Deep Sea Embers

The light and shadow suddenly collapsed again - the spacious hall and the huge device at the end of the hall suddenly collapsed into countless light and shadow fragments, and collapsed again like an avalanche into a dim cave. Everything seemed to be a short-lived dream, another reality. A chaotic projection of the world in the current dimension.

Yet Duncan knew that he really "saw" and could still see it.

He looked into the depths of the dim cave and blinked several times - in every extremely brief moment, every time he blinked, he could see something emerging at the moment when his eyelids closed and darkness fell. It's that grand hall.

He gradually realized that there were two realities superimposed here, superimposed deep underground on this holy island. The deeper "reality" could not be observed by ordinary means, but it would appear every time he blinked. within 0.002 seconds.

For no reason, the unit "0.002 seconds" appeared in Duncan's mind, and he was convinced that it was the exact time he saw the hall every time he blinked - a moment that was almost impossible to capture with the human eye, but it was enough to be reflected in his eyes. Perceiving.

He turned back and looked at the "relief" on the wall beside him. In the next blink of an eye, he saw a lifelike bird creature appearing in the sample storage tank. Then darkness surged up, reality switched, and it transformed again. As a relief on the wall - it is a ferocious and twisted "death bird".

Alice seemed to notice the change in Duncan's expression, and she suddenly became worried: "Captain? Are you okay... His expression suddenly looked so serious..."

"... LH-01 failed to put everything in the database into the shelter. Those that failed to be generated during the creation process stayed in the original 'incubation place'," Duncan suddenly said softly, "... This 'sanctuary' should have been larger and more complete, but it failed..."

Morris looked at Duncan in astonishment and suddenly reacted: "What did you touch?"

"There is another appearance here, that is what it was like before the Great Annihilation...but you can't see it or touch it." Duncan raised his hand and pressed it gently on the stone wall next to him. When the ghostly green spirit fire spread into When he saw the cracks in the rocks, he could vaguely feel that he was touching more than just these cold stones. "Two realities are superimposed here, but the one closer to the original form has been almost completely swallowed up by the Great Annihilation. It can only exist for a short time." Every time I blink."

Morris struggled to understand the incredible "state" described by Duncan, who had already raised his head and looked deeper into the cave.

"There should be a 'contact point' here," Duncan said solemnly. "Those cultists must have touched something here."

As he spoke, he took steps towards the darkness. With the green flames slowly spreading, he stepped towards the end of the "hall".

Morris and Alice immediately followed the captain.

…

Agou lowered his head tiredly and followed Shirley silently. The blood-colored glimmer in his eyes flickered on and off. The sound of the chain rubbing against the ground seemed to turn into some distant noise. It moved forward again. After walking for a while, I suddenly raised my head with some hindsight, only to find that Shirley had walked very far forward - the girl's back looked blurry, and the edges couldn't help shaking, as if something was unstable. Things were stacking on her body.

Agou shook his head. His empty mind seemed to have briefly lost the ability to think and judge. But in the next moment, he suddenly woke up again and found that he was following Shirley closely as usual - the two of them just now. The far-flung scene was like a grotesque illusion that dissipated in the blink of an eye.

Shirley lowered her head in confusion and saw Agou walking with her.

She felt some tingling in her arm again, and a burning sensation flowing toward her along the symbiotic chain, like... fresh blood.

"Agou?" She whispered hesitantly - not sure whether she made a sound or simply made a call from the bottom of her heart through the symbiotic link.

Agou didn't respond, and the only sounds that reached Shirley's ears were "plop" and "plop".

It sounded like a heartbeat.

Something's not right... I don't know what it is, but something's not right!

Shirley's whole body tensed up. The moment she realized something was wrong, she reacted and suddenly raised her head to look in the direction of the captain: "Captain! Agou's situation..."

There was no figure of the captain in sight.

In the dark cave, only her own voice echoed, and soon turned into a vague noise. The captain disappeared, and so did Morris and Alice. There were only her and Agou, as if they had never been there before. It was just them in the beginning.

Shirley gasped in an instant, and the huge and boundless darkness turned into an even bigger fear - this fear was so familiar that she once felt that she had forgotten this feeling that penetrated into the bone marrow, but now everything suddenly came to her. It reappeared in my mind - the smell of fire, smoke, blood, the sound of something collapsing, something gnawing at my own flesh and blood...

Her eyes widened in horror in the darkness. Bone spur-like structures emerged from her arms, shoulders and spine bit by bit. Bloody glimmer filled her eyes, causing everything in her field of vision to gradually become distorted, and became increasingly distorted. In her distorted perception, she heard a slightly unfamiliar voice suddenly coming from the side: "Shirley... I feel... a little cold..."

She slowly turned her head and looked in the direction of the sound.

Agou is sinking slowly - sinking in the soil and rocks, as if melting, its body is gradually being swallowed by the ground, and the ground seems to come alive, with sticky and slow ripples on the surface, and the ripples are like Containing billions of living things, Agou's figure sank little by little into those "living things", first the limbs, then the body, and now only the neck and part of the head are left.

It opened its mouth towards Shirley, and the bones opened and closed, as if it was struggling to say something, and it seemed to be trying to spit something out——

"Agou!!!"

The numb and stiff mind finally started to work, and Shirley finally remembered the name on the other end of the chain. She rushed towards the gradually revitalizing ground, pulling on the chain on her arm with all her strength while shouting: " Agou! I'll drag you out! Just hold on!"

However, her efforts could not stop Agou from sinking at all - just when the Dark Hound's head was about to be completely swallowed by the thick mud, a voice suddenly reached her ears.

"...Shirley, my father and I went to buy you a cake. Today is your birthday... When we come back, you won't be angry, okay?"

The girl was suddenly startled.

The sound coming from the other end of the chain briefly broke her sanity - and at the moment when her sanity was interrupted, she heard a crisp breaking sound.

There was a sudden lightness in the hand.

The figure of the Deep Hound completely disappeared into the mud. The heavy pull from the end of the chain suddenly disappeared, and Shirley stumbled backwards.

She saw the other end of the chain flying out of the mud - it had been broken. There was no familiar Agou at the end of the broken chain. Only two fist-sized things were carried out of the mud and landed one after another. beside her.

They were jumping on the ground as if they were still alive.

Those are two hearts.

Shirley stared at this scene blankly, as motionless as a sculpture.

The dark mud began to slowly surge, gathering from all directions. The illusion of a distant land seemed to appear in the mud, and countless strange and ferocious shadows floated around -

In the deep sea, countless demons noticed an uninvited guest approaching their dimension.

And in the more distant darkness, an extremely huge structure is sleeping. Its main body stretches across the broken earth like a mountain range, and its winding tentacles wrap around countless floating islands. Light surged on the surface of his body, and countless demons spawned from the surface of the tentacle, and were continuously devoured by it every moment.

However, Shirley didn't seem to see those approaching illusions - she sat blankly on the ground for a while, and finally slowly got up, crawled towards the two still beating hearts, then carefully picked them up and held them in her arms. In arms.

It had been a long time since she had held them.

"Dad...Mom..."

Darkness swarmed over her, and her figure disappeared into the deep sea.

…

Duncan suddenly turned his head and looked at the open space not far behind him.

A vague figure flickered there and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

He reacted instantly: "Something happened to Shirley!"

"Shirley!?" Morris, who was walking behind Duncan, was stunned when he heard this. It seemed that in this brief moment, he even forgot the name "Shirley", and the captain's words instantly reset his memory to the correct state. "Position", and then he raised his head belatedly and realized that there was one less person in the team... and a deep demon.

"Hey! She was walking next to me just now!" Alice also reacted at this time, looking at the place where Shirley and Agou were before with wide eyes, "I also heard her talking to Agou... "

Duncan's expression suddenly became solemn: "Didn't you notice when she disappeared?"

Morris and Alice shook their heads one after another.

Duncan frowned immediately, and after a very brief thought, he waved his hand violently in the air.

The green spiritual flames rose up in the blink of an eye, and accompanied by a series of almost roaring explosions, the flames roared like a storm and rolled into every corner of the cave!

The roar of the flames seemed to shake time and space itself. The entire cave and even the entire Holy Land Island suddenly trembled at this moment. After this "tremor" that almost shook the dimension, Duncan's face quickly darkened.

"The marks on Shirley and Agou are both there," he raised his head and looked at Morris solemnly, "...but they are separated."