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

trying

a moment to process what was going on, a thin smile eventually spread across Smallsnake's face as he lowered his head back down and turned to stare

still alive,

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

him felt great relief

long as

Bang—!

"Ukh, shit, hurry up!"

seemed to belong to another familiar figure who was standing not so far from

standing behind what seemed to be

is about to run out of energy. So hurry up Kevin! I don't want to die in this

"A couple more seconds."

out from his body

doing, but regardless of much

"Ready!"

fully free himself from their attacks

his head, he took a step

as the air around him solidified. The last thing Smallsnake saw was the look of utter terror on the demon's face as

Booom—!

close his eyes. In the aftermath of the explosion, Melissa took several steps back and her face paled as the barrier shook

"Fucking hell..."

from a meter

Tin. Tin. Tin.

small rocks hitting against the barrier

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

aftermath of the attack

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

"I…did it…"

the ground, and observed the core in his hand. Taking another breath, he squeezed his hand together and

Crack—!

tried to

much harder than

voice echoed throughout the

he cleaned the small pieces

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

"Tell me about it."

hands and legs spread apart. Not far from her were her two

again. If another Marquis ranked demon comes,

think I'll be able

stood up and turned to face one of the distant

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

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

and Kevin knew this. Especially since he was still

in no condition to fight, he hoped Ren would arrive before any

hopes were answered as not even a minute after he said those words, he was able to hear the

"Is it this way?"

voice. His complexion instantly brightened. The same could be said for

heads, they were confronted with a scene that changed