The Jade Palace was gone, too.
So was the Night Garden.
And the Ivory Tower, as well — Rain succeeded in breaking his connection to its Gateway, stealing the Great Citadel from beneath a Supreme just as she had promised to do.
Each of the Great Citadels only accounted for a small part of his tyrannical authority, considering that the spreading plague of his Domain did not rely on the Nightmare Spell. However, they still added to his power, so being robbed of all four was enough to make Asterion feel the loss.
And those four Great Citadels, while important, were insignificant in the grand scheme of all the things Asterion was losing.
The real attack was happening somewhere else, unseen and unwitnessed by anyone. It was happening within the minds of myriad people, where a furious battle between the Dreamspawn and Cassie was raging.
And Asterion...
Asterion was losing that battle.
That was because while he could manipulate human minds, Cassie could manipulate their memories. And memories were the foundation of the mind — without them, there was simply nothing for the Dreamspawn to twist and pervert. So, instead of trying to overpower his fearsome Aspect, she simply made his powers irrelevant.
All across the two worlds, people were being cleansed of the plague. Cassie erased their memories of knowing who Asterion was, of ever hearing his name... she tried to be deliberate about which memories she was destroying, but his influence was too ubiquitous by now.
In most cases, she simply had to erase everything that had happened since the Dreamspawn escaped his prison on the Moon.
But that was a blessing in disguise, as well. Because Cassie could work much faster without the need to be delicate... infinitely faster, even.
In these moments of intense concentration, her mind had become so vast that even she struggled to define its boundaries. Millions of perspectives all fused into a roaring ocean of sensations, all enthralling her with their vibrant intensity.
Then, billions of them.
Billions of minds, multiplied by a deep sea of memories contained within each of them... Cassie would have long lost her own self, forgetting the way back to her own body and her own perspective... to her own identity.
If not for the harrowing, unimaginable pain that originated in her empty eye socket and ravaged her entire being.
That vicious agony, that unbearable torment, was like a beacon in the darkness, vast and blinding enough as to be unmistakable.
Because her pain was unique, incomparable, and therefore could not belong to anyone else but her. Guided by the pain, Cassie remembered who she was as she erased the memories of who Asterion was from the collective consciousness of humanity.
That was the real attack — that was where the true assault on the Hunger Domain was happening, and as more and more people were cleansed of the plague, Asterion's power dwindled.
He knew it, as well.
Cassie was aware enough to see that the Dreamspawn was paying her attention, searching for a way to break through the barrier of death and destruction that the Mad Prince had built from his own incarnations to protect her.
And as she liberated more and more people from the mental vice of the Hunger Domain, his determination to eradicate her at all costs grew more and more firm — enough so that Asterion came to terms with losing a part of himself to the Sin of Solace if it meant stopping Cassie from continuing her exponential assault.
Asterion was significantly weakened by then — he had lost the four Great Citadels, and since Cassie focused on cleansing the Saints first, the Citadels they controlled were disappearing from the Hunger Domain, as well. Myriad humans were already free of the plague, and millions more were being healed of his vile power every moment. So, his authority was not as absolute anymore. However, the Mad Prince was also not in the best shape. Only two of his incarnations remained, by then, and both of them were severely wounded.
It was because he was fighting with one hand tied behind his back. In other circumstances, the Mad Prince would have lasted longer... would have found a way to overwhelm the dreadful Supreme, perhaps. Who knew? He was a killer who had experienced thousands of years of madness and slaughter, after all.
But that was precisely the problem. The Mad Prince was a natural killer, but today, he was not fighting to kill his enemy. Instead, he was fighting to protect someone — protect Cassie — and Asterion quickly learned to use that against him.
The Mad Prince could protect himself, but when Asterion aimed his wrath at Cassie, the loathsome Titan was forced to shield her to his own detriment. That was why he had been reduced to only having two incarnations now, and that was why Asterion seemed to be gaining an upper hand despite losing the Hunger Domain as they spoke.
And on top of that... even without his Domain, Asterion was still a monster who had absorbed four Divine Lineages.
Each Lineage provided an overall augmentation to the descendants of the gods — they were generally faster, stronger, and more resilient than most humans. That augmentation extended to the parts of them that were not physical, as well — their souls, their spirits, their minds.
The difference between those who had divine blood in their veins and ordinary people was marginal at first, but the Lineages grew more potent and extensively expressed as the inheritors climbed the Ranks, drawing closer and closer to becoming Divine.
And although the Lineages improved all aspects of a descendant's being, each also excelled in a specific area, which received a far greater augmentation than all the rest. The lineage of Sun God, for example, concerned the soul — it made Neph's soul far more resilient, while her essence was more potent and more plentiful... pure, powerful, and containing within itself boundless potential for both destruction and salvation.
Asterion did not possess the lineage of Sun God yet, but he did possess the lineages of Heart God, War God, Storm God, and Beast God.
The lineage of Beast God greatly enhanced his physical body. The lineage of Heart God greatly enhanced his spirit. The lineage of War God greatly enhanced his intellect and affinity for combat, while the lineage of Storm God enhanced his mystical senses, granting him incredible intuition and foresight.
That was what the Mad Prince was up against.
"Is it worth it?"
Asterion skirted the blade of the Sin of Solace and tossed a piece of obsidian at Cassie.
A rock tossed by a Supreme was annihilating enough to topple castles and pulverize warships, and she was too distracted by the ocean of foreign perspectives to skirt or deflect it in time.
So, the Mad Prince was forced to shield her from it, which in turn opened him up to a vicious attack.
Asterion’s palm connected with his chest, causing a shockwave.
Pieces of black stone fell from the fractured ceiling, and the Mad Prince fell to his knees, bloody foam flowing out of his mouth.
His gruesomely scarred face twisted into a demented smile.
“What?"
Asterion pressed his advantage, but the avatar had already disappeared into the shadows, another emerging from them instead with the tip of the Sin of Solace aimed at his heart.
"You can't kill me, and you are not strong enough to subdue me. So, you will be destroyed here, mere moments after you've been summoned back from beyond the grave. So is it worth it? Dying to protect this treacherous woman?"
The Mad Prince laughed.
"Treacherous? Ah... she and I are two of a kind. We go way back, Torment and I. Plus, do you take me for a fool?"
As one incarnation attacked Asterion from the front, the other emerged from the shadows behind him and delivered a debilitating attack.
Both spoke in unison, their eerie voices fusing into a maddening whisper:
“I might be mad, ghoul... but I am not a fool. She is the one who is manifesting me into existence, so why would I ever let you hurt her?"
He laughed again, sending a spray of bloody foam flying through the air.
"So what if you destroy me? The memories of me will remain in Torment's mind. I etched myself into her, and the scars she wears because of me can never be healed. Which means that she will summon me again, one day... and a new cycle will begin for me, no different from the Great River. Over, and over, and over again... until, one day, I escape."