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.

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

instead of death, a cold and indifferent voice came out of

"...What are you doing?"

since. Without even asking anything in return, not before, and not after learning of what Cassie's Aspect

she

darkness and destroyed the bitter, all-encompassing prison

pretended to be callous and cruel, but was actually caring

she had to make

now, she had to live with

Or die with it...

slaughter, a sudden gust of wind

slowly turned

her face paled,

'No!'

the battle and anyone who could have heard

there is a

***

In fact, it was slowly pushing

weapons and joined the vanguard, reinforcing

its seemingly endless reserve of fresh bodies. With no more abominations crossing the bridges of crimson coral and

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

opposing forces seemed to finally be

for the humans to turn that balance in their favor was

"Come on! Hold strong!"

"Lit yourself on fire!"

"Follow the Immortal Flame!"

was about to be decided, a gust

The light dimmed slightly.

froze for a few moments. Their faces became as white

devouring the world. It was approaching the battlefield

A storm was coming.

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

began to

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

was coming to devour the Forgotten

monsters that guarded the Crimson Spire, however, did not react in the same way as the usual Nightmare Creatures would

and shrieked in eerie triumph,