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.»

one of us. What relationship did we have? This strength… was he one of Gunlaug's lieutenants? A prominent hunter of the

sent to the Forgotten Shore the same year as Cassie and Nephis, but that was exceedingly unlikely. There had been only three people who reached the Dark City that

been someone else? Her memories were

of thought broke apart and faded, even the memory of

vaguely sensed what had happened and tried to retrace the steps of her logic,

find more pleces to

—— —— ——

allowed Cassie to contemplate what she had seen for a few minutes. He guessed that it

spoke sooner than he had expected. Turning to face him once again, the blind

are the Lord of

and

«What if I am?»

for a

we sponsored, while the third one

Cassie frowned.

perhaps, Or maybe it's the nature

his head

that the play

She shrugged.

things have their

«How Machiavellian of her.»

a few moments,

you didn't share the fact that the Lord of Shadows and me

Cassie's frown deepened.

want me to deceive

stared at her with no particular emotion on his

remember that she has forgotten something. So, she wouldn't know that the three of us share a connection. All she would remember is that there is

Sunny smiled.

to be spoiled. Who knows what will happen to my mental

gaze with her unseeing eyes, then

secret. As long as you don't scheme to harm Nephis, of course. If

but the air in the stone chamber

dimmed

Changing Star? She is the cornerstone of my survival,

seer