Shadow Slave

Cassie found herself at the epicenter of a ferocious, roaring maelstrom of memories. They were like a vast nebula revolving in the great darkness of space, pulled toward a radiant core…

Toward her freshly rebuilt, settling mind.

It felt like it had taken an eternity to pick up the fragments of her shattered mind and piece them all together. To remember who she was, to separate her own memories from those experienced by someone else, to endure the crushing weight of remembering it all.

But in reality, it all happened in the blink of an eye.

It was still happening.

Time did not exist here, after all, in the dark mindscape of her broken self. There was no past and no future, only the present moment…

There was cause and effect, though.

And the distance between them was far less malleable and forgiving than time.

By now, Cassie had reclaimed all of her own memories and finished rebuilding herself. She was absorbing the vast ocean of memories bequeathed to her by the Nightmare Spell — the chronicle of existence as it was witnessed by the mysterious being who had collected them all in the past, then expanded upon by the Spell to encompass its own era.

The speed with which Cassie assimilated these memories was already tremendous, and grew faster and faster with each revolution of the glimmering nebula. The more memories poured into her, the firmer her Will became, and the firmer her Will became, the better she was able to fathom the memories.

Two things were happening at the same time, having become inseparable.

Cassie was absorbing her dire Aspect Legacy, but she was also attaining Supremacy at the same time… in fact, she had already attained it.

Her body had not been reforged by rising to a new Rank yet, but her spirit was already infused with the power of a Supreme. It had to happen in order for her to survive the crushing weight of the inherited memories — for her to will herself into surfacing from their dark depths instead of drowning in them. Instead of crumbling and ceasing to exist as a person.

There was no surprise that it had happened now, either. After the fog permeating Cassie’s fragmented mind cleared and she remembered everything about herself once more — after she remembered Sunny — she understood the reason for her Supremacy, as well.

Natural Supremacy demanded one to commit an act of supreme defiance, and there was nothing more defiant than breaking an absolute law. Fate… fate was not an absolute law, though. It was something that existed above even the universal rules that governed existence.

Unlike these universal laws, fate had not been created by the gods. It dwelled on a plane of its own — one higher than all the rest and overlooking them all from up high. So, even the gods had to bow in front of fate… and the creatures of the Void did, as well.

Needless to say, breaking fate was quite an astonishing act of defiance. Why had Cassie not attained Supremacy earlier, then?

It was because breaking fate alone was not enough to become a Supreme. Imposing one’s Will upon the world did not matter if the source of that Will was destroyed in the process — if all their defiance accounted for was being broken and defeated.

And that was what Cassie had become after the Tomb of Ariel. She was broken and destroyed, walking the earth as a ghost of a person who had once been Cassia, Song of the Fallen… as a shadow of her former self. But now that Sunny had defeated the Vile Thieving Bird and reclaimed his True Name, weaving himself back into the tapestry of fate, Cassie’s broken mind was restored to its former state.

Which meant that her act of defiance did not end in defeat and self-destruction, after all. That her will prevailed against the tyranny of fate, and she emerged on the other side triumphant.

That was great. But…

But even if Cassie had grasped Supremacy and rebuilt herself from the memory shards, using her Will to absorb and assimilate them… even if she was well on her way to completing the process of mastering her Aspect Legacy and becoming Supreme… The merciless inevitability of cause and effect was still there to doom her.

Because in the process of regaining her memories, she had glimpsed a few that were meant to stay forever hidden, as well.

She had remembered being Torment.

And so, the forbidden knowledge of the Defilement was planted into her mind, giving birth to Corruption.

There was a seed of darkness in the radiant heart of the glimmering nebula, and that darkness was spreading swiftly, devouring more and more stars. It was already too late to cleanse the memories it had come from, and there was nothing Cassie could do to save herself from succumbing to the same fate Mordret had succumbed to.

From becoming nothing more than a vile, abominable Great Beast.

‘Can’t I?’

Transcendent Cassie could do nothing. Supreme Cassie, however…

Perhaps she could.

Continuing to absorb the vast nebula of memories and resisting the spreading Corruption at the same time, Cassie listened to her intuition and silently assessed her Aspect.

Her Domain had not fully formed yet, her soul was frozen in a transient state between Transcendence and Supremacy, and her flesh was still that of a Saint.

However, the fifth seal of her Aspect had already been broken, and she could already wield her Supreme Ability — she just needed to learn what it could do.

And what it could do was simple.

It allowed Cassie to manifest anything she remembered into reality.

Anything… or anyone.

So, Cassie called upon her Aspect…

And destroyed herself.

After destroying herself, she manifested herself back into existence — a version of herself that did not remember the vile secrets of the Defilement yet, and was therefore untainted by the Corruption.

The last of the glimmering memory shards were absorbed into her nebulous mind, and she exhaled slowly, finally regaining her senses and control over her body.

Cassie opened her eye and faced Asterion with a cold, detached expression.

He seemed to have studied her with a curious smile.

“Natural Supremacy… fascinating. And just in the nick of time, as well.”

Asterion took a step in her direction and added in a calm, insidious voice:

“However, you don’t really think that a newborn Supreme can threaten me, do you?”

Cassie remained silent for a moment, then tilted her head a little.

A frail smile illuminated her face.

“You sound confident, Asterion… the Minotaur must have been just as confident when he faced Theseus, hasn’t he?”