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

cell, the area was far more secure, with thousands of different demons patrolling the area. They all emitted intimidating auras, and Ryan knew that even Leopold was no match

were to be caught by

only shudder at the

fine…

had 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 taking a

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

effort to eavesdrop on the conversations that were

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

going to be kept there for long as he'd see demons routinely approaching the cell

of what he heard was rather useless, but

to make

have some demonic energy covering

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

He was ready.

Tap.

countless eyes

move toward where Leopold was being held. He ignored

seems to

for a

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

had a hard time keeping

dealing with just any regular demon but someone that seemed

"Y,yes?"

his composure

are you doing

direct question. One which Ryan already had an

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

of the terminologies that Ryan picked up while listening in

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

"Which one?"

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

I recall, that's where a human

cautiously nodded his head, trying not to seem

that's exactly where I

"Hmm, okay then."

to agree and stepped to the

When you go there, you can just tell them

"Thank you."

went so smoothly. Things would've been

Thankfully, he didn't.

'Okay, this is good.'

where Leopold resided, Ryan took a deep breath

touched his wrist and tapped on it

***

on him; don't

The commander said expressionlessly.

fixed on

appeared, he knew that he didn't belong in

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

demon right then and there was because he wanted to see

Their goal.