Chapter 39 I’m Right Here

That all-too-familiar sentence plunged Shirley into a brief trance. Her memories seemed to rise and fall in a faded ocean, with fragments of warmth and color surfacing from those illusory bubbles of the distant past. It was a long while before she sluggishly snapped back to reality, looking at the unusually large Deep Sea Hunter not far away.

It was still waiting there, with hesitation and nervousness, and a hint of confusion.

As if a layer of sticky mud coated its mind, Ah-Gou felt that something was wrong in its head. Past memories were vague, and its thoughts were fragmented. It wasn't sure what was wrong, but it felt like... something was missing in its heart.

In its empty eye sockets, faint light flickered. Ah-Gou looked at the Deep Sea demon with the strange skeletal limbs and somewhat familiar appearance not far away, feeling a wave of absent-mindedness.

It had never met her, but it knew her—it had known her a long, long time ago.

The little one in its memory… how had she become like this?

Hesitating for who knew how long, Ah-Gou finally walked forward cautiously. It first sniffed the surrounding air, and then crossed those long limbs covered in barbs, arriving in front of Shirley.

Shirley quietly stared at the tall Deep Sea Hunter. After a few minutes, she slowly got up and put her hand on Ah-Gou's head, "How did you become so strange too?"

Ah-Gou sluggishly tilted its head, seeming to want to say something, but before it could open its mouth, it felt a push from behind its neck—Shirley suddenly reached out and hugged Ah-Gou's neck, then embraced it tightly.

"...I thought I wouldn't find you..." she murmured, her voice trembling slightly with belated fear, "You suddenly fell, and I couldn't hold on..."

Ah-Gou felt its head becoming more and more dizzy, its sluggish thoughts intermittent, almost unable to form a coherent train of thought, but at that moment, it suddenly heard a sound.

Thump, thump—it was the sound of a familiar heartbeat!

It was pressed close to Shirley's chest, and through the layer of grotesque interwoven bones, the sound of two hearts slowly beating seemed to suddenly pierce through the sluggishness in its mind. It woke up from a muddled, long dream, rapidly recalling everything with each heartbeat. The light in its eye sockets gradually brightened, and it finally broke the silence, struggling slightly as it spoke, "Shirley, I... back then..."

Shirley didn't loosen her arms, but continued to hug Ah-Gou's neck while whispering, "I know, Ah-Gou... I know everything."

The firelight in Ah-Gou's eye sockets flickered for a moment, and it stopped struggling, asking hesitantly, "When... when did you find out?"

"The first time I knew that Deep Sea demons didn't have hearts," Shirley replied softly.

Ah-Gou fell silent, maintaining the position of being hugged around the neck, not moving, not knowing what it was thinking. After a long time, it muttered, "I'm sorry..."

"It's okay," Shirley said almost immediately. Then she slightly loosened her grip on Ah-Gou's neck, looking very seriously at the Deep Sea Hunter who had been with her for twelve years, who had practically raised her. As if to emphasize her words, she nodded slowly, "It's okay—you've always been with me."

Ah-Gou nodded sluggishly, but while feeling a sense of relief in its heart, it suddenly felt a slight daze in its mind.

That feeling of sluggish thinking and fragmented memories appeared again, and it came in waves.

"Shirley, I feel dizzy..." it said subconsciously.

"It's probably because of this," Shirley reacted instantly, and then looked down at her chest—two hearts were beating in her chest cavity, but she quickly frowned again, "...but I don't seem to be able to take them out anymore..."

As she spoke, she reached out and touched the crisscrossing bone armor on her chest, seeming to want to try to reopen the solid "bone cage."

"Don't touch them," Ah-Gou immediately stopped Shirley's next action, "You'll die!"

Shirley stopped, looking at Ah-Gou with a helpless expression, "Then... what do we do?"

Ah-Gou didn't speak, but its gaze fell on Shirley's right hand—the broken chain hung there, and at the end of the chain, faint green flames could still be seen burning.

Shirley also reacted immediately, her eyes meeting Ah-Gou's, and they thought of the same thing.

"...Fix this?" she asked hesitantly, "Would that work?"

"Theoretically, I think it would work. After all, we've always relied on symbiosis to maintain our balance, but..." Ah-Gou muttered, its tone not very certain, "This has never happened before. The fact that a symbiotic partner can survive for so long after the chain is broken is unprecedented, let alone repairing the chain... That's even more unbelievable. To be honest, I don't know how to do it."

Shirley listened to Ah-Gou's explanation, a thoughtful expression on her face. Then she picked up the broken chain, found the other part of the chain near Ah-Gou's neck, put the two broken ends together for half a minute, and looked up, "...Just putting them together doesn't seem to work."

"Nonsense, of course not—even if an ordinary chain breaks, you'd still need to find a blacksmith to fix it!" Ah-Gou shook its head, but then slumped down because of the dizziness in its mind, "This thing probably needs a strict 'reshaping' process... The important thing isn't repairing the chain, it's repairing the symbiotic relationship between us..."

Shirley listened carefully, trying to think, while also muttering, "In the end... how did this chain suddenly break in the first place? I only remember you suddenly saying you felt uncomfortable when we were in that cave, and then you sank into the ground..."

"Anyway, it must be related to the Deep Sea Saint, and it's also related to you suddenly 'seeing' many 'truths' in that plaza before," Ah-Gou tried its best to analyze while fighting the dizziness in its head, "Things were foreshadowed before the chain broke, and the initial change happened after you 'saw' the memories of the Holy Land Island..."

It stopped halfway, as if it had caught a possibility. After a moment, it continued, "...Those cultists were instantly corrupted and distorted after learning the 'truth', reverting from humans to 'raw materials'. And because you were protected by the captain, it seemed like you weren't affected by the corruption at the time—but is it possible that the corruption still took effect?"

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

Ah-Gou thought to itself as it spoke, "You've been in symbiosis with me, a Deep Sea demon, from the very beginning, even before you met the captain. So the 'corruption' was already rooted in your essence. And the memories of the Holy Land Island activated it, awakening your Deep Sea demon side, because this was already inside you, so it was like partially bypassing the captain's protection...

"The essence of the chain between humans and Deep Sea demons is a 'symbiotic pact' between two creatures, and this kind of pact has strict conditions for its establishment. In other words, when your essence changes, it's like destroying the conditions for the pact to be established...

"It's like a contract between merchants. When one party loses the ability to perform the contract due to force majeure, the contract naturally becomes invalid..."

Shirley listened in a daze, blurting out after a long while, "Then... so what?"

Ah-Gou thought seriously, "If it can't be fixed, get a new one. Maybe we can consider establishing a symbiotic pact again—not in your previous state, but in your current state."

Shirley finally understood this time.

Hope reignited in her heart, and she instantly felt motivated again, "Then what should we do? How is this symbiotic pact usually made?"

Although she and Ah-Gou had been in "symbiosis" for more than ten years, it had never been a normal contractual relationship from the beginning. She had never performed any summoning rituals like ordinary Annihilation cultists, so her knowledge in this area was almost blank.

But Ah-Gou obviously knew more than she did.

"According to the Annihilation cultists' 'symbiotic pact', the most difficult part is the preparation. Annihilation cultists usually need to modify themselves through a series of ritualistic behaviors, including various bloody 'surgeries' and mental reshaping. This is accompanied by many evil and dark deeds, in order to ultimately make their life form closer to the 'original', so that they can withstand the power of Deep Sea demons—but for you, this is the least important part.

"Because you can completely skip this process. You are now closer to the so-called 'original' state than any Annihilation cultist, and you have long adapted to the power of the demon.

"So all you have to do is perform a simple summoning ritual—this is the easiest part."

As Ah-Gou spoke, it swayed as it got up, slowly walking on the rubble-strewn wilderness, while using its claws to leave deep grooves in the ground—it was drawing a complex set of runes, writing the "text" of the contract.

"Establishing contact... summoning a demon... This is easy for us. I can help you prepare all the runes and the site required for the ritual, and I can also provide the magic power needed to activate these runes—all you have to do is stand on the node at the edge of the ritual site. When I'm ready, you just need to outline the demon you want to summon in your heart."

It raised its head, looked into Shirley's eyes as she watched curiously, and continued very seriously—

"Usually, this summoning process will last a whole day or even longer. It will open a rift until a demon willing to respond to the summoning appears in the center of the rune matrix. Then the contract is established, 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)