Levi carried John’s body, this time like a baby.

He was much lighter now, and his skin was now a dark brown. Levi wandered in the dark until he could hear the sounds of frogs, and followed in their direction. He took out his phone, and using the last of his energy he illuminated the forest and found the pond.

Pond Fluvio was teeming with life, and little fireflies danced around in the dark. They flew off once Levi arrived, but the frogs paid him no mind, croaking and trying to seduce each other.

Levi didn’t hesitate.

He ran into the water and held onto John, shaking in the cold water. John’s limp body started to get rigid, and slowly he started to turn greener.

Levi stood in the water, crying tears of joy as Deceit found him.

“‘Sup.”

Levi felt like someone had walked in on him while he was using the bathroom. All the creatures in the pond had stopped their nighttime sonata. The presence of evil was among them, a new predator nearby.

Deceit was holding the arm of whatever poor soul had come through her path. Levi looked at it. He looked at her.

He didn’t know what to do.

“Don’t be a bitch, Slater! I’m just here for your body.”

“I knew you did all this,” Levi screamed. “You fucking witch!”

“Thanks for noticing,” Deceit grinned. “I worked so hard on my costume!”

She swung the arm around, blood spraying everywhere, gyrating her hips and dancing with it. She swung hard and it flew into the pond. Levi froze and his eyes followed the arm as it twitched.

At first, it started slow. Then it happened faster and faster. It splashed around in the pond, water and blood spraying everywhere. All the creatures below swam away in fear of another predator.

Levi screamed and waded even further into the pool trying to get away. The arm then decided to dive under, and all was quiet. Deceit grinned and decided to add emotional and psychological torture to him while her toy swam in the pond.

“Where’s Lyrica,” Deceit asked.

“Who?”

“Santos!”

“I don’t know! Even if I did why-”

The arm leaped out of the water and Levi shrieked in terror. He dodged it and saw what was on its palm. A mouth. A mouth with razor teeth, black ooze pouring out, its tongue swirling in anticipation of a new meal.

“Shut up," Deceit shouted. "Where’s Ace?”

“He’s dead,” Levi screamed. “Why are you like this!?”

Deceit walked up to the pond and pouted. “I know you know where he is,” she whined. “Give him!”

Her long black hair shook as she stomped on the ground. Her crocodile tears were black and hot and she flailed, throwing a tantrum. She screamed over and over, give him.

Louder and louder, she wailed scaring away the birds in the trees. Deceit always got what she wanted from Ace when she acted up. She thought it would work on Levi.

Levi instead worried if he was going to die at the hands of an infantile woman.

Deceit stopped once she saw he said nothing.

Her face switched back to her usual demeanor. Haughty and entitled to take whatever was hers.

Everything was hers.

“Give Ace to me. I know you know where he is. Do it or else I’m killing that fuck boy.”

Levi clutched John next to him, and his eyes pulsated. Levi couldn’t use his ability with John in the water, but he was afraid that once he left, Deceit would pull through with her threat.

“If I go with you, will you let John live,” he asked.

“I don’t give a shit about Aloe Vera over there. I just want you and the earrings.”

“What… you don’t need these…I got this at a yard sale..”

Levi tried to play off that he had no idea what she was talking about. He knew that she knew. She knew that he knew that she knew.

“I’m not coming out,” Levi screamed.

“Yea, we already know Levi. You like dick."

Before another word could be gotten in, the arm leaped out from the pool again, this time from behind. It bit into Levi’s arm, its razor hooks going in deep, and shook violently, trying to get to his ear.

Levi panicked and let go of John, and they both sunk under into the murky depths of the pond.

Deceit grinned and approached the edge of the water, ready to strike when they came up. She bawled her fists and from her knuckles sprung forth small spikes, made of hardened and calcified bone.

Her confidence waned when all the color out of her body vanished and seeped into the pond.

Levi came out of the water, towering over her, glowing brightly. Deceit backed up, but she refused to leave. She wanted Levi’s body, the second-best thing she could give to her father as a new host.

Everything went dark as Levi gently placed John’s body on the ground.

And then it all pushed out.

Deceit screamed and threw another tantrum as the force of Levi’s transformation pushed into her skin and bones. She cried, not wanting to lose, believing that she was invincible.

Her tantrum stopped when Levi stood there, unchanged.

“HAH,” Deceit laughed. “You’re nothing! You-”

Levi let out an ungodly scream.

Deceit watched, not blinking nor breathing as Levi died.

He coughed up blood and shivered. Through the pain, he tried to take off his clothes, to save them for later. Deceit was confused why he was now in his boxers, coughing up blood and bile.

“I don’t wanna anymore,” Levi whimpered. “This hurts.”

He had no choice now. It was too late.

He cried for everyone he loved as he retched up the insides of his body. Something small and muscular came out and his sobs only got louder.

“I want my mommy,” Levi sobbed. “I don’t wanna-”

Levi started to choke on his blood. He writhed on the ground and clutched his throat as his stomach bulged and extended too far past its limit. Deceit walked closer, enjoying the show. Levi’s body suddenly went limp as something pushed its way up his throat. It forcefully made its way up, past his esophagus, splitting his neck wide open. A hand pushed its way out of Levi’s mouth, and the rest of his head cracked like a nut.

Deceit’s curiosity overpowered her fear. She knew that he was completing his metamorphosis, coming out of his cocoon. She had never seen a transformation so violent.

It excited her.

Three more hands impaled his body from the inside out, grabbing around for whatever they could find. Their arms had made it up far enough to be able to turn the body, which was now bursting at the seams.

Levi exploded.

Candice screamed and shrieked, not out of fear but surprise. Some of his entrails smacked her in the face, as she was standing too close, and she shrieked even louder as she was quite sure she felt his liver hit her arm.

His body had cracked wide open, and various organs littered the forest floor. It was impossible to see who the corpse had belonged to, as his face was destroyed, his jaw barely hanging on.

Two adult men had pushed themselves out of his body.

Deceit's shrieks had awoken John from his slumber to see the remains of Levi and three monsters.

Deceit, being the first, gazed up at the tall, horrific bipedal beasts as they hungrily licked the blood off of their hands and arms. Deceit wished she had a beating heart to race faster, as she hoped that maybe she could fall in love with someone else if she never found Ace, gazing up at the cannibalistic men.

One of the men had yellow skin, while the other was blue. Each had one horn, sticking out on opposite sides, and they wore the same clothes. Unlike Invictus, they didn’t use much armor.

Their sleeveless shirts gave them ample room to move their arms, and they wore protective metal around their neck, wrists, and ankles. Their kilts wrapped around their waists, but it was short, barely at the knees so they could run around. They had thick sandals on, made of what seemed to be at first glance, a strange kind of leather.

It was human flesh.

They both had tattoos and strange symbols wrapped around their arms. Grooming themselves like cats, they continued to consume their sacrifice, and Deceit was no longer afraid.

She had found brothers in arms.

“You hate him as much as I do, don’t you,” Deceit asked.

They froze, and their meal was interrupted.

“Oh no,” Tair smiled. “We are here to do as we promised.”

“A sacrifice was given,” Trom moaned. “We have answered the call of our loyal children.”

Deceit laughed and then she decided this wasn't a fight she wanted to waste all her waning energy on. She ran off and Tair chased her, leaving Trom to turn his attention to John who was bewildered and scared. He pushed himself back up against a tree, and branches grew out of it, curling around his body, creating a protective shield.

“I will not hurt you. I have promised Levi to protect you.”

“Where’s Levi,” John asked. “Did you hurt him?”

Trom pointed to the mess of organs that was Leviathan Slater.

“Oh god.”

“Don’t worry! My brother will kill the witch soon!”

John didn’t believe a word he said. He grabbed the trunk of the tree, and it opened up, giving him a safe harbor. He went inside, more at home with the bugs and moss than with people. The strange smells inside the tree calmed him, and he tried to tell himself everything would be okay.

John told himself everything would work out, as Trom ate the remains of his friend, not wanting to spoil a meal.

“It’s been so long,” Trom moaned. “So good. So wet.”

John turned so he didn’t have to watch, but he could still hear the wet smacking of lips, the crunching, and the snapping of bones. Trom would snap a bone open and suck out the middle, fresh marrow, his favorite part of any balanced meal.

He was more demon than man, no longer a god but a creature that only sought out the next meal.