Deep Sea Embers

Duncan looked at the nervous Agou and smiled as kindly as possible - he felt that there might be a misunderstanding between him and the other party, and it was better to resolve this misunderstanding as soon as possible.

But just before he was about to speak, he suddenly saw the blood in Agou's eyes flickering. Although he couldn't see any emotional changes from a bone head, he seemed to be able to feel the intense turmoil of this deep hound. Feeling.

The next second, he heard Agou's stammering voice: "You...are you the 'Mr. Duncan' we have been dealing with these past two days?"

Duncan was stunned for a moment, then glanced at Shirley next to him.

He didn't see any communication between Agou and Shirley, but it was obvious that there was a convenient means of sharing intelligence between these two individuals connected by chains.

"It's me," Duncan said with a smile and a gentle tone, "Do you need me to explain anything else? Or is there anything you want to know?"

"No!" Agou almost screamed, his whole body retreating, "We don't need to know any 'knowledge' or 'truth', we have no intention of prying into your secrets!"

"...I always feel that there are still some misunderstandings between you and me, but it seems that the explanation is becoming increasingly unclear." Duncan sighed and shook his head helplessly, "Forget it, let time slowly help us establish a Let’s trust each other. As for now, I have something I want to know.”

Agou drooped his head: "You...please speak."

Duncan frowned. He was actually very curious about why he, a ghost captain who was so famous in the real world, had such a big influence among the demons of the deep, because in his impression, the deep sea is a "place" that is particularly close to subspace. "The demons entrenched in the deep depths should be closer to those "lower shadows" than mortals in the real world. Correspondingly, they should be less afraid and resistant to the Homeless Ship returning from subspace.

However, it now seems that those demons who are "dangerous existences" to humans are as afraid of the Homeless Ship as humans, which puzzles him.

But before he could figure out this problem, his first concern was the "nightmare" scene in front of him - this nightmare came from the depths of Shirley's memory and was very likely to recreate the truth of eleven years ago.

"I want to know about this dream," he said, his eyes falling on Shirley. "I know this is a very painful memory for you. If you don't want to talk about it, you can refuse."

"...There's nothing I don't want to say," Shirley just shook her head slightly, "I should thank you. You interrupted this nightmare, so I can suffer less... As you can see, this That’s what I experienced back then.”

"Is it a big fire..." Duncan nodded slightly, then looked at Agou, "What I saw was the first 'encounter' between you and Shirley?"

Agou turned away and said, "I was just a deep demon at that time."

"Then how did you suddenly get the 'heart'?" Duncan asked curiously, "As far as I saw just now, you almost killed Shirley back then."

"...I don't know," Agou was silent for a few seconds, shaking his ugly head slightly, "When I first became self-aware, what I saw was the scene of Shirley lying on the ground dying. ”

Duncan took a deep look at the mysterious hound, and then moved his eyes along the chain around the other person's neck, and saw Shirley's dark, twisted half of the body that was fused with the chain.

"After that, you just... merged together?"

"So," Shirley whispered. She lowered her head, hiding her eyes and expressions in the shadow of her hair. "Actually, I can't remember exactly. After all, I was only six years old at that time, and it was a long time after that. It's been a blur for a while... If you are really curious about how my relationship with a ghostly demon who almost killed me slowly turned into the relationship I have now, then you can go get a psychiatrist to come over and hypnotize me, maybe …”

"No need."

Shirley's words were suddenly interrupted, and then she was shocked to feel a large palm pressing on the top of her head.

The palm was actually warm.

"Sorry, I don't want to reveal your scars. I just want to know the details of eleven years ago." Duncan gently pressed the girl's hair. He knew that his questions would be disturbing to Shirley, who had just escaped from the nightmare. He said unhappily, "You should know that in the incident eleven years ago, not only the sun fragments appeared, but also countless cultists were active, and the Nether Hound...theoretically should be the summoned object of the Annihilation Sect."

Shirley raised her head in confusion. She heard Duncan continue: "A demonic creature from the deep sea suddenly gains human nature. This in itself is a kind of 'mutation'. Have you ever thought about it, this kind of mutation may also be..." Affected by a certain inducement back then? "

Shirley blinked and said a little dullly: "Sun fragments?"

"I'm not sure... no one knows what form the sun fragments have, or what power they have. It's just that in the teachings promoted by Sun Cultists, the 'real Sun God' does not have 'humanity' or similar authority at all. ," Duncan shook his head, "So what caused Agou to become human may be...something besides the sun fragments."

"Are you saying that there might not only be sun fragments that appeared in the city-state of Plande eleven years ago?!" Shirley finally woke up, and her eyes suddenly widened.

"Just a little doubt," Duncan patted Shirley's shoulder lightly, and then withdrew his hand, "because I have always felt that there is a big violation in this matter: the sun fragments are the sacred objects of the Sun Cultists. ', according to the description of the cultists, its power is actually very simple, and in mysticism it is only related to the 'real sun god'. However, during the chaos eleven years ago, only the officially disclosed documents were captured The cultists arrested already include Annihilation Cultists and Evangelists who have nothing to do with the 'Real Sun God'... Why are they getting involved?

"Of course, it can also be explained that the power of the sun fragments is so great that even people who do not believe in the sun god were affected and made them go crazy on the same day, but this cannot explain why there are weird things like Agou. The... 'phenomenon' - a demon with frenzied attributes suddenly gained sanity during the incident. What is going on?

"Even extending out, there are many suspicious places, including but not limited to the curtain covering the 'fire', the remaining memories in your and Nina's minds, the weird phenomena in the Sixth Street... We have always kept these The things that are wrong are all attributed to the sun fragments, but now that I think about it, is this really the power of the 'solar realm'? The so-called real sun god is too omnipotent."

Duncan expressed the doubts in his heart, and some of them actually arose before today. It was only after seeing Agou's changes eleven years ago that he became more convinced of the doubts in his heart.

The fire eleven years ago might have been caused by solar debris, but there was definitely something else that played a role in the whole incident!

Shirley was still a little dazed. She was actually not very good at thinking about such complicated things. In her daze, she heard Agou's voice hurriedly ringing in her mind: "Shirley, are you okay? He just touched you." Is your head releasing a curse? Are you still conscious?"

"I'm fine," Shirley replied in her mind, a bit dumbfounded, "Agou, you are too nervous."

"Nonsense, can I not be nervous! You have directly come into contact with a source of pollution that can make ordinary people crazy instantly!" Agou's voice sounded panicked, "Then how do you feel?"

Shirley thought for a while and touched the top of her head uncertainly.

In her memory, the last time someone stroked her hair like this and comforted her softly like a child was many, many years ago.

"...warm."

She spoke softly in a daze.

Agou was suddenly shocked: "Shirley, is there really something wrong with your mind?"

"...Shut up!"

Duncan didn't know what Agou and Shirley exchanged in this brief moment. He just looked thoughtfully at the window filled with dim red light and suddenly asked: "What's outside?"

Shirley was stunned: "Huh?"

Duncan raised his hand and pointed to the window: "What's outside the room?"

"I... don't know," Shirley blinked, suddenly realizing that in this nightmare that kept bothering her, an impossible option seemed to suddenly appear at this moment, "I have never considered this issue, every time In my dreams, I am always trapped in this room..."

"But now you've broken free," Duncan walked to the door of the hut, turned around and whispered softly. Those words were like a temptation in the dark, throwing an unprecedented choice in front of Shirley and Agou, "Would you like to give it a try? When you are awake...see what the edge of your dream looks like?"