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?"

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

clearly trying to protect

across Smallsnake's face

still

but now he knew...He knew that

of him felt great relief

last long as he soon heard another crashing

Bang—!

"Ukh, shit, hurry up!"

familiar figure who was standing not so far

to be standing behind what seemed to be a large

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

"A couple more seconds."

coming out from his body

to something, desperately tried to stop whatever he was doing, but regardless of much

"Ready!"

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

took a step forward and

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 attack came

Booom—!

close his eyes. In the aftermath of the explosion,

"Fucking hell..."

heard her curse coming from a meter

Tin. Tin. Tin.

could also hear the sound of small rocks hitting against the barrier that

persisted for a couple of seconds before it finally stopped. Opening his eyes, Smallsnake was met with a

attack and saw

complexion was extremely pale, and their clothes were a mess. Nevertheless, they appeared to be

"I…did it…"

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

Crack—!

this, everyone sighed in relief and tried to

much harder

echoed throughout

the small pieces of the core he had in

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

"Tell me about it."

ground with both hands and legs spread

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

I'll be able to

slowly stood up and turned

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

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

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

were in no condition to fight, he hoped Ren would arrive before any demons could

said those words, he was able to hear the sound of

"Is it this way?"

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

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