Chapter 1 Light and Shadow

The light and shadow collapsed again with a bang—the spacious hall and the massive device at its end abruptly disintegrated into countless fragments of light and shadow, collapsing like an avalanche back into the dim cave. Everything seemed like a fleeting illusion, a distorted projection of another reality in the current dimension.

Yet Duncan knew he had truly "seen" it, and he could still see it now.

He looked into the depths of the dim cave, blinking several times—in each extremely brief instant, with each blink, he could see something emerge in the moment his eyelids closed and darkness fell, precisely that magnificent hall.

He gradually realized that two realities were superimposed here, deep beneath the Sanctuary Island. This deeper "reality" could not be observed by ordinary means, but it appeared during the 0.002 seconds of each blink.

For no reason, the unit "0.002 seconds" floated into Duncan's mind, and he was certain that it was the exact time he saw the hall with each blink—an instant almost imperceptible to the human eye, yet enough to be reflected in his perception.

He turned back to look at the "relief" on the wall beside him. In the next blink, he saw a lifelike bird appear in the sample containment jar, then darkness surged, reality shifted, and it transformed back into the relief on the wall—a hideous, twisted "Harbinger Bird."

Alice seemed to notice the change in Duncan's expression, and she immediately became worried. "Captain? Are you alright... your expression suddenly became so serious..."

"...Lh-01 failed to project everything in the database into the Sanctuary. Those that failed to generate during the Genesis process remained in the original 'hatchery'," Duncan said softly. "...This 'Sanctuary' was supposed to be larger and more complete, but it failed..."

Morris looked at Duncan with a bewildered expression, suddenly realizing, "You touched something?"

"There's another appearance here, the appearance before the Great Annihilation... but you can't see or touch it," Duncan raised his hand, gently pressing it against the stone wall beside him. As the ghostly green spirit fire spread into the cracks of the stone, he could vaguely feel that he was touching more than just the cold stones. "Two realities are superimposed here, but the one closer to its original form has been almost completely consumed by the Great Annihilation. It can only exist briefly when I blink."

Morris struggled to understand the incredible "state" Duncan described, while the latter had already raised his head, his gaze directed deeper into the cave.

"There should be a 'contact point' here," Duncan said in a low voice. "Those cultists must have triggered something here."

As he spoke, he stepped into the darkness. With the slow spread of the ghostly green flames, he walked towards the end of the "hall."

Morris and Alice immediately followed the Captain's figure.

...

Agou lowered his head wearily, silently following Sherry. The crimson light in his eye sockets flickered on and off, and the sound of the chain dragging on the ground seemed like a distant noise. He walked forward for a while, then suddenly raised his head, realizing belatedly that Sherry had walked far ahead—the girl's back looked blurry, its edges constantly trembling, as if something unstable was superimposed on her.

Agou shook his head. His empty mind seemed to briefly lose the ability to think and judge, but in the next instant, he suddenly woke up and found himself closely following Sherry as usual—the scene of the two of them separated a moment ago was like a bizarre illusion, and it disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Sherry lowered her head in confusion, seeing Agou walking beside her.

She also felt a stinging pain in her arm, and a burning sensation flowed along the symbiotic chain, like... freshly flowing blood.

"Agou?" she said hesitantly—not sure if she was actually making a sound or simply calling out in her heart through the symbiotic link.

Agou did not respond. All that reached Sherry's ears were two sounds: "Thump," "Thump."

It sounded like a heartbeat.

Something was wrong... although she didn't know what it was, something was wrong!

Sherry's whole body tensed up. The moment she realized something was wrong, she reacted and suddenly looked up in the Captain's direction. "Captain! Agou's condition..."

The Captain's figure was not there.

In the dark cave, only her own voice echoed, and it quickly turned into a vague noise. The Captain was gone, and so were Morris and Alice. It was as if it had only ever been her and Agou from the beginning.

Sherry gasped instantly. The vast and boundless darkness transformed into an even greater fear—this fear was so familiar, she had once thought she had forgotten this bone-deep feeling, but now everything suddenly reappeared in her mind—fire, smoke, the smell of blood, the sound of something collapsing, something gnawing at her flesh...

She stared wide-eyed in the darkness, her bone-like structures gradually emerging from her arms, shoulders, and spine. Crimson light filled her eyes, gradually distorting everything in her vision. In her increasingly distorted perception, she heard a slightly unfamiliar voice suddenly coming from beside her: "Sherry... I feel... a little cold..."

She slowly turned her head to look in the direction of the voice.

Agou was slowly sinking—sinking into the mud and rocks, as if melting. His body was gradually being swallowed by the ground, which seemed to come alive, its surface rippling with a viscous and slow motion. The ripples seemed to contain billions of living creatures. Agou's figure gradually sank into those "living creatures," first his limbs, then his body, and now only his neck and part of his head remained.

He opened his mouth towards Sherry, his bones opening and closing, as if struggling to say something, or trying to spit something out—

"Agou!!!"

Her numb and stiff mind finally began to work. Sherry finally remembered the name at the other end of the chain. She rushed towards the gradually activated ground, shouting as she pulled on the chain on her arm with all her strength: "Agou! I'll pull you out! Hold on!"

However, her efforts did nothing to stop Agou's sinking—just as the head of the Netherhound was about to be completely swallowed by the viscous mud, a voice suddenly entered her ears.

"...Sherry, your dad and I are going to buy you a cake. It's your birthday today... When we get back, you won't be mad anymore, okay?"

The girl suddenly paused.

This voice coming from the other end of the chain briefly severed her sanity—and in that moment of broken sanity, she heard a crisp snapping sound.

The weight in her hand suddenly lightened.

The figure of the Netherhound completely disappeared into the mud. The heavy pull from the end of the chain suddenly vanished, and Sherry stumbled backwards.

She saw the other end of the chain flying out of the mud—it was broken. The familiar Agou was nowhere to be seen at the end of the broken chain, only two fist-sized things were flung out of the mud, landing beside her one after the other.

They were jumping on the ground with a thump, as if still alive.

They were two hearts.

Sherry stared blankly at this scene, motionless as a statue.

The pitch-black mud began to churn slowly, gathering from all directions. An illusion of a distant land appeared in the mud, countless shadows of bizarre and grotesque shapes floating around—

In the dark and deep sea, countless demons noticed an uninvited guest approaching their dimension.

And in the even more distant darkness, an immensely large structure was sleeping. Its main body stretched across the shattered land like a mountain range, and winding tentacles were wrapped around countless floating islands. Dark blue light surged on its surface, and countless demons bred from the surface of those tentacles, only to be constantly devoured by it at every moment.

However, Sherry seemed not to see the approaching phantasms—she sat blankly on the ground for a while, finally slowly got up, crawled to the two still-beating hearts, and then carefully picked them up and held them in her arms.

It had been a long time since she had held them.

"Dad... Mom..."

Darkness swarmed in, and her figure disappeared into the dark and deep sea.

...

Duncan suddenly turned his head, looking at the open space not far behind him.

A blurry figure flickered there for a moment, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

He reacted instantly. "Something happened to Sherry!"

"Sherry!?" Morris, who was walking behind Duncan, was stunned upon hearing this. For a brief moment, he even seemed to forget the name "Sherry," but the Captain's words instantly reset his memory to the correct "position." Then, he belatedly raised his head, realizing that one person... and a Nether demon... were missing from the group.

"Hey! She was just walking next to me!" Alice also reacted at this moment, staring wide-eyed at the place where Sherry and Agou had been. "I even heard her talking to Agou..."

Duncan's expression instantly became serious. "Didn't either of you notice when she disappeared?"

Morris and Alice shook their heads one after the other.

Duncan frowned immediately. After a very brief moment of thought, he abruptly waved his hand in the air.

The ghostly green spirit flames rose up in the blink of an eye, and with a series of almost roaring explosions, the flames howled like a storm, sweeping towards every corner of the entire cave!

The howling of the flames seemed to shake the space-time itself. The entire cave, and even the entire Sanctuary Island, trembled violently at that moment. After this "tremor" that almost shook the dimension, Duncan's face had quickly turned gloomy.

"The marks on Sherry and Agou are both still there," he raised his head, looking at Morris with a solemn expression. "...But they're separated."