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.

down on the hard coral, she hugged her knees and tried not to cry. Abandoned

a cold and indifferent voice came out of the

"...What are you doing?"

how she met Nephis, who saved and protected her ever since. Without even asking anything

because she wanted

darkness and destroyed the bitter, all-encompassing prison of her loneliness. How was Cassie supposed to ever

Sunny, who pretended to

had to

now, she had to live with that

Or die with it...

Cassie stood, listening to the sounds of slaughter, a sudden

and slowly turned to

face paled,

'No!'

away from the battle and anyone who could have

storm… there

***

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

suitable Memories to replace them summoned their melee weapons and joined the vanguard, reinforcing its dwindling

reserve of fresh bodies. With no more abominations crossing the bridges of crimson coral and lunging forward to join the massacre, its mass

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 flow

two opposing forces seemed to finally

have taken for the humans to turn that balance in their favor was

"Come on! Hold strong!"

"Lit yourself on fire!"

"Follow the Immortal Flame!"

decided, a gust of wind suddenly blew over the battlefield, bringing with it the smell of

The light dimmed slightly.

froze for a few moments. Their faces became as white

the world. It was

A storm was coming.

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

it began

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

cursed sea was coming

react in the same way as the usual Nightmare Creatures

to find shelter, they howled and shrieked in