Deep Sea Embers

Such a familiar sentence made Shirley fall into a brief trance. Her memories seemed to rise and fall in a faded ocean, and some distant warmth and color emerged from those illusory and hazy foams. After a long time, she finally He slowly came back to his senses and looked at the unusually huge deep hound not far away.

It's still waiting there, hesitant and nervous, and a little confused.

As if there was a layer of viscous mud covering his mind, Agou felt that there were many things wrong in his mind. His past memories were blurry, and his thoughts at the moment were intermittent. He was not sure what went wrong. I just feel like...there seems to be something missing in my heart.

A faint light flickered in the empty eye sockets. Agou looked at the mysterious demon not far away with strange bones and limbs and a somewhat familiar appearance, feeling dazed for a while.

It had not seen her, but it knew her—a long, long time ago.

The little thing in my memory...why did it become like this?

After hesitating for an unknown amount of time, Agou finally walked forward cautiously. It first sniffed around, and then crossed over the slender jointed limbs covered with barbs and came to Shirley.

Shirley stared at the tall and mysterious hound quietly. After a few minutes, she slowly stood up and put her hand on Agou's head: "Why have you become so weird?"

Agou tilted his head sluggishly, as if he wanted to say something, but before he could say anything, he felt a push from the back of his neck - Shirley suddenly reached out and hugged Agou's neck, and then hugged him hard In arms.

"...I thought I couldn't find you..." She whispered, her voice trembling slightly with the late fear, "You suddenly fell, and I couldn't even hold you back..."

Agou felt that his mind was getting more and more dizzy, his slow thinking was intermittent, and he could hardly form a coherent train of thought, but at this moment, he suddenly heard something.

Plop, plop - that's the familiar heartbeat!

It was close to Shirley's chest, separated by the layer of ferocious intertwined bones, the slow beating sound of the two hearts seemed to suddenly penetrate the sluggishness in the mind. It suddenly woke up from a long and hazy dream, and with every heartbeat Zhong quickly recalled everything, the light in its eyes gradually brightened, and it finally spoke to break the silence, while struggling slightly: "Shirley, I...at that time..."

Shirley did not let go of her arms, but continued to hold Agou's neck while whispering: "I know, Agou... I know everything."

The fire in Agou's eyes flashed for a moment. He stopped struggling and said hesitantly: "When did you know about it?"

"The first time I learned that the deep demon has no heart." Shirley replied softly.

Agou fell silent. He remained in this position of being hugged by his neck, motionless and not knowing what he was thinking about. After a long time, he mumbled and said, "I'm sorry..."

"It's okay," Shirley said almost immediately. Then she loosened Ah Gou's neck a little and looked at the mysterious hound who had been with her for twelve years and almost raised her up seriously, as if to emphasize the point. He nodded slowly, "It doesn't matter - you are always with me."

Agou nodded dully, but while feeling a bit of relief in his heart, he suddenly felt slightly in a trance in his mind.

The feeling of sluggish thinking and intermittent memory appeared again, and came in waves.

"Shirley, I feel dizzy..." it spoke subconsciously.

"Maybe it's because of this," Shirley reacted instantly, and then looked down at her chest - two hearts were beating in her chest, but soon she frowned again, "...but I seem to have I can’t take it out…”

As she spoke, she reached out and touched the criss-crossed bone armor on her chest, as if she wanted to try to reopen the solid "bone cage."

"Don't touch them," Agou immediately said to stop Shirley's next move, "You will die!"

Shirley stopped and looked at Agou with a confused expression: "Then... what should we do?"

Agou didn't speak, but his eyes fell on Shirley's right hand - the broken chain was hanging there, and a faint green flame could still be seen burning at the end of the chain.

Shirley also reacted immediately, her eyes fell on the same place as Ah Gou, and they thought about it together.

"...Fix this?" she said hesitantly, "Is this okay?"

"Theoretically, I think it works. After all, we have always relied on symbiosis to maintain each other's balance, but..." Agou muttered, and his tone was not very sure, "This has never happened before. The symbiosis after the chain is broken It is an unprecedented situation that the victim can survive for so long. As for repairing the chain... it is even more incredible. To be honest, I don't know how to do it."

Shirley listened to Agou's story with a serious expression on her face. Then she picked up the broken chain and found another part of the chain near Agou's neck. She put the two broken parts together and played with them half way. Minutes later, he raised his head and said, "...It doesn't seem possible to get together directly."

"Nonsense, of course it won't work - if an ordinary chain is broken, you have to find a blacksmith to repair it!" Agou shook his head for a moment, but then he lay down again because of the dizziness in his consciousness, "This thing may A rigorous process of 'reshaping' is required... What is important is not to repair the chains, but to repair the symbiotic relationship between us..."

Shirley listened carefully, thinking hard, and at the same time couldn't help but mutter: "After all...how did this chain suddenly break in the first place? I only remember that when you were in that cave, you suddenly said no It felt comfortable, and then it sank into the ground..."

"Anyway, it must have something to do with Holy Lord Netherworld, and it also has something to do with the fact that you suddenly 'saw' a lot of 'truths' in that square before." Agou tried his best to analyze the matter while fighting against the drowsiness in his mind. There were signs before the chains were broken, and the first change happened after you 'saw' the memory of the Holy Land Island..."

It suddenly stopped mid-sentence, as if it had captured some possibility, and continued to speak after a moment: "...those cultists were polluted and distorted in an instant after learning the 'truth', and were reduced from human beings to 'rough bodies'. ’, and because you were protected by the captain, you didn’t seem to be contaminated at the time - but is it possible that the pollution was still in effect?”

Shirley was stunned for a moment, looking down at her current body.

Agou was thinking at the side and said: "You have been symbiotic with me, a deep demon, from the beginning, long before you met the captain, so 'pollution' has actually been rooted in your essence, and the memory of Holy Land Island has been activated Using it awakens your side as a deep demon. Because this is what is in your body, it is equivalent to partially bypassing the captain's protection...

"The essence of the chain between humans and the deep demon is a 'symbiosis contract' between two creatures, and this contract has strict conditions for its establishment. In other words, when your essence changes, it is equivalent to destroying the establishment of the contract. conditions of……

"This is like a contract between businessmen. When one party to the contract loses the ability to perform due to force majeure, the contract will naturally become invalid..."

Shirley listened blankly beside her, and after a while she finally said: "Then...so what?"

Agou thought about it seriously: "If it can't be repaired, get a new one. Maybe we can consider re-establishing a symbiosis contract - no longer in your previous state, but in your current state."

Shirley finally understood this time.

Hope was rekindled in her heart, and she instantly gained motivation: "Then what should we do? How is this symbiosis contract usually established?"

Although she and Agou have been "symbiotic" for more than ten years, it was not a normal contractual relationship from the beginning. She has never held any summoning ceremony like ordinary Annihilation cultists, so her knowledge in this area is almost blank. .

But Agou obviously knew more than she did.

"According to the 'symbiosis contract' of the Annihilation Cultists, the most difficult part is the previous preparation. Annihilation Cultists usually need to transform themselves through a series of ritual behaviors, including various bloody 'surgeries', as well as spiritual aspects Reshaping, which is accompanied by many evil and dark activities, in order to finally make their life forms closer to the 'original', so that they can withstand the power of the deep demon - but for you, this is the least important part.

"Because you can completely skip this process, you are now closer to the so-called 'original' state than any Annihilation cultist, and you have already adapted to the power of demons.

"So all you have to do is perform a simple summoning ritual - this is the easiest part."

As Agou spoke, he stood up unsteadily and walked slowly on the gravel-strewn wilderness. At the same time, he used his paws to leave deep ravines on the ground - he was drawing a set of complex runes. , the “text” of the written contract.

"Establishing contact...summoning demons...this is very simple for us. I can help you prepare all the runes and venues required for the ritual. The magic power required to activate these runes is also provided by me - you need All you have to do is stand on the node on the edge of the ritual field, and when I'm ready, you can draw the outline of the demon you want to summon in your mind."

It raised its head, looked into the eyes of Shirley who was watching curiously, and continued to speak seriously——

"Normally, this summoning process will last a whole day or even longer. It will open a rift until a demon willing to respond to the summons appears in the center of the rune matrix, and then the contract is established, but..."

As it spoke, it slowly walked towards the center of the countless runes, and beside it, many runes were gradually lighting up.

"But Shelly, you don't have to wait that long - I'm right here."