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

instead of death, a cold and

"...What are you doing?"

since. Without even asking anything

because she

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

to

then, she had to make a

now, she had to live with

Or die with it...

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

slowly turned to

paled, and her lips moved

'No!'

who could have heard her, Cassie

storm… there is a

***

much smaller, but still held on. In fact, it was slowly pushing

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 into

bodies. With no more abominations crossing the

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

forces seemed

taken for the humans to turn

"Come on! Hold strong!"

"Lit yourself on fire!"

"Follow the Immortal Flame!"

decided, a

The light dimmed slightly.

a few moments. Their

darkness was slowly devouring the world. It was approaching the battlefield with terrifying speed, numerous bolts of lightning illuminating its furious

A storm was coming.

the surface of the black water that swirled around the island of the cyclopean

it began to

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

sea was coming to devour the Forgotten

that guarded the Crimson Spire, however, did not react in the same

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