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…'

the moment he noticed

thousands of different demons patrolling the area. They all emitted intimidating auras, and

were to be caught

shudder

It's fine…

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

didn't feel that the time was ripe yet and remained where

the conversations

better idea of how the system over here worked, and what

he wasn't aware 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

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

was prepared to make

have some demonic energy covering

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

He was ready.

Tap.

into the area, he felt countless eyes fall

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

seems to

there for a

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

a hard time keeping himself from passing out under

he wasn't dealing with just any regular

"Y,yes?"

his composure almost

are you doing

which Ryan already

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

terminologies that Ryan picked up while listening in

that the term referred to those that

"Which one?"

of the demon, Ryan could only lower his head and point toward

that's where a human resides. Is

his head, Ryan cautiously nodded his head, trying not to seem

where I need to

"Hmm, okay then."

the demon was quick to agree

I won't disturb you any further. When you go there, you can just tell them the reason

"Thank you."

rather relieved that things went so smoothly. Things would've been troublesome if

Thankfully, he didn't.

'Okay, this is good.'

the door where Leopold resided, Ryan

same time he moved, he touched his wrist and tapped on

***

eye on him;

The commander said expressionlessly.

fixed on a 'demon' moving

the moment that he appeared, he knew that

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

commander hadn't stopped the demon right then and there was

Their goal.