The Author's POV

The internal structure of the underground cavern was massive. Ryan couldn't count the handful of times he had taken the wrong path and headed toward a dead end.

It was starting to get to him.

"Not this one either."

Staring at probably what seemed to be like the tenth dead end, Ryan sighed in frustration and glanced at his phone.

There was a single red dot displayed on the screen, and that was where Ryan was currently headed to.

That was where Leopold was being held, and while he knew the exact direction of where he was, finding him was starting to prove to be a more difficult task than he had anticipated.

In a maze, just knowing where someone was, wasn't enough.

'If only he was somewhere more open.'

The fact that he was inside a massive underground network made it hard for Ryan to find the correct path, but he wasn't completely hopeless.

When he reached a new one, his phone would trace his steps so that he could see exactly where he was going and the places he had been in the past. Although he did run into a lot of dead ends, this helped him stay on track and stopped him from going to the same places twice.

He was steadily making progress, but still...

"Ugh."

Ryan groaned out loud.

'This is so frustrating.'

Time was of the essence, and he was wasting a lot of time finding the right path.

When he looked at his body, the demonic energy that had been encircling him had practically disappeared, and he no longer felt like a demon.

If he were to meet a demon, he'd instantly be found out.

'How annoying.'

The situation was anything but pleasant.

Despite that, Ryan could only grit his teeth and take out another demon core. This one belonged to the second demon he killed.

Crack!

Crushing it in the palm of his hand, he repeated the process from before and once again trekked on.

'No point in complaining… If I don't hurry up, things might turn for the worst. I need to hurry up.'

*

'Bingo.'

Ryan didn't know for how long he had walked, but after a couple more dead ends, he finally found the correct route, and he was shortly exposed to a large opening that was filled with thousands of metallic doors.

He was still quite a distance away from it, but he was able to see everything properly with the aid of a certain device.

'Well… shit…'

fell the moment

with thousands of different demons patrolling the area. They all emitted intimidating auras, and Ryan

to be caught by

only shudder at the

It's fine… I

around, his eyes paused on a certain door in the distance, and taking a deep breath, he remained where

ripe yet and remained where he was for the next couple of

for those couple of hours. During that time, he made a concerted effort to eavesdrop on the conversations that were taking place and to assimilate all of the information that he was learning

a better idea of how the system over here worked, and what

of them were going to be kept there for long as he'd see demons routinely approaching the

heard was rather useless, but that didn't concern him

was prepared to make a

still have some demonic energy covering me,

confirming that the demonic energy that surrounded his body was still stable,

He was ready.

Tap.

felt countless eyes fall on him, and his entire back was

a stoic face, he continued to move toward where Leopold

seems to

for

head, he almost fell to his knees. Towering over him was a large demon with a bulky build

a hard time keeping himself from passing out

just any

"Y,yes?"

asked, his composure almost

are you doing over

One which Ryan already had an

to meet one of the 'sources'

the terminologies that Ryan picked up while listening in on the

knew that the term referred to those that

"Which one?"

gaze of the demon, Ryan could only lower his head and point

recall, that's where

his

that's exactly where I need

"Hmm, okay then."

the demon was quick to agree and

do, I won't disturb you any further. When you go there, you can just tell them the reason why you're visiting, and they'll let you in. I hope your

"Thank you."

that things went so smoothly. Things would've been

Thankfully, he didn't.

'Okay, this is good.'

door where Leopold resided, Ryan took a deep breath and

time he moved, he touched his

***

eye on him; don't make a

The commander said expressionlessly.

his head, his gaze fixed on a 'demon' moving toward

knew that he didn't belong in

that demons of its rank wouldn't show up in such a location, the fact that the demonic energy that covered its body was rather faint was a great indicator that whoever this "demon" was, they were merely

then and there was because

Their goal.