Shadow Slave

Cassie slowly closed her eyes and turned away from the young man sitting in front of her. His delicate appearance, polite demeanor, and modest smile…

Were so unlike the frightening, unhinged demon she had witnessed in his memories.

Witnessing one's memories was a strange affair, because what had been and what people remembered were usually two different things. Memories were vague, disjointed, and fragile, like the fragments of a fleeting dream. Some were vibrant and deeply etched, some were dull and shallow.

Some were bright. Most were full of sorrow.

But the Shadow Saint possessed an unbelievably clear memory. It was striking, second only to Cassie's own now that she had Transcended. It was as if nothing he had experienced were ever truly erased… at least not the details of the memory he had chosen to show her, which must have been important to him.

What an irony, then, that his whole existence had been erased from the world.

There was a problem with reading his memories, though.

Firstly, the way the man who called himself Sunless perceived the world was simply too strange. Even Cassie, who was uniquely suited to having multiple points of view and had already experienced the way he sensed his surroundings through her Ascended Ability, found herself feeling dizzy from the avalanche of unfamiliar sights and sensations.

Secondly, and more Importantly… there were countless gaps in her recollection of what she had seen. Those were the moments where the young man pretending to be a humble shopkeeper thought, spoke, or felt something about the places and events that had been erased from everyone's memories.

In the end, what she had witnessed — or rather, could remember witnessing — was even more disjointed than the memories of ordinary people.

The chilling images…

A young man with alabaster skin crawling from the black water on the cracked ice, his eyes brimming with unfathomable darkness. The eerie city where a terrible slaughter had taken place, but only emptiness remained. The days of slaughter across the desolate expanse of the abandoned continent, the snow turning crimson from the spilled blood. An aloof figure observing from a cliff as an army of enslaved Nightmare Creatures marched to their deaths into a raging blizzard.

The furious battle under the slopes of an erupting volcano, The harrowing strength both the monster and the man had shown. The culmination of it all… and so much more.

Cassie scowled.

Why, why was it so hard to cling to the very idea of It?

She had to know…

Countless thoughts surfaced in her mind, clicking together as they assembled into chains of logic.

«The frozen siege capital… it must be Falcon Scott, the fallen bastion of the Antarctic Center. He had returned there as a former member of the First Evacuation Army.»

«That winged beast he used as a mount was unmistakably a Spire Messenger. I was right, after all… he was with us on the Forgotten Shore.»

the Fire Keepers only joined the Southern Campaign after the Antarctic Center was swallowed by the Chain of Nightmares. Which means that he was never one of us. What relationship did we have? This strength… was he one of Gunlaug's lieutenants? A prominent hunter of the outer settlement? Someone

same year as Cassie and Nephis, but that was exceedingly unlikely. There had been only three people who

someone else? Her memories

the memory of having

the steps of her

find more pleces to

—— —— ——

for a few minutes. He guessed that it was going to take her a while to come to terms with

to

the Lord

shrugged and

«What if I am?»

hesitated for a

body is currently enjoying a tasteless theater play that we sponsored, while the third one is somewhere

Cassie frowned.

Or maybe it's the nature

tilted his

the play is tasteless,

She shrugged.

things have their use,

«How Machiavellian of her.»

a

it if you didn't share the fact that the Lord

Cassie's frown deepened.

me to deceive Nephis?

at her with no particular emotion

she would remember is that there is a person pretending to be a Master here in Bastion, who is actually a powerful and not entirely friendly Saint residing in a Death Zone. Our relationship would become strained in that case, and it

Sunny smiled.

of mine is really just a humble shopkeeper, It's like a vacation… I wouldn't want my peaceful life to be spoiled. Who knows

gaze with her unseeing eyes, then

don't scheme to

change, but the air in the stone chamber suddenly seemed terribly

smile dimmed

She is the cornerstone of my

seer raised an