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?"

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

trying to protect

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 alive,

before, but now he

felt great relief

didn't last long as he soon

Bang—!

"Ukh, shit, hurry up!"

figure who

to be standing behind what seemed to be a

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

"A couple more seconds."

coming out from his body started to fluctuate wildly and

doing, but regardless of much he tried, he

"Ready!"

was unable to fully free himself

took

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

Booom—!

and Smallsnake was forced to close his eyes. In the aftermath of the explosion, Melissa

"Fucking hell..."

coming from

Tin. Tin. Tin.

small rocks hitting against the barrier that was protecting the

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

clearly see the aftermath of the attack and saw Kevin as

mess. Nevertheless, they appeared to be relieved as

"I…did it…"

as knelt down on the ground, and observed the core in his hand. Taking another breath, he squeezed his hand together and the core shattered

Crack—!

in relief and tried to regain some of their lost

was much harder

echoed throughout the

cleaned the small

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

"Tell me about it."

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

ranked demon comes, just know that I won't be able to help you.

I'll be able to

stood up and turned to face one of the

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 if he takes too long, things will get quite

for their mana which was slowly recovering due to the

into top condition, and Kevin knew this. Especially since he was still suffering from

in no condition to fight, he hoped

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

"Is it this way?"

voice. His complexion instantly brightened. The same

were confronted with a scene that