Cassie shifted slightly, turning in the direction of Asterion's bark.
He must have known of Sunny's existence once, as well. And now, the man who built his kingdom by manipulating human minds was confronting the truth that his own mind had been tampered with, as well.
Cassie opened her mouth, intending to say something — anything. But no words came. She was too overwhelmed by the magnitude of the revelation... and by the emotional charge it delivered, blasting open all the doors she had built in her mind.
Tears streamed from her remaining eye, mixing with blood covering her face.
...It was then that the Spell whispered in her ear, making Cassie flinch.
Its voice sounded pleased.
Triumphant, even.
The Spell whispered:
[You have performed an act of defiance.]
[You have defied fate.]
[The fifth seal has been broken.]
Cassie's eye widened, but before she could process the proclamation of the Nightmare Spell, the vaguely familiar voice spoke again.
[You have received an Aspect Legacy.]
[Song of the Fallen! Prepare to receive the bequeathment...]
‘An Aspect Legacy? What...'
Just then, the Nightmare Spell presented her a boon — one worthy of her Aspect.
A harrowing boon that Cassie was not prepared to receive.
Her Aspect Legacy...
It was memories.
It was a boundless chronicle of memories that belonged to different people, different beings, both great and small. A chronicle of the world as it had been witnessed by those who populated its vast and terrifying expanse across countless eons — from the dawns of time in the Age of God... to today.
To what was happening right now, somewhere else.
And if Cassie had thought that her own memories flooding back were too overwhelming...
Then this calamitous boon was simply devastating.
It was a burden that no human mind — not even a Transcendent mind — could endure. Only the mind of a Supreme demigod could. Cassie wanted to scream, but found herself paralyzed.
She wanted to close her mind to the obliterating torrent of memories, but couldn't.
And so...
Her mind shattered.
That was the last thing Cassie remembered before finding herself in the ocean of broken memories. Before attempting to assemble herself back together from the countless shards.
‘Right.'
That was how it had happened.
That was how she had been broken. Drifting in the ocean of memories, Cassie finally knew who she was, how she had ended up in this state...
And what she had to do.
The tendrils of her Will plunged into the vast maelstrom of memory shards, drinking them all in.
Assembling her into a creature that could endure the burden of her Aspect... of her Domain.
Making her Supreme.