Shadow Slave

“It’s over. There is no point in struggling anymore, Song of the Fallen. Won’t it be easier to simply give up?”

Asterion’s words echoed in the dark expanse of the empty hall, reflecting from the walls that contained the forbidden truths Nether, the Demon of Destiny, had carved.

Cassie raised a trembling hand, the sharp tip of her dagger pointed at her enemy. She knew where the Dreamspawn was because he had spoken, allowing her to aim her weapon at the source of the calm, chilling voice.

Otherwise, all Cassie could perceive was darkness.

Her body was battered and bruised, and her face was bloodied. She was covered in countless cuts… she was exhausted. Fatigue was pressing her down to the ground, and her mind was aflame with the terrible, pulsing pain that nestled somewhere in the depths of her empty eye socket.

And there seemed to be no hope left.

The Longing Domain was lost. The Mirror Domain was lost, as well. Her only option was to run, but there was nowhere to run anymore. Her back was against the wall.

It was all going to end here, in this dark hall, with only the forbidden runes littering its walls left to witness her defeat.

So… maybe Asterion was right. Maybe it would indeed be easier to give up.

But against all reason, Cassie held her dagger up and prepared for one last, hopeless act of resistance.

Her voice sounded grim and steady:

“What to do? Struggling is the point.”

Such was life. Life was a desire… it was a desire to be alive, and since the world always strived to end it, life was a constant struggle.

It was war.

Asterion chuckled.

This time, when his voice resounded in the darkness, it sounded closer.

“As you wish…”

He prepared to subdue her, while she prepared to defend herself.

But then…

Something changed.

Something changed about the world.

It was as if a gust of ethereal wind blew across the dark hall, and suddenly, something imperceptible was different about it.

About everything.

Cassie froze.

Asterion seemed to have felt it, too. He looked around, frowning, and then asked in a somber tone:

“What was that? What did you do?”

But Cassie did not answer. She couldn’t answer, because at that moment, she felt that countless new memories suddenly poured into her mind.

No… not quite. It was as if they had always been there, but she was not aware of them — until now. Most people would not have known it immediately, but she was sensitive to memories. She knew immediately when her own were changed.

‘What…’

A torrent of familiar sounds, scents, and sensations flooded her mind.

The hum of voices in the auditorium of the Awakened Academy… and a silent presence by her side.

The feeling of the golden rope tied around her waist going slack.

A young man’s voice resounding quietly in the darkness, asking why anyone would bother keeping her alive.

That voice…

Cassie swayed.

Sunny… it was Sunny. The Lord of Shadows. It was Lost from Light.

How could she have forgotten?

As if summoned by his True Name, the memories filled the empty vastness of her fragmented mind, making it whole again. The Forgotten Shore, where he had cared about her like an older brother… and all that followed. The torment of having to abandon one of her friends in order to save another. The agony of having chosen wrong — of being wrong to have chosen.

And then, all those years of watching quietly, preparing, and planning. Pushing and pulling to see how the currents of fate changed, but remained the same…

Until fate was broken.

The Chained Isles, the suffocating cage in the Night Temple, the splendor of its past tranquility in the Kingdom of Hope, the radiant days spent in the Sanctuary of Noctis, the battle for the Ivory Tower.

The cold dread of Antarctica, the incinerating terror of the Nightmare Desert, the endless expanse of the Great River… the Tomb of Ariel. The final resting place of the Demon of Oblivion.

Where their memories of Sunny had been buried.

Those memories were unearthed now.

‘It was… the…’

From the Forgotten Shore to Godgrave, and beyond… they had always been walking side by side — sometimes willingly, sometimes against their will.

But it was them.

It was Cassie and Sunny… they had broken fate.

Sunny was the blade that cut it, and Cassie was the hand that had aimed the blade.

“What did you do?!”

Cassie shifted slightly, turning in the direction of Asterion’s bark.

He must have known of Sunny’s existence once, as well. And now, the man who built his kingdom by manipulating human minds was confronting the truth that his own mind had been tampered with, as well.

Cassie opened her mouth, intending to say something — anything. But no words came. She was too overwhelmed by the magnitude of the revelation… and by the emotional charge it delivered, blasting open all the doors she had built in her mind.

Tears streamed from her remaining eye, mixing with blood covering her face.

…It was then that the Spell whispered in her ear, making Cassie flinch.

Its voice sounded pleased.

Triumphant, even.

The Spell whispered:

[You have performed an act of defiance.]

[You have defied fate.]

[The fifth seal has been broken.]

Cassie’s eye widened, but before she could process the proclamation of the Nightmare Spell, the vaguely familiar voice spoke again.

[You have received an Aspect Legacy.]

[Song of the Fallen! Prepare to receive the bequeathment…]

‘An Aspect Legacy? What…’

Just then, the Nightmare Spell presented her a boon — one worthy of her Aspect.

A harrowing boon that Cassie was not prepared to receive.

Her Aspect Legacy…

It was memories.

It was a boundless chronicle of memories that belonged to different people, different beings, both great and small. A chronicle of the world as it had been witnessed by those who populated its vast and terrifying expanse across countless eons — from the dawns of time in the Age of God… to today.

To what was happening right now, somewhere else.

And if Cassie had thought that her own memories flooding back were too overwhelming…

Then this calamitous boon was simply devastating.

It was a burden that no human mind — not even a Transcendent mind — could endure. Only the mind of a Supreme demigod could. Cassie wanted to scream, but found herself paralyzed.

She wanted to close her mind to the obliterating torrent of memories, but couldn’t.

And so…

Her mind shattered.

That was the last thing Cassie remembered before finding herself in the ocean of broken memories. Before attempting to assemble herself back together from the countless shards.

‘Right.’

That was how it had happened.

That was how she had been broken. Drifting in the ocean of memories, Cassie finally knew who she was, how she had ended up in this state…

And what she had to do.

The tendrils of her Will plunged into the vast maelstrom of memory shards, drinking them all in.

Assembling her into a creature that could endure the burden of her Aspect… of her Domain.

Making her Supreme.