Shadow Slave

Chapter 1928: Dawn of a New Era. Chapter 1928: Dawn of a New Era.

The old man possessed a formidable mind —which was not surprising, really. As a member of the First Generation, he had endured the darkest era of humanity, facing countless dreadful ordeals and overcoming them with great tenacity and determination.

The fact that he had lived to his respectable age was proof enough of just how much willpower he possessed.

However, today, the old man encountered an ordeal that he would not be able to overcome…

It was Cassie.

Kneeling near the bloodied prisoner, she pulled off her blindfold and looked him into the eyes — of course, Cassie's had marked him already, so what she actually saw was herself.

The old man smiled darkly, and finally spoke.

«Song of the Fallen. I've heard about you.»

She responded quietly:

«And I you, Master Orum.»

She knew that he might attempt to commit suicide if given enough time — in fact, he would have done so already if the nature of her Aspect had not been a closely guarded secret. So, there was little time to waste, especially considering that there were several other captured spies she would have to interrogate later.

But this one… this one was more valuable to Cassie, because he had lived a long life, and would know many secrets that had nothing to do with the clandestine side of the Domain War.

Looking into the man's eyes, Cassie activated her Transcendent Ability.

Master Orum's formidable mental defences crumbled easily under her tyrannical attack…

strange. He was reliving Cassie's memory, who in turn was reliving the memories of the old man. If anything, it was a relief, since

the pain, the despair of being caught… but below it all, an eerie

mundane human, many details of his recent past already erased by the passage of time — Cassie somehow sifted through the vast

ease, finding the details of Orum's clandestine activity. How long he had been relaying information

and frightening, how easily she had learned his most precious secrets,

Swords wanted to know, Cassie showed no sign of having achieved her goal. Instead, she kept looking into Orum's eyes,

read them all, but some were more solid and important than others. They were his core memories, as well as those memories that had just got stuck in his mind for one reason or another, sometimes for no reason

there were too numerous for her to fathom in a short span of time, without revealing her secret actions to the onlookers. So, Cassie focused even more, her mind spinning on all cylinders to find the pieces

there, finally…

old memory. Despite its age, however, it was

a few seconds

—— —— ——

on fire, and acrid smoke shrouded the streets. Military vehicles lay on the melting asphalt like corpses of metallic beasts, their armor bent and torn to shreds. Here and there, human corpses were sprawled on the ground, as well, gruesomely mutilated and surrounded by pools

the smoke, drowning

«Orie! Orie!»

had been running for his life, overcome by pain and despair. At the sound of a childish voice calling out to him, however,

been dragging along, was sprawled on the ground a

moment, cold fear flooded

he had not even noticed when her hand

from

alright. It's alright. Come one, with have

from the smoke, frenzied madness burning

infected… or whatever these demons

Orum froze.