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…'

moment

area. They all emitted intimidating auras, and

were to be caught

shudder

fine… It's fine… I can

within his calculations. Scanning around, his eyes paused on a certain door in the

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

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

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

them were going to be kept

rest of what he heard was rather useless, but that didn't concern him as he had heard

prepared to make a

demonic energy covering me,

confirming that the demonic energy that surrounded his body was still stable, he nodded his

He was ready.

Tap.

felt countless eyes fall on him, and his entire back was

to move toward where Leopold was

seems to

there for a

turned his head, he

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

"Y,yes?"

his composure

are you doing

which Ryan

coming here from another sector, and I need to meet one of the 'sources' that we've recently

up while listening in on the demons for

sure of what they meant, he knew that the term referred to

"Which one?"

the demon, Ryan could only lower his head

where a

his head, trying not to seem

exactly where I

"Hmm, okay then."

quick to agree and stepped to the

just tell them the reason why you're visiting, and they'll let you in. I hope your

"Thank you."

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

Thankfully, he didn't.

'Okay, this is good.'

where Leopold resided, Ryan took a deep breath

moved, he touched his wrist and tapped on it

***

an eye on him; don't make

The commander said expressionlessly.

fixed on a 'demon' moving toward door

that he appeared, he knew that he

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 pretending to

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

Their goal.