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

patrolling the area. They all emitted

were to be caught

shudder at the

fine… I can do

Scanning around, his eyes

time was ripe yet and remained where he was for the next

on the conversations that were taking place and to assimilate all of the information that he was learning from those

he started to get a better idea of how the system over here worked,

them were going to be kept there

useless, but that didn't concern

to make

demonic energy covering me,

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

He was ready.

Tap.

felt countless eyes fall on him, and his entire back

a stoic face, he continued to move toward where Leopold was being held. He ignored the gazes

seems to be

for a

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

had a hard time keeping himself from passing out

understood at that moment that he wasn't dealing with just any regular demon but someone that

"Y,yes?"

his composure

are you doing

One which Ryan

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

that Ryan picked up while listening in on the

that the

"Which one?"

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

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

nodded his head, trying

that's exactly where I

"Hmm, okay then."

the demon was quick to agree and stepped

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."

so smoothly. Things would've

Thankfully, he didn't.

'Okay, this is good.'

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

he touched his wrist and tapped on it

***

on him; don't make a move

The commander said expressionlessly.

he turned his head, his gaze fixed on a 'demon' moving

knew that he didn't belong

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

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

Their goal.