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.

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

a cold and indifferent voice came

"...What are you doing?"

anything in return, not before, and not after

because she

prison of her loneliness. How

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

she had to

to

Or die with it...

of slaughter, a sudden gust of wind rustled her beautiful

and slowly turned

moment later, her face paled, and

'No!'

could have heard her, Cassie closed her eyes and

there is a

***

held on. In fact,

weapons and joined the

no more abominations crossing the bridges of

as the unassailable core of the human formation and rallying fighters around her, with Effie stalling the entire horde to give the rest

forces seemed to finally be evenly

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!"

several 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

The light dimmed slightly.

west, they suddenly stumbled and froze for a few moments. Their faces became as

Spire, an impenetrable wall of darkness was slowly devouring the world. It was approaching the battlefield

A storm was coming.

black water that swirled around the island of the cyclopean tower

then, it began to crawl

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

sea was coming to devour the Forgotten

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

of scurrying away to find shelter, they howled and shrieked in eerie triumph, and then crashed into