Shadow Slave

[Lady Cassia! The King of Nothing has crossed the northern gorge and broken through the fortification line at Whisper Peak! We won’t be able to hold out for long! Please send reinforcements immediately!]

[My lady, the supply fleet is lost. I… I am sorry. The casualties are as follows…]

[The Nightmare Gate is contained, but it opened close to the main relay substation. The electrical grid is completely disrupted, and although secondary and tertiary transformer stations were used to reroute the current, approximately twenty percent of the city is currently suffering from a complete blackout. I must reiterate the urgency of the situation, Lady Cassia — local generators installed in residential complexes will not last long. Once power goes out and ventilation systems stop functioning, the death toll on the subterranean floors…]

[Lady Cassia!]

[Lady Cassia…]

[My lady!]

Cassie’s mind was filled with pleading voices.

The dreadful cacophony of their cries was deafening, washing over her like a cold ocean. They were all crying for help, desperate in the absence of their ruler… of their goddess. They wanted to be saved, and for them, salvation was synonymous with Changing Star — with the last daughter of the Immortal Flame, who had ignited their souls with hope and longing.

So, they wanted to know where she was. They wanted to know why she had abandoned them.

…Cassie wanted to know, as well.

She used to, but judging by the gaping spaces where her recent memories were supposed to be, she must have erased them. The reason why was not difficult to guess — it was to protect that knowledge from Asterion.

And since the knowledge of where the rulers of humanity had gone needed to be protected from Asterion, Cassie could deduce that he would do anything in his power to stop them if he ever found out… which, in turn, meant that what they were doing could spell the end of the Dreamspawn.

So, that was everything she knew. That Nephis and Sunny were currently doing something that would allow them to defeat Asterion, and that humanity had to endure alone until they did.

Cassie was resourceful, but she could not replace two Supremes. So even if she was doing her best, things were turning more and more dire with each day.

“…But I really think that I am on the right path.”

Cassie flinched slightly, brought back from the deafening choir of desperate voices by one that sounded hopeful and bright. Rain was sitting across from her, enjoying the pancakes she had made for the two of them.

“Awakening is the process of condensing soul essence into a core. Ascension, meanwhile, is the process of reforging the core. It makes sense, if you think about it — a soul core is built from solidified essence, and the essence that solidifies under pressure to create it is Awakened. How can something built from Awakened essence contain Ascended essence, which is far more volatile and potent?”

Rain smiled.

“Ah, please forgive me, Lady Cassia. I am speaking metaphorically, of course, and my metaphors always seem to end up having to do with architecture and construction work. If you listen to me, you’d think that I am talking about building a hut, not Ascending. I can’t explain it better, though… so, the problem is in reforging the core. As I see it, there are two ways of going about it — one is enlightened, slow, and conservative. The other is swift, radical, and quite possibly lethal.”

Cassie raised an eyebrow.

“And these two ways are?”

Rain chuckled.

“I am glad you asked! The enlightened way is to allow Ascended essence to wash over the core like sea waves wash over the shore. In an endless cycle of tides, the composition of the core will gradually change, one sand particle at a time. Naturally, that can take decades, and one would need to either learn how to elevate the quality of their essence or have a steady supply of Ascended soul shards to substitute personal enlightenment. I can somewhat achieve the former, but I already benefit from the latter.”

Cassie smiled.

“I see. And the second way?”

Rain sighed.

“The second way would be quite obvious to someone in construction. There is a hut in front of you, but you need a castle to stand in its place. Do you replace the wooden planks of the hut one by one, until it becomes a castle? No… you’d simply demolish the hut and build an entirely new castle in its place. In other words, since the core solidified from Awakened essence, it’s easier to destroy it and shape an entirely new one from Ascended essence instead.”

Cassie faced her with a frown.

“The destruction of the soul core usually leads to the collapse of the soul, though. It’s a death sentence.”

Rain looked at her pancakes with a look of disappointment.

“I know. I could not find a safe way to achieve Ascension in that manner, so… well, anyway, I am exploring the first method at the moment. What do you think?”

Cassie remained silent for a while, straining not to get lost in the roaring litany of pleading voices that thundered in her head. Eventually, she smiled.

“I think that your pancakes are getting cold. They are delicious, by the way, so it would be a shame to waste them…”

She had thought that Rain — Sunny’s disciple and the only human who had managed to Awaken without the help of the Spell — would be safest here, in the Ivory Tower.

But she had been wrong.

Several days ago, Asterion had taken the Night Garden. Jet managed to escape, but all six Saints who had been with her on the titanic ship were now thralls of the Dreamspawn.

Nightwalker was among them.

Jet and Nightwalker had not managed to master the Night Garden’s navigation component yet, which prevented it from making long-distance spatial jumps. But with Asterion looking over Nightwalker’s shoulder and whispering secrets into his ear, things could change in an instant. Cassie had lost track of the Night Garden, so it could appear anywhere, at any moment.

Which meant that the Ivory Island was not safe anymore… or rather, it was even less safe than it had been.

Cassie did not hear the voices of those aboard the titanic ship anymore.

Her mind was overflowing with the terrifying, deafening cacophony of desperate voices…

But actually, it was not their cries that frightened her.

Instead, it was their silence.