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?"

that 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

clearly trying to

Smallsnake's face as he lowered his head back

I'm still alive,

now he knew...He knew that he was

part of him felt great relief once

last long as he soon heard

Bang—!

"Ukh, shit, hurry up!"

figure who was standing not so far

seemed to be standing behind what seemed to

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

"A couple more seconds."

coming out from his body started to fluctuate wildly and the room shook alongside

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

"Ready!"

spite of the demon's desperate attempts, he was unable to fully free himself from their attacks and Kevin was finally able to complete

his head, he took a step forward and appeared

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—!

his eyes. In the aftermath of the explosion, Melissa took several steps back

"Fucking hell..."

coming from

Tin. Tin. Tin.

also hear the sound of small rocks

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

point, he could clearly see the aftermath of the attack and saw Kevin

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

"I…did it…"

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

Crack—!

and tried to regain some of their lost

was much harder than I

echoed throughout the

his clothes, he cleaned the small pieces of

would be this strong. For a moment, I thought I was going

"Tell me about it."

as she lay on the ground with both hands and legs spread apart. Not far from her were

think I'll be able to fight again. If another Marquis ranked demon comes, just know that I won't be able to

I'll be able to

as he slowly stood up and turned to face

Ren and the others to come back. He told me that it might take a while, but

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

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

he hoped

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

"Is it this way?"

he could also hear Ren's voice. His complexion instantly brightened. The same could

with a scene that changed their