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.

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

cold and

"...What are you doing?"

who saved and protected her ever since. Without even asking anything in return, not

she wanted

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

Sweet Sunny, who pretended to be

then, she had to make

to live

Or die with it...

listening to the sounds of slaughter, a

slowly turned to face

face paled, and her

'No!'

alone, away from the battle and anyone who could have heard her, Cassie closed her eyes and whispered into

storm… there is a

***

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

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 into

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

the entire horde to give the rest of the humans time to mend the

forces seemed to finally

it would 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!"

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

The light dimmed slightly.

west, they suddenly stumbled and froze for a few moments. Their faces became as white as

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

A storm was coming.

black water that swirled around the island of the

then, it began to

and moved forward, swallowing the

was coming to

did not react in

howled and shrieked in eerie