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

clearly trying to protect

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

I'm still alive,

have been sure before, but now he

great relief once he realized

last long as he soon heard

Bang—!

"Ukh, shit, hurry up!"

familiar figure who was

seemed to be standing behind what seemed to

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

"A couple more seconds."

hue coming out from his body started to fluctuate wildly and

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

"Ready!"

desperate attempts, he was unable to fully

his sword behind his head, he took a step

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 attack came crashing down on him and a bright red light enveloped the

Booom—!

aftermath of the explosion, Melissa took several

"Fucking hell..."

from a meter away from

Tin. Tin. Tin.

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

it finally stopped. Opening his eyes, Smallsnake was met with a large cloud

see the aftermath of the attack and saw Kevin as well as the

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

"I…did it…"

murmured as knelt down on the ground, and observed the core in his hand. Taking another breath, he squeezed his hand together and the core shattered into millions

Crack—!

this, everyone sighed in relief and tried to regain some of their

much harder than

echoed throughout

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

think they would be this strong. For a moment, I

"Tell me about it."

she lay on the ground with both hands and

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

I'll be

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

is wait for Ren and the others to come back. He told me that it might take a while, but I seriously think that if he takes too long, things will get

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

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

he hoped Ren would arrive

not even a minute after he said those

"Is it this way?"

voice. His complexion instantly brightened. The

with a scene that changed