Deep Sea Embers

A new servant has arrived.

As if this sentence activated some kind of mechanism, with the low and muffled voice coming into the ears, countless shadowy silhouettes suddenly appeared in the darkness in front of the eyes of the Annihilation Cultist—a glimmer of light from nowhere flickered in the air. In the air, an unusually open and simple and elegant hall is illuminated!

He widened his eyes, and saw that the hall was as gorgeous as a palace, but it seemed as old as it had been abandoned for decades. He saw a curved staircase spiraling up at the end, connecting the high corridor and platform, a huge The tall pillars stood looming in the gloom, and from the tops of the pillars hung beautiful curtains, swaying gently in the breeze coming from nowhere, and the walls around the hall were dark and empty windows-the openings seemed to be evil. The huge mouth of the beast, there is no light outside the window, the window itself is tightly blocked by criss-crossing steel, and a huge oil painting that cannot be seen clearly is hung between the windows. There are no specific figures or scenery on the painting, only filled with A spooky patch of color.

The Annihilation Cultist looked at the scene in front of him in astonishment, and then suddenly realized that the sense of restraint on his hands and feet had disappeared at some point. He took two steps forward, feeling that his body was back under his control, and then subconsciously called out Looking at the demon that lived with his soul.

However, there was only a hollow whistling in the soul, and the ghost demon that accompanied him for many years seemed to have never existed, and nothing responded to his call.

"Squire, forward, come to the end of the rug."

The low, muffled voice sounded again, this time it even came directly from my mind.

"Who is it?!" The Annihilation Cultists widened their eyes in horror, looking around the gorgeous but strangely empty hall of the bungalow, but they didn't see anyone in their field of vision.

He raised his head again and looked towards the end of the hall - a dark red carpet stretched from his feet to the distance, and at the end of the carpet was the staircase leading to the second floor along an arc like flying wings.

For some reason, when he looked there, his legs moved uncontrollably—as if in order to obey the voice he heard just now, he walked towards the end of the carpet, and walked a few meters away from the stairs. The place stopped.

A figure suddenly appeared there.

It was a body in a black dress—a headless body.

The body was standing upright in front of the stairs, the dress on his body was meticulous, a corner of the folded handkerchief could still be seen in the breast pocket, and a fine gold chain of a pocket watch was protruding from the other pocket, his Holding a copper bell in one hand, and stretching the other hand forward—that posture, like a butler welcoming newcomers, a trusted manager who manages a bungalow.

But he didn't have a head, and on the body in the black dress, there was only a bare neck, like... the joint of a puppet.

"This... what is this place!?"

The "new attendant" said with a trembling voice. He couldn't remember why he came to this closed big bungalow, nor could he remember his name and origin. He only felt a kind of instinctive fear, a kind of The strange feeling was eroding his heart little by little. He looked at the headless butler in front of him and mustered up the courage to ask. While making his voice, whispering voices and the feeling of being spied on came from all directions.

He turned back in astonishment, looking at the scene in the hall——

Figures dressed as attendants and maids were busy in the hall. They were obviously the servants who took care of the huge bungalow. These servants would stop when they passed the stairs, as if they were looking at the new couple curiously.

Low voices of discussion came from their chests—because none of these servants had heads.

On their necks, there are only smooth bulbous protrusions, which seem to be the connecting parts of dolls, showing a texture between wood and ceramics.

The "new attendant" looked at the servants busy in the hall in astonishment, feeling a little dazed for a while.

Were there so many people here before? When I first came to this hall, was it so lively?

"This is Alice's mansion, and you are the new servant here," the dull voice of the "butler" suddenly sounded, interrupting the new servant's distraction, "Come with me, your next post is upstairs."

The new servant nodded subconsciously, and then walked behind the headless butler. He subconsciously glanced down, and found that he had also put on the clothes of a servant at some point—the same as the male servants in the hall.

His mind became more and more muddled, and more and more memories were being pulled out of this body, as if it was something "no longer needed", an impurity that hindered him from performing his duties as a servant in this bungalow.

Every time he stepped on a step, the hesitation and hesitation became less and less. At the beginning, he still vaguely remembered that he did not belong here, and then, he only remembered that he seemed to be trapped in a strange bungalow. When the second floor was only a few steps away, he only remembered what the housekeeper told him——

After taking the last step, he raised his head and looked at the platform in front of him and the corridor inside the platform.

Several servants were passing by in the corridor, and although they had no sight, the "new servant" still felt the sense of peeping.

"Why is everyone looking at me?"

"Because you are the first servant with a head," the butler stopped, turned around, and there seemed to be a smile in his voice, "Besides, there have been no newcomers here for many years."

"What am I going to do?" the new attendant asked cautiously.

"Serve our mistress, become a member here, you will naturally know what to do, but before that, you should go say hello to the mistress..."

The butler slowly raised his arm, pointing to a black door at the end of the corridor.

"Go ahead, push open that door and say hello to the hostess."

The new attendant nodded, turned and walked towards the gate.

His steps were steady, his expression gradually calmed down, his limbs swayed, and finally became as stiff and rigid as those servants in the hall. He came to the door, stretched out his hands, and glanced calmly at the The wrist that turned into a ball joint—it pushed the door open with a slight force.

The puppet took a step forward.

In an elegant bedroom that can almost be described as huge, a gorgeous big bed is placed in the center of the room, surrounded by intricately patterned curtains and fringed curtains, the silver-haired doll lies quietly on the bed, falling into a dream .

And beyond that bed, at the end of the bedroom, where the wall should have been, there is only a vast expanse of darkness—it seems to lead to a remote and deep space, where the floor, wall and roof present a fragmented gesture , the chaotic dark phantom and countless flickering light spots in the distance slowly undulate, turning into grotesque light and shadow phantoms, agitating silently at the end of the bedroom, whispering and wandering in the darkness.

The surging darkness and light spots are like the strange dreams of the puppet, and it seems that it is an invisible thing trying to invade this bungalow, blocked from reality by the puppet's deep sleep.

The new attendant who had turned into a puppet stood at the door of the bedroom, staring dully at the beautiful puppet sleeping soundly on the bed, and the undulating darkness behind the puppet—then it bent down and respectfully saluted the mistress.

Some bright silk threads stretched out from his limbs, floated in the air, and disappeared in an instant.

The new attendant bent over like this, and slowly backed away until he exited the room. The door of sleeping Alice was slammed shut in front of his eyes, making a low and majestic roar.

But the squire's face never changed again.

The puppet bent down, took out a handkerchief from his pocket, and gently wiped the ornaments near the gate.

...

"Plop—"

"Wow--"

The sound of heavy objects falling to the ground resounded at the entrance of the alley. The Annihilation Cultist who had just tried to escape suddenly fell from mid-air. He made a loud noise when he landed, and his body was instantly smashed into pieces like porcelain, even his clothes were no exception. .

Not a trace of blood can be seen in the broken porcelain pieces, as if he was just a fired doll from the beginning—flesh and blood, just his half-life illusion.

Alice was taken aback for an instant: "Wow!"

A gust of whistling sounded behind her. Fan Na had already rushed to the entrance of the alley. She stared dumbfounded at the scene in front of her. She was stunned for a long time before turning her head to look at the puppet next to her: "This...you did it?"

"...I don't know," Alice blinked, and looked back a little dullly, "Um...probably?"

"What do you mean?!"

"It was me who caught his thread and gave it a hard push—he started it first, and I was a little scared..." Alice said inconsequentially, gesticulating as she spoke, and her explanation was very effective. Two sentences made Fan Na even more confused, "Do you understand?"

"...I don't understand," Fan Na shook her head, then glanced back at the depths of the alley, where there was a mass of charred wreckage that was emitting faint black smoke, "Damn it, the priest I dealt with didn't understand in the end." Open your mouth, the one on your side was simply broken, and there was no information left in the end."

"That means the captain will be dissatisfied?"

"It's too late to think about this, we have to get out of here," Fan Na spoke quickly, "There's too much movement, even if it's not in the central city, the night watch team should have reacted."

While talking, she raised her head and looked at the mansion not far away.