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.

she hugged her knees and tried not to cry. Abandoned and forgotten, she

of death, a cold and

"...What are you doing?"

even asking anything in return, not

because she

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

to be callous and cruel, but was

had to make a

had to live

Or die with it...

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

flinched, and slowly turned to face the

her face paled, and

'No!'

could have heard her,

there is

***

smaller, but still held on. In fact,

to replace them summoned their melee weapons and

With no more abominations crossing the bridges of crimson coral and lunging forward to join the massacre, its mass was slowly growing

with Effie stalling the entire horde to give the rest of the humans time to mend the breaches in

opposing forces seemed to

taken for the humans to turn that balance in

"Come on! Hold strong!"

"Lit yourself on fire!"

"Follow the Immortal Flame!"

people yelled, feeling that the fate of this battle was about to be decided, a gust of wind

The light dimmed slightly.

for a few moments. Their faces became as white as

Spire, an impenetrable wall of darkness was slowly devouring the world. 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 the island of the

then, it began to

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

cursed sea was coming

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

shelter, they howled and shrieked in eerie