Atlas stood on guard, fully focused on the demon in the distance. The creature clearly looked displeased. The attacks it had unleashed in the last few monts were no longer dealing significant damage to Atlas.
"Co. Do it again," he said calmly.
The demon lifted its face and clawed at it in irritation. Then it shrieked, more like a piercing scream mixed with that maddening laughter.
"Khi! Khi! Khi! Interesting! Interesting! The human has learned! But you are wrong! Khi! Khi! Khi! You are mistaken if you think you have won just because you managed to endure attacks that were rely playful!"
The shadow energy around the demon’s body began to move violently. The shadow bandages wrapped around it suddenly shifted, piling up around its legs and arms. The demon’s thin, emaciated body now looked grotesque, with oversized limbs ford entirely from condensed shadow.
Atlas imdiately braced himself. It was clear the demon was preparing a new type of attack.
Everything happened in a split second.
The demon vanished.
Then it was suddenly right in front of Atlas.
Too fast.
The impact ca instantly. Atlas did not even have ti to block. It felt as if his body had been struck by sothing massive. He was sent flying at extre speed, crashing through rows of trees before slamming into the ground, the demon now standing far away in the distance.
Atlas lay there, unable to move.
It was overwhelmingly fast.
Atlas had not even managed to reposition his body when the demon was already in front of him again.
Far too fast!
That massive hand grabbed Atlas’s face in an instant.
Then—
His body was hurled away at terrifying speed. Far too fast. A heavy impact followed as he crashed through trees and finally slamd to a stop.
The demon appeared again before Atlas could do anything.
Atlas had no chance to counter. That hand seized his head once more, and all he could see was darkness.
In the next split second, his body was thrown again. Incredibly fast. But this ti, upward.
Atlas watched the ground fall away as he was flung wildly into the air, completely unable to react.
And in that sa split second, the demon had already dashed up beside him.
Too fast.
The massive hand grabbed Atlas’s head again.
Then—
His body was thrown once more at extre speed. In the next instant, a devastating impact followed.
Atlas slamd into the ground. His body struck so hard that it looked as if he was pressed into the earth itself, the ground around him cracking from the sheer force of the blow.
Atlas was given no ti to fight back at all. The demon was simply too fast, moving without pause, denying Atlas any chance to respond.
In the next instant, the demon was already above him. Its foot slamd down onto Atlas’s chest, pinning him to the ground, while its right hand wrapped tightly around Atlas’s throat.
That face lood closer. A pair of bulging eyes stared down at him. The demon’s features looked less like flesh and more like a thin layer of pale, darkened skin stretched tightly over a skull. Its gaze was sharp, cold, and rciless.
"Now look at yourself," the demon whispered. "This helpless body. Do you truly believe you could ever do anything before , human? I was never serious with you before. I was only playing, allowing you to leave this place again and again."
Its grip tightened.
"You never realized it, did you? Every ti you ca here, I claid a part of your soul. I tasted it. I savored it. And now, I will consu you completely, right here, before my eyes."
The demon’s left hand reached out, grasping at the air itself.
In that instant, Atlas felt his body lift slightly, and then it happened again. That familiar sensation returned. Sothing seized his very being, dragging at the core of his existence, trying to rip his soul out of his body.
The pain was unbearable.
It was as if countless punishnts were being forced into him all at once. Every suffering Atlas had endured in his life seed to rge into a single mont. Darkness flooded his vision. His thoughts shattered. He could not even hear his own scream.
Atlas scread. He was sure of it. He scread while enduring the agony.
This was a nightmare. A horrifying nightmare. One so vivid that the pain lingered even after Dullorak had pulled him out of this place before. No matter how brief it was, the sensation was overwhelming. Deeply traumatic. Sothing that refused to fade from his mind.
"Khi! Khi! Khi!" the demon laughed shrilly. "Listen to your screams. Look at how weak you are. No one can stand before my power. You are nothing but another feast waiting to be devoured."
The demon’s laughter and provocation blended together with every ounce of suffering Atlas felt in that mont.
In the previous encounters, this never happened. At most, only a fraction of a second would pass before Atlas was forcibly pulled out of this place. But not now.
One second passed. Maybe more. And Atlas was still there, drowning in unbearable agony, his existence stretched and torn apart without rcy.
With imnse effort, he forced his eyes open. Through blurred vision, he saw the demon’s face up close. It was laughing loudly, its expression filled with pure satisfaction as it consud Atlas’s soul, or whatever remained of it.
Then...
The demon’s head suddenly ca off.
Ti, which had felt frozen or unbearably slow under the weight of pain, began to move again.
The demon’s head hit the ground and rolled away. At the sa ti, the crushing suffering that had wrapped around Atlas vanished.
Atlas collapsed onto the ground, gasping, just as the headless demon still stood above him, its body frozen in place.
He coughed violently, his chest heaving, his heart pounding like it might burst out of his ribcage.
Then sothing moved.
A foot slamd into the demon’s body.
It was Atlas’s leg.
The kick sent the demon’s corpse falling stiffly to the side.
Atlas slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position, still breathing heavily.
"Damn. That really hurt," he muttered. "But turns out, if I endure it a little longer... it is not as bad as I thought."
And he had killed the demon.
His theory had been correct after all.
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