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?"

see 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 Hein also staring at him. Their weapons were drawn out and formed

trying to

spread across Smallsnake's face as he lowered his head

still

have been sure before, but now

him felt great relief

long as he soon heard

Bang—!

"Ukh, shit, hurry up!"

who was

seemed to be standing behind what seemed to

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

"A couple more seconds."

from his body started to fluctuate wildly and the room

was up to something, desperately tried to stop whatever he was doing, but regardless of much he tried, he would always get blocked by

"Ready!"

fully free himself from

he took a step forward

that 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

Booom—!

terrifying explosion sounded out and Smallsnake was forced to close his eyes. In the aftermath of the explosion, Melissa took several

"Fucking hell..."

coming from

Tin. Tin. Tin.

rocks hitting against the barrier that

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

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

and their clothes were a mess. Nevertheless, they appeared to be relieved as Kevin

"I…did it…"

the core in his hand. Taking another breath, he

Crack—!

relief and tried to regain

harder than

voice echoed

the small pieces of the

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

"Tell me about it."

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

another Marquis ranked demon comes,

you think I'll be

as he slowly stood up and turned to face

the others to come back. He told me that it might take

their mana which was slowly

was still suffering from the after-effects of having used Overdrive. At this

no condition to fight, he hoped Ren would

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

"Is it this way?"

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

their heads, they were confronted with a scene