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 tried

instead of death, a cold and indifferent

"...What are you doing?"

her ever since. Without even asking anything in return, not before,

because she

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

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

had to make a

had to live with that

Or die with it...

Cassie stood, listening to the sounds of slaughter, a sudden gust of wind rustled her

flinched, and slowly turned to

moment later, her face paled, and

'No!'

could have heard her, Cassie closed her

there is a

***

still held on. In fact,

ammunition, those who had no suitable Memories to replace them summoned their melee weapons and joined

crossing the bridges of crimson coral and

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, the flow of the

opposing forces seemed to finally be evenly

humans to turn that balance in their favor was one last

"Come on! Hold strong!"

"Lit yourself on fire!"

"Follow the Immortal Flame!"

was about to be decided, a gust of wind suddenly blew over the battlefield, bringing with

The light dimmed slightly.

froze for a

wall of darkness was slowly devouring the world. It was approaching the

A storm was coming.

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

then, it began

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

was coming to devour the Forgotten

Crimson Spire, however, did not react in the

find shelter, they howled and shrieked in eerie triumph, and then crashed into the