"Shhh, baby... shhhhh. It's for your own good, sweetheart. Just bear with it a little. It will all be over soon..."
Her mother was smiling, as if genuinely believing that she was doing her best to help her daughter. Her tone was gentle and kind, no different from how she had soothed Cassie decades ago, when she was a little child.
"M—mom..."
Cassie's voice trembled. She was still frozen, not knowing what to do. She did not even feel the pain, her thoughts scattered and encased in ice.
‘When... when did it start? How much of her memories will I have to erase to cleanse her of the Dreamspawn's influence? Can... can I cleanse them?’
Cassie was still motionless when the door opened, and she heard the sound of soft footsteps approaching them across the carpet.
Her mother looked up, her smile widening. “Lord Asterion? Oh, thank the gods! Please, hurry! We need help!"
Cassie shuddered.
A tall man had entered her childhood home with a slight, friendly smile illuminating his captivating face.
He had to be in his late forties by now, but he did not look older than thirty. His tan skin was smooth and flawless, and his disheveled black hair fell to his shoulders, as if having absorbed the heat of the sun.
His eyes were of a stunning amber shade, almost golden... or maybe they were golden, after all, glistening strikingly while reflecting the light.
Cassie did not care about how the man looked, however.
All she could think about was the overpowering presence that enveloped the world when he appeared, pressing her into the ground.
It was as if the world had become a thin film floating on the surface of an endless, infinitely hungry abyss.
"You..."
He was Asterion, the Dreamspawn.
The eldest Sovereign of humanity... and perhaps the most harrowing.
Asterion was in her home, in the flesh. ‘H-how?'
How was he here? Why?
As Cassie struggled to come to terms with reality, Asterion reached them and patted her mother on the shoulder. His friendly smile was a little humorous, and a little warm.
"Why, naturally. I am here, so of course I should help.’
He gently pushed the woman away and crouched near Cassie, looking at her with a wry expression.
His voice was calm.
“I think we've yet to finish our conversation, young lady. Haven't we? Ah, where
were we...
Cassie did not move, painfully aware of the fact that she would not be able to fight a Supreme. Much more importantly, she would not be able to protect her mother if they were to fight.
She licked her suddenly dry lips and opened her mouth to speak. But before she could even ask her question, Asterion already answered it, having read it in her mind. "What do I want? Well, that should be obvious."
He chuckled and placed his hands on her shoulders.
As her mother watched them with a relieved expression, the Dreamspawn spoke in a kind tone:
“I want to eliminate a little problem before it becomes too tedious. I want to cut Ariadne's string. We can't have people escaping the Labyrinth before its unfortunate occupant ate his fill, can we?"
Cassie filled her mind with every song she could think of, drowning her thoughts in a torrent of disjointed lyrics.
Asterion grinned.
"Cute."
With that, he raised his hand and brought it to Cassie's face. She felt his fingers brushing across her cheek, almost tenderly...
And then, an impossible, devastating pain exploded in her head, making her struggle desperately in his iron, inescapable grip. Cassie screamed.
Something wet and hot spilled down her face, and as her mother let out an amazed gasp, Asterion dug out her left eye from its socket with his bare fingers.
Tearing it out, he peered into the mesmerizing blue depths of its iris and sighed wistfully.
“Such pretty eyes. Ah... what a shame..."
He crushed the bleeding eye in his fist, turned to Cassie, and smiled.
“It's a pity, really”
With that, he reached for her right eye, as well.
Before he could reap it out, however, there was a subtle shift in the air, and Asterion whipped around.
His hand shot forward, grabbing a flying rapier that had streaked across the room, aimed at the back of his neck.
“Huh?"
The slender blade trembled defiantly in his crushing grasp, straining to break free.
A moment later, it shattered with a mournful ring, the shards exploding into a whirlwind of sparks.
As Cassie cried out, pushing the tall man away, the Spell whispered into her ear: [Your Echo has been destroyed.]
‘No!’
“You weren't really..."
Before Asterion could finish the sentence, a storm of glistening tendrils suddenly rushed at him like a tide. He frowned slightly, rising to his feet, and easily brushed them away. One of the tendrils wrapped itself around Cassie, though, while another wrapped itself around her mother.