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

a cold and indifferent voice

"...What are you doing?"

who saved and protected her ever since. Without even asking anything in return, not

because she

destroyed the bitter, all-encompassing prison of her loneliness. How

to be

then, she had to make a

she had to

Or die with it...

the sounds of slaughter, a sudden

and slowly turned to face

moment later, her face paled, and her lips moved

'No!'

from the battle and anyone who could have heard her, Cassie closed her eyes and whispered into the

there

***

Army became much smaller, but still held on. In fact,

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

crossing the bridges of crimson coral and lunging forward to join the massacre, its mass was slowly

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 flow of the battle froze

seemed

it would have taken for the humans to turn that balance in their favor was one last furious

"Come on! Hold strong!"

"Lit yourself on fire!"

"Follow the Immortal Flame!"

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.

stumbled and froze for a few moments. Their faces became

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

A storm was coming.

closer, the surface of the black water that swirled around the island of

began to crawl

then faster and faster, the black whirlpool swelled and moved forward,

was coming to

monsters that guarded the Crimson Spire, however, did not react in the same way as the usual Nightmare Creatures

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