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 area. They all emitted intimidating auras, and Ryan knew

to

only shudder

fine… It's fine… I can do

before, and what he was seeing was within his calculations. Scanning around, his eyes paused on a certain door in the distance, and taking a deep breath, he remained where he

time was ripe yet and remained

those couple of hours. During that time, he made a concerted effort to eavesdrop on the conversations that were taking place and to assimilate

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

of the reason they were gathering prisoners, he knew that none of them were going to be kept there for long as he'd see demons routinely approaching the cell

was rather useless, but that didn't concern him as

to make

demonic energy covering me, so

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

He was ready.

Tap.

he felt countless eyes fall on him, and

where Leopold was being held. He ignored

to

for a

he turned his head, he almost fell to

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

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

"Y,yes?"

asked, his composure almost

are you

Ryan

to meet one of the

that Ryan picked up while listening in on the demons

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

"Which one?"

the demon, Ryan could only lower

that's where a human resides.

his head, trying not

where I need

"Hmm, okay then."

was quick to agree

can just tell them

"Thank you."

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

Thankfully, he didn't.

'Okay, this is good.'

door where Leopold resided, Ryan took a deep breath and

the same time he moved, he touched

***

an eye on him; don't make a move

The commander said expressionlessly.

gaze fixed on a 'demon'

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

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"

and there was because

Their goal.