marquis ranked demon comes, just know that I won't be

think I'll be able

he slowly stood up and turned

Ren and the others to come back. He told me that it might take

same went for their mana which was slowly

Especially since he was still suffering from the after-effects

he hoped Ren

even a minute after he said those words, he was able to hear the

"Is it this way?"

His complexion instantly brightened. The same could be said for the others as they slowly

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