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?"

raised his head, he saw

trying to protect

what was going on, a thin smile eventually spread across Smallsnake's face as he lowered his head back

still

but now he knew...He

of him felt great relief

last long as he

Bang—!

"Ukh, shit, hurry up!"

another familiar figure who was standing not so far from where

be standing behind what seemed to be a

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

"A couple more seconds."

from his body started to fluctuate wildly and the

desperately tried to stop whatever he was doing, but regardless

"Ready!"

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

took a step

was the look of utter terror on the demon's face as Kevin's attack came crashing down on him and a bright red

Booom—!

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

"Fucking hell..."

coming from a meter away

Tin. Tin. Tin.

sound of small rocks hitting against the

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

attack

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

"I…did it…"

in his hand. Taking another breath, he squeezed his hand together and

Crack—!

in relief and tried to

much harder than

voice echoed

cleaned the small pieces of the core he

Marquis ranked demons were strong, I didn't think they would be this

"Tell me about it."

with both hands and legs spread

able to fight again. If another Marquis ranked demon comes, just know that I won't be able to help you. You're on your

think I'll be able

joked as he slowly stood up and turned to face one of the distant

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

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

weren't 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

condition to fight, he hoped Ren would

answered as not even a minute after he said those words, he

"Is it this way?"

instantly brightened. The

their heads, they were confronted with a