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.

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

and indifferent voice came

"...What are you doing?"

was how she met Nephis, who saved and protected her ever since. Without even asking anything in return, not before, and

because she wanted

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

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

had to

now, she had to

Or die with it...

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

and slowly turned to face

paled, and

'No!'

have heard her, Cassie closed her eyes and whispered into the

there is a

***

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

Memories to replace them summoned their melee weapons and joined the vanguard, reinforcing its dwindling numbers. The Artisans had done the same, abandoning their siege engines and throwing themselves

nightmare horde, meanwhile, 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 massacre, its mass was slowly growing

serving as 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

forces seemed to finally be evenly

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

"Come on! Hold strong!"

"Lit yourself on fire!"

"Follow the Immortal Flame!"

this battle was about to be decided, a

The light dimmed slightly.

stumbled and froze for a few moments. Their

the world. It was approaching

A storm was coming.

water that swirled around the island of the cyclopean tower suddenly

then, it began to

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

coming to devour the Forgotten

react in the same

howled and shrieked in eerie triumph, and then crashed into the Dreamer Army with