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?"

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

across Smallsnake's face as he lowered his head

I'm still alive,

but now he knew...He

felt great relief once he realized

as he soon heard another crashing

Bang—!

"Ukh, shit, hurry up!"

another familiar figure who was standing not so far from where

to be standing behind what seemed to be

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

"A couple more seconds."

from his body started to fluctuate wildly

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

"Ready!"

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

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

thing Smallsnake saw was the look of utter terror on the demon's face as Kevin's

Booom—!

to close his eyes. In the aftermath of the explosion, Melissa took several steps back and her face paled as the barrier shook

"Fucking hell..."

curse coming from a

Tin. Tin. Tin.

small rocks hitting against the barrier that

his eyes, Smallsnake

the aftermath of the attack and saw Kevin as well as the others struggling to

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

"I…did it…"

core in his hand. Taking another breath, he squeezed

Crack—!

in relief and tried to regain some of their

was much harder

echoed throughout the

his hand on his clothes, he cleaned the small pieces of the

think they would be this strong. For

"Tell me about it."

ground with both hands and legs spread apart. Not

think I'll be able to fight again. If another Marquis ranked demon comes, just

I'll be able to

slowly stood up and turned to

back. He told me that it might take a while, but I seriously think that if he

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

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

in no condition to fight, he hoped

those words, he was able to hear the sound of several footsteps

"Is it this way?"

Ren's voice. His complexion instantly brightened. The same could be

were confronted with a