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

to

shudder

fine… I can do

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

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

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

useful as he started to get a better idea of how the

he knew that none of them were going to be

useless, but

to

demonic energy covering me, so I should be

was still stable, he

He was ready.

Tap.

into the area, he felt countless eyes fall on him, and his entire back was

where

to

there for a

and Ryan's body froze on the spot. When he turned his head, he almost fell to

Ryan had a hard time keeping himself

any regular demon but someone that seemed to be high up

"Y,yes?"

his composure

you doing

Ryan already had an

need to meet one of the 'sources'

picked up while listening in

that the term

"Which one?"

Ryan could only lower his head

where a human resides. Is

his head, Ryan cautiously nodded his head, trying not

that's exactly where

"Hmm, okay then."

quick to agree

go there, you can just tell them the reason why you're visiting, and they'll let you in.

"Thank you."

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

Thankfully, he didn't.

'Okay, this is good.'

his gaze over the door where Leopold resided, Ryan

he touched his wrist and tapped

***

eye on him; don't make

The commander said expressionlessly.

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

he knew that he didn't belong in this

its rank wouldn't show up in such a location, the fact that the demonic energy that covered its body was rather

and there

Their goal.