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.

up. Sitting down on the hard coral, she hugged her knees and

instead of death, a cold and indifferent

"...What are you doing?"

even asking anything in return, not before, and not after learning of what Cassie's Aspect

because she wanted

bitter, all-encompassing prison of her loneliness. How was Cassie supposed to ever repay that

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

had

to live

Or die with it...

to the sounds of slaughter, a sudden gust of wind rustled

flinched, and slowly turned

face paled, and her lips

'No!'

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

there is

***

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

them summoned their melee weapons and joined the vanguard, reinforcing its dwindling

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

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,

seemed to

for the humans to turn that balance in their favor was

"Come on! Hold strong!"

"Lit yourself on fire!"

"Follow the Immortal Flame!"

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

The light dimmed slightly.

froze for a

It was approaching the battlefield with terrifying speed, numerous bolts

A storm was coming.

drew closer and closer, the surface of the black water that swirled around

it began

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

coming to

react in the same way as the

to find shelter, they howled and shrieked in eerie triumph,