Deep Sea Embers

Chapter 723: Under the Dark Starry Sky

In the fleeting moments before the light from the flames completely faded, Duncan’s sharp eyes caught sight of something peculiar. At the distant edge of their landing site, he observed a group of strange, twisted silhouettes – a gathering of about a dozen shadow demons. These creatures, disoriented for reasons unknown, stood at a distance, their presence adding an eerie aura to the surroundings.

A silent standoff ensued between Duncan, Alice, and these demons, charging the air with an unspoken tension.

The silence was abruptly shattered by Alice, who was slower to grasp the situation. She exclaimed with a mix of surprise and alarm, “Captain! We’re surrounded!”

Duncan responded with a nonchalant, “…I see that,” his demeanor calm yet alert, ready to engage with these demonic entities. These creatures differed markedly from the shadow demons Duncan had previously encountered in the real dimension, ones conjured by the Cult of Annihilation. These beings bore more grotesque distortions, with limbs twisted in unnatural angles and bodies riddled with unsettling dislocations and fractures. Particularly daunting was a floating skull demon, its head marred by a gaping hole, which presented a formidable challenge.

Duncan knew that the more deformed a shadow demon’s appearance, the more powerful it likely was. The demons before him were twisted to such an extreme, they looked as though they might snap at any moment, suggesting they were formidable entities from the deepest recesses of the abyss, far more menacing than the lesser demons he had easily scared off in the real world…

But, as Duncan braced himself for a confrontation, the group of monstrous beings suddenly sprang into action in an unexpected turn. Emitting a cacophony of roars and guttural noises, they dispersed in a frenzied dash, vanishing almost instantaneously.

Only a few, either limping or too sluggish to move swiftly, remained. Take the formidable skull demon for example. Despite its ability to fly, it wavered erratically in the air, resembling a malfunctioning old diesel engine. Black smoke billowed from the hole in its skull, and it crashed to the ground, struggling momentarily before taking off again. This process repeated, with the demon barely managing to cover six meters in thirty seconds, mostly floundering in place.

Duncan and Alice exchanged puzzled glances, their expressions mirroring each other’s bewilderment.

After a brief pause, Duncan’s attention was drawn to the chaotic scene at the edge of the landing site. The ground was littered with almost unrecognizable remains, scattered amidst pits and trenches. Dust and smoke rose from these marks of devastation, where deep pits and gouges marred the soil as if it had been savagely scraped by some immense, crushing force. This scene of destruction was evident all around, telling a tale of a violent encounter that had preceded their arrival.

This landscape, scarred and ravaged, held secrets of a fierce battle, perhaps one that had occurred just before they landed. The remnants, now part of the terrain, mingled with the dust, painting a picture of a recent and tumultuous event. The ground itself seemed to have been torn apart, with layers stripped away under the immense power of whatever had transpired here.

Duncan and Alice stood amidst this chaos, a sense of foreboding hanging in the air. The rapid dispersal of the shadow demons, coupled with the evidence of a recent struggle, suggested that something far more menacing than these demons had caused this destruction. The question now was what had happened here, and more importantly, what was still lurking in the shadows of this mysterious and desolate world.

Initially, Duncan had assumed the peculiar landscape around him was simply the intrinsic nature of this shadowy realm, often referred to as a “fragmented wasteland.” However, as he surveyed the area more closely, a chilling realization dawned on him: this wasn’t merely a natural landscape but the aftermath of a brutal conflict.

The remnants of shadow demons scattered across the terrain indicated a recent, violent encounter. Those few demons they had seen earlier were likely survivors, fortunate enough to escape total annihilation.

“Their deformities… they weren’t born this way. They’ve been twisted and mangled by someone, or something,” Duncan mused, piecing together the grim evidence before him.

Alice, finally grasping the gravity of their surroundings, gasped in horror as her eyes fell upon the black skeletal remains strewn within a nearby crater. She clutched Duncan’s arm, her voice tinged with alarm, “Captain! This place… it’s littered with the remains of demons!”

Observing the skull demon’s pitiful attempts to fly and the injured death crows hobbling on one leg, Duncan nodded solemnly, “…So, this territory has already been contested…”

Alice, visibly uneasy amidst the unsettling surroundings, queried with a quiver in her voice, “Who could have done this? Is this level of violence common among shadow demons?”

Duncan didn’t respond immediately. Instead, he knelt to scrutinize a charred bone fragment. Then, opening his palm above it, he watched as a faint, ghostly green spark drifted up from the fragment, settling softly into his hand.

This subtle spark seemed to carry with it the echoes and “memories” of the fierce battle that had recently unfolded here.

After a contemplative pause, Duncan broke the silence, his gaze fixed on the desolate horizon, “It was Shirley and Dog. They’ve been here before us… These traces, they’re unmistakably theirs.”

Alice, her face a mask of confusion, took a moment to process this information before responding with surprise, “…Is Shirley and Dog really that powerful?”

Duncan’s expression darkened, his brow furrowing in concern, “Something’s changed with them, something significant… Especially Shirley. There’s something unsettling about her presence now.”

As he spoke, Duncan’s eyes followed the lingering ‘imprints’ of Shirley and Dog, which still seemed to move across the landscape.

He gazed out over the vast, chaotic expanse of this dimension. The stagnant, ancient starry sky, a dome encompassing the abyss, stretched overhead. Below, dim starlight illuminated fragmented islands floating in this chaotic void. Among them was the “wasteland” where he and Alice currently stood, just one of many broken, floating islands that made up the “deep sea of the demonic abyss.” This realm was a tapestry of desolation and death, with countless fragmented islands suspended under a static, age-old sky.

Turning to Alice, Duncan asked, “Do you sense anything unusual? Can you see or hear anything out of the ordinary?”

Alice concentrated for a moment, tuning into her surroundings, before shaking her head, “Nothing for now.”

With a contemplative hum, Duncan gave a slight nod and pointed in a certain direction. “Shirley and Dog’s trail lead that way, and they’re still on the move. Let’s follow them.”

“Okay!” Alice agreed readily, trailing behind Duncan. As they moved, she murmured to herself, reflecting on their targets, “Shirley must be feeling afraid… She’s usually quite timid… Dog too…”

With a sense of purpose, Duncan and Alice set off toward the distant horizon. Their presence in this bizarre landscape seemed transient and non-intrusive as if they were merely passing through without any intention to disturb this place’s fragile balance further.

Meanwhile, the misshapen skull demon hovered nearby, its form quivering slightly. The red glow in its eye sockets flickered uncertainly. As it watched Duncan and Alice disappear into the distance, a new feeling stirred in its simple, chaotic mind – a sensation that, for the first time, could be identified as “relief.”

Elsewhere in the desolate landscape, the aftermath of the recent chaos was still evident. A death crow, now crippled with just one leg and half a wing, hobbled out from the rubble. A few fear demons, nearly flattened, wriggled their way out of ground fissures. And a handful of dark hounds, almost torn apart, struggled painfully to crawl away from the scene.

Amidst this eerie calm, a long, bone-spiked appendage resembling a massive sword suddenly descended from above. It impaled a grotesque demon, which had just opened its mouth to roar, pinning it mercilessly to the ground. The limb then continued its relentless march across the wilderness.

Adorning these twelve symmetrical limbs were countless large and small, twisted and horrifying demonic creatures skewered like macabre trophies. Some of these demons were still writhing and screaming in agony, while others had ceased all movement, their bodies gradually disintegrating into smoke and turning to dust.

The owner of these imposing limbs, indifferent to the fate of the impaled creatures, had journeyed far. She eventually reached the edge of this fragmented land.

This isolated island floated in the midst of chaotic darkness, its edge a precipice into the void. Here, the terrain abruptly ended, and a thin mist rose from the fractured earth, enveloping the island’s edge in a swirling layer of ethereal clouds.

Shirley, the bearer of the spiked limbs, cautiously approached this boundary. Her barbed appendages gripped the rock crevices as she peered over the edge of the floating land, only to quickly withdraw her gaze.

There was nowhere else to go.

What should she do next?

She stood motionless at the wilderness’s brink, a statue-like figure seemingly devoid of life.

Yet the demons lurking nearby knew better. They were acutely aware that this formidable and terrifying “outsider” was very much alive. Within her chest, constructed of interwoven bones, two dark red hearts and a flame cluster continued to beat slowly, their light not yet extinguished.

Time passed indeterminably before Shirley finally emerged from her reverie. She maneuvered her limbs to lower her towering frame, seeking a moment to sit and rest.

After several awkward attempts, she slowly and carefully lowered herself to a seated position, meticulously folding her giant, bone-like wings behind her back.

Perched atop a large rock, Shirley sat with a certain absent-mindedness, her gaze lifting to the stagnant, ancient starry sky overhead. The sky presented a tapestry of cold, distant stars, each a silent witness to the desolation below. It resembled a grand yet lifeless entity—a colossal corpse sprawled across the heavens, its billions of starry eyes coldly observing the world beneath.

The view was mesmerizing in its beauty, yet it carried an undercurrent of terror. Shirley felt an overwhelming sensation as if she were on the verge of being drawn into the dense tapestry of stars, becoming one with this celestial graveyard. At the same time, she felt an oppressive weight, as if the stars themselves were pressing down upon her, anchoring her to this fractured, desolate landscape.

She pondered over the words that could capture this paradoxical scene and her complex emotions. Regret washed over her as she wished she had heeded the captain’s advice to read more. Perhaps then she wouldn’t be at such a loss for words, struggling to articulate her thoughts. Yet, amidst this struggle, only one phrase came to her mind—

“…Damn beautiful…”

Her contemplation was abruptly interrupted by the sound of approaching footsteps, breaking the silence and prompting the skulking demons, who had been watching her with a mix of eagerness and hesitation, to finally withdraw.

Turning her head slowly, Shirley’s eyes fell upon a dark hound unlike any she had seen before. Towering in stature, its skeletal body was fragmented, shrouded in billowing black smoke, emerging from the shadows.

The creature approached cautiously, its hollow eye sockets ablaze with ghostly green flames. It exuded an air of nervousness and indecision, lingering about ten meters away for what seemed like an eternity. Then, with hesitant steps, it edged closer, eventually laying down something it had been carrying in its mouth.

“…Shirley, I found something to eat…” That sentence, delivered in such a familiar tone, resonated with a deep sense of recognition within her.