No Return (Shadow Slave Fan-Fic)

Levi dreamt of a burnt forest.

Quiet and lonesome , the forest was covered with burnt trees. There was no signs of greenery anywhere , the forest ... or something else? He didn't know if he could be able to call this place a forest. 

The burnt trees were huge , not like the ones in the waking world , unfortunately they all had lost their leaves and had damaged trunks. Overall it was a cursed scenery.

Suddenly, the moon fell over the horizon. The sun rose from the west, streaked across the sky and disappeared in the east. Fire spread around the area , burning everything in its way. Levi suddenly realized that he was seeing the time flow backwards.

In an instant hundreds of years flew by , the fire retreated and instead was filled with greenery. The forest looked quiet lively now. He suddenly saw a chopped off arm on the ground , its blood leaking on the green grass , staining it.

Time slowed , stopped , and resumed its usual pace.

{Aspirant! Welcome to the Nightmare Spell. Prepare for your First Trial... }

****

'What the fu-...'

Levi let out a groan as he sat up. It took him a few seconds to regain his sense of understanding. He realized that he was laying on the ground , as he stared up , he saw giant trees. And there were too many leaves , almost blocking the light of the sun.

Levi slowly sat up and looked at his hands , the bite marks that he had given himself were no more. He also felt refreshed and energetic. There was no sign of exhaustion. He continued checking his body out , he was fit too. This was most likely not his own body , but one that the spell decided to give him.

He looked around , the fresh wind blew to his face. He was all alone in this forest , and there was no signs of Nightmare Creatures either. What was the supposed scenario here? 

But he decided not to linger on that , because he realized he had been using a backpack as a pillow. He gently picked the backpack and opened it. There weren't many things inside , some meat and some water a long rope and a spare tunic. He also realized that he was carrying a dagger inside the scabbard that was tied to his belt. He had to admit , the person he had taken the body of had quiet the sense of style.

Levi unsheathed the dagger to take a look at it. Levi did not know what type of dagger it was , but if he was knowledgeable he would have known that this was not a dagger but a Japanese short-sword called 'Kodachi'. Its design wasn't something extravagant , just a black handle and a silver blade. Unfortunately it was not a memory , so it wouldn't be much effective against a Nightmare Creature.

'Tough luck..'

But he didn't have any time to be ungrateful. He was off to a nice start , everything seemed well for now.

'Lets see.. what did I need to say again..?'

Remembering popular webtoons he read as a child, Levi concentrated and thought about words like "status", "myself" and "information". Indeed, as soon as he focused, shimmering runes appeared in the air in front of him. Once again, although he did not know this ancient alphabet, the meaning behind it was somehow clear.

***

Name: Levi.

True Name: -

Rank: Aspirant.

Soul Core: Dormant.

Memories: -

Echoes: -

Attributes: [Arms of Ruin], [Mark of Divinity].

Aspect: [Demon].

'Quiet... ominous.'

He decided to check his Attributes first.

Attribute: Arms of Ruin.

Attribute Description: {Steel and blood are no longer separate—your arms are both flesh and weapon. That which was meant to be wielded is now a part of you, bound by fate and forged in battle.}

Attribute Ability: Weapon Type memories shall be infused with your arm.

Levi couldn't help but smile at this brightly. 

"Yes!"

Levi was a hand-to-hand combater , and he was proficient in it. So his memories infusing with his arms would be a very handy attribute. It also sounded quiet overpowered.

'It sounds more like an aspect honestly...'

After that Levi decided to check "Mark of Divinity" , the attribute was most likely a rare one. It seemed he had a slight mark of divinity on him now. It would most likely come in handy in the future. After being happy over his Attributes , he decided to check his ominous named Aspect.

Aspect: Demon.

Aspect Description: {You reek of a demon. You are bound to suffer}

Levi suddenly frowned. What kind of an aspect was this..? He thought the policeman said there were no useless aspects.. but what is this bullshit..?

With a sigh he closed the runes. Instead he focused on his surroundings , his Attributes were useful , but it could not be said the same for his Aspect. He finally got up , and threw his backpack over his shoulders. 

He looked at the forest once again , the goal of his scenario was unclear and the loneliness and the silence of this forest was unsettling. Throwing these thoughts out of his mind , Levi finally decided to walk forward.

***

How long has it been since he had started walking? He did not know. He felt like it had been hours , but it also may have been just minutes. This forest seemed very spacious. It was almost unsettling , the silence was deafening.

He did not feel tired , but he was feeling rather bored. The wind blew gently , it was a pleasant feeling , at least that was one of the forest's good qualities. 

It was not very after that he finally heard something. It was the sound of a river flowing. He immediately turned the sounds way and started running towards there. It had been a while since he heard something other than himself talking or breathing and the occasional sounds of leaves. So he made the mistake of not being very observant. 

Levi's gaze was finally set onto the river , he smiled. 

But his smile fell immediately as he looked at what was across the river. He looked at the thing across the river in horror.. why did he encounter one so quickly..?

"Oh shit..."

It was a Nightmare Creature , it had a wolf-like appearance but it did not have the elegance of a wolf , it was outright ugly and repulsive! It was just a bit bigger than the average wolf , so it was most likely a Dormant Beast.

Levi didn't have any memories , he had the Kodachi yes. But he didn't know if it would be enough to defeated a Nightmare creature even if it was the lowest rank. So.. he did something an intelligent person would do.

He started running away , his direction was the flow of the river. And the ugly-wolf.. as soon as it saw Levi it had started chasing him. The creature seemed to be filled with bloodlust as it chased Levi , and it had started running along the edge of the lake as if its life depended on eating Levi , it was letting out quiet but audible growls as it ran using all 4 of its legs. Was Levi that tasty that this bastard is chasing him like this?

Fortunately it was on the other side of the lake , but Levi didn't know if it would be able to jump that distance. Judging by its speed it was nimble , but Levi didn't let the ugly-wolf close the distance. Levi was feeling very stressed , and he was quiet scared since it was his first time seeing a Nightmare Creature , and it looked so ugly! Not like the cool ones he had seen in webtoons!

***

It had been a while since Levi had been running , or maybe it was just mere minutes. He had lost sense of time due to the horror of being chased , the adrenaline was clouding his judgement.

He tried to clear his mind , trying to gain a clear state of mind , he focused on the situation. Judging by the sense of tiredness creeping in , he assumed that he had been running for a while now.. or maybe the worse scenario would be that this body did not have much stamina as his original body did. If that was the case , he was definitely screwed.

'What can I do..?'

In this situation he had no hopes of losing the creepy bastard. He was trying to keep a clear mind , but the sense of dread that was washing over him was not helping. And that ugly things growls were so weird!

"Shut up , bastard!"

Levi screamed at it as he ran.

It couldn't continue like this. He needed to find a way out of this situation , and unfortunately there was no way. A sense of fear and terror washed over Levi , he felt himself getting slower.

But He was not getting slower because he was scared or tired , Levi had concluded that battling this wench was the only way to escape this situation. So it was either kill or get killed.

As he was slowing down the Nightmare Creature was closing the distance across the other side of the river. Levi was focused now , he had gained a clear state of mind. He would not let fear wash over him. 

The creature was closing in the distance , it was drooling heavily. His red eyes glowing in bloodlust as it ran across the other side of the river. He will kill that bastard!

Finally he stopped , looking at the running ugly bastard , he unsheathed his Kodachi and assumed a half-assed stance. Levi was better in Hand-to-hand combat... not weaponry... This was going to be a tough fight.

"Come at me you bastard!"

He yelled as he looked at the approaching Beast.