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

more secure, with thousands of different demons patrolling the area. They

were to

shudder at

fine…

through before, and what he was seeing was within his calculations. Scanning around, his eyes

feel that the time was ripe yet and remained where he was for the next

those couple of hours. During that time, he made a concerted effort to eavesdrop on the conversations that were taking place and

started to get a better idea of how the system over here worked, and what exactly

of them were going to be kept there for long as

but that didn't concern

to make a

demonic energy covering me, so I should be

body was still stable,

He was ready.

Tap.

he felt countless

continued to move toward where Leopold was being held. He

to be

there for a

spot. When he turned his head, he almost fell

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

with just any regular

"Y,yes?"

his composure almost

are you doing over

question. One which Ryan already had an

I need to

Ryan picked up while listening in on the demons for the

of what they meant, he knew that the term referred to those that were taken in by

"Which one?"

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

recall, that's where a human resides.

Ryan cautiously nodded his head,

exactly where I

"Hmm, okay then."

to agree and stepped to the

have work to 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

"Thank you."

felt rather relieved that things went so smoothly. Things would've been troublesome if the demon had noticed

Thankfully, he didn't.

'Okay, this is good.'

gaze over the door where Leopold resided,

moved, he touched his wrist

***

on him; don't make a move

The commander said expressionlessly.

his head, his gaze fixed on a

the moment that he appeared, he knew that he

rank wouldn't show up in such a location, the fact that the demonic energy that covered its body was rather faint

only reason the commander hadn't stopped the demon right then and there was because he wanted to

Their goal.