The Author's POV

Bang—!

A powerful blast reverberated through a large room as a figure skidded back.

"Cough…cough…"

What followed after the blasting sound was a series of coughs as the dust in the air settled, revealing a figure with long black hair and yellow eyes.

"Cough...heee.."

Liam smiled as he wiped his mouth and noticed the smudge of blood on his thumb.

"That was pretty strong."

"What is another human doing here?"

An effeminate-looking humanoid with two curly horns floated in the air opposite Liam.

While levitating in the air, the demon licked his lips slowly as he gazed at Liam.

"Now that I'm getting a closer look at you, you're quite the handsome lad..."

"Uh?"

Shivers ran down Liam's body as he felt the gaze of the demon.

'What's going on?'

What prompted the shivers wasn't the demon's weird gaze, but something else...something deeper...it was his sixth sense. Something he had honed over countless battles and struggles.

At the moment, it was telling him that something was wrong with the situation.

His instinct was right as he felt a sharp whistling sound coming from his right cheek. It was there that Liam noticed the demon appearing right beside him.

It had only taken a short second for him to appear next to Liam and attack him.

'Fast…'

Liam thought as his eyes gleamed with a strange yellow hue and lightning began to crackle around his body.

Clang—!

A metallic ring echoed throughout the air as the demon's sharp nails came into contact with the sheath of Liam's sword that was only slightly tilted to the right.

Even then...

"Cough!"

Skidding several meters back, Liam coughed again. This time, blood came out of his mouth as his knee trembled and he was forced to stab his sword to the ground in order to stop himself from crashing against the nearby wall.

'…How powerful.'

Lifting his head up to gaze at the demon, Liam clenched and unclenched his fist as he placed the sheath of the sword next to his waist.

Massaging the side of his neck, he quietly mumbled to himself.

"As I thought, fighting against a Marquis ranked demon while I'm still <A+> rank, isn't suitable."

In the meantime, the demon was carefully observing Liam.

"You're pretty strong."

The demon commented.

Raising his head to stare at the demon, Liam lowered his heads

"Thank you."

"Keke."

The demon chuckled as the wings on his back folded together.

He then extended his hand.

"Continuing this fight is pointless. You're weaker than me, and you know that. It would be a pity to let such talent die, so…"

The demon's hand was suddenly enshrouded in a black hue as a scroll unexpectedly materialized on the top of his palm.

"…How about signing a co—"

"I'm good."

Liam cut the demon off before he could even finish speaking.

Taking a glance at the contract, he shook his head.

"I appreciate your offer, but I'd rather not sign a contract with a demon belonging to the Lust clan."

Tapping onto his dimensional space, an apple appeared in Liam's hand.

Crunch—!

When he bit into the apple, juice spilled on the ground as an echoing crunching sound was heard.

"You guys are rather..munch…weak…munch…I would much rather sign a contract with a d…munch…emon from the envy clan…munch…of course, that is only on the premise that I'm interested to sign one in the fir..much..st place…munch…but I'm not."

Licking his fingers after having devoured the apple in his hand, Liam stretched his neck.

"Good snack."

He then placed his hand on the sheath of his sword.

"Alright, I'm ready."

"Haha…"

After Liam finished his words, the demon let out a small laugh as he covered his face with the hand that was holding onto the contract.

"Hahahahhahahah."

The laugh soon turned into a full maniacal laugh as the demon pressed his stomach and hunched over. By the second, his laughter became louder, and a frown appeared on Liam's face.

"What's so funny?"

Liam asked with a confused tone.

Following his words, the demon stopped laughing and his face twisted.

"Your naivety."

Fwap—!

The back of his wings expanded rapidly and a terrifying aura suddenly sprang out from the demon's body as the room started to shake.

"To think that there would be someone stupid enough to reject my offer and choose to die like this."

His menacing pressure reached all the way toward Liam who felt his clothes and hair flutter.

Within a couple of seconds, the pressure had already expanded toward every inch and corner of the room as the demon's terrifying pressure continued to expand.

"I'll show you exactly what happens when someone rejects me!"

The figure vanished from the spot before reappearing right in front of Liam.

"Di—"

Click—!

A clicking sound echoed throughout the room.

Thump—!

Everything happened so fast that no one was able to react to the sudden changes. After that, with two loud thuds, a dissected body landed on the ground in front of Liam who picked his ear with his pinky.

"You talk too much."

He mumbled under his breath as he let the sword fall into its sheath. After that, he kicked the demon's body and flipped it around.

"H…how?"

It was there that he heard the demon's voice as he stared at Liam with eyes wide open. Given that his core had still not been shattered, he was still alive.

"How did I defeat you?"

Tilting his head, Liam brushed his hair back.

With a shrug of his shoulder,s he replied.

"Since I couldn't beat you when I was ranked <A+>, I just decided to rank up."

His words caused the demon's eyes to open even more.

Shrugging his shoulders once again, Liam's yellow eyes shined and he stabbed toward the demon's abdomen area.

Crack—!

A cracking sound echoed out and the demon's body slowly disintegrated into the air.

"Alright."

Stretching his shoulder a little, he turned around and headed toward the far end of the room where he was met with another dark corridor.

As he slowly walked in that direction, his footsteps halted and he lowered his head.

He suddenly recalled something.

"…Did I break the cores of the two demons that were standing outside?"

A frown emerged on his face as he deeply thought about the situation.

"Ugh."

But after wrapping his head over the matter and being unable to recall anything, he eventually ruffled his hair and continued to head deeper into the tunnel.

"Whatever, it'll be more fun this way. It'll help me test my new strength."

Now that he had broken through to <S-> rank, he felt a lot more powerful and he couldn't wait to test his new strength.

***

"Ehm…"

Blinking several times to make sure that I was hearing correctly, I picked my nose with my pinky. I just wanted to make sure that there wasn't anything wrong with my hearing.

'Am I that far gone after all that training?'

It may have been dark, but the small familiar light coming from what seemed to be a cigarette, and the smell…

"Leopold?"

I instinctively called out.

"Hey! Hey!"

*Puff*

"!!!"

Not expecting a reply, I flinched and took several steps back.

"What's going o—off."

Stopping mid-sentence, I felt something soft embrace me. My thought process halted for a short second.

"…I'm glad you're okay."

A faint whisper sounded near my ear, causing my body to shiver as a strange feeling enveloped me.

"What's happening? I can't see shit."

It was then that a familiar voice echoed and Amanda distanced herself from me.

Following that, my eyes reflexively closed as a bright light flooded the room.

"Ren."

A voice called out for me.

"Aye."

I could easily make out that the voice belonged to Kevin as I slowly opened my eyes and saw several figures standing in front of me.

"So many…"

Taking note of reverting that was present, I opened and closed my mouth, speechless.

'Just how many people got transported in this place?'

Kevin, Melissa, Ryan, Amanda, Angelica, Leopold, Hein, and Ava.

Excluding the others that were with me, practically almost everyone was here with me.

"How did this happen?"

I asked as I turned to look at Kevin who shook his head with a bitter smile.

"I also don't know."

"Hmmm…"

I lowered my head to ponder over the situation. But just as I was about to speak my thoughts, I heard Melissa's sour voice.

"Hm? This place is pretty fragile."

Knock—! Knock—!

Melissa turned to look at me as she knocked on the side of the wall.

"Although they aren't exactly weak, given your strength, you should've been able to easily break the walls. How come you didn't escape?"

Everybody moved to the wall and felt it for themselves as soon as they heard her words.

"You're right."

"It's true."

"This is indeed pretty weak."

Everyone turned to look at me as they confirmed her words.

I wryly smiled and extended my hand.

"It would've been easy for me had I been in my normal conditions, but as you can see, my mana is sealed. I can't really do anything right now."

"Let me see."

Grabbing me by the wrist, Melissa channeled her mana into my body as a hue came out of her body.

She then closed her eyes. In that moment, everyone's eyes were directed in her direction, trying to see what she was doing. I did feel an uncomfortable stare coming from a certain direction, but I promptly ignored it.

It was nothing big.

Seconds passed and Melissa eventually opened her eyes.

Her brows furrowed tightly.

"He's not lying."

Covering her mouth with her hand, she had a thoughtful look on her face before she turned my wrist and started patting my body all over.

"Woahh!"

Her sudden actions startled me as I tried to move my body back.

"Stop moving."

But grasping my wrist, Melissa stopped me from moving and continued patting my body all over. Her actions caught everyone off-guard. I took particular notice of Angelica's actions as she covered Ryan's eyes with her hands.

"Hey, what are you doing? I want to see?"

To make matters worse, the stare from before became more intense as the back of my neck suddenly turned cold.

'Give me a break.'

I thought to myself as Melissa's cold hands continued to pat me around the body. Had it not been for the fact that she was currently a lot stronger than me, I would've already pushed her back by now.

"Alright, let me check your blood."

Fortunately, her session of sexual harassment didn't last for long as she distanced herself away from me and took a small device from her dimensional space.

It may have not been too bright, but the moment Melissa took the device out, I was able to instantly catch sight of what seemed to be a sharp needle.

A bright smile adorned Melissa's face as she beckoned me to come to her.

"Come Ren. Let me test your blood."

"Ehmm..."

I took a step back as I took note of her expression.

"...Melissa, can we talk about this?"