Deep Sea Embers

Everywhere.

After the landing team left the coastal shoals and advanced some distance toward the interior of Holy Land Island, the mind-numbing sight finally appeared in everyone's eyes.

Humanoid figures formed from dark mud can be seen everywhere, as if they have been swallowed up by the surrounding environment. They are "embedded" in various places - the ground, walls, roadside boulders, and even tree trunks. They have completely merged with those swallowed up by the surrounding environment. The things with them merged into one, like countless weird and horrifying sculptures, standing still on this holy island where there is no living person anymore, and the struggling posture displayed by each "sculpture" tells everyone one fact -

"They" were once alive.

Shirley's scalp felt numb, and the dark bodies that could emerge from the mist at any time and fuse with the walls or the ground gave her goosebumps all over her body. She folded her arms and cautiously followed Duncan, while working hard Avoiding the struggling limbs or heads on the road, he muttered: "Those cultists... are all dead? Are they all dead here? Then are those things we saw on the sea when we came here before? Isn't that right? Is this the end of the entire Annihilation Sect?"

"Annihilation cultists in other parts of the world are still active. They have infiltrated countless city-states, but they are not so easy to eliminate." Vanna frowned and said casually while paying attention to her surroundings, "But at least the annihilation of this 'Holy Land' There should be no believers alive... This fanatical dark sect has finally suffered a serious blow... This is at least good news."

"Good news, but it's hard to relax," Morris said cautiously. "The key now is not how many Annihilation cultists died here, but how they died and how they ended up like this..."

Morris paused for a moment and looked up at the surrounding buildings that were shadowy in the fog: "This is the 'Holy Land' that they have been operating for countless years. They use it as a haven to avoid being tracked by the church, and even built towns and ports here. This shows that this border island has always been a safe and stable place...at least until the island started to swallow them up."

"Swallow..." Shirley subconsciously repeated the words used by the old scholar. She suddenly became nervous and stared at her feet. "This place won't 'eat' us too, right? Will the ground suddenly collapse?" Just fall into it, and then we will become like those things..."

This is obviously not just Shirley's worry, tension is also brewing among the Marines - even though those who come here are elites from the church, and they are also "professionals" who specialize in dealing with various abnormal phenomena in border areas. "People", but when facing this strange situation on the Holy Land Island, it is inevitable to feel nervous.

But just when Duncan was about to say something, Alice, who was walking next to him, spoke first: "No."

Shirley didn't realize that Miss Doll was answering her own question: "Huh?"

"It won't be swallowed," Alice said casually, "because the restoration process has ended and the place is now stable again."

The procession suddenly stopped.

Duncan realized something and stared into Alice's eyes: "Did you 'see' something again?"

Alice stopped slowly, and after hearing the captain's words, she showed a confused expression: "Huh?"

Next to her, Shirley immediately spoke: "The restoration process has ended, as you just said."

"...What restoration program? I didn't say anything just now..." Alice scratched her hair, her blank expression not showing up at all (of course she couldn't do such a difficult thing), "...you all What are you looking at me for?"

Duncan stared at Alice for a while. He knew that the doll would never lie to him, so in the end he just nodded slowly and quickly exchanged glances with Morris and Vanna beside him.

"There's no additional mental response nearby," Morris said.

"Let's keep walking." Duncan nodded and led the team deeper into the island. At the same time, he quietly got closer to Alice, keeping an eye on the doll's condition.

The landing team soon passed through the road in the center of the small port. After passing through a condensed white fog, they came to an open square.

Fanna frowned and looked around: "...It's hard to imagine that those cultists can actually build such a place. I really don't know how long it took them to build everything here."

Rough black humanoid shapes that have been "embedded" on the ground and "melted" with the surrounding things can still be seen everywhere in the square.

Judging from the postures of the half-exposed human bodies and their distribution, it seems that when a certain event occurs, these people have the last few or ten minutes to escape - they rush from the interior of the island to the At the seaport, all the "human bodies" in the square are facing the coast, and some of them seem to have tried to use magic, or the power of "magic" to save themselves. The ground around these rough humanoids appears to be stained by acid or From the traces of explosion damage, it seemed that they were not dead in the first moments of being devoured, and they tried to "dig" themselves out with rough and desperate means - but this had no effect at all.

They all turned into chilling black "sculptures" in the square. This process of "transformation" may be the direct cause of their death.

Duncan walked slowly through these strange black "sculptures".

Suddenly, he stopped and his eyes fell on one of the "humanoid roughs".

Fanna immediately noticed: "Captain?"

"This, it just moved." Duncan came to the rough humanoid with only the upper body exposed on the ground, and whispered while staring at it.

And right under his eyes, the pitch-black figure moved a little bit - it seemed to be raising its head stiffly and slowly, and slowly reaching forward.

Very, very slowly, its movement is almost imperceptible to the naked eye unless you stare closely.

It is still slowly "escaping" towards the coast!

Shirley instantly felt like her whole body was on fire.

She even suddenly felt that the other rough humanoids around her began to move. She felt that they were all still alive, and that they were all slowly struggling towards the coast. She also felt that their spherical heads without facial features seemed to be turning towards her. Come over, invisible eyes are focusing on yourself!

She felt her heart beating wildly, and the tension that had been accumulating since she landed on the island seemed to be immersed in every blood vessel. She felt a sharp tingling in the arm connected to Agou. ——This reminded her of the time when she had just completed symbiosis with Agou and her body was not used to it yet, but she had not felt this kind of pain for many years.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw chains.

Countless chains, extending from the "humanoid rough parts" swallowed by the ground, were slowly growing in the void, seeming to want to wrap around themselves, or around Agou. She could no longer distinguish herself. The "difference" between Agou and Agou, she felt that her thoughts were getting mixed up with Agou. She felt that she had become an "individual"... close to Agou, and Agou... its Humanity and wisdom are slowly transforming into something else...

"...We dug too deep..."

A voice that seemed like countless overlapping voices penetrated into Shirley's mind, rumbling like it was trying to drill a hole in her memory.

Countless illusory chains spread from all directions on the Holy Land Island, quietly linking her and Agou.

"...We dug to the source..."

Shirley slowly raised her head. She was a little confused but instinctively looked in a certain direction in the interior of Holy Land Island, as if she was strongly attracted by something there.

“…we are the same as they are…the Source reveals to us a truth…”

Countless storm-like fragments penetrated into Shirley's consciousness. Among the chaotic and flickering light and shadow fragments, bizarre "impressions" passed through her memory - the extinguished sun, the turbid skylight, the roaring and loud noises in the fog, the ecstasy. Believers, guidance, revelations, excavations, holy caves, secret rooms, dazzling lights, alarms, creeping shadows, suddenly... the holy island came to life.

The island is alive.

They dug something they shouldn't have dug - while the sun was going out.

The layers of voices are still roaring in my mind. A "truth", a "truth" that instantly caused all the Annihilation cultists on the Holy Land Island to be contaminated and transformed into humanoid rough bodies, is being poured into Shirley bit by bit. In the consciousness——

"...Humans are a type of highly differentiated deep demons. Deep demons are primitive molds that were contained in the deep sea because they were unable to be infused with humanity and wisdom..."

Shirley slowly opened her eyes.

Through her and Agou's shared vision, she saw the world clearly for the first time.

But I only saw it for a moment.

At the moment when her humanity and reason were on the verge of collapse, she felt a warm flame light up in her soul - the dark creeping things and the torrent of incomprehensible information all over her eyes suddenly shrank and collapsed into a small island in the fog, and then she felt There was a big rough hand gently pressing on his hair.

She and Agou woke up suddenly at the same time, and then instinctively stepped back, trying to get away from the countless humanoid rough bodies here.

She accidentally tripped over the chain under her feet and fell backwards in embarrassment.

But the captain caught her skinny arm.

"It seems that you saw something," Duncan felt the feedback from the flame mark. After confirming that Shirley's sanity was gradually returning to stability, he said gently, "What did you see?"

"This island is alive!" Shirley finally woke up and her eyes widened suddenly, "We are standing on a piece of flesh from the Holy Lord Netherworld!"