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.

Sitting down on the hard coral, she hugged her knees

a cold and indifferent voice came out

"...What are you doing?"

Nephis, who saved and protected her ever since. Without even asking anything in return, not before, and not after learning of

she wanted

brought her out of the darkness and destroyed the bitter, all-encompassing prison of her loneliness. How

Sweet Sunny, who pretended to be callous and

had to make

now, she had to live

Or die with it...

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

and slowly turned to face the

moment later, her face paled, and her lips moved

'No!'

and anyone who could have heard her, Cassie closed her eyes

storm… there

***

but still held on. In fact, it was slowly pushing the

melee weapons and joined the vanguard, reinforcing its dwindling numbers. The Artisans had

endless reserve of fresh bodies. With no more abominations crossing the bridges of crimson coral and lunging forward to join the massacre, its mass was slowly

of the human formation and rallying fighters around her, with Effie stalling the entire horde to give the rest of the humans time to mend the breaches in their defense lines, for a few minutes, the

two opposing forces seemed to

would have taken for the humans to turn that balance

"Come on! Hold strong!"

"Lit yourself on fire!"

"Follow the Immortal Flame!"

people yelled, feeling that the fate of this battle was about to be decided, a gust of wind suddenly blew over the battlefield, bringing with it the smell of

The light dimmed slightly.

for a

world. It was approaching the battlefield with terrifying speed, numerous bolts of lightning

A storm was coming.

of the black water that swirled around the island of the cyclopean

began to

moved forward, swallowing the crimson coral meter

sea was coming

monsters that guarded the Crimson Spire, however, did not react

they howled and shrieked in eerie triumph, and