THE DEMON CHRONICLES
Disclaimer: I am absolutely not making profit off of this fanfic—any infringement is not intended and never will be.
Rating: PG-13 / T
Genre/s: Adventure, Action, Drama, Romance, Tragedy, Horror
Currently Listening To: "Silhouettes" by Smile Empty Soul
Description: Leviamon is offered humanity. He has to make a choice: Friendship, or Envy?
The Demon Chronicles
Session 11
.Envy.
In the Digital World when faced against the Crests, Envy's opposite was Friendship.
This was something Leviamon had known for a long time. He'd found it odd that he never really had a fascination with Ishida Yamato nor Motomiya Daisuke, but instead, he'd found himself focused on someone the both of them were quite intent on protecting. Her name was Yagami Hikari, and she was his friend. At least, he would have liked to call her one.
That was ultimately why, after he'd briefly kidnapped her, he'd released her. It was because he'd felt that friendship swell with sunlight warmth, a swathe of generating heat. And, in the end, when he realized his troubles had meant nothing in the long run because she'd been kidnapped again by GranDracmon moments later, Leviamon was less than pleased.
You see, Leviamon is a monster who could change his size.
Easily.
Sometimes, he was the size of not one planet, but several. People said he could reach the scale of three Mercuries or even three Jupiters if he so wished it, magnanimously shifting his magnitude from the enormity of a towering lighthouse to that of a world-snatching star-snacking beast. Leviamon was one of the few digimon who didn't need oxygen (or, at least, the oxygen available on Earth or the Digital World), and some mystical ancient beings in several parallel universes once mistakened him as a planet before he woke up and ate them.
That was times past, however.
Now he chose to hide himself within the Dark Ocean, only long enough to find the thing he'd looked for his whole entire life.
The one...
The only one...
For the longest time, he thought that "one thing" was Hikari.
It was her light that graced his heart and taught him to change; his sun-breathing guide in the night, the moon's silver glow beckoning him from the shadows, the sun's reflection against the perilous stars. Leviamon had desired only Hikari's recognition, and when he realized he could do nothing but let her go in order to please her, he followed his heart and gave her the freedom she desired.
Of course, it was GranDracmon who ripped that freedom from right beneath her feet and brought her to a place that Leviamon was not aware of.
He contacted the other Demon Lords as swiftly as he could; several agreed to help him find her, including Demon (though Demon was more interested in contacting Ken Ichijouji, which was easily why he volunteered) and Lilithmon (whose purpose was more obvious that Leviamon's). They recently split up the work. Demon was to attain the Dark Spore, Lilithmon had to rake information from Myotismon (an underling of GranDracmon's), while Leviamon was due to interrogate his least favorite acquaintance.
This "acquaintance" just happened to be MetalSeadramon, who was not only a Dark Master, but also another underling of GranDracmon. He was also the murderer of Leviamon's clan, who'd slain Leviamon's very mother and father right before his eyes, leaving the Leviathan Empire in ruins beneath the ocean deep. In the end, Leviamon had risen up, and in trying to end the Leviathan Lineage, MetalSeadramon had created the most deadly Leviathan Monster yet.
The very Great Demon Lord himself.
However, the only problem with Leviamon's interrogation was that it never arrived. In fact, in MetalSeadramon's place, another creature had manifested from the depths of nothingness and tore Leviamon's attention from Hikari's location. Instead, he focused only on the figure in MetalSeadramon's stead, a figure who stepped out from the dark smog and curled his divine fragrant lips in a corpse-cold smile.
"GranDracmon," Leviamon snarled. "Return Hikari to me. NOW."
"She's in a safe place," GranDracmon tittered. "Of course I'd keep her alive and well... she is the only one who shackles you to me, after all. Lilithmon still has other things to play with, like the other Destined, like our daughter AngeWomon, like her best friend MagnaAngemon, or her partner's brother, Taichi. Lilithmon can bear to separate from Hikari, even if she doesn't believe so. You, however, have always envied the other Demon Lords for having the gift of great friends in their pasts. You envied that they could hold such adoring gifts but abuse that gift for power, or greed, or revenge. You're the only one who's lost everything and everyone, Gennai's the only one besides Hikari who remains, and Gennai would never recognize you."
Leviamon snapped.
His jaws – elongated and red as a dragon's fiery scales – lurched through the darkness and plunged toward the smaller creature. GranDracmon only howled with laughter. His hands flicked something in the distance, something dark and crippling-purple manifesting from the wall to attach itself to Leviamon.
Before Leviamon could even consider his predicament, the Thing latched onto him, sucking him into the black and pitless purple that soon swallowed him whole. Leviamon screamed, tails billowing, and GranDracmon followed him into the vortex of darkening colors.
Leviamon soon realized he was alone in space with GranDracmon. A wide, vast darkness flickering with silver sand grains – no, stars – and the crumpling cosmos that surrounded them.
What is he playing at...? he growled. He knows I can enhance my magnitude and eat him whole. If I gauge my power right, I can eat a whole dimension if I wish to. Is he trying to provoke me into a fight?
"I'm here to offer something to you, Leviamon – a once in a lifetime opportunity, other than forming the Seven Great Demon Lords." GranDracmon gave a hunched bow, lips bent into a stitched-lip scarecrow grin. Leviamon didn't reply. He only watched the man laugh into the back of his hand, amused by the Demon Lord's display of quiet. "Hikari really is the one thing you desire most, is she not? The 'thing' you've always been searching for, your whole entire life, to make you feel fulfilled...?"
Leviamon didn't reply.
He knew GranDracmon by now. It was GranDracmon who offered Leviamon the power of Leviathan, back in the Dark Ocean when he was still just a misguided Dagomon striving for more power. One who thirsted for things he didn't have, things that others did. He would've killed anyone back then to have Kari, and he envied anyone who had her – Daisuke, Takeru, Taichi and even Gatomon – Miyako and Sora and Mimi – Yamato – but in the end... he'd accepted GranDracmon's offer for power, thinking it would fill that void in his heart.
Instead, it only made everything more hollow inside.
Leviamon also knew that no matter what he answered, GranDracmon already knew the truth. Leviamon began his descent searching for Hikari, envying only the light surrounding her even in the shadows of the Dark Ocean, a light that never seemed to touch him. As Leviamon came to the end of his descent, he quickly realized, somewhere down the line, instead of searching for Hikari's light, he'd begun searching for Hikari herself, the Hikari beyond the light, the Hikari who even had a bit of darkness inside her, as well. He was searching for Hikari the human, because, maybe, there was a part of himself that knew he could love as any other digimon or human could.
Unfortunately, Hikari was a human, a human who was disgusted by him no less. Though they'd made some sort of peace when GranDracmon brought Hikari to him a second time, he knew she was still iffy on whether or not she could trust him.
After GranDracmon's third kidnapping, she'll never trust me again, Leviamon innerly huffed.
Leviamon also knew that if he answered yes, he would give in to GranDracmon's satisfaction more than he wanted to admit. However, if he answered no, he would be lying – and GranDracmon always knew a lie. The digimon of hatred and darkness could not only read minds, but he could read emotions, abilities, like an open book.
No matter how hard Leviamon's pelt was, no amount of crocodile scales made of red chrome digizoid would be able to hide his empathy from GranDracmon.
"An omission of silence, oh?" GranDracmon said with the quirk of an amused grin. Leviamon's brow furrowed. "You could end up happily ever after with her, you know."
"Don't you think it's too late for bribery?" Leviamon growled from the bottom of his chest. Something red felt like curling up in his stomach's pit, churning violently as GranDracmon's words filtered through the cosmos. GranDracmon's only response was a further quirk of his dimples, boring metaphorical holes into Leviamon's thick skull. The reptile digimon grunted. "You have already granted me the Leviathan Evolution. Granted, I would have digivolved into this eventually, you merely sped up the process, did you not? Regardless, it still stands. With all my power and all my influence throughout the universes, I have not gained what or who I have been searching for throughout the many millennia I've lived. The millennia throughout time, throughout parallel times... and now, I do doubt with all my heart – what small Grinch-sized heart I may have – that you can offer me anything Hikari would take. And even so, I am done trying to take her. If she wishes to, she will come willingly, and if she ever does, I will welcome her then."
"She doesn't come willingly because you two are divided by species," GranDracmon soothed. Leviamon felt his muscles tense. He readied himself to attack GranDracmon, however, his attack never left his lips. Instead, he found himself – intrigued. He doubted he'd accept GranDracmon's precarious offer, but it was awfully precious. GranDracmon scoffed. He then spoke in a voice fused with another – this voice more feminine, deeper, speaking in unison with the masculine words. "Oh, don't be so quick to deny me. I can make you normal, you know... after all, it was by my cleverness that Belphemon was made from human to digimon.
"Yes...
"Leviamon...
"I could make you human...
"A human boy... a tanned, muscled redhead...
"If the greatest power does not satisfy you, cannot get you the one thing you have always coveted, then surely, losing that power and gaining that one thing would sate you...
"Would you like it, Leviamon...?
"Would you like to become human flesh. . . and walk among the weak bipedal scum of the universe?"
.+.
No snow, no snow...
The sky is clear?
.+.
To be a human, to live on Earth... Leviamon had always thought that if he wanted something, he had to take it. If he could not take it, then he would strengthen himself until he could take it, until he was strong enough to take it. For the longest time, Hikari was no different. She was just as much of a Thing as anything else.
If he was human, though he would not rely on physical strength to obtain her, he could rely on humanity – his humanity – to charm her, as he could not by Leviamon's fierce face. But there was still no assurance that Hikari would love him, would be able to give him her true friendship, even as a human. And aside from that, how could Leviamon ever live without his powers?
He'd lived thousands of years as a digimon.
Living as a human seemed a poor downgrade, something that could kill him, or at least his soul.
But in his mind's eye, he could see her. She was smiling softly at him, strands of her autumn hair entangling with the frivolous winds. As he watched her, he could only find himself smiling back, his fingers – human and newborn and frail – outstretched to cup her face, as he could not touch her before. As he clasped the cusp of her cheekbone, she leaned into his palm, and her eyes slowly closed.
Leviamon wanted that moment. He hungered for it, since Death separated him from his family as a young digimon. He watched their data flutter to the sky, dancing between his fingertips. Each fleck of gold and blue faded above him into nothingness, once to be reborn at Primary Village, and the second time they died they fluttered into the lonely blackness of an unending abyss. He'd watched his loved ones disappear. He couldn't bear it if he'd gained another loved one through Hikari, only to lose her again through his own selfish demands.
If he accepted GranDracmon's proposal, would he use Leviamon's desires for revenge? After all, Leviamon had at once been the crème de la crème of GranDracmon's most influential pawns. When Leviamon left to join the Seven Great Demon Lords, GranDracmon would have ease in preying on Leviamon's desires. Could turn him human, powerless, and force him to watch Hikari's death as GranDracmon claimed revenge.
Either way, GranDracmon won. He could claim vengeance, or he could at least get Leviamon out of his hair by sapping his powers. But couldn't he do that anyway? Somehow, someway? Why did GranDracmon desire this, when he could end Leviamon now? They were alone, none of the other Demon Lords knew their location. It was the perfect time for GranDracmon to act and break the bond between the Demon Lords. As seven, they were fierce. At six, they were still feared, but their numbers were dwindled, and they would soon realize it was only a matter of time before they were at five, then four, then three, then two, and, before long, one, and nothing.
In his mind, he saw Hikari's eyes open and stare back. She smiled softly, melancholy flickering across the pupil of her eye, before she slowly nodded.
"I can't," Leviamon said. His voice broke, though not because of tears or anger. He wasn't sad, and he certainly wasn't angry. He wasn't exactly sure what he felt, all he knew was that his allegiance to the Seven Great Demon Lords was more important right then and there than his own personal desires. Smiling sadly at Hikari's fading image, he turned back to GranDracmon and shook his head.
"Right now, my friendship is needed, both by the Demon Lords, and by Hikari herself.
"I can't think about what I want anymore...
"I have to look at the big picture...
"And ultimately...
"Maybe, someday, by my own merits, I will be able to gain friendship without relying on you or power. For now, I'm alone. But I won't be forever. I have already gained confidants and powerful allies in the six other digimon whose lives you ruined, and I will not let you ruin them any more than you already have.
"Now tell me.
"Where. Is. Hikari."
Ultimately, Leviamon knew it would come to this. He knew that alone he could never truly stand up against the ominous power of GranDracmon. As the first of the Demon Lords to realize that any of them could change no matter how deeply entranced with darkness they were, he'd long considered the part he'd play in this war. He contemplated his end first, he knew he was the weakest link of the Demon Lords. Though physically he'd claimed number one even above Lucemon, in his heart and in his soul, he had always been the most cowardly, running away from friendships and running away from his past.
I'm sorry... Leviamon knew that GranDracmon was stronger than him, and GranDracmon would never put up with his defiance. Leviamon would fight to know Hikari's location, even if it meant dying to do so. I'm sorry I have to die like this... I don't want to let fear rule my life anymore. My fears allowed Hikari to get into this situation in the first place – and I— I won't let it be for nothing!
But, at the same time, he was happy that he would be the first Demon Lord to die, and to die doing what he believed was the right thing. He was ready for it. He wasn't going to run away anymore.
It only made sense that moment he decided to stand up for what he believed in – first by allowing Hikari to return home, then by defying GranDracmon when it was just the two of them – it would be his last moments alive. He only wished he could tell Hikari goodbye one last time, and apologize to Gennai for all the trouble he'd caused in their long sorrowful past.
"I am sorry to hear that," GranDracmon said. "You could have been very happy, Leviamon. I've always favored you above the other Demon Lords, it's... disappointing— that it has to end this way."
"Disappointing?" Leviamon grinned, his eyes glazed with amusement. "I'm not disappointed. I'm proud."
"Proud that your defiance has destroyed Hikari?" GranDracmon tilted his head to the side. Leviamon's eyes instantly widened. He hadn't considered that – yes, hadn't GranDracmon mentioned that earlier? That Leviamon was the only one who truly needed Hikari. Of course, Lilithmon had always needed her, as well, because Hikari was the one she'd always been searching for her whole entire life, just like Leviamon. However, Lilithmon also had others she could rely on, others who believed in her and loved her as much as she believed in and loved them. Others that GranDracmon could use as hostages. Leviamon only had Hikari. And GranDracmon could end Hikari and use someone else to harm Lilithmon with. "Your defiance... well, I knew I couldn't depend on you, I never needed her. But I couldn't very well have her return to the other Destined and spread rumors of the Demon Lords goin' soft, not before I turn you seven more insane than you already are."
CRACK
Leviamon let out a high-pitched roar and hurled himself forward. Immediately, his size shot through the space between them and his gargantuan twin-tail-sickles decapitated several moons while his claws sunk into the nearest sun. His jaws clamped down on several worlds without his notice, eyes bulging and searching deep inside GranDracmon's gaze until the ant was merely a speck at the bottom of Leviamon's sight.
The worlds moving around Leviamon in a serpentine grasp, Leviamon let out a ravenous howl and opened his maw to consume GranDracmon whole.
"YOU WILL NOT TOUCH HIKARI."
It was only GranDracmon's next words, echoing in the midst of Leviamon's mind, that caused the harrowing giant to pause midair and hackle. The beast laughed horrendously and prodded, She's dead, Leviamon.
Everything within Leviamon pin-cushioned.
Dead.
His insides twisted, dully aching, curdling with the realization that GranDracmon wasn't lying.
Dead.
He wouldn't lie.
Dead.
Almost on cue, GranDracmon let out a potent stench from his body, knowing fully well that it would drift into Leviamon's senses (so weird, a scent in space – not possible, so surreal, but it was happening! Leviamon could smell in the canvas of the outerworld).
DEAD.
It was Hikari's aroma, entwined with the putrid odor of Gray Death and Reapermon's scythe.
DEAD!
...Long dead.
Leviamon's eyes widened, his pupils shrinking. The scent was so old! It was almost as if GranDracmon hadn't kidnapped Hikari after Leviamon's released her, but killed her, absorbed her. Inside his belly, Hikari's soul was screaming, and Leviamon was swiftly realizing that all GranDracmon was doing was playing. He'd known all along! He just wanted to test Leviamon's disobedience, his insolence, and feed into Leviamon's raging anger and crippling horror. GranDracmon's greatest goal in life was ripping the Seven Demon Lords apart, creating seven monsters who wore nothing but their sin on their sleeve.
He's accomplished this task with flying colors in regards to Leviamon.
The brute thundered with anger, his eyes wet and stinging with warm fluid. He cried out something undecipherable, jaws clamping down on nothing but stars and planets and moons. He took his anger out on the universe, ripping worlds into smithereens, stars into debris, comets into tatters.
"ROSTRUM!" Leviamon howled into the far reaches of space, booming toward GranDracmon's cackling figure.
She's not dead! he cried, maw snapping and devouring the barking GranDracmon whole. He could feel his teeth rattle with the vibrato of his bellows, the fraction of his arms colliding against his fangs; GranDracmon's skin felt like metal against Leviamon's rough tongue. I refuse to believe he's absorbed her!
He absorbed the power of Millenniumon to gain the power of time-travel...
He absorbed the power of one other, one from the Digital World's ancient times, who would bestow onto him cleverness and eternal life...
Why would he not absorb the light...?
Precious, bursting light...?
Clank
Leviamon's eyes widened as he felt GranDracmon shift in his mouth. The Demon Lord was quick to shift his tongue, pressing the tiny body against his teeth in an attempt to crush him into mincemeat deli. However, he never tasted the blood. The next thing Leviamon felt was a knuckle buckle into his tooth, thundering with an almighty, ungodly CRRRRACK
Soreness ebbed to the tip of his tooth and exploding throughout his jaw, the muffled call of attacks throttling from the devil's lips as GranDracmon grabbed him by the roof of his mouth and crammed the bulge of his palm into the soft spot above. Blood buckled in inky clumps from Leviamon's mouth and his tongue rushed forward to swallow GranDracmon whole before he could escape (I'll dissolve him, Leviamon thought with a scream, I will swallow him and he will MELT in the acid of my BELLY).
Another muffled cry of attacks echoed within Leviamon's mouth. He readied a beam of energy at the back of his throat, ready to burn GranDracmon into a crisp. However, in that last second, the curdle of melted blood and the malt of skin peeling from gum threw Leviamon into a throe of pain that crackled and shot through his snout.
GranDracmon—he was—opening Leviamon's jaws.
Barreling out from between two clamped fangs.
Laughing.
"You forget," GranDracmon cooed, palm surging volts of lightning and black swirling energy into Leviamon's lower jaw. Leviamon howled, rageful, and plunged his twin tails forward to obliterate GranDracmon whole.
YOU WON'T GET AWAY WITH IT.
Tails lanced through moons and five stars within seconds, trickling at lightspeed toward GranDracmon's smaller form; how could something so small contain so much power?
I WON'T LET YOU HURT ANYONE ELSE.
"You forget," GranDracmon repeated, his voice lowering to a barely-audible whisper, echoing in the depths of Leviamon's mind. "You will destroy the universes for me. Let your envy consume you— there's nothing left for you, no one to miss you. The one companion you could have had; a companion to soothe envy into friendship... she is dead, and you are next when the four horsemen come to take your place."
And, as Leviamon's tails grazed GranDracmon's cheek, he reached up a hand and clutched the tip of each tail (tips that were twice the size of GranDracmon's petulant size). Leviamon was quiet, allowing the subtle anger to bubble up inside of him silently as he awaited GranDracmon's next move. He felt paralyzed; paralyzed with chaos and melancholy and every ripple of life and death and lacking and indulgence he had ever faced. GranDracmon's fingers clenched tightly around the tips, squeezed them until Leviamon gave a low growl, and grinned.
"Adios," GranDracmon tittered. Though Leviamon could not hear his voice, the words still resounded like bullet shots across his cerebellum, holding onto him like a mother holds her newborn. Was that what the Demon Lords were to GranDracmon...? His children? No. Never. Leviamon refused to consider GranDracmon his father, because he was nothing but a manipulative bastard. "See ya' next time... Leviathan."
And, his arm morphing into the slick silver glimmer of blades, GranDracmon laughed and tore his arm down, slicing the tips of Leviamon's tail off. Blood spluttered from the wounds, levitating endlessly in space, as Leviamon reeled his head back in an agonized howl. He planted his paw on the tails to pressure the wound, then growled and turned back to where GranDracmon had stood—
And, surely enough, he'd vanished into the thick of space.
But Leviamon expected that.
GranDracmon hadn't come here to make a deal with Leviamon. He'd come to get Leviamon's hopes up only to destroy them, setting him deeper down the path GranDracmon intended for him. Leviamon might not have been the most clever or sly or intelligent of the Demon Lords, but he had his own kind of smarts – for thousands of years, Leviamon built the foundation of dark intentions and cruelty in his underwater sleep. He, just as the other Demon Lords, was a bloodthirsty scumbastard whenever given the chance; now that Hikari was no longer alive to stop him, to soothe him, to give him a goal toward the light, he could finally fall into the darkest pits of his inner-world.
Leviamon would focus all the dark energy on destroying the asshole who made his life – and the lives of the Demon Lords, and the very lives of the ones who impacted the Demon Lords – into a living hell. Even if he would lose himself in the end, perhaps he could avenge love lost.
But... a voice gently called to him in the back of his mind as hot red wrath blanketed Leviamon's envy. The voice was soft, gentle, sounding almost like Hikari herself. Remember, Leviamon.
Her soul remains...
Somewhere inside GranDracmon...
All you need to do...
Is release her.