Such a familiar sentence caused Shirley to fall into a brief trance, her memories seemed to rise and fall in a faded ocean, and some long-term warmth and color flashed from those illusory and hazy bubbles, and then it was a long time before she came back to her senses and looked at the unusually large ghost hound not far away.

It was still waiting, hesitant, nervous, and a little confused.

As if there was a layer of sticky mud covering his mind, Ah Dog felt that there were many things wrong in his mind, his past memories were vague, and his thoughts at the moment were intermittent, he was not sure what was wrong, he only felt ...... I feel like I'm missing something.

The faint light in the hollow eye sockets flickered, and Ah Gou looked at the strange skeleton arthropod not far away, and felt a little familiar appearance, and felt in a trance.

It hadn't seen her, but it knew her—long, long ago.

Little things in memory...... Why is this happening?

After a long hesitation, the dog finally walked cautiously forward, sniffing around before stepping over the slender barbed limbs to Shirley.

Shirley quietly stared at the tall and secluded hound, and after a few minutes, she slowly got up and reached out and pressed on the top of the dog's head: "Why have you become weird?" ”

Dog tilted his head sluggishly, as if he wanted to say something, but before he could speak, he felt a push from the back of his neck - Shirley suddenly reached out and hugged Dog's neck, and then held it in her arms.

“…… I thought I couldn't find you......" she muttered quietly, belated fear making her voice tremble slightly, "You suddenly fell, I couldn't pull ......"

Ah Dog felt that his mind was getting more and more drowsy, his sluggish thinking was intermittent, and he could barely form a coherent train of thought, but at this moment, he suddenly heard something.

Poof, poof—that's the familiar sound of a heartbeat!

It clung to Shirley's chest, through the hideous intertwined bones, the sound of two hearts beating slowly seemed to suddenly gouge through the sluggishness in its mind, it woke up from a long and muddy nightmare, quickly recalled everything in each heartbeat, the light in its eyes gradually brightened, and finally opened its mouth to break the silence, while struggling slightly: "Shirley, I...... At the time......"

Shirley didn't let go of her arm, but continued to hug Gou's neck and whispered, "I know, Dog...... I know. ”

The fire in Ah Gou's eyes flickered instantly, it stopped struggling, and his tone hesitated: "You ...... When did you find out? ”

"When I first knew that the Dark Demon had no heart." Shirley replied softly.

The dog fell silent, it maintained this posture of being hugged by the neck, motionless and did not know what it was thinking, and after a long time it muttered: "I'm sorry......"

"It's okay," Shirley said almost immediately, and then she loosened the dog's neck slightly, and looked very seriously at the ghostly hound who had been with her for twelve years, almost raising herself, and nodded slowly as if to emphasize, "It's okay—you've always been with me." ”

The dog nodded sluggishly, but while feeling a hint of relief in his heart, he suddenly felt a slight trance in his mind at the same time.

The feeling of sluggish thinking and choppy memory returned, and it came back in bursts.

"Shirley, I feel like my brain is groggy ......," it subconsciously spoke.

"Maybe it's because of this," Shirley reacted instantly, and then looked down at her chest, where two hearts were beating, but she quickly frowned again, "...... But I can't seem to get it out......"

As she spoke, she reached out and touched the criss-crossed bone armor on her chest, as if trying to reopen the sturdy "bone cage".

"Don't move them," Dog immediately spoke to stop Shirley's next move, "You're going to die!" ”

Shirley stopped and looked at Ah Dog with a blank expression: "That...... So how? ”

The dog didn't speak, but his eyes fell on Shirley's right hand—the broken chain dangled there, and a faint green flame could be seen burning at the end of the chain.

Shirley also reacted closely, her eyes fell on Ah Gou, and she thought of it together.

“…… Fix this? She hesitated, "Is that okay?" ”

"Theoretically, I think it's okay, after all, we've always relied on symbiosis to maintain each other's balance, but ......," Dog muttered, his tone uncertainty, "This has never happened before, and it's unprecedented for a symbiote to survive for so long after the chains have been broken, and as for repairing the chains...... That's even more incredible. To be honest, I don't know how to do it. ”

Shirley listened to Ah Gou's narration, with a serious and thoughtful expression on her face, and then she picked up the truncated chain, and found the other part of the chain near Ah Dog's neck, fiddled with the two broken parts together for half a minute, and raised her head: "...... It doesn't seem to work just together. ”

"Nonsense, of course not—it's just that if the ordinary chain is broken, you have to find a blacksmith if you want to fix it!" Ah Gou shook his head for a moment, but then fell down again because of the vertigo in his consciousness, "This thing may need a rigorous 'remodeling' process...... The important thing is not to repair the chains, but to repair the symbiotic relationship between us......"

Shirley listened attentively, thinking hard, and at the same time couldn't help but mutter, "After all...... How did this chain suddenly break in the first place? I just remember being in that cave and you suddenly said you were uncomfortable and then you sank to the ground......"

"Anyway, it must have something to do with the Dark Holy Lord, and it also has something to do with the fact that you suddenly 'saw' a lot of 'truths' in that square before," Ah Dog tried his best to analyze while fighting the drowsiness in his mind, "Things were foreshadowed before the chains were broken, and the first changes happened after you 'saw' the memories of the Holy Land Island......

It stopped abruptly in the middle of speaking, as if catching some possibility, and continued after a moment: "...... The cultists were distorted by the contamination in an instant after learning the 'truth', from human beings to 'rough blanks', and you were protected by the captain so it didn't look like the tainted image at the time - but is it possible that the contamination is still in effect? ”

Shirley was stunned for a moment, looking down at her body at the moment.

Ah Gou said while thinking about it: "You have coexisted with my ghostly demon from the beginning, long before you knew the captain, so 'pollution' has long been rooted in your essence, and the memory of the Holy Land Island activates it and awakens your side as a ghostly demon, because this is what is in your body, so it is equivalent to partially bypassing the captain's protection......

"The essence of the chain between humans and ghosts is a 'symbiotic contract' between two creatures, and this contract is strictly established, in other words, when your essence changes, it is equivalent to breaking the conditions for the contract to be established......

"It's like a contract between businessmen, when one party to the contract loses the ability to perform due to force majeure, the contract will naturally become invalid......"

Shirley listened stunned for a while, and only after a while did she say, "That...... So? ”

Ah Gou thought about it seriously: "If you can't fix it, you can get a new one, maybe we can consider re-establishing a symbiotic contract - no longer in your previous state, but in your current state." ”

Shirley finally understood this time.

Hope rekindled in her heart, and she instantly had another motivation: "Then what should we do?" How does this symbiosis contract come about? ”

Although she and Ah Gou have been "coexisting" for more than ten years, it has not been a normal contractual relationship from the beginning, and she has never performed any summoning rituals like ordinary annihilation cultists, so her knowledge in this area is almost blank.

But Ah Dog obviously knows more than she does.

"According to the 'symbiotic contract' of the Annihilation Cultists, the most difficult part is the preparation part. The Annihilation Cultists usually need to transform themselves through a series of ritualistic acts, including various bloody 'surgeries' and spiritual reshaping, accompanied by many evil and dark deeds, in order to eventually bring their life forms closer to the 'primordial' and able to withstand the power of the Nether Demons - but for you, this is the least important part.

"Because you can skip this process entirely, you are now closer to the so-called 'primordial' state than any Annihilationist, and have long since adapted to the demonic powers.

"So all you have to do is perform a simple summoning ritual - that's the easy part."

As he spoke, the dog staggered to his feet, slowly walking through the gravel-strewn wilderness, while leaving deep furrows in the earth with his paws—it was drawing a complex set of runes, writing the "text" of the contract.

"Make connections...... Summoning a Demon ...... It's all very simple for us, I can help you prepare all the runes and venues for your ritual, and I will provide you with the magic you need to activate them - all you have to do is stand at the node on the edge of the ritual field, and when I'm ready, you'll mentally sketch the outline of the demon you want to summon. ”

It raised its head, looked into the eyes of Shirley, who was watching curiously, and continued very seriously—

"Normally, this summoning process lasts a whole day or more, it opens a rift until the demon who is willing to respond to the summoning appears in the center of the rune matrix, and then the contract is formed, but ......"

As it spoke, it slowly walked towards the center of the countless runes, and beside it, many runes were gradually lighting up.

"But Shirley, you don't have to wait that long - I'm right here."

(End of chapter)