Shadow Slave

Cassie’s steps were hurried.

Tracing the wall of the Ivory Tower with her fingers, she ascended the long, spiraling stairs. The world around her was silent and dark, but beneath its calm surface, a harrowing storm was brewing.

There was a quite literal storm brewing outside, as well. The clouds, which had been white and calm minutes before, were now dark gray and heavy, moving like tattered sails under the onslaught of hurricane winds.

They flowed and collided with each other, producing deafening thunderclaps and blinding flashes of lightning. Torrents of rain whipped across the Ivory Island, making the lake boil and sending water streaming down the fangs of the dead dragon. It was as if the flying island had suddenly found itself in the very heart of a powerful cyclone.

‘What is she doing?!’

Cassie staggered and leaned on the wall, feeling what Rain was feeling several floors above.

A fierce current of essence flowed through her body at awful speed, and a vicious agony of soul damage contorted it as thin cracks snaked through her soul core.

Cassie gritted her teeth and rushed up the endless stairs.

The veil of stormclouds obscured the view of Bastion far below, as well as the vast sky above. The world was suddenly limited to the narrow prison of cascading lightning bolts and turbulent clouds, a thick mist covering all in sight as it was suffused with a crackling radiance.

Cassie felt the wind and the thunderclaps through the vibrations of the Ivory Tower’s wall. She sensed the rain by smell, and saw the flashes of lightning through the eyes of the Fire Keepers guarding the island.

Those Fire Keepers were now rushing toward the great pagoda, as if wanting to hide from the rain.

However, Cassie knew that they were not afraid of rain. After all, they were all Ascended — it would take more than the fury of the elements to force them to abandon their posts.

‘It has begun’

Cassie had known it would.

As soon as utter silence enveloped her mind, she knew that Asterion could not be bothered to hide his thralls anymore. That meant that he had no reason to — which meant that he had already subjugated enough of humanity to believe that nothing could stop him now.

Humanity had already fallen, and all he had to do was clean up the last stragglers, those stubborn few who refused to be enthralled despite all his efforts.

People like Cassie.

It made sense that there were some whom he had failed to enthrall. There were always people who were naturally immune to a plague, after all…

Considering that Asterion was cleaning house, he would come for the remaining Great Citadels, as well — Mirage Castle, the Jade Palace, and the Tower of Hope.

Cassie needed to grab Rain and run.

But Rain had decided this exact moment to Ascend… and in the rapid, radical, and quite possibly deadly way at that. She was Ascending by shattering her own soul core.

[Hey, Cassie. Why are you running?]

[Don’t run. We will not hurt you.]

[We will just tear your eye out.]

[And then, we will mangle your mind.]

[And when we’re done, you will smile and thank us.]

[You’ll want to.]

[And we will all be together again…]

Snarling, she erased the marks she had branded onto the souls of the Fire Keepers — the very first marks she had ever placed.

At the same time, Cassie extended her consciousness to the Ivory Tower. Nephis was absent, so she was in charge of the Citadel now — and therefore, all its Components.

She called upon the Crushing, shaping it into a narrow sphere around the flying island. People believed that this obliterating Component of the Ivory Tower could only destroy, and therefore called it the Crushing — but actually, it was a far more versatile force.

The power of the Tower of Hope was the power of attraction. It was a mystical sister of gravity, and not even the current master of the great pagoda knew everything that it could do.

The Crushing could repel all things, both physical and spiritual, away from the Island. It could also pull them toward it. That was how the Chained Islands had managed to exist for thousands of years, suspended between the two extremes of Hope’s Tower.

It could also make all things weightless… or make them collapse under their own weight.

And the closer one got to the Ivory Island, the more obliterating the force of the Crushing became, to the point that not even gods would be able to overcome it unscathed.

So, Cassie could easily destroy anyone — and anything — that would attempt to approach the Ivory Island. But the things and people she would be destroying were too precious, so she couldn’t use the Crushing that way. Instead, she used it to create a weak repelling field around the island, hoping to buy herself time.

It was safe to assume that most, if not all, Fire Keepers had been enthralled by Asterion. So…

Somewhere above, Rain let out a tormented groan, sucked in a breath through gritted teeth, and spoke in a hoarse, but steady voice:

“I am the Long-Lasting Promise of a Distant Sky. I am the Enduring Promise of a Distant Sky. I am the Promise of a Distant Sky who walks the Path of Ascension; I am… Ascended.”

It took Cassie a brief moment to understand what Rain was doing.

She was assigning herself Epithets.

Long-Lasting, Enduring, Ascended.

She was preparing to shatter her own soul core, and tempering herself to slow down the collapse of her soul before the new core was built.

‘That foolish girl!’

Cassie rushed forward, ignoring the shared sensation of her soul coming undone.

She was too late.

By the time Cassie finally reached Rain’s quarters and threw the door open, the young woman was already standing near a wall, leaning on it with a pale face.

Almost at the same time as Cassie entered, the storm that had been raging outside vanished without a trace. It was as if it had been erased from existence, revealing the boundless blue expanse of the clear sky beyond.

..And the immense silhouette of an inconceivable ship that had approached the Ivory Island under the cover of the storm, with numerous people moving across its decks to lay siege to the throne of Immortal Flame.

The Night Garden soared through the sky, moving to obscure the sun and cast a deep shadow upon the Tower of Hope. Bright flashes illuminated its main deck — those were its weapons sending charged cannonballs barreling through the air.

A moment later, they impacted the repelling field surrounding the Ivory Island and bloomed into radiant silver explosions.

Cassie ignored the sight of the titanic ship for a moment and walked toward Rain.

“What did you do, Rain?”

The young woman breathed heavily and glanced at her with a pale smile.

“Don’t you feel it, Lady Cassia? I am… Ascending.”

Cassie could indeed feel it. The familiar, euphoric sensation of one’s body being reborn, reforged, and tempered — Rain’s new Ascended soul core was rapidly soaking in her essence, elevating its quality, and sending it coursing through her body, which in turn was causing the body to be perfected.

Rain’s smile widened a little.

“I… succeeded. Ah! The look on Tamar’s face… I can’t wait…”

Cassie froze for a moment, evaluating the situation.

In that moment, Rain spoke with a smile.

“But, Lady Cassia… Song of the Fallen…”

She took a step forward and whispered:

“Aren’t you Weak, Distracted, and in traumatic Pain? Aren’t you lost in the Labyrinth? Aren’t you scared of the darkness?”

In the next moment, Cassie swayed. A ghastly, indescribable agony descended upon her, rending her mind apart.

It was so harrowing, in fact, that she almost did not feel the cold blade of a sharp dagger slide between her ribs.