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.

the hard coral, she hugged her

cold and indifferent voice came out of the

"...What are you doing?"

since. Without even asking anything in return, not before, and not after learning of what

she

darkness and destroyed the bitter, all-encompassing prison

she met Sunny. Sweet Sunny, who pretended to be callous and cruel, but was actually caring and

then, she had

to

Or die with it...

of slaughter, a sudden gust of wind rustled

turned

later, her face paled, and

'No!'

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

there is a

***

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

those who had 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 siege engines and throwing themselves into

no more abominations crossing the bridges of crimson coral and lunging forward to join the massacre, its

Changing Star serving as the unassailable core 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

forces seemed to

it would have taken for the humans to turn that balance in

"Come on! Hold strong!"

"Lit yourself on fire!"

"Follow the Immortal Flame!"

about to be decided, a gust of wind suddenly blew over the battlefield, bringing with it the

The light dimmed slightly.

froze for a few moments. Their

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

A storm was coming.

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

began

faster, the black whirlpool swelled and moved forward, swallowing the crimson coral meter after a

sea was coming to devour the

react in the same way

away to find shelter, they howled and shrieked in eerie triumph, and then crashed into the Dreamer