In the valley in the hinterland of the Holy Land Island, Vanna, who was leading the camp at the entrance of the tunnel, received the news from the cave, and her eyes widened in astonishment: "Shirley and Dog are gone?" ”

"Strictly speaking, it was 'transferred' to some kind of space-time mechanism in the cavern," Duncan's voice sounded in the back of Vanna's heart, "have you observed any changes on the surface?" ”

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

In the underground cavern, Duncan nodded lightly after hearing Vanna's report from the surface, and then his eyes fell on Maurice and Alice on the side.

"Everything is normal on the surface, there is no 'activation' phenomenon on the Holy Land Island, and it seems that the situation encountered by Shirley and Ah Dog is not the same as that of the group of annihilators."

"Where the hell did they go?" Alice looked anxious, "Didn't you say you could still feel the 'imprint' of the two of them?" Are they okay now? ”

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

Duncan stopped abruptly in the middle of speaking, and did not rush to any conclusions, but he clearly had a guess in his mind—after a brief silence, he had raised his head and looked thoughtfully into the depths of the cavern.

In the drowsy darkness, there was a large thing standing there.

Every time he blinked, a huge prism surrounded by cables and pipes appeared, and the surface of the prism flickered, as if exuding a wordless invitation.

He came there and let the flames dispel the darkness—and in the light of the fire, a grand gate stood silently, as if directly embedded in the rock walls on either side.

In the clearing around the gate, many tools could be seen scattered in a hurry, and some human structures that had melted to the point where it was difficult to discern the details, as if swallowed by dirt and rock, were embedded in the surrounding ground and walls, looking horrific and terrifying.

This is undoubtedly what Shirley refers to as the "final chamber", the last excavation site deep beneath the Holy Land Island, where the Annihilationists finally "woke up" the entire island.

Duncan came to the gate and quickly observed its structure by the light of the fire—the dark stone door was silently closed, its surface rough and uneven, as if it had once covered the door with vines, but now it had become a chaotic pothole and pattern on the gate, but in the chaotic potholes and patterns that could hardly see any pattern and logic, Duncan could vaguely recognize something.

It was the unfamiliar text he had seen in that "hall", the symbol he had seen in the visions of the crash of the New Hope.

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

Duncan turned his head abruptly and looked at the puppet who was raising his head to observe the door: "You read the message on this door?" ”

Alice frowned and shook her head slowly: "I didn't see any information on the door...... I just had this thought popping into my head......"

Duncan stared into Alice's eyes, his thoughts racing, he withdrew his gaze and turned to the door—after a few seconds of hesitation and thought, he placed his hand on the door and closed his eyes slightly as he focused.

A faint green flame spread from his fingertips and flickered on the door.

And in his other vision, in a dark and distant strange 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 light of the fire, Duncan heard Shirley's voice—a little clearer than before, but still through a thick veil.

She's scared, she's cold, she's just lost something very important - she's cautiously building a shell of self-preservation, something unpleasant...... Gather around her.

Duncan's eyes snapped open.

"Lucy." From the bottom of his heart, he called out to the "witch" who was waiting on the Bright Star.

Lucrecia's voice came immediately, "Do you need me?" ”

"Bring that 'saint' here, I've found the 'connection point', and now I need to open a door and go to the deep sea to pick people up."

"Understood."

The voice in his head faded, and Duncan slowly raised his right hand—an extraordinarily bright, even blinding, firelight was taking shape in the palm of his hand.

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

……

It was very dark, it was cold, the body was as heavy as lead, and a strange tingling sensation spread from the arm, all the way to the shoulder, and then half of the body, and the tingling gradually turned into numbness, as if this body no longer belonged to him, as if his flesh and blood had unconsciously become something that he could not understand and control.

The surrounding "mire" has gradually subsided at some point, but a stronger sense of malice and crisis has been rising from all around, and Shirley hides in the depths of a pile of chaotic "bushes" like bone fragments, curled up and motionless.

Chaotic and frantic roars and whispers came from afar, and the invisible hunter was roaming the darkness, looking for uninvited guests to break into the place, and the breath of the hunter was slowly approaching the place, and it was only a matter of time before the "prey" was discovered.

But this time there was not a single ghostly hound to protect itself.

Shirley tightened her twisted arm harder, letting herself shrink back into the bushes, she had already "sniffed" the breath and figured out where she was.

This is the deep sea, which is the "hometown" of a dog.

It's a demon's lair.

The beating sound of "poof, poof" sounded faintly in her ears, and the throbbing sensation in her chest woke Shirley from her stunned state, and she lowered her head in a daze, looking at the two hearts held in her arms.

"Daddy...... Mommy ......"

She muttered quietly, just as she did when she was a child when she didn't want to sleep, and she snuggled up in bed and whispered to "them"—

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

The two hearts were still beating slowly, and the sound of popping was so real—they had been beating inside a ghostly demon for years, and through the thick bones and chaotic smoke, their beating had never been so clear to Shirley's ears.

Shirley gripped her arm slightly, but felt something strange about the sensation coming from her.

She looked down and saw a pair of arms covered in thin bone armor, blade-like structures extending from the elbow joints, slowly stretching like living creatures, and she saw her own chest—a horrible hollow in which bones were rising with black smoke, a broken dark red organ throbbing between the smoke and bones, weakening with each passing second.

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

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

Shirley whispered, adjusting her posture a little in the bushes, and she saw that her legs were gradually covered with a layer of hideous and strange black bone fragments, and the smoke and dust representing the dark pollution continued to rise from the bone fragments and escape into the air.

She felt more and more sleepy.

Will he die as a ghostly demon? Or as early as twelve years ago, when Ah Dog became one with himself, he was already a ghostly demon in human skin?

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

She didn't want to think about it, and she wouldn't think about it.

She doesn't understand these things, these are too "philosophical" problems...... It's hard for her.

She is more concerned about water, food, fuel for heating, and clothes for the winter.

The roars and whispers were getting closer, and the dark predators were approaching the edge, their staggering forms casting darker shadows in the darkness, and the cold touch seemed to touch Shirley's skin one step earlier.

But her body had slowly slumped—the two beating hearts could no longer awaken her from the intense sleepiness, and in her shattered chest, the heart that had been gnawed by the demon was slowly making its last beat.

There was a warm light in the darkness, as if a warm sun was shining on her face, and Shirley squinted her eyes slightly, and exhaled softly and comfortably and relaxedly.

It was a warm winter afternoon.

The sun shines through the windows on the faded wooden windowsills, the kettle on the stove hisses merrily, Mom is busy in the kitchen, the smell of baking biscuits wafts into the living room, Dad doesn't have to go to work today, he squats down at the table to fix the table that always creaks, the crisp chime of the postman crossing the intersection on his bicycle, and the sound of a carriage pressing down on the stone pavement.

Shirley was napping on the couch and was about to fall asleep.

Then Dad would come over and he would pick himself up and take him to bed in the bedroom, and Mom would come out of the kitchen and hit Daddy on the head with a ladle – because his dirty hands had rubbed his daughter's skirt......

Shirley lay on the couch, a smile slowly emerging on her face, like that afternoon many years ago, when she rolled over slightly, her arms falling from the back of the couch to herself, and curled up on her chest.

She felt a heart that had stopped beating.

All the warmth collapsed in an instant, the darkness and cold pierced the warm afternoon sun like an avalanche, and her eyes widened in the darkness, but when the fear roared, she saw the figure crouching next to the table, which should have dissipated with the "collapse", slowly stood up and walked slowly towards her.

The figure metamorphosed in flames, scorching everything in the darkness.

"Shirley, don't be afraid."

(End of chapter)