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 he noticed the numerous

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

to

only shudder at the

fine… It's fine… I can

had already thought things through before, and what he was seeing was within his calculations. Scanning around, his eyes paused

didn't feel that the time was ripe yet and remained where he

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 exactly

going to be kept there for long

was rather useless, but

to make a

energy covering me, so I

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

He was ready.

Tap.

into the area, he felt countless eyes fall

he continued to move toward where

to

there for

interrupted his thoughts, and Ryan's body froze on the spot. When he turned his head, he

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

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

"Y,yes?"

his composure

are you

which Ryan already had

from another sector, and I need to meet one of the

was one of the terminologies that Ryan picked up while listening in on

of what they meant, he knew that the term

"Which one?"

Ryan could

I recall, that's where

nodded his head, trying not to seem

where I need to

"Hmm, okay then."

the demon was quick to agree and stepped to

When you go there, you can just tell

"Thank you."

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

Thankfully, he didn't.

'Okay, this is good.'

the door where Leopold resided, Ryan took a deep breath

time he moved, he touched his

***

an eye on him; don't make

The commander said expressionlessly.

gaze fixed on a

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

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

hadn't stopped the demon right then and there was because he wanted to see what

Their goal.