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?"

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 clearly trying to protect

Smallsnake's face as he lowered his head back down and

still alive,

have been sure before, but now he knew...He knew that he

him felt great relief once he

as he soon heard another

Bang—!

"Ukh, shit, hurry up!"

who was standing not so far from where

what seemed to be a large

I'm using is about to run out

"A couple more seconds."

shouted while the red hue coming out from his body started to

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

"Ready!"

of the demon's desperate attempts, he was unable to fully

he took a step forward and appeared before 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

"Fucking hell..."

heard her curse coming from a meter away

Tin. Tin. Tin.

the sound of small rocks hitting against the barrier that was protecting the

persisted for a couple of seconds before it finally stopped. Opening his eyes, Smallsnake

he could clearly see the aftermath of the attack and saw Kevin 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

Crack—!

tried to regain some of their lost

much harder than I

voice echoed

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

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

"Tell me about it."

with both hands and legs spread apart. Not far

comes, just know that I won't be able

think I'll be

up and turned

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

he was still suffering from the after-effects of having used

he hoped Ren would arrive before

as not even a minute after he said those words, he was able to hear

"Is it this way?"

brightened. The same could be said for the

their heads, they were confronted with a scene that changed their