Deep Sea Embers

The "Black Door" located deep in the cave has been closed, but more and more Nether Demons are still emerging on the entire Holy Land Island - this small island transformed from part of the Nether Holy Lord's body is trembling, Low roars and weird buzzing sounds echoed in the depths of the mist like the roar in the belly of a giant beast. Countless strange figures appeared and disappeared in the mist, and shadows turned into entities every minute. , attacking uninvited guests who set foot on the island.

Duncan and his party left the cave, successfully reunited with Vanna, Amber and others who were staying in the valley, and then began to retreat towards the coastline.

The earth is shaking, and there is a loud crackling sound of rock exploding from the depths of the valley. Chaotic roars and murmurs are echoing everywhere like a nightmare. Indescribable shadows condense in the fog. The omnipresent malice is wrapped up in the cold air, whistling. Walking through the ferocious and rugged rocks on the cliffs on both sides - in the mist, the rocks on the cliffs seemed to gradually come to life, with huge limbs slowly hanging down from the mountains, and those limbs like vines curved , trembling, making strange sounds of swallowing and chewing, dirty mud dripping along their surfaces, hissing when they hit the ground, and bursts of black smoke emitted.

Even the church warriors who often operate in the border waters couldn't help but become nervous at this time. The marines held enchanted steel swords, lanterns, and amulets, and moved forward while guarding against the restless shadows on the roadside. Amber held The long sword walked beside Vanna, softly reciting the prayers of the Storm Goddess as he moved forward. The gentle sound of the waves protected the minds of the warriors to prevent them from being bewitched and eroded by the whispers of the devil. The man covered with countless The tattooed Death Priest held the holy casket and walked at the front of the team - beside him, the fog briefly receded and the devil's figure also dimmed, which opened up a temporarily peaceful road back.

After realizing that these church warriors were indeed capable of handling the troubles on the road and returning safely, Duncan felt relieved. He calmly walked behind the team and spent more energy on thinking.

After some time, they successfully passed through the wild areas deep in the island, and finally set foot on the road to the dock - the coastline was very close.

The roar of artillery fire and explosions came from the depths of the fog ahead, and from time to time, huge flames could be seen rising into the sky, lighting up and reddening the sky like a sunrise. It was shocking to watch.

"Fake ships and large demons wandering around have begun to appear on the nearby sea. Our fleet is fighting those monsters," Amber walked over. The young priestess was holding a long sword in one hand and a sword in the other. Holding a lantern with a storm pattern in one hand, his expression looked quite serious, "They reported that one side of the Holy Land Island is slowly... deforming, and some sea cliffs are gradually collapsing downwards as if they are softening, although it has not been affected yet. Here, but the whole island is clearly... 'coming' to life in some way."

Duncan raised his head, looking at the mountain boulders that were constantly being activated in the mist, as well as the black tentacles that grew from the nearby hillside and curled towards the low-lying areas, and nodded slightly.

"The situation of this island is just as Shirley said. It is indeed the 'meat' of Holy Lord Netherworld. The entire island is part of one of his tentacles that penetrated into the real world - as for now, he seems to have begun to repair it. This is 'wrong'."

"...It's a pity that there are countless truths buried here," Amber pursed her lips, "If we had more time, we could have explored the island. Those Annihilation cultists have been here for at least several centuries. Here There must be countless dark and sinful secrets hidden...maybe even their secret strongholds and lists of personnel lurking in the city-state..."

Listening to Amber's slightly resentful mutterings, Duncan did not respond. He just looked at the island that was constantly collapsing and deforming and couldn't help but recall the spectacular and majestic path he saw at the bottom of the deep. But a huge "mountain" shrouded in desolation and darkness.

Ten thousand years have passed... The "Pilot One" that was once used to reshape the ecosystem grew out of control and turned into a twisted and grotesque behemoth. Its limbs penetrated the deep sea and subspace. Stab into the real world, but has not stopped growing.

This made Duncan couldn't help but think that even if this boundless sea did not encounter a "failure", even if Vision 001-The Sun could continue to support it, I am afraid that the growing Pilot One itself would be enough to become another doomsday.

And this "doomsday" is obviously not too far away - perhaps one day in the next hundred years, the exponentially growing body of Pilot 1 will fill the entire deep sea, and then spread to all dimensions at a crazy speed. Its tentacles will pierce every city-state, wind around the entire sea, and wrap around all ships sailing on the sea, until all entities in the world are once again swallowed up by their "Creator" and become the black mud and Part of a wriggling tentacle.

…Is this what those Annihilation cultists saw in their insane visions? Just as they preach - one day in the future, the Holy Lord Netherworld will return to this sad world, and the "elements" will burst out from the depths of the world, turning the entire world into its pure original form...

In a sense, those insane fanatical believers did get a glimpse of part of the "truth" of this world, perhaps in their brief connection with the Netherworld Holy Lord, or perhaps they were transforming themselves into demons and touching the "elements" wantonly. "In the process... they had a glimpse of the future and interpreted that terrible future in a way that they were willing to understand.

Duncan took a deep breath and slowly shook his head.

Pilot One invited himself to "take over" this shelter, and hoped that in the process he would burn up his huge body that was completely out of control... In this regard, Pilot One frankly admitted that this was a "relief", A relief from a long mission.

It seems that supporting this shelter is indeed a long and difficult task, enough to make even an ancient "machine" feel exhausted and desperate.

Duncan was once again determined to find another way out.

Maintaining this sanctuary was never a good choice—at least not the best one.

After a near-miss journey, the landing team finally returned to the secret pier that was sheltered by the inner bay and sea cliffs. The few boats they came on were still parked on the shore, swimming in the turbulent waters. Swing left and right.

The landing boat lowered from the Lost Home swayed most conspicuously—it swung upright.

In short, the bow of the entire ship was pointed towards the sky, poking around in the shallow water like a foxtail grass and bouncing around. When Duncan and his team appeared, it fell to the water with a "bang" and then turned on its own. Swinging the oar, he swung to the shore, swaying excitedly and patting the side of his boat with the oar.

Duncan: "..."

Lucretia looked at the boat silently for a while, then lowered her head and muttered to Duncan: "Dad, I don't want to get on this boat..."

"It's a bit embarrassing," Duncan was silent for a few seconds and sighed softly, "But let's go up, we have all walked here, if we were to fly away on a pigeon in front of it, this guy would probably sink himself on the spot - —There are already enough ghost ships in this world, and it will be hard to explain to the world if there is one more resentful landing craft..."

Lucretia sighed and could only follow her father into the boat with mixed emotions.

The three speedboats left the dock and rushed towards the exit of the small bay towards the thick fog that was rising with flashes of light and loud noises.

And just when they had just left the exit of the bay and could already see several main warships parked on the nearby sea ahead, Shirley seemed to suddenly feel something and suddenly looked back from the boat in the direction of the small island.

She slowly opened her eyes filled with blood-colored light——

"The island is starting to sink!"

In a series of thunderous roars, the entire Holy Land Island is collapsing and slumping down like some soft material that has lost its support. Its sea cliffs are flowing downwards like melting, and dark mud flows from every inch of soil and rocks. Penetrating outward, huge tentacles and rugged jointed limbs penetrated the softened cliffs and coasts, twitching and waving wildly in the rising sea water, while countless frantic demons ran and roared among the sloping rock cliffs, seeming to want to He wanted to escape, but he was pulled by invisible forces and could not escape from the Holy Land Island. He could only continue to "sink" with the entire island...

Duncan noticed that Holy Land Island was not actually sinking into the sea, but was constantly "dissolving" on the sea level as if melting.

Pilot One is slowly "withdrawing" the limb that mistakenly extended into the real dimension.

Even though the collapse of the shelter was imminent, even though his own loss of control was irreversible, he still repaired the system's errors to the best of his ability and delayed the critical point of final collapse.

It's just...how many more times can this "delay" take effect?

Duncan and Alice sat at the stern of the boat, looking back at the Holy Land Island that was almost completely "dissolving" in the sea water. Its final outline was swaying in the thickening fog, like a dream that was gradually receding.

Before the outline completely dissipated, Duncan vaguely heard a sound - it was a low tremor, coming along the breeze.

"Don't forget our agreement, Fire Usurper..."

Duncan felt someone grabbing his arm, and he turned his head. The clearest thing in the fog was Alice's deep purple eyes.

"I heard him, Captain."

"I heard it too, Alice, can you still find the place where he is?"

"Well," Alice nodded, but then scratched her hair, "But I don't know exactly how to do it, I just think... if you need it, I can still take you to him, because I remember...'the road'."

Duncan nodded slightly, "That's enough."

Alice hesitated and asked cautiously: "Then...will we go back to find him?"

"I think... it will."

"When will that be?"

"...at least until the end of the world."