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…'

the moment he noticed the

with thousands of different demons patrolling the area. They all emitted

he were to be

shudder

It's fine… I can do

his calculations. Scanning around, his eyes paused on a certain door

ripe yet and

that time, he made a concerted effort to eavesdrop on the conversations that were taking place and to assimilate all of the

extremely useful as he started to get a better idea of how the system over here worked,

reason they were gathering prisoners, he knew that none of them were going to be kept there for long as he'd see demons routinely

rather useless, but that didn't concern him

prepared to make

still have some demonic energy covering me,

surrounded his body was still stable, he nodded his head with

He was ready.

Tap.

the area, he felt countless eyes fall on him,

where Leopold

to

for

turned his head, he almost fell to his knees. Towering over him was a large

overwhelming, and Ryan had a hard time keeping himself from passing out under his enormous

at that moment that he wasn't dealing with just any regular demon but someone that seemed to be

"Y,yes?"

asked, his composure almost

you doing

which Ryan already

and I need to meet one of the 'sources' that we've recently

that Ryan picked up while listening in on

that the term referred to those that were taken in

"Which one?"

could only lower his

…Hm, last I recall, that's where a

cautiously nodded his head, trying not to seem too

that's exactly where I need to

"Hmm, okay then."

to agree and stepped

go there, you can just tell them the reason why you're visiting, and they'll let you in. I hope your findings are

"Thank you."

that things went so smoothly. Things would've been

Thankfully, he didn't.

'Okay, this is good.'

resided, Ryan took a deep breath and proceeded

touched his wrist and tapped

***

him; don't

The commander said expressionlessly.

fixed on a

appeared, he knew that

demonic energy that covered its body was rather faint was a great indicator that whoever

then and there was because he

Their goal.