Deep Sea Embers

All the runes are ready, the "text" of the symbiosis contract is written on the land of the deep sea, the summoner is in place, and the demon has arrived at the correct location - all the conditions required to initiate the ceremony are complete. .

Agou stood in the center of the rune matrix, his eyes shining with green fire staring at Shirley at the edge of the circle. As his consciousness became increasingly chaotic, he nodded slowly.

With Agou's encouragement, Shirley came to the "node" of the magic circle and tried to calm down her thoughts.

She knew nothing about these complex runes, had never received any formal occult training, and did not understand the difficult and dark rituals of the Annihilation Cult. She was now uneasy. Facing these mysterious runes, she felt uneasy in her heart. There is only tension.

But she trusted Agou—she needed this friend, and she had to reforge that connection.

She took a gentle breath, slowly closed her eyes, and used all her memories and imagination to outline the appearance of the demon she wanted to "summon".

And that image has been deeply imprinted in her mind for many years. She doesn't need to describe it in her heart. The extremely familiar figure has already appeared in her heart.

The runes on the ground began to slowly light up, and the ancient communication protocol was "awakened" with the unique logic and form of the deep sea era. A secret and subtle sense of connection appeared in the perceptions of Shirley and Agou at the same time, and As the rune matrix lights up, it becomes more and more stable...

However, just a few seconds later, all the runes were extinguished without warning, and the newly established connection was instantly interrupted - a short and harsh whistle came in the air, shaking the charred bones and snow all over Agou's body. The twelve bones and limbs behind Li.

Shirley woke up from her meditation, her eyes widened in confusion and astonishment, and she saw the scene where all the runes were instantly extinguished - her figure shook a little, and when she saw Agou in the center of the circle, she suddenly raised her head.

The ritual of reforging the symbiosis contract failed.

"How could this happen..." Shirley's expression was filled with astonishment. She looked at the runes that she couldn't understand at all, and then looked up at Agou who was also in a dazed state, "Did I do something wrong just now? Or are these runes wrong?"

"It shouldn't be... I can feel it starting up..." Agou was obviously confused. He walked down from the position representing the "devil" and came to Shirley's side to carefully check the situation near the node. "These runes are definitely correct. This part of the knowledge is almost directly imprinted in my mind. There should be no problem with what you just did, otherwise you wouldn't be able to light up these things... But I don't know what went wrong in the middle... The whole The process got stuck halfway through..."

Shirley frowned hard. She noticed that the fire in Agou's eyes had begun to dim and his speech was intermittent. She suddenly panicked: "I... let's try again!"

Agou nodded immediately: "Okay, try again!"

So they returned to the correct position again and tested the process again - but the result was still the same.

The rune array was briefly activated and lit up, but it only lasted a few seconds. Then it was "stuck" like a malfunctioning machine, and all went out with a short scream.

Shirley became a little panicked. During the brief connection established just now, she felt that Agou's condition was getting worse and worse - reason and humanity were gradually fading away from it, and in waves of trance, it could no longer even distinguish Her appearance.

Accompanied by increasingly severe dizziness and interruption of thinking, Agou staggered to the "node" where Shirley was. It could hardly support its body and could only lie down with great effort while trying to concentrate. Spirit said in a low voice: "No... I must have missed something else... There is no problem with the ceremony arrangement. The problem should be... because of the special state of you and me now. We must... do it." Out of adjustment..."

"Adjust? How to adjust?" Shirley asked hurriedly, "How about I change the position? Is the position of the node not right? Or is this place not suitable..."

However, Agou seemed to be unable to hear what she said. His head drooped, and there was an unsettling clicking sound coming from his body. His head shook from side to side, and he could only utter a series of low murmurs that Shirley couldn't understand at all.

At this moment, Shirley suddenly felt a familiar breath, and then a low and majestic voice, which made her feel particularly reassured and surprised in this situation, came into her ears: "What are you doing?"

Shirley and the groggy Agou raised their heads almost at the same time and looked in the direction of the sound.

Duncan and Alice were standing not far away in the wilderness.

"Captain!?" After a brief hesitation and daze, Shirley suddenly reacted. She seemed to have forgotten the changes in her body, so much so that she almost tripped herself when she took a step - but soon she He used the long jointed limbs behind him to support himself again, and quickly came to Duncan, "Captain, help Agou quickly, he... he is in a very bad condition, our contact has been interrupted, and the recasting ceremony just now has also happened. The problem, I don’t know either…”

"Stop, stop, slow down," Duncan quickly waved his hand to interrupt Shirley's rapid balabala. At the same time, he frowned slightly and looked at the girl in front of him who had completely changed her appearance - he could still confirm it from the "mark" This was the Shirley he was familiar with, but his current demonic posture made him a little surprised - Agou not far away also seemed to have changed a lot, "What on earth happened to you?"

Shirley was startled for a moment, her lips trembling slightly: "I... our chain is broken."

Agou, who was not far away, seemed to have temporarily recovered a little at this time. He raised his head with difficulty: "We... tried to hold a symbiosis contract ceremony again, but something went wrong with the ceremony..."

"Is there something wrong with the ceremony?" Duncan immediately frowned and asked while walking towards the rough temporary magic circle on the ground, "What's the specifics?"

"It just started and then suddenly stopped," Shirley quickly explained to Duncan while using the joints behind her to support herself and walked forward, and explained to the captain the "knowledge" that Agou had just told her. , "...I am standing in this position, Agou is standing in the position representing the 'devil', and then it is useless..."

As she spoke, she passed over Agou, who was temporarily unable to move, and quickly came to the center of the magic circle. She pointed at her feet and explained the situation to Duncan: "This is where Agou was just now. The runes around it were all there just now. It lights up, just like... like now...?"

She paused hesitantly.

Because she saw a circle of runes around her suddenly release a dim glow - and then, all the runes on the entire array began to light up one by one, and flashed rapidly according to a complex set of rules.

Duncan, who had just figured out the process of the so-called "contract ceremony" next to the magic circle, also saw this scene, and his expression gradually became a little subtle: "...?"

Shirley and Agou also said: "...?"

The ancient communication protocol comes into effect.

Alice saw a set of special "threads" extending from Shirley and Agou at the same time. The threads were fused together almost in the blink of an eye, guided by the dim light in the magic circle, and quickly transformed into a physical form, reappearing. Shape the broken chain.

The whole process was so fast that there was no time to react - when Shirley finally realized what had happened, the chain between her and Agou had been restored to its original state.

Subsequently, the contract circle completed its mission, and all the runes finally dimmed completely, and were gradually covered with a layer of gray texture representing depletion.

Shirley in the center of the circle was dazed for a while, and finally walked out from the position representing the "devil". She raised her arm, and the dark symbiotic chain made a clattering sound. At the other end of the chain, Agou regained his energy. It was slowly getting up from the ground, shaking its huge skeletal head.

In those eyes that were once so dim that they were almost extinguished, the fire is being rekindled and once again releasing the light of wisdom that represents the Dzogchen, the pinnacle of high school graduation, and a half-step city-state university.

The atmosphere was slightly awkward for half a minute.

"Can I understand it this way?" After a moment, Duncan stood next to the wreckage of the magic circle, looking at the two "crew members" who had rebuilt the chains but still had the same shape as before, "Now Agou, you are really Shirley. "Guardian Dog", and Shirley... you are now Ah Gou's "contracted human"."

Shirley's expression was a little dull, and so was Agou's posture.

Alice was dazed beside her for a long time, and then she realized what she was doing, and suddenly said: "Why is this happening..."

Shirley's expression continued to be dull.

But Agou's wisdom suddenly came into play. He thought for a moment and then hesitantly said: "...Purity."

Duncan's expression was subtle: "Purity?"

Agou raised his head and pointed at Shirley, who now had some human features, but looked almost like a deep demon as a whole: "Her purity as a deep demon... is very high."

"...That's not right," Shirley finally came to her senses at this time and spoke immediately after hearing Agou's words, "No matter how pure I am, I can't be as pure as you. This is just the demonic part of me that has come out. You are originally from 'over there'..."

Listening to the two of them's wild and serious analysis, Duncan looked at Shirley and then at Agou. He also felt that this matter was incredible, so he couldn't help but think about it, and suddenly a strange thing popped up in his mind. I couldn't help but think: "Maybe..."

Shirley and Agou said in unison: "Maybe?"

"Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that Adog was 'marked' by Lachem, the God of Wisdom," Duncan thought for a moment. Although he thought this idea was outrageous, he still said seriously, "Although it was not dragged away at that time, it is now He is indeed already a saint of the God of Wisdom—that’s probably why.”

Shirley's expression became dull again: "..."

After a while, Duncan stepped forward, patted Shirley on the arm (she was now too tall to be photographed), and said sincerely: "So I often say that knowledge changes destiny."