As both of them were pulled away, a graceful figure in a flowing red dress revealed itself from the darkness, moving toward the Sovereign with an eerie and inhuman smoothness. Her narrow back obscured his menacing figure as Cassie embraced her mother and shielded her.
Then, her back met the wall of the house and shattered it. Both of them were thrown into the street, rolling across the pavement in a shower of debris. Cassie tried to protect her mother as best she could, but there was no saving her from minor wounds.
‘We need to run.
Her mother tried to resist weekly, but Cassie hoisted her up and rushed away, torrents of blood still streaming down her face. Even blinded by white-hot pain, she knew that the situation was desperate. No, actually, she was in shock, failing to truly comprehend the full extent of what had happened... of what had been done to her. But she knew that they did not have a lot of time left.
Cassie only managed to take a few steps when the Spell spoke to her again.
[You Echo has been destroyed.]
She staggered.
‘Torment...'
Behind her, Asterion walked out through the broken wall, holding a head that seemed to have been savagely ripped off the neck in his hand. He raised the red veil with a bloodied finger and looked underneath curiously, then shivered and threw the head away as it dissolved into a torrent of red sparks.
Cassie gritted her teeth and continued running.
The full force of his Will descended upon her, then, making it seem like she had to run for a full minute to move forward just a single meter.
Asterion, however, caught up with her without much trouble despite walking at a leisurely pace.
“That's quite enough, young lady.’
He pushed her lightly, and she fell to her knees.
Cassie took a deep breath, shielded her mom from him, and looked up.
One of her eyes was missing, and her deathly pale face was awash in blood.
However...
There was a vicious smile playing on her lips.
She spoke in a hoarse voice:
“Yes... indeed. That is quite enough. Looking down at her defiant smile from above, the Dreamspawn frowned.
Then, his expression changed subtly.
And at the same time, a cold wind blew across the empty street. Every shadow around them suddenly seemed infinitely darker, terrifying, and unfathomably deep. A chilling, ferocious killing intent washed over Asterion.
In a vast area around them, all the trees suddenly quaked, their leaves withering away and falling to the ground. The grass turned yellow, then rotted away as if stricken by blight.
The shadows moved.
Asterion sighed.
"Oh... it seems I wasn't quick enough”
He looked down and shook his head.
“It's this eerie world. I have almost forgotten how suffocating it was, fighting against its laws just to exist."
He shook his head again and offered Cassie one last smile.
“Ah, I'd love to continue... but it's not the right time just yet. It was nice meeting you, young Cassia. Until next time, then."
With that, he took a step back.
And then, a towering rift of a Dream Gate sliced the fabric of reality in the heart of NQSC, plummeting down to cut the road in half.
As the rift widened, the hungry abyss she had felt before was revealed in its depths in all its harrowing madness, and Cassie let out a quiet whine, trying to crawl away from it against her will.
As two soft hands reached for her from the shadows, the memory ended. Perhaps because she finally fainted, having lost too much blood.
..The being let go of the memory, still feeling the pain etched into it, and pushed it away.
It was reeling.
‘Cassia... Cassie.'
Song of the Fallen.
Yes... that was her name...