After the initial shock passed, for the first time ever, the sleep demon felt exactly what he usually instilled in his enemies: fear.
"That's impossible! How did he wake up?! Nobody ever managed to break free from the shackles of the dream I put them in! Mere seconds ago, he was a powerless mess with a broken spirit, and now he somehow managed to wake up! That can't be! Has he been hiding his real power this whole time? No… He's a weakling… There's no way he's so strong that he can escape from my trap so easily. No… He got lucky… Yeah, that's it! But no matter. It won't help him. I'll strike him now with all my might while he's still feeling drowsy and can't see anything in the darkness. He'll fall right here and now, and he won't even know what hit him." the sleep demon thought to himself, trying to deal with this unexpected and unwanted situation.
With all his might, the sleep demon struck at undefended and unaware Lucius. The strike was supposed to kill him. The sleep demon was sure of it. But then something happened that turned his fear into pure horror. At the exact moment when his attack was supposed to connect with Lucius's body, a sudden flash of light appeared, and his attack was stopped, blocked by nothing else than the angelic lightsword, the same one Lucius tried to use in his dream without results.
"I thought I was the one that's supposed to be afraid, but instead you are the one that attacks me while I can't see, like a coward that you are."
The demon froze in place, and before he could even react, he was pushed away from the angel with incredible strength. Thrown away like a piece of rubbish, he ungracefully and painfully crashed on the floor. This hurt, but what hurt even more than his body was his pride, and this made him get up to his feet faster than he maybe should have, which was evident by his legs shaking, although they shook more from fear than from pain.
"I've had enough of the darkness you hide in. It's about time to make it go away."
The way that Lucius spoke clearly showed that he's fully confident in his abilities and that he's not afraid anymore. This didn't make any sense to the sleep demon. If he couldn't do it before, what made him think he could do it now? Then again, he did showcase formidable strength by throwing him away like a pebble, but that didn't mean anything. Maybe he was strong physically but weak otherwise? But why is he so sure of himself then? The sleep demon started doubting his supremacy over Lucius. Neverthless, he decided to taunt him, if for nothing else, then at least to try and show him that he's not afraid of him.
"I would like to see you try, angel! You couldn't light up your surroundings before, and you won't be able to do it now. Even if you are a skilled warrior, without light, there are only so many times you will be able to escape death using your reflexes! Face it, angel, you are fighting a losing battle!"
Lucius's answer to this came in the form of a light so bright that the sleep demon had to cover his eyes. It also burned his skin like only strong sunlight can. These annoyances helped him a bit to forget that he's actually scared of being challenged like this, and they turned his fear into frustration.
On the other hand, Lucius could finally see his surroundings. It was nothing special. There weren't any buildings or decorations of any kind. This was just a plot of land like any other. This made sense because the sleep demon wasn't a creature of vanity but a creature of fear and shadows, and it seems he was content just with being in darkness.
What was special, but not in a good way, was the appearance of the sleep demon himself. He had four legs, he was tall, and he had a big upper part of his body. Lucius immediately realised that he was actually facing a demon in the form of a giant praying mantis. However, the most alarming part of the sleep demon's appearance was the fact that his whole body was a grotesque mixture of human skin and the insect's exoskeleton. His hands were sharp, big sickles, but more scarier than them was his head, which was that of a human being. This hideous demon was a mockery of life itself.
"So not only are you a coward, but you're also ashamed of how you look, so you hide in the dark. It seems to me that you're in dire need of a beauty sleep yourself. With a look like this, I don't see why you wasted time tormenting your victims with dreams. It would have been enough for you to appear in front of them, and it would have scared them for life. I would advise you to change your strategy a bit in the future, but that advice would be pointless since there won't be any future for you. Your life and your reign of terror end right now!" said Lucius, allowing himself to be a bit snarky towards the sleep demon who relentlesly taunted him for the whole time right until now.
Having heard those words, the sleep demon started to foam at his mouth in anger.
"You... You have the nerve to insult me, you crying angelic cunt?! You've done nothing but helplessly rolled in the dirt since you came into my domain, and you would remain in that dirt, dead, killed by my hand, if you hadn't managed to somehow wake up. I still don't know how you did it, but that doesn't change anything. Outside of a dream, you may be a strong and skilled warrior, but I'm not a weakling either! If you think you can fight me and kill me so easily, coming out unscathed, you are gravely mistaken, but go on ahead! I will be more than happy to cut you into pieces!"
"I'm ready. Strike me. If you dare..."
Not wasting a moment, the sleep demon jumped towards Lucius surprisingly quickly considering his size and body and struck at him with one of his sicklelike limbs. Like the first time, Lucius effortlessly blocked his strike, but then came the tricky part, because while Lucius's lightsword and the sleep demon's sickle were clashing, the sleep demon struck at him with his second arm. Lucius quickly moved back a bit to dodge the attack, but the sleep demon immediately followed and struck again with one hand and then with another when Lucius blocked the first one. This repeated a few times in rapid succession as the furious sleep demon tried to break Lucius with pure brute force and the speed of his attacks. But despite his best efforts, Lucius managed to both block and evade his every attempt.
Realising that this approach was not yielding any results, after his last unsuccessful attack when Lucius fell back, he struck at him with both hands as fast and as strong as he could in an effort to cut him in half.
"Block this, you cocky bastard!" he confidently thought to himself.
But as he did this, he saw Lucius jump. But this time, Lucius was not retreating. Instead, he jumped forward, and when the sleep demon's arms crossed each other, they were both cut off with one fell swoop from his lightsword. Dark demonic blood sprayed all through the air as the sleep demon's arms (and weapons) fell to the ground.
The sleep demon let out a terrible cry of pain. After gracefully landing on the ground, Lucius, knowing that his enemy was now defensless and distraught, quickly seized the opportunity and attacked the sleep demon's legs. With a mighty strike, he cut off the first front one. The enraged sleep demon tried to attack him with the second front leg, but Lucius easily evaded the attack and cut it off too. The two remaining ones were now not a problem, and once Lucius cut them off too, the sleep demon awkwardly fell to the ground, twitching, heavily bleeding, and dying.
Lucius triumphed. He predicted his enemy's strategy. It was easy. He had two weapons, so it only made sense to try and use them both at the same time at one point to try and catch Lucius off-guard. Lucius expected this, and in the end, it was the sleep demon who was caught off-guard. Now he lay on the ground, dying, paying the price of his confidence. Lucius was unsure if he should finish him off or let him bleed to death. After all, he never showed any mercy to his victims, so why should Lucius be merciful to him? Lucius knew the answer to that question. Because he was better than him. No... Because he had to be better than him.
But just as he wanted to approach the sleep demon, a sudden pain in his chest stopped him dead in his tracks. It was an awful pain, and the sense of cold grasped his whole body. Then the pain in his chest became even more intense, and he fell to his knees with his hands on his chest. He then laid down on the ground, breathing heavily, thinking his heart would burst from this horrible pain.
Then he could hear him. The sleep demon. He was laughing. It was a wicked, cold, ugly laughter of pure satisfaction.
"You stupid fool... You escaped my trap and fairly bested me in combat... It was only me who needed to lose his parts today... But you... You were so foolish to make a promise you couldn't possibly fulfill... And now... You are paying the price..." spoke the sleep demon in-between laughing and choking on his own blood.
"What... are you talking about?" asked Lucius, shuddering from pain and the cold.
"The boy, angel... He's dead!"
This horrible realisation caused the feeling of cold to completely take over Lucius. His heart hurt so much that he felt like he'd die, and the thoughts of guilt and sadness pushed everything else out of his mind, along with the satisfaction of his victory. There was no victory. Today, there was only defeat. A triple defeat. The sleep demon's defeat. Daniel's defeat. And his own defeat.
He lay there on the ground in great pain, next to the dying and laughing sleep demon. He lay there on the ground after the sleep demon bled to death. He lay there for hours after his lightsword disappeared, and he remained in complete darkness. He laid there even when the physical pain stopped. He laid there. Numb. Wanting so desperately to escape from this feeling of failure. To sleep. To dream. To dream and find Daniel again and tell him that now everything is going to be alright. But Daniel was gone. The part of him that he had so recently promised to guard with his life was gone.
The sleep demon was right. Today, they both lost their parts. There was only one important and horrifying difference. Lucius had to live with it.