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…'

moment he noticed

thousands of different demons patrolling the area. They all emitted intimidating auras, and Ryan knew that even Leopold was no match

were to be caught by

shudder at

It's fine… I can

was within his calculations. Scanning around, his eyes paused on a certain door in the distance, and taking a deep breath, he remained where

yet and

concerted effort to eavesdrop on the conversations that were taking place and

endeavor proved extremely useful as he started to get a better idea of how the system

were going to be kept there for long as he'd see demons

of what he heard was rather useless, but that

was prepared to

covering me, so I

his body was still stable, he

He was ready.

Tap.

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

he continued to move toward where Leopold was being held. He

to

for a

spot. When he turned his head, he almost fell to his

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

that he wasn't dealing with just any regular demon but someone that seemed

"Y,yes?"

his composure

you doing

which Ryan already had an answer

another sector, and I need to meet one of

was one of the terminologies that Ryan picked up

sure of what they meant, he knew that the term referred to those

"Which one?"

gaze of the demon, Ryan could only lower

where

his head, trying not to seem too

where I

"Hmm, okay then."

the demon was quick to

disturb you any further. When you go there, you can just tell them the

"Thank you."

things went so smoothly. Things would've been troublesome if

Thankfully, he didn't.

'Okay, this is good.'

over the door where Leopold resided, Ryan took a

time he moved, he touched his

***

on him;

The commander said expressionlessly.

his gaze fixed on a 'demon' moving toward door

appeared, he knew that he didn't belong in this

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 pretending to be something

commander hadn't stopped the demon right then and

Their goal.