The Author's POV



Everything was going smoothly. Going in and out of the cells, Ryan managed to help as many prisoners as possible. Furthermore, with Leopold backing him up from behind, he was able to move rather freely.

Not only that, but the prisoners that he had rescued proved to also be a big help, as they instantly spread chaos within the cave system.

"Did you really have to take all my potions as well?" 

Rushing toward another cell, Ryan overheard Leopold's grumble. 

If he could, he would've rolled his eyes at him. 

"You think I have a choice? I've already used all of mine." 

Boom—! Boom—!

The muffled sound of explosions rang everywhere, and just as Ryan opened up another cell to free another prisoner, he was surprised to see a familiar figure.

"You're Emma."

He recognized her in an instant. It wasn't very hard.

There weren't many people out there that were as pretty as her, and furthermore, with her being one of the few people that were close to Ren, he naturally did some research on her.

Currently, she was lying down on the ground with a pale expression. Her lips seemed to be quivering, and her gaze seemed to be fixed on him.

She didn't look to be in the best of conditions, but at least, her mind seemed clear. Judging from her expression, she seemed to have recognized him too.

Bang—!

"Ryan, hurry up!"

It was Leopold's voice that broke him out of his thoughts, and Ryan snapped out of it and got to work. 

"Ah, right, sorry!"

Bending over, he looked at the bracelet that was on her ankle and made quick work of it.

Click!

Removing it wasn't hard. He already had a general understanding of how the mechanism worked thanks to the hours he had put in before escaping, and he was thus able to remove it rather quickly. 

"Here, drink this."

He handed Emma one of his potions, and she quietly took it. Moments after ingesting the potions, Emma's complexion cleared up, and she was soon able to stand up without a problem.

"Thank you."

"Don't worry about it."

Ryan waved his hand at her and looked back at Leopold.

Bang—! Bang—!

He was currently shooting one demon after another as sweat trickled down the side of his face. He was just barely holding on at the moment.

"Do you have any spare weapons?"

Right at that moment, he heard Emma's words, and when he turned his head to look at her, his eyes lit up.

'That's right, she's with us right now!'

Unlike the two of them, Emma was a bonafide <S+> ranker. If there was anyone who could fight the demons outside, it'd be her!

Without wasting a single second, Ryan looked through his dimensional space and retrieved a sword from it.

It wasn't exactly her weapon of choice, as he knew she used short swords, but that was all he had prepared. 

"Here, I have a sword."

"A sword?"

Frowning, Emma took the sword and casually swung it in the air.

Swoosh! Swoosh! 

Her movements were quick, and with each swing, the air would tear apart, and a faint whistling sound would emerge. 

'Next time, I should just pack all the weapons I can find.'

Hopefully, he'd never have to use the secret dimensional space again, but… no one really knew what lay ahead in the future, so it was best to be prepared.

"This'll do I guess."

Satisfied with the sword, Emma shifted her attention toward the demons that were attacking Leopold, and her figure soon disappeared from the spot.

Shortly after, she appeared before the demons and slashed her sword once.

Thump!

Heads came rolling down, and everything ended in a matter of seconds.

"Not bad."

Ryan was able to overhear Emma's mutterings as she slashed her sword to the ground, causing the blood that had been coating it to splatter all over the ground.

Leopold, standing next to her, looked at her with his mouth wide open. Alternating his gaze between his firearm and her sword, he lowered his firearm and tossed a few gums in his mouth. 

"I'm too old for this shit."

Once again, Ryan was able to overhear their mutterings, and he shook his head. 

"So… what do we do now?"

"I'm not too sure."

Ryan answered Emma.

Quite frankly, his goal was to create as much chaos as possible so that the two of them could escape, however, now that Emma was with them, he was no longer as worried as before.

She was strong… extremely strong.

So much so that he no longer feared for their safety as much as before, and could take things a lot more calmly.

'Well, perhaps it's best if we don't take things lightly.'

It was best to be as cautious as possible, as the incident he had caused may have attracted the attention of demons of a higher rank.

No, the incident without a doubt had attracted the attention of the higher ranked demons. 

It was crucial that they be careful. 

"Hmm… I really can't think of anything we can do at the moment."

Pondering over his options, Ryan's gaze eventually settled on a couple of demons not so far from where they were, and an idea popped into his mind. 

'That might work...' 

He turned to look at Emma.

"Can you paralyze them and bring them to this room? If we want to have a better idea of what we need to do next, then we need information."

"You're right."

Nodding her head in agreement, Emma's gaze turned toward the demons that Ryan pointed at and disappeared from the spot. She returned shortly after and threw them both on the ground. 

Thump! Thump!

"…"

Ryan was rendered speechless upon seeing the demons thrown to the ground like rag dolls, but he kept his thoughts to himself and bent down to face the demons. 

"If you want to live, give us a map of the cave system."

"…"

His question was met with no response, but Ryan didn't care and continued to ask questions.

"Where exactly are we?"

"…"

"Where is the exit?"

"…"

"What are you demons planning? Why are you capturing so many people?" 

Ryan kept peppering the demons with questions, one at a time, but they never responded to any of them. They were adamant about maintaining their silence the entire time.

"Ryan."

"What is it?"

Hearing his name called, Ryan raised his head. When he did, he saw Emma looking at the door of the room, and he understood what she was trying to hint at.

"Alright."

Supporting himself with his hands over his knees, Ryan slowly sat up and let out a long sigh.

"Things could've been so much easier if the two of you had answered our questions, but I guess I should've seen this coming."

Extending his hand, three bracelets appeared in his hand, and he handed them to Emma, and Leopold before putting them on himself.

"Wear this for now and seal your mana. I've got a better idea."

Click! Click!

Leopold and Emma fully trusted Ryan and did as he told them. Nodding at them, he took their weapons back and put them in his dimensional space before turning his attention back toward the demons in front of him. 

"Now then."

He smiled, taking a couple of syringes from his dimensional space.

'Who would've thought I'd ever get to use these…'

While he did develop them out of interest, he never really thought he'd use them in his life. 

'Funny how life can be sometimes.'

He had once offered the serum to Ren, but he rejected it and told him to use it for himself.

Who would've thought they'd come in handy so soon? 

"What are you doing?"

"You'll see."

Walking toward the demons, Ryan bent down and placed the syringe by their necks. Because Emma had done a considerable job taking care of them, Ryan was able to inject them with the serum without any problem.

"Uekah!"

"Akgh!"

The moment Ryan injected the serum into their bodies, the demons started to convulse rapidly as their eyes turned completely white and saliva started to leak out of their bodies.

Thankfully, they weren't like this for very long and soon calmed down.

There was, however, a noticeable difference between them. If their eyes were clear before, they  were now rather dull, and they didn't seem to be very responsive.

"Looks like it worked."

Putting the empty syringes back, Ryan walked toward the two demons and placed his hand over their shoulders.

"Stand up."

He ordered, and the two demons stood up. There wasn't even a hint of hesitation in their movements, and Ryan smiled at the sight.

"Good… good…"

He patted them on the shoulder.

'Good, it looks like they are following commands rather well. I was worried they wouldn't listen to me since I didn't have much time to experiment with the substance, but it looks like I worried too much.'

Bang—!

A loud explosion rang in the distance, and Ryan snapped out of his thoughts. Staring at the two demons, his eyes sharpened, and he commanded.

"For now, lead us out of the cell. The three of us are prisoners that you've managed to recapture."

"…"

"…"

Ryan moved behind the two demons and followed their every move as they advanced without uttering a single word.

"What?"

When he turned his head to look at Emma and Leopold, he was surprised by the looks the two of them were giving him. 

It… was rather uncomfortable.

Especially when Emma looked at Leopold and said,  "You see the resemblance, don't you? Remind me not to ever let children near that guy."

eaglesnovɐ1,сoМ "Yes… Yes I will…"

Their conversation was just as confusing.

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