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 the numerous

area. They all

to be

only shudder

fine… I can

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

and remained where he

of hours. During that time, he made a concerted effort to eavesdrop on the

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

they were gathering prisoners, he knew that none of them were going to

what he heard was rather useless, but that didn't concern

to make a

covering me, so

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

He was ready.

Tap.

he felt countless eyes fall on

so, with a stoic face, he continued to move toward where Leopold was being held.

seems to

there for a

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

and Ryan had a hard time

understood at that moment that he wasn't dealing with just any

"Y,yes?"

his

are you

direct question. One which Ryan already had

sector, and I need to

terminologies that Ryan picked up while listening in on the

meant, he knew that the term referred to those

"Which one?"

of the demon, Ryan could only lower his head

…Hm, last I recall, that's where a human resides. Is that

cautiously nodded his head, trying not to seem

exactly where I need

"Hmm, okay then."

was quick to agree and stepped

have work to do, I won't disturb you any further. When you go there, you can just tell them the

"Thank you."

that things went so smoothly. Things would've been troublesome if the demon had noticed that something was

Thankfully, he didn't.

'Okay, this is good.'

gaze over the door where Leopold resided, Ryan took a

touched his

***

him; don't make a

The commander said expressionlessly.

fixed on a 'demon' moving toward door

that he appeared, he knew that

if we ignore the fact 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,

stopped the demon right then and there was because he wanted to see what

Their goal.