Shadow Slave

Cassie’s Supreme Ability was as powerful as it was versatile.

It was not, perhaps, as powerful as the ability to make all warriors of humanity many times more difficult to kill, creating a vast quasi-immortal army — or an ability to raise an ever-expanding legion of undying shadows. But it could enhance the power of humanity in other, more subtle ways.

It could grant humanity knowledge.

And knowledge was the origin of power, after all.

Over the past year, Cassie had used her Aspect to manifest a number of prominent Saints of the ancient past into reality. She was relying on the memories granted to her by her Aspect Legacy to remember them, so there were plenty of outstanding candidates to choose from.

Sadly, her reserves of essence were not endless, so she could not maintain the manifestation for too long — depending on the being she was manifesting, the summoning could persist from a day to just several hours. After that, she had to spend days slowly recovering her spirit essence. Not all of the individuals she manifested were willing to cooperate, either. In fact, most of them were not… at least during the first few summonings. Cassie had an unlimited number of opportunities to try convincing them, though, only constrained by time and resource commitment. Sometimes, she managed to convince the legendary heroes of the past to share their knowledge. Sometimes, they proved to be too stubborn, prompting her to shift her focus to a different memory.

There was, of course, a third option… she could simply force her way into their minds and reap all the knowledge she wanted there, leaving devastation in her wake. But Cassie chose not to abandon diplomacy in favor of violence and coercion — not only because of her values, but also because she was wary of eroding her moral boundaries, one act of tyranny at a time.

Cassie was afraid to wake up one day and realize that she had become no different from Torment. Even more than that, she was afraid of not even being capable of realizing what she had become.

That was the curse of those who were demigods. At that level of power, identity ceased to be something one simply possessed and became a fragile resource that had to be meticulously guarded. It was too easy to lose oneself to power — to be corrupted by it, becoming something unrecognizable.

So, Cassie had to adhere to rules and principles she had formulated for herself, staying within the bounds of what she deemed right.

Even then, her efforts had brought a wealth of new knowledge and skills to humanity. Most of the legendary figures she manifested were unwilling to share their secrets, but some were — and what they taught her was invaluable.

Humanity had made a leap in its understanding of various mystical disciplines, especially runic sorcery and forging. There was a lot of knowledge that could have helped the Human Domain augment its civil engineering efforts in the Dream Realm, thus allowing more settlers to arrive across the realm boundary…

But mostly, Cassie focused on learning knowledge tied to warfare.

After all, humanity was swiftly barreling toward the apocalypse. Soon enough, the waking world was going to be destroyed, and all the Citadel Cities in the Dream Realm were going to be besieged by endless tides of Nightmare Creatures. Humanity had to use every opportunity there was to grow as strong as possible, as soon as possible. The secret knowledge Cassie delivered to the brightest minds of humanity, combined with the knowledge the River People shared with them freely, caused a quiet explosion of progress and innovation. Even though not many people realized it yet, there was a true scientific revolution happening behind the curtain — if sorcery and mysticism could be called science, of course.

That mystical revolution was simply hidden behind a far more evident and widespread flood of innovation caused by the mass exodus from the waking world, with millions of people working day and night to rebuild civilization in the dire reaches of the Dream Realm.

That was why various luminaries — sorcerers, scientists, and engineers — had gathered in the Ivory Tower today, and why Inti of Mictlan was standing in the runic circle at the moment.

As for the runic circle itself, its purpose was to protect the audience from the manifested legends of the past. After all, not all of those Cassie summoned responded well to finding themselves in an unfamiliar world, away from everything they knew — and to learning that they were not themselves but, instead, a manifested memory of a long-dead person.

Luckily, Inti of Mictlan seemed to be different… which was a great boon, since learning how to build the asuras was an issue of great importance for the Human Domain. That secret alone could amplify its battle power twofold — or even more, depending on how difficult they were to build.

Hearing Cassie’s request, he chuckled.

“Ah, the asuras… why, you are correct in suggesting that I am a very curious man, dream goddess. However, you are mistaken if you think that it was I who created the asuras. I merely perfected them.”

He shook his head with a wistful sigh.

“The asuras were originally created by the Ash Nomads — those few who traveled the Sea of Ash, hiding from the White Abyss in its depths. Eventually, all their tribes and clans were wiped out, and the scattered survivors found shelter in Mictlan. My mother was of the Ash, so I inherited some knowledge from her… enough to understand the crude art of building the asuras, at least, and develop an ambition to improve upon their design.”

Sunny listened to his words with interest, wondering if the asuras could really be replicated. The ones he had fought were as powerful as Great abominations, but that was because they had spent thousands of years being consumed by Corruption. The original asuras could not have been that powerful.

But even if they allowed Awakened to wield the power of Masters — or allow mundane people to wield the power of Awakened — that alone would be an inconceivable boon. Inti sighed.

“The original asuras helped the Ash Nomads survive in the Sea of Ash… they were golems that granted them power well beyond what they were supposed to possess. However, golems do not possess a soul, and they cannot wield the Will — unlike all living things. So, how could a soulless golem help someone fight against the Corrupted?”

Hidden in the shadows, Sunny nodded mentally.

Humans possessed similar technologies, as well — the MWPs, the powered suits of armor the military used. However, these war machines lost their effectiveness when facing Nightmare Creatures above the Awakened Rank.

Inti shook his head somberly.

“The Ash Nomads solved that problem in a crude, but effective way… human sacrifice. They killed their own people and trapped the sacrificial spirits in the soulless stone. Their design was flawed, since it could not be scaled — not without harming the collective power of Mictlan, at least. So, I endeavored to replace the sacrificial spirit with a living controller. Of course, that created its own problem, since the power of the asura would only be as great as the Will of the pilot, defeating the purpose. Unless…”

He continued the explanation, everyone gathered in the chamber listening to it with rapt attention.

Sunny listened, as well.

Beyond the walls of the Ivory Tower, the sun was slowly rising above Bastion.

And far away, a different sun was rising above the misty waters of the Stormsea. Sunny was listening to someone there, as well.