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

was far more secure, with thousands of different demons patrolling the area. They all emitted intimidating

to

only shudder

fine… I can

was seeing was within his calculations. Scanning around, his eyes paused on a certain

that the time was ripe yet and

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

to get a better idea of how

he knew that none of them were going to be kept there for long as he'd see demons routinely approaching the cell doors and taking out

but that didn't concern him as

was prepared to make a

covering me, so I

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

He was ready.

Tap.

felt countless

with a stoic face, he continued to move toward where

seems to

for a

When he turned his head, he almost fell to his knees. Towering over him

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

moment that he wasn't dealing with just any regular demon

"Y,yes?"

asked, his composure

you

question. One which Ryan already had

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

the terminologies that Ryan picked up while listening in on the demons

he knew that the term referred to those that were taken in by the

"Which one?"

scrutinizing gaze of the demon, Ryan could

9862? …Hm, last I recall, that's where a human resides. Is that the

his

exactly where I

"Hmm, okay then."

the demon was quick to agree and stepped to

you 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,

"Thank you."

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

Thankfully, he didn't.

'Okay, this is good.'

the door where Leopold resided, Ryan took a deep breath and proceeded

he touched his wrist and tapped

***

eye on him; don't make a move

The commander said expressionlessly.

his head, his gaze fixed on

moment that he appeared, he knew that

that the demonic energy that covered its body was rather faint was a great indicator that whoever this "demon" was, they were merely

the commander hadn't stopped the demon right then and there was because he

Their goal.