Shadow Slave

Left on the top of the tall mound of crimson coral, Cassie stood alone in the darkness.

Now that the Quiet Dancer had left her side, she was back to her previous self.

Lost.

Weak.

Frightened.

Utterly helpless.

The oppressive nothingness surrounded her from all sides.

But that nothingness was full of sound.

It swelled with the deafening cacophony of the nightmare horde's onslaught. Cassie heard howls, growling, inhuman screams, shrieks, and the scraping of chitin.

She heard the clangor of steel and the sound of flesh being ripped apart.

She also heard countless human voices calling out to any kind of deity that could save them. Full of fury, agony, bravery, fear, resolve, sorrow, strength, helplessness, hope, faith, despair, disbelief.

She heard them dying.

Standing above it all, Cassie shivered. She wanted to press her hands against her ears, but didn't.

…Her terrible vision was coming true.

And she was back to being lost in the darkness.

Just like before. Worse than before. Almost like on that first day in this cursed, forsaken, lightless land.

In this forgotten hell.

Back then, she had found herself stranded on a similar mound of coral. Only what surrounded her was the dark sea and not a horde of Nightmare Creatures.

But Cassie didn't know that. She didn't know where she was, and what was hiding in the boundless darkness. She only knew that she was alone, and helpless.

That she was going to die in that lonesome, cold nothingness.

her knees and tried not to cry. Abandoned and forgotten,

a cold and indifferent voice came out of

"...What are you doing?"

how she met Nephis, who saved and protected her ever since. Without even asking anything in return, not before, and

because she wanted

prison of her loneliness.

met Sunny. Sweet Sunny, who pretended to be

had

now, she had to

Or die with it...

listening to the sounds of slaughter, a sudden gust of wind rustled her beautiful

and slowly turned to face the

her face paled, and

'No!'

alone, away from the battle and anyone who could have heard her, Cassie closed her eyes and

storm… there

***

Army became much smaller, but still held on. In fact, it was slowly pushing the horde

no suitable Memories to replace them summoned their melee weapons and joined the vanguard, reinforcing its dwindling numbers. The Artisans had done the same, abandoning their

nightmare horde, meanwhile, had depleted its seemingly endless reserve of fresh bodies. With no more abominations crossing the bridges of crimson coral and lunging forward to join the massacre,

give the rest of the humans time to mend the breaches in their defense lines, for a few

seemed to finally

have taken for the humans to turn that balance in their

"Come on! Hold strong!"

"Lit yourself on fire!"

"Follow the Immortal Flame!"

was about to be decided, a gust of wind suddenly

The light dimmed slightly.

froze for a few moments. Their faces

of darkness was slowly devouring the world. It was approaching the battlefield with terrifying speed, numerous bolts of lightning illuminating its

A storm was coming.

and closer, the surface of the black water

it began to crawl

faster and faster, the black whirlpool swelled and moved forward, swallowing the crimson

cursed sea was coming to devour the Forgotten

the Crimson Spire, however, did not react in the

shelter, they howled and shrieked in eerie triumph, and then crashed into the Dreamer Army