Deep Sea Embers.

Chapter 719 Falling into the Depth

In the valley in the hinterland of Holy Land Island, Fanna, who was leading the team to camp at the entrance of the tunnel, received the news from the cave. Her eyes widened in shock: "Shirley and Agou are missing?"

"Strictly speaking, it was 'transferred' somewhere by some kind of space-time mechanism in the cave," Duncan's voice sounded in Vanna's heart, "Have you observed any changes on the surface?"

"No, everything is normal on the surface. Amber just led a team to search the depths of the valley and found nothing except a few empty huts and some human remains swallowed by the island," Vanna immediately replied, " The island is very peaceful now..."

In the underground cave, Duncan nodded slightly after hearing Vanna's report from the surface, and then his eyes fell on Morris and Alice beside him.

"Everything is normal on the surface, and there is no 'activation' phenomenon on Holy Land Island. It seems that the situation encountered by Shirley and Agou is different from that encountered by the group of Annihilation Cultists."

"Where have they gone?" Alice looked anxious. "Didn't you say that you can still feel the 'marks' of the two of them? Are they okay now?"

"Alive, but in a place I can't locate, I suspect..."

Duncan suddenly stopped mid-sentence, and did not rush to any conclusion, but he had obviously already made a guess in his mind - after a brief silence, he had raised his head and looked thoughtfully into the depths of the cave.

In the gloomy darkness, there was a huge thing standing there.

Every time he blinked, a huge prism surrounded by many cables and pipes would appear there. The lights on the surface of the prism flickered, as if exuding a silent invitation.

He came there and let the flames dispel the darkness - in the light brought by the spiritual fire, a magnificent door stood silently, as if directly embedded in the rock walls on both sides.

In the open space around the gate, you can see many tools scattered in a hurry, and some human structures that have melted to the point where it is difficult to distinguish the details, as if they have been swallowed by soil and rocks, are embedded in the surrounding ground and walls, looking hideous and terrifying. .

There is no doubt that this is the "final chamber" that Shirley mentioned, the final excavation site deep underground on Holy Land Island, where the Annihilation cultists finally "awoke" the entire island.

Duncan came to the door and quickly observed its structure by the firelight - the dark stone door was silent and tightly closed, and its surface was rough and uneven, as if there were once thick vines covering the door, but now it has become a chaotic mess on the door. There were pits and lines, but among the pits and lines that were so chaotic that almost no order or logic could be seen, Duncan could vaguely recognize something.

Those were the strange words he saw in that "hall", the symbols he had seen in the vision of the New Hope crashing.

He frowned slightly, but before he could read the information hidden in those lines, Alice who was following him quietly broke the silence: "Pilot One...intervention interface?"

Duncan suddenly turned his head and looked at the puppet who was raising his head to observe the door: "Did you understand the message on this door?"

Alice frowned and slowly shook her head: "I didn't see any message on the door... I just suddenly had this idea in my mind..."

Duncan stared into Alice's eyes, and as his thoughts were racing, he withdrew his gaze and turned to the door. After a few seconds of hesitation and thinking, he put his hand on the door and concentrated on it. Close your eyes slightly.

Green flames spread from his fingertips and flickered on the door.

In his other vision, in a dark and distant unfamiliar dimension, there was a little firelight that seemed to be suddenly blown by the wind, swaying and flickering slightly in the depths of darkness.

In the faint flickering firelight, Duncan heard Shirley's voice—a little clearer than before, but still separated by a thick curtain.

She was scared, she was cold, she had just lost something very important - she was carefully building a shell of self-protection, and something with evil intentions... gathered around her.

Duncan's eyes shot open.

"Lucy." He called from the bottom of his heart to the "witch" who was waiting on board the Brilliant Star.

Lucretia's voice came immediately: "Do you need me?"

"Bring that 'Saint' here. I found the 'Connection Point'. Now I need to open a door and go to the deep sea to pick up someone."

"clear."

The voice in his mind subsided, and Duncan slowly raised his right hand - a particularly bright, even bright, dazzling fire was gradually taking shape in his palm.

He pressed the flame against the dark stone door and watched it gradually seep into the door and into the strange and dark dimension behind the door. Before the flame completely disappeared, he whispered to it: "...Shirley, don't be afraid. .”

……

It was very dark, very cold, and the body was as heavy as lead. A strange tingling sensation spread from the arms, all the way to the shoulders, and then to half of the body. The tingling gradually turned into numbness, just like this body It no longer belongs to you, as if your own flesh and blood have unknowingly turned into something that you cannot understand or control.

The surrounding "quagmire" had gradually subsided at some point, but a stronger sense of malice and crisis continued to surge from all around. Shirley hid deep in the "bush" that was as chaotic and intertwined as bone fragments, curling up, like a statue.

There are chaotic and crazy roars and murmurs coming from the distance. Invisible hunters are patrolling in the darkness, looking for uninvited guests who have broken into this place. The breath of the hunters is slowly approaching here, and it is only a matter of time before the "prey" is discovered.

But this time there is no dark hound to protect him. Shirley hugged her twisted arms tighter and shrank deeper into the trees. She had already "smelled" the smell here and figured out where she was.

This is the deep sea and Agou's "hometown".

It's the devil's lair.

The beating sound of "Plop, Plop" rang faintly in her ears, and the pulsing sensation in her chest woke Shirley out of her daze. She lowered her head blankly and looked at the two hearts held in her arms.

"Dad...Mom..."

She whispered in a low voice, just like when she was a child and didn't want to sleep, so she would lie on the bed and whisper to "them"——

"I'm a little scared...I want to hug you..."

The two hearts were still beating slowly, and the thumping sound was so real—in the past many years, they had been beating in the body of a deep demon, and their beatings were heard through the thick bones and chaotic smoke. Never before had the sound reached Shirley's ears so clearly.

Shirley grasped her arm slightly, but felt something strange coming from it.

She lowered her head and saw a pair of arms covered with thin bone armor. Blade-like structures extended from the elbow joints, slowly relaxing like living creatures. She also saw her chest - a terrifying hole. , in the hollow was a skeleton with black smoke rising, and a damaged dark red organ was beating hard between the smoke and bones, getting weaker every second.

That broken organ is called the "heart" in the human body.

"...It turns out that my heart was bitten by Agou back then...No wonder it's so cold..."

Shirley whispered, adjusting her posture slightly in the bushes. She saw that her legs were gradually covered with a layer of hideous and weird black bone fragments, while smoke and dust representing deep pollution continued to evaporate from the bone fragments. Born and dispersed in the air.

She felt increasingly sleepy.

Will he die as a deep demon? Or maybe as early as twelve years ago, when Ah Gou and himself merged, he was already a deep demon in human skin?

This brief thought appeared in Shirley's mind inexplicably, but soon, even this thought dissipated in the increasingly intense sleepiness.

She doesn't want to think about this problem, and she won't think about it.

She doesn't understand these, these too "philosophical" problems... are very difficult for her.

She was more concerned about water, food, fuel for heating, and clothing for the winter.

The roars and murmurs were getting closer. The predators in the darkness were approaching the edge of the land. Their swelling and shrinking bodies cast darker shadows in the darkness, and the cold touch seemed to have touched Shirley's body one step ahead. skin.

But her body was slowly falling down - the two beating hearts could no longer wake her up from the strong sleepiness. In her shattered chest, the heart that had been gnawed by the devil was slowly... The ground makes its final jump.

There was a warm light emerging from the darkness, as if a warm sunshine was shining on her face. Shirley narrowed her eyes slightly and exhaled softly, comfortably and relaxedly.

It's a warm winter afternoon.

The sun shines through the window and onto the faded wooden window sill. The kettle on the stove is hissing happily. Mom is busy in the kitchen, and the aroma of baking cookies wafts into the living room. Dad doesn’t have to go to work today, so he is squatting. Beside the dining room table, the table that always creaked was about to be repaired, and from the street came the clear ringing of the postman's bicycle as he crossed the intersection, and the sound of the horse-drawn carriage running over the cobblestones.

Shirley was dozing on the sofa and would soon fall asleep.

Then, the father will come over, he will pick himself up and put him on the bed in the bedroom, and the mother will come out of the kitchen and hit the father on the head with a long-handled ladle - because his dirty hands soiled her daughter's skirt... …

Shirley was lying on the sofa, a smile slowly appeared on her face, just like that afternoon many years ago, she turned over slightly, her arms fell from the back of the sofa to her body, and curled up on her chest.

She felt a heart that had stopped beating.

All the warmth collapsed in an instant, and darkness and coldness penetrated the warm afternoon sunshine like an avalanche. Her eyes widened in the darkness, but when fear roared over, she saw the man who was squatting next to the dining table. The figure that should have disappeared along with the "collapse" slowly stood up and walked slowly towards him.

The figure transformed in the flames, burning everything in the darkness.

"Shirley, don't be afraid."

(End of this chapter)