No Return (Shadow Slave Fan-Fic)

They were all waiting for Sunny to speak up , the tension in here could be cut through with a knife..

Sunny slowly exhaled.

"Sunny? What is happening?"

He looked at Cassie, whose face was full of worry and curiosity. After hesitating for a little while, he said:

"There's a new threat. Stay quiet a bit longer, I'll explain later."

"You sure love making us wait.." Levi sighed.. However Sunny seemed hyper-focused.

After a while , Sunny spoke.

"It is safe to come out now.."

Levi stood up , massaging his limbs even if they were not swollen. In reality he had just realized their closeness during hiding , and he was embarrassed. However , they had more pressing matters so he looked at Sunny.

He was almost glad that the Carapace Demon had appeared at the perfect moment to take his thought away from that

situation.

"What happened?"

Nephis looked at him and raised an eyebrow. For once, her expression of indifference did not look very convincing.

Sunny glanced at the not-so-distant Ashen Barrow and shivered.

"There's danger ahead. We need to return to the Bone Ridge. I'll explain everything once we're safe and sound, back at the camp."

She opened her mouth to say something, but then thought better of it and remained silent, simply giving him a nod. The trust they had built was enough for that much, at least. Levi himself didn't say anything either.

Sunny summoned the Echo, tied the golden rope around its torso, placed Cassie's makeshift saddle back on its carapace and Levi helped the blind girl climb to her seat.

Picking up the saddlebags, he fixed them back onto the scavenger and took a step away. They were ready to go.

***

Back inside the Bone Ridge, they were sitting around the fire. The delicious smell of roasting meat filled the air, making Sunny's stomach produce embarrassing sounds. However, it wasn't time to eat yet. He was in the middle of telling the group about what he had seen.

" ... after the centurion kneeled, another carapace creature came from the top of the Ashen Barrow. Only this one was not one of those we had seen before. It was easily twice the size of the centurion, six or seven meters tall. I can't even imagine how much it weighs. It looked like a moving house."

Nephis frowned, clearly not happy to know that there was such a behemoth barring their way.

"What's more, its carapace is not made of chitin. Instead, it looks like some strange metal alloy. I don't think we'll be able to cut through it. I also didn't notice any gaps in that monstrosity's armor, not even around the joints."

Levi's mind was already thinking if his [Corrosion] ability would be able to wither the armor of an awakened demon in a matter of seconds like he had during the battle against the awakened monster..

Cassie gulped, turning her head to her friend. Changing Star, however, remained silent.

Sunny sighed.

"In addition, that thing has four arms instead of the usual two, a pair with pincers and a pair with scythes. They're even bigger than the centurion's. Its carapace is littered with spikes, and it has long horns on its head. It also looks ... uh ... more human-like. It almost got a face, albeit an extremely ugly one. And its eyes ... well, I think that it is more sentient than anything we had faced before."

Nephis was thoughtful. After a while, she said:

"It is probably an awakened demon."

Nightmare Creatures with one soul core were called "beasts", the ones with two cores were called "monsters". Three cores belonged to a class of creatures known as "demons", with "devils" right above them with four cores.

Sunny gave her a nod, indicating that he was in agreement with her conclusion.

"Or maybe a devil. In any case, I think we should avoid that scary bastard at all cost."

Changing Star stared at him, tilting her head a little. For a minute or so, there was only silence. Levi suddenly smiled , knowing what she was thinking. Shashi also let out a sigh.

Sunny gritted his teeth, then sighed, then blinked a couple of times. Finally, he gave her a doomed, crooked smile.

"Let me guess. You want to kill it ... "

***

Nephis continued to stare at him with her usual unreadable expression. After a while, Sunny chuckled and shook his head in disbelief.

"You really are crazy. That's ... that's an awakened demon we're talking about, remember? Have you forgotten that we're just

Sleepers?"

Then he frowned and scratched his head.

"W-wait a second. I feel like we already had this conversation before. Doesn't it feel familiar?"

Cassie glanced at the two of them and politely cleared her throat.

"Actually, you had said pretty much the exact same thing right before we decided to attack that first carapace centurion."

Levi chuckled.

Sunny beamed.

"Yes! Exactly! And how did that end up? Me and Levi almost got killed and Shashi lost most of her blood!"

Nephis shrugged indifferently.

"You all survived, didn't you?"

He froze with his mouth open, too flabbergasted by the sheer audacity of her remark to answer immediately. A few seconds later, Sunny was finally able to speak again.

"That's not the point!"

Cassie gently touched her friend on the shoulder and whispered.

"Neph! That's not a very nice thing to say."

Changing Star's face flushed a little. Glancing aside, she hesitated and said:

"What I meant to say is ... uh ... we've won in the end, didn't we? It was a risk we had to take, and it paid off. We've grown stronger since then."

Sunny had a feeling that the fight against the Carapace Demon was already inevitable, but couldn't bring himself to stop protesting, solely out of principle.

"But that thing ... it's huge! It's so tall you won't even be able to poke it with your sword! What are we going to do, ask the bastard politely to lower itself to our level?"

Levi laughed at Sunny's words. Nephis frowned and looked at him with displeasure.

"It's just an ... "

" ... awakened demon, I know!"

Sunny sighed and shook his head again, feeling like he was talking to a stone wall. 

Levi and Shashi was simply observing the conversation. There was a smile on Levi's face as he listened to them..

He looked Nephis in the eyes and said:

"Back when we agreed to fight the carapace centurion, we did so because there was no other choice. We were literally stuck on a rock with it. What about now? Don't we have a choice to avoid the Ashen Barrow?"

"That is the only way to west Sunny." Levi said.

Sunny laughed.

When his laughter died down, he wiped the corner of his eye and said:

"Alright. Alright. That makes sense. But believe me when I say it, as the only one who actually saw the Carapace Demon ... we won't be able to defeat it in a fight."

Nephis scowled.

"Your point?"

Sunny spread his hands.

"Don't misunderstand. Yes, we can't defeat it. But ... "

A dark smile appeared on his face.

"That doesn't mean that we can't kill it."

Levi scoffed at him.

Changing Star thought about it, then raised an eyebrow and asked:

"You have a plan?"

Sunny shook his head.

"Not yet, not entirely. Let me sleep on it. However, there's one thing I know for sure."

Cassie turned her head to face him and asked with curiosity:

"What is it?"

Sunny blinked.

"Ah? Oh, yes. It's pretty simple, really. Unlike the scavengers and centurions, that thing appears to be rather intelligent. Which means that it can be deceived."

***

They spent another uneventful night inside the dead leviathan's spine. As far as their camps went, this one was probably the safest. There was a certain comfort in being surrounded by walls from all sides, even if they were made out of bone. Sleeping on top of cliffs and coral mounds, just meters away from the surface of the dark sea, exposed to elements, was not very restful.

In the morning , the group was waken up by Cassie , they gathered in a circle , looking at Cassie.

Sunny blinked, looking at the blind girl in confusion.

"What is it?"

A little pale, she gathered her courage and said:

"I had another vision. A vision about the Carapace Demon ... "