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?"

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

trying to

eventually spread across Smallsnake's face as he lowered his head back down and turned to stare at the

still alive,

but now he

part of him felt great relief once

didn't last long as he soon heard another crashing

Bang—!

"Ukh, shit, hurry up!"

figure who was standing not so

standing behind what seemed to be

last much longer. The core I'm using is about to run out of energy. So hurry up

"A couple more seconds."

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

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

"Ready!"

fully free himself from their attacks and Kevin was finally able to complete

sword behind his head, he took a step forward

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 demon's face as Kevin's

Booom—!

In the aftermath of

"Fucking hell..."

from

Tin. Tin. Tin.

hear the sound of small rocks hitting against the barrier that was protecting the area around

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

attack and saw Kevin as well as

a mess. Nevertheless, they appeared to be relieved as Kevin held onto

"I…did it…"

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

Crack—!

relief and tried to regain some of their

was much harder

echoed throughout

clothes, he cleaned the small pieces of the core he had in his

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

"Tell me about it."

both hands and legs spread apart. Not far from her were

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

you think I'll

as he slowly stood up and turned to face

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

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

enough to completely heal him into top condition, and Kevin knew this. Especially since he was still suffering from the after-effects of having used Overdrive. At this moment, his whole body was

in no condition to fight, he hoped Ren would

were answered as not even a minute after he said those words, he was able to hear the sound of several footsteps heading their

"Is it this way?"

hear Ren's voice. His complexion instantly brightened. The same could be said for the others as they

were confronted with a scene that changed