The Author's POV

A/N : Title will be changed from [Start of the slaughter] to [Mana recovery.]

***

After pacing around and gazing at the doors to the rooms for a while, Exilion suddenly halted.

"Strange…"

He muttered as he walked toward one of the rooms and placed his hand on the door.

Sensing that there was only a person inside, he slowly let go.

"Nothing."

Not too long ago, he felt a strange fluctuation coming from that room, but he didn't see anything strange when he checked it out.

"...There's a good chance I'm overthinking this."

Folding his wings behind his back, Exilion continued to pace around the rooms. Another room soon caught his eye as he walked.

Walking up to it and placing his hand over it, a smile cracked on his face.

"It looks like he won't last for long."

Feeling the weak heartbeat of the human inside, Exilion knew that he was almost as good as dead.

"...Should I tell them of his death, or pretend he didn't die and tell them that they will only be able to see him at the end of the month once the work is completed...imagining the look on their faces when they realize they have been fooled...keke."

Exilion chuckled out loud.

The more he thought about the faces that humans would make when they learned that their comrade had died, the more his face twisted.

"What's so funny?"

Another voice echoed at that moment, and a demon slowly walked toward Exilion. He was Impedus. The other demon in charge of overlooking the cells.

"Nothing, nothing."

Waving his hand at Impedus, Exilion stopped smiling and leaned against the side of the wall.

"Judging from your reaction, I don't think it's nothing."

"Well, it's nothing big."

Knock—! Knock—!

As he knocked on the door next to him, Exilion gave him a brief overview of what he thought.

"He's about to die, and I was just thinking of how I could mess with the other humans."

"Oh?"

A smile cracked on Impedius's face as he showed an impressed look.

"You call that nothing? It sounds a lot more entertaining than the other things I'm doing."

"Keke. That's probably because you're soon going to be promoted. You don't have much time to think of these trivial matters as you used to in the past."

SHIIIING—!

A bright light appeared on Impedius' lower waist just as he was about to reply, and the two demons changed their faces.

'An emergency!'

They both simultaneously thought as Impedius took out a small black orb from his waist and casually crushed it in his hand.

Crack!

Moments after the orb was crushed, purple flames rose in the air, and a series of words manifested in front of the two demons.

[Intruder emergency! Reallocate the workers in the emergency vault.]

The demons stared at each other for a few seconds before rapidly rushing into action as they tried to figure out how to respond to the sudden message.

"Make it quick!"

After that, both demons went their separate ways and headed for a different door each and opened up the rooms.

Krrr—! Krrr—!

A rock grating sound echoed out loud as the rooms slowly started opening.

***

Plop—! Plop—!

Everyone focused their attention on the tools in front of Melissa as a bubbling sound echoed throughout the room.

"How much longer?"

I asked.

Removing the tube from the burner, Melissa shook the solution and glimpsed at me from the corner of her eyes.

"Half an hour at most. It might be faster if you stop speaking."

Focusing her attention back on the mixture, she silently whispered

"…You think it's easy to find a solution to your problem when I've only handled the plants for like a day? I know I'm a genius, but I'm no god."

'Well, she isn't wrong.'

Shaking my head, I sat down on the ground next to Amanda.

"How many days have passed since you arrived in this world?"

"…About a week."

Amanda replied with a look filled with concern.

Her concerns were understandable. Suddenly disappearing from the face of the human domain, her parents must be extremely worried about her condition.

"Eh…"

It was then that I suddenly had a thought. Turning to look at Amanda, I asked.

"You think they will think that you've come with me?"

"…No?"

Amanda shook her head. My thoughts were contradicted by her increased pitch at the end of her sentence.

"Ugh."

Thinking about Edward possibly busting my ass after we returned back to the human domain suddenly made me not want to go back anymore.

"I think it's best if you return before me. I don't think I'll be able to come back with you…"

Glancing at me, Amanda smiled and didn't say anything. My brows furrowed when I saw her reaction.

"Oy, why do I suddenly have a ba—"

Krrr—! Krrr—!

In that moment, I heard a familiar stone grating sound and the doors of the room suddenly opened, much to my and everyone else's shock.

"What's going on?"

Kevin was the first to react as he took out his sword and got into a stance.

Light began to spill into the room, but unlike before, I no longer needed to cover my eyes as my eyes were already adjusted to the light.

It wasn't long before the door opened, revealing the figure of a demon who stared into the room with eyes wide open.

"What's going on h—huek!"

SHIIIING—!

Kevin slashed his sword before the demon could complete his sentence, splitting his figure in half.

Thump—! Thump—!

Then, without wasting any time, Kevin extended his hand, engulfing the demon's figure in flames.

Soon enough, a core appeared on the floor and Kevin stepped on it.

Crack—!

"It looks like we don't have much time."

Lifting his head to stare into the distance, Kevin's figure vanished.

"Where are you going?"

I called out as I got out of the room.

"Who are you!?"

A shocked voice echoed in the distance right as I got out of the room.

SHIIING—!

At that point, I noticed Kevin dissecting another demon that appeared to be opening another door.

Crack—!

Stepping onto the core of the demon, Kevin wiped his forehead.

"Done."

"…That was fast."

Rushing to where Kevin was and staring toward the cracked core on the ground, my brows furrowed.

"You shouldn't have killed him."

"Ah?"

"You should've questioned him before killing him."

Bending down and pinching the shards of the core, I threw them back on the ground.

"Kevin, you should know better than anyone that we're currently in some unknown territory we have no idea. We can't just move around without any information."

"About that..."

"You don't have to worry about that."

Melissa cut in just as Kevin was about to say something.

"Hm?"

I turned to face her direction.

While still silently glaring in my direction, she tapped on her watch, displaying what seemed to be the structure of the mana compressor in holographic form.

"This may be a larger version of a mana compressor, but at the end of the day, it probably still functions the same as the smaller ones on earth, so…"

As Melissa tapped on the holograph and motioned with her hands, the mana compressor expanded before our eyes and she pointed to the second highest level of the pyramid.

"This is where we should be going."

"Is that where the main operating system is located?"

Amanda asked, to which Melissa nodded her head and pointed beneath the pyramid structure.

"We should currently be located at the bottom of the pyramid, meaning that we have to go up. Considering that the alarm just rang, the demons are on the move to catch that idiot that Ren brought."

"Hey."

"Shut up."

Melissa glared in my direction.

"Had it not been for that idiot, we would've come to you with a more solid plan, and things wouldn't be as difficult as now."

"…I can't argue against this."

She was right.

Had it not been for Liam, things would've indeed been a lot more organized.

In any case, beggars couldn't be choosers and now was not the time for us to argue.

"Guys, help me open the door."

Jolting me out of my thoughts was Kevin's voice as he pointed toward the other doors.

"Ah, right."

Turning to face the half-opened door, I glanced in Angelica's direction and asked.

"Angelica, can you do me a favor and open the door?"

"Me?"

"Yes, you're the only one here that can open the door since you have demonic energy."

Given that the doors could only be opened using demonic energy, Angelica was the only one that could open the doors.

We could technically break the wall apart with just our strength, but that wouldn't be appropriate as there was a risk of someone getting injured inside.

Our mana was sealed after all.

Furthermore…

"I believe that this is where Smallsnake is resting, so hurry up. The last time I left him, he wasn't in the best condition."

I felt some anxiety as I realized the door was half open and there was no reaction on the other side.

"Quick!"

The moment the others heard that Smallsnake was the one inside the room, their faces changed.

"Smallsnake is there?"

"So that's where he went."

"Is he okay?"

"Okay."

The same went for Angelica who hurriedly placed her hand on the side of the door and channeled her energy.

A black hue sprang out from her body and completely enshrouded the door.

Krrr—!

The doors began to open as a familiar rock grating sound echoed. Suddenly, everyone noticed a sickly figure lying on the ground. His breathing was extremely thin, and his complexion was extremely pale.

"Shit!"

I cursed out loud as I ran in his direction and called out for him.

"Smallsnake!" "Smallsnake!" "Smallsnake!"