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 knees and tried

instead of death, a cold and indifferent voice

"...What are you doing?"

asking anything in return, not before,

because she wanted

the darkness and destroyed the bitter, all-encompassing prison of

pretended to be callous

she had to make a

now, she had to live with

Or die with it...

the sounds of slaughter, a

slowly turned to

later, her face paled, and her lips

'No!'

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

there is a

***

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

weapons and joined the

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, its mass

to give the rest of the humans time to mend

opposing forces seemed to finally

for the humans to turn that

"Come on! Hold strong!"

"Lit yourself on fire!"

"Follow the Immortal Flame!"

fate of this battle was about to be decided, a gust of

The light dimmed slightly.

stumbled and froze for a few moments. Their faces became

of darkness was slowly devouring the world. It

A storm was coming.

closer, the surface of the black water that swirled around

began

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

cursed sea was coming to devour

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

they howled and shrieked in eerie triumph, and then crashed