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?"

the side of his eyes. As he raised his head, he saw Leopold, Ava, and Hein also

trying to protect

thin smile eventually spread across Smallsnake's face as he lowered his head back down and

I'm still alive,

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

part of him felt great

as he soon heard another crashing

Bang—!

"Ukh, shit, hurry up!"

belong to another familiar figure who was

standing behind what seemed to

don't think I'll be able to last much longer. The core I'm using is about to run out of energy. So hurry up Kevin! I don't want to

"A couple more seconds."

out from his body started to fluctuate wildly and the room shook

whatever he was doing, but regardless of much

"Ready!"

unable to fully free himself from their attacks and

took a step forward and

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

Booom—!

to close his eyes. In the aftermath of the

"Fucking hell..."

from a meter away from

Tin. Tin. Tin.

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

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

attack and saw Kevin as well as

a mess. Nevertheless, they appeared to

"I…did it…"

down on the ground, and observed the core in his hand. Taking another breath,

Crack—!

sighed in relief and tried to regain some of their lost

harder than I

voice echoed throughout

he cleaned the small pieces of the core he had

would be this strong. For a moment, I

"Tell me about it."

from a distance as she lay on the ground with both hands and legs spread apart.

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

I'll be able to

slowly stood up and turned to face one

the others to come back. He told me that it might take a while, but I

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

top condition, and Kevin knew this. Especially since he was still suffering from the after-effects of having used Overdrive. At this

they were in no condition to fight, he hoped

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

"Is it this way?"

voice. His complexion instantly brightened. The same

as they turned their heads, they were confronted with a scene that changed their complexion, making their