Deep Sea Embers

In a forest clearing illuminated by the sun, Nina and Morris stopped and looked at the tall man who seemed to suddenly appear from the air and was standing in front of the fork in the forest with an expression of surprise. figure.

"Didn't you receive the order to retreat?" After a moment of surprise, the elf girl wearing a light hunting suit and holding a strange long-handled weapon said. Her voice was as beautiful as a clear spring in the forest, "You guys Why are you still lingering outside the wall of silence?”

Nina and Morris looked at each other quietly, then nodded to each other.

"Uncle Duncan," Nina said in the back of her mind, "we have a third 'Shireen' here... yes, she also mentioned the Wall of Silence."

Morris quickly adjusted his expression, nodded to the elf girl who suddenly appeared at the edge of the clearing, and said calmly: "We have not received any news... What is the situation now?"

The elf girl frowned, as if she was a little surprised by Morris' "ignorance", but the surprise soon faded from her face: "The situation is very bad, the erosion is spreading outside the wall of silence, and currently there is only silence in the country It is safe within the walls - we still have not found the whereabouts of the Creator, and all elves must now return to the Silent Wall immediately and accept the protection of Silantes."

Still haven’t found the whereabouts of the Creator? !

Morris instantly noticed these words that contained a lot of information, but he quickly controlled his expression and nodded seriously: "Then can you take us to the 'Wall of Silence'?"

"Of course, you are lucky to meet a 'ranger' like me," the elf girl nodded immediately, "I may be the last ranger patrolling outside the wall - follow me, Before there are any signs of erosion here.”

As she spoke, she turned around and walked deeper into the forest, but after taking a few steps, she suddenly stopped and turned back slightly: "By the way, my name is Shirin... please remember this name."

Morris and Nina quickly exchanged glances, and then nodded in unison.

The elf girl named "Shirin" turned around and continued to lead the two uninvited guests behind her toward the depths of the forest, toward... the "wall of silence" she kept mentioning.

…

After trekking in the forest for an unknown amount of time, Shirley even began to doubt one thing: Does that place called the "Wall of Silence" really exist?

She couldn't remember how long she had been following the elf in front of her, nor could she tell how far she had moved in the forest - in her eyes, everything in the forest was the same, except for trees, just trees. Occasionally, you can see fallen tree trunks among the dead branches and leaves, stones blocking the road, and streams, which are rare "landscapes" on the road.

The scenery was boring, and the road was even more difficult to walk. The forest floor covered with rotten leaves was soft and rugged. The vines, thorns, and roots that appeared from time to time could easily trip people up. She had thought that the narrow pits in the slums in the lower city were The alleys cut to pieces by steam and gas pipes were already the most difficult roads in the world, but now she discovered that for humans, even the most dilapidated corners of towns are far away. Friendly than this purest "nature".

What does the captain have to say...is this called "the transforming power of civilization"?

Shirley was thinking wildly in her mind, and even miraculously recalled what she had learned in class. Then she raised her head again and looked at the elf who was leading the way.

Shireen's steps were always flying. This rugged and difficult forest was like a part of her own body. She walked through the annoying trees and vines as freely as the wind blew through the courtyard.

Shirley finally stopped.

Shireen also stopped instantly - the elf girl didn't look back at all, but she seemed to feel it the first time Shirley stopped.

"How far is it from here to the 'Wall of Silence'?" Shirley asked proactively before the other party spoke.

"It's still far away, the Wall of Silence is far away," Shireen answered seriously, but her answer was as if she hadn't said it, "We can't rest for too long, we have to return to Silendis as soon as possible. We need to stay under shelter... before the erosion catches up."

"What's going on with that 'erosion phenomenon'?" Shirley thought for a while and finally asked the question that had made her curious all along.

She never asked because she was worried that this too "basic" question would irritate the elf girl in front of her. According to Miss Lucretia, "Shireen" is a "native mind" that operates in dreams. Shirley didn't quite understand what native mind was, but she roughly understood that it was a difficult thing to deal with. She accidentally mentioned knowledge beyond the "boundary", mentioned information outside of dreams, and even just asked a few more questions. Any problem may lead to mental problems.

Shirley is no stranger to this kind of "out of order". When she was taking extra classes with Alice, she would get into trouble when she heard knowledge beyond her understanding - the main symptom was fragmented thinking.

She used her own way to understand the concepts Lucretia explained to her, and believed that if she raised questions that she shouldn't ask, it would also lead to the fragmentation of the elf girl named "Shireen".

She had been trying to avoid it.

But after being in contact with her for a period of time, Shirley discovered that this "Shireen" seemed not as "unstable" as she first imagined.

Or to put it another way - this elf is a little too stable.

Even if she mentioned some weird questions, Shireen would simply ignore them. Except for the matter of "taking lost people to the Silent Wall", this elf seemed not to be affected by anything else at all.

So after traveling for a period of time, Shirley began to boldly ask the elf various questions. Most of them did not get any nutritious answers, but sometimes... casually You will be pleasantly surprised if you ask questions.

"The erosion... occurred after the disappearance of the Creator," Shireen stopped. Different from ignoring most of the previous cases, she answered Shirley's question seriously this time, "We don't know what it is, but it It will swallow up and twist things in the forest, turning them into... incomprehensible shapes, which is very dangerous."

"After the Creator disappeared? The Creator disappeared?!" Shirley's eyes widened instantly. Although she didn't listen very carefully during class, she usually listened carefully when the captain chatted with other people. Of course, she also knew the legend of the elves. What's going on, "Is the creator you are talking about...Saslokar?"

As soon as the words came out of her mouth, Shirley felt a little inappropriate. It seemed that she shouldn't call the "Great Demon God" by his name so directly. This might probably irritate the elf in front of her - but she soon realized that she was thinking too much.

Shireen didn't seem to notice that Shirley was calling the Lord God directly. She was just immersed in some inexplicable sentimentality, with her eyes lowered: "The Creator will come back. He is just patrolling the border, but this time He goes A little further away... Before He returns, Silendis will use the Wall of Silence to protect all the elves... Silendis will wait until He returns."

For some reason, Shirley always felt that Shireen's last words had a self-hypnotic meaning.

But before she had time to ask any more questions, she saw Shireen, who was immersed in sentimentality and in a daze a second ago, suddenly raised her head. The elf girl's eyes suddenly became sharp at some point, and she tensed Holding the long-handled battle ax tightly in his hand, he raised his head and looked in a certain direction deep in the forest.

Shirley became nervous instantly: "Ah? What happened?"

"Shh!" Shirin lowered her voice, "Something dirty has entered the forest..."

Dirty?

Shirley was startled for a moment, and then she heard the rustling sounds coming from the nearby bushes, deep in the earth, deep in the shadows of the trees, and even from the air.

It was as if many strange and vicious things crawling in the shadows were gradually gathering. Substantial malice and a skin-numbing sense of voyeurism suddenly appeared in the dense forest. Shirley felt that Agou was coming to her instantly. Received a huge amount of sensory shared information - and in the powerful perception provided by the deep hound, she saw the things that were constantly "seeping" into the forest.

Tentacles composed of pure shadows are gathering in all directions!

They are the remnants of the Sun's Children... not the Annihilation Cult! ?

Shirley was stunned for a moment. She still clearly remembered that when she first entered the forest this time, Agou clearly said that it could feel the residual aura of the Annihilation Cult, but why was it that the first thing she encountered was this group of monsters following the Black Sun? ?

However, this shock only appeared in her heart for a moment. Shirley reacted immediately and entered a fighting state. She tensed her muscles and paid attention to the direction where the dark tentacles gathered, while whispering to Shirin beside her. : "Be careful, these guys can move with the help of shadows, and they are very durable, especially difficult to kill!"

Before she finished speaking, she saw layers of ripples starting to float under the shade of a tree not far away. Those tentacles hidden in the shadows began to quickly condense into tall and thin humanoid figures, and appeared one after another. out of the entity.

However, what Shirley was waiting for was the moment they condensed into human form.

The next second, the chains were tightened and the wind was howling. Shirley suddenly took a few steps towards the figure closest to her, rounded her arms with all her strength and turned into a meteor dog!

Agou flew out like a huge meteor hammer, hitting the first remnant of the sun that appeared without any reservation. With a muffled sound like hammering to pieces of flesh, the tall and thin figure Before he had time to observe the environment in the dream world, he was smashed into a large exploding mass of corrupted flesh.

And almost at the same time, around Shirley and Shirin, in the dense forest and bushes with intertwined shadows, tall and thin figures began to emerge one after another...