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

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

to

only shudder at

It's fine… I can

already thought things through before, and what he was seeing was within his calculations. Scanning around, his eyes paused on a certain door in the distance, and

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

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

useful as he started to get a better idea of how

prisoners, he knew that none of them were going to

useless, but that didn't concern him

to

energy covering me, so

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

He was ready.

Tap.

the area, he felt countless

continued to move toward where Leopold was being

to be

for a

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

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

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

"Y,yes?"

his composure almost

you doing

Ryan already had an

I need to meet

one of the terminologies that Ryan picked up while listening

he knew that the term

"Which one?"

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

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

cautiously nodded his

where I

"Hmm, okay then."

demon was quick to agree and

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, and they'll let you in. I hope your findings

"Thank you."

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

Thankfully, he didn't.

'Okay, this is good.'

Leopold resided, Ryan took a deep breath

moved, he touched

***

an eye on him; don't make a

The commander said expressionlessly.

his head, his gaze fixed on a 'demon' moving toward

that he appeared, he knew that he didn't

such a location, the fact that the demonic energy that covered its body was rather faint was a great indicator that whoever this

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

Their goal.