No Return (Shadow Slave Fan-Fic)

As soon as the Carapace Demon froze, distracted by the feigned threat to the great tree, Levi lunged forward. There was no hesitation, no doubt, not even the slightest pause between the moment his enemy had lowered his defenses and his reckless attack.

Just like the others had been utterly focused on observing the monster's movements before, he had been watching and waiting for this exact moment since the beginning of the battle. No Return knew that, when the opportunity presents itself, it will only last for a second.

And especially when that single second almost cost Sunny his life. He wasn't going to waste this second..

His eerie figure flew through the air like a demon , a demon that had only one thought in his mind: Destruction.

He was going all in, rushing at the enemy without leaving himself even the slightest chance to retreat.

The demon reacted almost immediately, recognizing the threat. But "almost" didn't count on a battlefield. A moment of distraction was all it took to lose everything. That one mistake, no matter how small, had been enough to seal his fate.

The fearsome giant moved his scythe, trying to slice him apart. The pincer flashed from the other side, threatening to crush his body into pulp. But he was a fraction of a second too late.

Demon of Corrosion was much more faster.

As he ran, something changed about his looks. Those black repulsive veins appeared around his eyes , pulsing like disgusting vines around his face. Before , the veins had been limited to his torso and arms , but now they had sprouted to his throat and around his eyes. Making him seem like a human that crawled out of the depts of hell.

But.. as the black veins appeared around his eyes , Levi felt his mind being clouded with hatred. This was it.. his Dormant Ability fed off to his emotions , such as Hatred and Anger.. However as those feelings got more powerful , the more he was close to losing his sense of self. His running had become much more erratic resembling more of a Nightmare Creature rather than a human..

Levi let himself drown in those emotions , however he had not succumbed to them fully.

A few steps away from the Carapace Demon's towering torso, Levi bent his legs and jumped, soaring high into the air. His arm flashed forward in a vicious thrust, so fast that, for a moment, it looked like his arm teleported.

Levi had been practicing this kind of punch for 2 weeks now , it was very hard to master since it required a lot of focus. He was going to utilize his Attribute.. 

First , he had infused his right arm with the [Bone Shed] memory and his left arm with the [Pale Thorn], accelerating his punch with the [Bone Shed]. The punch flew at the demon's armor.. and then he had immediately changed the places of the memories.. by doing this , his punch now could perform highly powerful thrusts with the [Pale Thorn].

'Lets see which one of us is a real demon!'

Then, it collided with the strange alloy of the giant's lustrous armor ... right at the spot where his heart was supposed to be. 

Back when they were hiding in the dead leviathan's empty spine, Cassie had told them about her vision. In that vision, she saw the Carapace Demon being attacked by a terrible creature of the deep dark sea. In the aftermath of the battle, the demon was severely wounded and on the verge of dying.

The most horrible wound was on his chest, where the armor was torn apart and shattered, revealing the monster's beating heart. With time, all his injuries had healed.

Except for this one.

While the carapace of the demon seemed to have recovered, in truth, it was never fully restored. In this one spot, the armor was secretly weakened. And it was exactly to that spot that Levi had delivered his blow.

With a beast like scream , Levi thrusted his hand into the armor , shattering it and leaving spiderweb like cracks around it. However he wasn't done..

A murderous grin appeared on Levi's face as his arm delved deep into the demon's armor , his hand immediately shot to his heart and his fingers gripped on it so hard that his fingers tore into its heart. With another scream filled with hatred against the demon , he activated [Corrosion] with all his might , withering the demon's heart into nothing but a peck of dust in a metter of seconds. Combined with his hatred and his grip , [Corrosion] had become much more dangerous.

The demon staggered. His arms slowly rose, as though trying to pull Levi into a final embrace. But then, as his body twitched, they fell to the ground.

Levi landed in the sand and jumped back, ready to defend himself in case the bastard had a second heart.

But there was no need.

The proud guardian of the Ashen Barrow was dying. The scarlet light in his one remaining eye was dimming, any semblance of intelligence quickly disappearing from his gaze.

The demon heavily slumped, all remnants of strength abandoning his mighty body. Turning his head with incredible effort, he cast one last look on the great tree. Then, his gaze stopped on Levi.

There was no fury or madness in that gaze anymore. Only some strange, calm, inexplicable emotion. It almost felt like ... relief.

Before Levi could discern the meaning of that emotion, the last glimmer of light was gone from the eye of the Carapace Demon. His head rolled back and fell.

[You have slain an awakened demon , Carapace Demon]

[You have received a memory...]

Levi didn't care to listen to the rest , he had to dismiss of his ability first..

Levi immediately dismissed his [Corrosion] augmentation , it was getting to hard to control himself when it was active. He would stick to augmenting half of himself for now..

Anyways.. They won.

Changing Star kneeled, then lay down on her back, too exhausted to move. Shashi hadn't gotten up after that blood technique she used , it had cost her a lot of blood.

The whole fight lasted less than a minute, but it took everything out of four of them.

Sunny followed Neph's example and lay on the ground, trying to catch his breath.

Levi also let out a sigh and collapsed onto the ground , letting out a quiet laugh. 

In the silence of the morning, in the center of the tall hill covered with ashen sand, under the branches of a beautiful, giant tree, a strange shout could be heard from Sunny:

"One demon steak, coming right up!"