Deep Sea Embers.

Chapter 727 Shirley & Agou

On the broken floating island shrouded in stagnant starlight, Agou and Shirley came to the end of the earth, sat down and began to be in a daze.

A dark chain extended from Shirley's arm covered with black bone fragments and connected to Agou's cervical spine. The thoughts of the two minds flowed quietly and blended in the connection built by the chain, sharing reason and humanity with each other - — Just like the past twelve years.

They had a lot to talk about. In the short but thrilling period after the chain was broken, this pair of "partners" who had been dependent on each other for twelve years faced many things they had never imagined, and even the most unthinking Shirley also had a lot of thoughts about life at this time.

Of course, they also have to think carefully about how to adapt to the new relationship between "guardian dog" and "contracted human" that is very explosive in the world...

Duncan did not disturb them, but took Alice to a place a little further from the boundary of the floating island. While waiting, he took the opportunity to investigate the strange environment of this "deep sea".

It was quiet all around, and no living thing could be seen in the wilderness shrouded in the dark starry sky.

There used to be many deep demons gathered here, but in order to avoid being beaten, they had run away completely. Now there is only a wasteland covered with black rocks and some rugged shadows in the distance.

If he hadn't known that he was in the "deep sea", Duncan would have felt that the scene in front of him was like a desolate alien planet - the surface of the dead planet around him and the stagnant starry sky above his head exuded a desolate and depressing atmosphere. Not a good environment.

And if you take into account that the only "animals" here are countless violent demons, and consider that all the daily life of demons is to chew on the same kind, chew on stones, and be chewed by the same kind, then this place is even less "livable". .

"...I am beginning to feel that the Four Gods Church's plan is not reliable now," Duncan said casually, "I am referring to the plan to settle in the deep sea - in this ghost place, even if humans really survive, it will definitely If it is distorted into shape...it is probably a question mark whether a completely inhuman 'civilization' can still be regarded as a 'human civilization'."

Alice on the side thought for a while and seemed to understand.

However, she seemed to have no objection to the environment here, and even adapted well. She is still walking around happily. The bare wilderness and dim environment did not affect the doll's good mood - she ran to He picked up a strange-shaped stone and happily showed it to Duncan: "Captain! Look, look, stone!"

Duncan immediately gathered his thoughts and glanced at the stone Alice picked up with a serious and solemn expression: "What's so special about this stone?"

"Do you think it looks like a goat's head from the side?" Miss Doll suddenly laughed, with a show off expression on her face, "I just noticed it at a glance!"

Duncan: "..."

While he was in a daze, Alice ran to the side again, dug something out from the nearby jagged rocks, and showed it to Duncan happily: "There are also these, do you think they look like tree branches? "

Duncan looked at the branches that Alice was holding in her hand - he saw a lot of them along the way. They looked like twigs of some kind of shrub, growing in the cracks of the rock. They had gray and white lines on the surface, but only the main trunk was there. There is no blade structure and the shape is quite strange.

Anyone who sees this thing for the first time will probably subconsciously think that it is a unique "plant" in the deep sea.

However, Alice broke off a twig casually and pointed to the cross section of the twig: "Look, this thing is also a stone."

Duncan frowned slightly, took the "twig" that Alice had broken off, and curiously observed its cross-sectional shape - this thing seemed to be very brittle, the stubble was neat and sharp, and it showed the same appearance as the black ones on the surrounding ground. , with a texture like gray stones, but when Duncan held them and observed them carefully under the starlight, he saw a faint glow reflected on the section, as if it was mixed with very fine metal dust or Same as fiber.

Then he raised his head again and looked at the vast space in the distance shrouded in the dark starry sky - broken islands of various sizes floating in this dimension. Some islands were almost as large as the largest city-state on the boundless sea, while some were They are just larger stones, but no matter how big the "island" is, its structure has one thing in common:

The lower part of the "floating island" is a regular "disk", and at the bottom of the disc you can see many clusters of stalagmite-like inverted objects, and there are huge structures connected with unclear shapes. Between those inverted objects, it seems to be the "base" carrying the floating island.

Duncan frowned slightly, and couldn't help but think of the "mirror island" he saw at the bottom of the frost sea. The black mirror island floating in the deep sea also showed the same desolate and primitive appearance as the broken floating island here. , and the island is also covered with "black stone" materials similar to those here, mixed with a slight metallic texture.

Obviously, the two are similar things.

If those black clay figures with human outlines are "the rough parts of human beings", then the desolate and primitive dark mirror image at the bottom of the frost sea is the "rough parts of the city-state", and in this deep sea... it seems to be filled with " The rough outlines of a city-state.”

Perhaps these are the "original blanks" used by Holy Lord Yousu in the third long night? Or to put it another way...are they just "semi-finished products" of many islands in the boundless sea?

If these are all half-finished products... then it is obvious that Holy Lord Yousu had a more grand plan when he built the "sanctuary" - more islands, more city-states, a broader living space, abundant resources, Even... the scope of the Infinite Sea originally planned may be many times wider than what the world knows now.

However, now, these "semi-finished products" are just floating quietly in this cage-like space. As time goes by, they are forgotten by the world and the gods. Only the chaotic and unwise deep demons fight here all day long to maintain the daily life. The meaningless material circulation and "balance" day after day.

The sound of footsteps suddenly came from the side, waking Duncan from his thoughts. He raised his head and looked around, and saw two tall figures walking towards him - one was Shirley, who still maintained the form of a deep demon, and the other was Agou, whose mental state had completely recovered.

"Looks like you're done talking." Duncan took the initiative to step forward and break the silence first.

"Thank you for your time," Agou lowered his head and said very politely, "I hope this didn't delay anything."

"We still have a lot to do - but we are not in a hurry for these ten minutes," Duncan said casually, while observing the expressions of Shirley and Agou (mainly observing Shirley's, Agou's bony face was really interesting) expressionless), "It seems that you are in good condition - have you discussed what to do in the future? I mean your new contractual relationship...about the unprecedented situation of a demon summoning a contracted human being."

When he said this, he felt weird in his heart, but he didn't expect that Shirley and Agou, who were opposite him, would be particularly indifferent after hearing it. The latter shook his head nonchalantly: "It's not a big deal, I and I Shirley doesn’t even think this has much impact on us…”

Alice next to her opened her eyes in surprise when she heard this: "It doesn't affect it?"

"That's right," Agoute said calmly, "Anyway, Shirley is always bumping around, and I'm responsible for holding the chain next to her to prevent her from getting into trouble. What did the captain say... Oh, dog walker, We have been here for more than ten years, and now it is still the same!"

When Duncan heard this, he and Alice looked at each other in confusion. After a few seconds, they said in unison: "It seems so..."

Shirley next to her heard her head almost drooping into her chest. She lowered her head and muttered awkwardly: "Stop talking about this, okay...I'm not that reckless..."

Duncan immediately felt that this girl's words were unconvincing - from the first day she threw Agou out with a chain and beat someone, her relationship with "Reckless" has been irrevocable...

However, after such an interruption, he felt a little relieved in his heart. It seemed that Shirley and Agou really didn't care about the "little thing" of contract relationship transformation, which saved him a lot of unnecessary worries.

Shirley lowered her head and glanced at Agou, who was connected to her. She shook her arm slightly, making the chain make a rattling sound.

The chains held them together, as always, and it didn't matter who was human and who was demon, who shared whose humanity, whose heart beat in whose chest... it didn't matter.

They were "Shirley and Dog"—always, as long as they were together.

"Then there's only one other question left." After a few seconds of silence, Duncan suddenly broke the silence with two coughs. He looked up and looked at the "grown" body that was almost three meters tall when it was supported by skeleton joints. Gao Shirley asked, "Can you change back to your current form...?"

"Yes," Shirley nodded immediately, but her expression was a little hesitant, "After the chain was restored, Agou and I 'discovered' the way to regain control of the body, but..."

Duncan looked puzzled: "Just?"

"A little bit of sequelae..." Agou muttered next to him.

As soon as the words fell, Shirley began to control the transformation of her brand-new body into a human being——

Accompanied by a series of clicking sounds of bone deformation and reorganization and smoke rising, her body size quickly shrank in the smoke. In just a few seconds, she had returned to the height and shape of a normal human being. Those terrifying black bone fragments and bone spurs were all visible. Shrunk into her body, her once mature face returned to her normal appearance, except...

Eyes still filled with a glimmer of blood.

She raised her head and looked at Duncan with her eyes that were completely covered in blood. Her tone was quite helpless: "The characteristics of the deep demon cannot be eliminated. Agou can directly return to its previous appearance - anyway. My whole body has shrunk, but my eyes can’t change no matter what, and something doesn’t look right at first glance.”

"...It's actually quite touching." Duncan commented very objectively.

Shirley held it in for a long time and let out a long sigh: "Oh... forget it, I will close my eyes when I go to the city. Anyway, I can still see things with my eyes closed now."

(Book recommendation time ~ "Stars for the Beautiful Warhammer", a fan work with Warhammer as the main body and added star elements. The protagonist is a planetary governor who is on the dark side of the empire, and he grows up under the friendly blessings of the five gods. .)

(End of this chapter)