Shadow Slave

‘Oblivion...’

Cassie let go of the memory, the word ringing in her head with myriad meanings. This message she had left to herself was the reason why Nephis and Sunny left — it was the source of everything that happened since then.

It was why the Human Domain had fallen while its rulers were absent.

But what, exactly, did it mean?

Cassie was frozen for a moment, overwhelmed by the vast implications hidden behind that single word. She was just about to grasp its meaning and fathom it...

But then, something strange happened.

As soon as the word oblivion surfaced in her mind, the dark ocean of memories seemed to respond to it. It was as if an imperceptible ripple spread across it, and the memories glistened.

They glistened and moved, revolving slowly around a single point — her, the formless nexus of her Will.

Slowly at first, and then faster and faster, like a vast, ferocious vortex... or a boundless galaxy of glistening constellations.

Cassie remained motionless for a moment, mesmerized by the beauty of the awesome sight.

Then, she suddenly felt fear.

No sooner than she did, the vortex of memories rushed forward like a radiant flood, flowing into her as a river.

‘Argh!’

Cassie let out a mental scream.

The river of memories was too vast, too overwhelming. She couldn’t contend against it... not yet. All she could do was drown.

‘No!’

Sensing the consciousness she had so laboriously pieced together begin to fracture under the pressure, Cassie gritted her teeth and called upon her Will. Using it as a shield, she stemmed the flow of memories and pushed them away from herself, gasping for breath like someone escaping from a raging current.

She managed to save herself, but a few memories still invaded her mind, blinding her like a flash.

She saw...

The universe as it had been, as it was meant to be, or perhaps as it would have been once. Countless realms existing apart from each other, but also occupying the same space.

It was a confluence of realms. It was the Flame.

A vast world rested under a boundless sky. The day sky shining upon the world was the realm of Sun God. The night sky shrouding it in darkness was the realm of Storm God. The pale moon moving across the sky was the eye of Beast God, and it illuminated the mortal realms below.

The mortal realms sprawled far and wide, populated by all manner of beasts and creatures — as well as men. Below the red dust of the mortal world lay the peaceful darkness of Shadow God’s domain.

The realm of Heart God, meanwhile, existed in the hearts of living things. There was a great tree whose roots rested in the Shadow Realm, while its branches supported the heavens...

Cassie gasped, rejecting the strange, inexplicable memory.

But her mind was already consumed by another.

Petrified, horrified, she saw a gargantuan skeleton slowly rising as its titanic bones formed and forged themselves. Its scale was truly inconceivable, casting a deep shadow upon entire existence.

The skeleton’s feet crushed the boundaries between the mortal realms, and the empty chasm of its abyssal eyes aimed a malevolent gaze at the sun and the moon, as if wanting to contain them.

However, the skeleton was not a complete being... rather, as Cassie watched in horror, it was being born.

Scarlet flesh grew and coiled around the snow-white bones, an ocean of crimson blood flowed into the river-sized veins, immense organs slowly formed in the titanic expanse of the boundless rib cage, vast steppes of skin appeared to cover the red expanse of tectonic muscles...

As the harrowing skeleton fully rose and straightened, its skull scraping against the sky, it was almost beginning to resemble a human.

Cassie knew that she would not survive beholding the profane visage of the finished being.

She groaned, rending herself away from the memory.

And yet, another was already upon her.

The gods were dead.

Their corpses drifted forlornly, shedding rivers of golden ichor that glistened like stars in the void. Inside the holy expanse of the Divine Realms, the last vestiges of those born of the Flame struggled to survive in the absence of divinity.

A vile cancer nestled among the mortal realms that had been devastated by the war. It had already consumed many of them, forming a mass of profane darkness in the heart of existence. That darkness extended its tendrils to the mortal worlds around it, slowly absorbing them into itself.

The few unfortunate souls who still survived there were doomed to experience a gruesome and appalling fate.

That... was the birth of the Dream Realm. However, something else had been born at the same time.

It had been born in the hidden space between the realms, between dream and reality, woven out of Strings of Fate. Its vast, unfathomable tapestry glistened with silver light in the darkness, tethered to the souls of fallen deities it had consumed.

It was the Nightmare Spell.

The Nightmare Spell waited patiently as the Dream Realm slowly absorbed all the remaining mortal realms, becoming vast and terrifying. It waited while the profane darkness extended its tendrils toward the first of the remaining Divine Realms — the Sun Realm. It waited as the Nightmare strained to penetrate the walls surrounding the remains of Sun God.

And only when the Seeds of Nightmare bloomed in the hearts of the people of Mictlan and the lands around it did the Spell infect the dying world as well. It culled the population of the Sun Realm, putting all those who carried the seeds of Corruption in their souls to the test.

The Seeds themselves became the battlegrounds for the Spell’s trials: those who survived them stepped on the Path of Ascension and escaped Corruption, those who did not succumbed to it and became Nightmare Creatures. The Spell pushed its carriers toward greater and greater power, knowing no mercy or compassion in its cruel ways.

But still in the end, the Sun Realm fell.

So, the Nightmare Spell retreated and waited once more.

Until the Beast Realm fell.

And so, the Nightmare Spell retreated and waited once more...

Again and again.

In the end, only the Realm of War remained.

Cassie escaped the ghastly memory, already knowing what happened next.