Shadow Slave

It happened on the day they killed the Carapace Demon. Back then, all three of them were utterly exhausted. After moving away from the corpse of the giant creature and finding a good hiding spot, they fell to the ground and immediately fell asleep.

But they didn't stay asleep for long.

An hour or two later, Sunny was shaken awake by Cassie, who was holding him by the shoulders. There was an expression of terror written clearly on her face.

"Sunny! Sunny! Wake up!"

Instantly coming back to his senses, he jumped to his feet and summoned the Midnight Shard, afraid that they were under attack.

However, there was no one around except for panicked Cassie and wary Nephis, who was in a similar pose, her sword raised and ready to strike.

Confused, Sunny looked at the blind girl.

"Cassie? What's the matter?"

Grabbing him by the shoulders again, she brought her face close and whispered in a begging tone:

"Sunny, you have to stop it! Please! You are the only one who can!"

He frowned, failing to understand what exactly he was supposed to stop.

'Did she see another vision?'

Trying to calm her, he said in a measured tone:

"It's alright, Cassie. Slow down, breathe. Tell us what happened. Start from the beginning…"

She desperately shook her head.

"There's no time! I will forget soon! We all will! But you, you have to remember!"

'We will all forget soon? What does she mean?'

Not able to see Sunny's dazed expression, Cassie yelled:

"You have to remember, Sunny! Five! It's five! Remember! You have to remember! It's five!"

Remember… five?

The blind girl was not making any sense. Sunny carefully put his arm around her, feeling how scared she was from her shaking body.

"Alright, Cas. I promise I'll remember. Five, right? See, it's pretty hard to forget."

Nephis was looking at them with a frown, not neglecting to scan the surroundings for any signs of danger from time to time. For some reason, Cassie was only talking to Sunny, not paying her any attention.

What was it that she thought Sunny could do, but Changing Star could not?

Hearing his answer, the blind girl calmed down a little. However, she was still terrified.

"Good. Good. Remember, it's five. You promised…"

Her voice sounded quieter and quieter, as though she was not sure of what she was saying. Sunny was barely able to discern her mumbling.

"…the more complex a thought, the harder it will be to hold on to it. That's why I can only tell you this one word, the simplest thing to impart… when the right time comes, it might change things…"

Carefully choosing his words, Sunny hesitantly asked:

"Cassie? Can you tell us what happened, exactly?"

Hearing his voice, the blind girl flinched and raised her head to face him.

There were still traces of fear in her eyes, but mostly, it had been replaced by confusion.

"Huh? Did something happen?"

Sunny blinked.

Wasn't she the one who woke them up in a panic?

'Wait… why did she wake us up, to begin with?'

For some reason, he had trouble remembering the details of the past few minutes. The conversation they just had was already hazy in his memory.

'I guess I'm still groggy from waking up so abruptly. Lack of sleep affects concentration…'

"You wanted to tell us something. It had to do with the… uh… number five?"

Cassie raised her eyebrows.

"Five? Why five?"

Sunny didn't know what to say. He was going to ask the same question.

"I have no clue."

Perplexed, he looked at Nephis, hoping that she will be able to clear the situation.

Changing Star was standing a few steps away with a distracted expression on her face. Sensing his gaze, she stared at him and asked:

"Why do you have your sword out?"

Sunny glanced at the Midnight Shard and tried to remember what had caused him to summon the Memory.

"Uh… I'm not sure. Why did you summon yours?"

Nephis looked down, as though noticing the sword in her hands for the first time. An expression of doubt appeared on her face.

'What's wrong with our heads today?'

Understanding that it was pointless to expect help from Nephis, Sunny sighed and turned back to Cassie:

"Did you see another vision?"

The blind girl trembled. Her eyes opened wide, once again filled with fear.

"A vision… yes, I saw a vision. An awful, awful vision…"

"What did you see?"

She was silent for a few moments, trying to remember. A deep frown appeared on her face. Finally, Cassie quietly said:

"I saw… a mountain… a mountain of corpses. Countless bodies piled on each other until they formed a bloodsoaked hill. And at the top of it, a tiny black seed was floating in a pool of blood… "

She grew silent, then continued:

"That was the past, I think. But then I saw the future… a future. It was us. Oh, gods! We were… we were…"

Her voice trembled. As though not daring to say something aloud, Cassie stopped.

Sunny waited for a while, then carefully asked:

"We were what?"

The blind girl turned to him in confusion.

"What?"

He scratched the back of his head. What were they just talking about?

"You were… uh… telling us about your vision. I think?"

Cassie frowned.

"...What vision?"

To his embarrassment, Sunny wasn't sure either. He just remembered something about the number five and… a seed?

For some reason, he felt as though that number was very important. But why? He had no idea.

"I forgot."

Suddenly, Nephis, who was standing nearby, lowered her hands and dismissed the sword that she had been holding for some reason. Looking at them with a bit of confusion, she hesitantly asked:

"Why are you guys awake? We need to rest. Something might get attracted by the demon's corpse, so we'd better return to peak condition as soon as possible."

Distracted and already forgetting about the conversation with Cassie, Sunny blinked a couple of times, shrugged, and decided to go back to sleep. None of this made sense anyway. They were probably struck dumb by exhaustion…

He felt so tired.

…A few hours later, when the shadow noticed the winged creature circling around the island, he awoke again. By that time, the memory of Cassie's warning was so fragmented and hazy that it seemed like a strange dream.

But the seed was already planted deep into his subconscious.

And now that it had blossomed, Sunny was finally able to fight through the haze of oblivion and remember everything.