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…'

face fell the moment he noticed the numerous

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

were to be caught by

shudder

fine… It's fine… I can

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

the time was ripe yet and remained where

wasn't idle for those couple of hours. During 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 from those around

proved extremely useful as he started to get a better idea of how the system over here worked, and what exactly was going

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

but that didn't concern him as

was prepared to make a

energy covering me,

was still

He was ready.

Tap.

he felt countless eyes fall on him,

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

to

there for

body froze on the spot. When he turned his head, he almost fell to his knees. Towering over him was a large demon with a bulky build and a

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

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

"Y,yes?"

his composure almost

are you doing over

which Ryan already

to meet one of the 'sources' that

of the terminologies that Ryan picked up while listening in on the demons for the past

wasn't sure of what they meant, he knew that the

"Which one?"

of the demon, Ryan could only lower his head and point toward Leopold's

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

Ryan cautiously nodded his head, trying not to

exactly where I need

"Hmm, okay then."

to agree and

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

"Thank you."

that things went so smoothly. Things would've

Thankfully, he didn't.

'Okay, this is good.'

where Leopold resided, Ryan took a

same time he moved, he touched his wrist and tapped on

***

an eye on him; don't make a

The commander said expressionlessly.

fixed on a 'demon' moving toward

appeared, he knew that he

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, they were merely

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

Their goal.