No Return (Shadow Slave Fan-Fic)

Close to the evening, with the sun tiredly descending toward the horizon, a strange creature walked out of the colorless remains of the labyrinth. If "walking" was even the right word.

Dragging its legs in the sand, the creature somehow floated forward without moving them. It looked like a carapace centurion, or at least a close approximation of one.

All the necessary parts were in place. The creature had a black carapace with a menacing crimson pattern on it, a humanoid torso, eight segmented legs and two arms ending with formidable bone scythes. However, all these parts looked mismatched and strange, as though put together by some clumsy sculptor.

Additionally, the centurion moved as if it was seriously drunk.

The carapace was careening to one side, sometimes scraping against the sand. The torso was swinging back and forth for no apparent reason. The scythes were awkwardly lodged behind the creature's back, crossed against each other at a strange angle.

At some point, one of them simply dropped to the ground. The centurion stopped and hesitated for a few seconds, as though unsure what to do. Then it left its scythe arm behind and continued on its way as if nothing had happened.

A perceptive observer would have noticed that the creature seemed to possess two shadows. The first shadow was as one would expect, its shape identical to the creature itself. The second one resembled a human. It briefly showed itself from beneath the larger shadow when the centurion abandoned the runaway limb.

The human shadow then proceeded to facepalm and shake its head in utter contempt.

The whole situation was nothing short of being completely bizarre. But, for better or worse, there was nobody around to notice the weird creature.

Unobstructed, it traversed the wasteland, moving in the direction of the Ashen Barrow. Soon, it was almost at the footstep of the tall hill.

The sunset was approaching.

The strange centurion plopped on the ground at the base of the Ashen Barrow and stopped moving completely. Awkward and lopsided, it looked like a parody of the other monster of its kind who had kneeled gracefully at the same spot a few days prior.

Additionally, it arrived without a tribute. There was no transcendent soul shard in sight. Added to the disrespectful pose, this transgression was more than enough to get the centurion killed.

Perhaps ... it was suicidal.

On top of the barrow, the Carapace Demon moved and rose from the ashen sand. His shining armor glistened, reflecting the light of the setting sun. Encased in bright metal, with a crown of horns adorning his head, the demon looked fearsome and sinister. Gazing down, he lingered for a few moments.

Two dark scarlet embers ignited in the depths of the demon's eyes. Shifting his terrifying scythes, the giant monster walked forward, slowly descending from the hill to face the strange visitor.

The ground shook as he approached. However, the bizarre centurion did not even flinch. In fact, it remained completely motionless.

The Carapace Demon stopped some distance away from the suspicious creature. He observed it, clearly understanding that its pathetic appearance might be a trap. The labyrinth was full of unimaginable dangers. Rashly approaching an unknown foe was not something an awakened demon, who possessed his own form of intelligence, would do.

At least that was what the five Sleepers had assumed.

However, they were wrong.

Just a second later, the Carapace Demon lunged forward. Its scythe flashed through the air, severing the centurion's torso in half. The adamantine chitin was cut apart as though it was made of butter. The upper half of the monster's torso flew off, revealing ... only emptiness inside.

... On the other side of the Ashen Barrow, Sunny, who was running up the slope with all his might carrying Cassie on his back, cursed under his breath.

***

The other tree: Levi , Nephis and Shashi had already reached the lower branches of the great tree.

Seeing the demon attack the scavenger too soon, Levi scoffed and slammed his fist against the tree.. 

However his eyes widened.. He looked at the trunk of the tree..

Why.. why was this tree emanating such killing intent after he slammed his hand against it..? Is this junk of wood somehow alive..? Of course.. every organism is alive.. but a tree cant display this kind of killing intent.

Well whatever it is.. Levi would need find out later , because they are in the middle of a mission right now. Watching the battle , or rather the one-sided massacre far away , Levi felt a bit down. The echo got destroyed.. it had very helpful to them during their journey..

'Poor Bastard..'

Levi looked back at Sunny , who was running ahead with Cassie on his back.. He had insisted on carrying Cassie himself.. if the persistent bastard let him to the job he wouldn't have struggled this much..

When they finally reached the rope , Levi augmented himself with [Corrosion] and immediately pulled them with the rope.

Sunny looked a bit down , Levi put his hand on his shoulder and squeezed it gently , offering him a small smile. Sunny wasn't in the mood to smile , after all he had lost a companion even if it was just an echo. It had saved their lives during that night. 

Sunny nodded at Levi.

***

The five of them crouched, hiding from sight, and held their breaths.

... A moment later, the furious mass of spikes and polished metal appeared beneath them. The Carapace Demon abruptly stopped, gazing around with his burning scarlet eyes. His pincers clicked, as if thirsty to tear flesh apart. The terrifying scythes were raised into the air, ready to slash and sever.

But there was nothing to kill underneath the great tree.

The demon lingered, looking right and left. Then he raised his head and looked up. Thankfully, the branch the five Sleepers were hiding on was very wide, more than enough to hide them from his sight. They remained motionless and silent, afraid to produce even the smallest of sounds.

After a while, the behemoth finally lowered his gaze and carefully observed the ground, looking for the traces of possible intruders.

However, the ground was clean and bare, all signs of their passage erased by Sunny with the help of Cassie's staff in advance. Not finding anything, the Carapace Demon had no choice but to walk away, moving on to explore other parts of the island.

Some distance away, the demon reached the edges of the area affected by the magical gale. There, he finally found four sets of footprints.

With an angry roar that sounded like the clamor of tearing metal, the giant creature rushed down the slope of the Ashen Barrow, following the footprints to the wasteland beneath.

However, the grey desert was desolate and empty, with no living creature in sight. It was colored crimson by the setting sun.

At that moment, the ground shook slightly, and a thunderous rumble resounded throughout the labyrinth, bringing with it chilling wind and the smell of salt.

The dark sea was returning.

Throwing one last hateful gaze toward the wasteland, the Carapace Demon turned around a slowly headed back to the top of his barrow.