Chapter 713

Chapter 713: Shirley Still in Shock

“This island… the whole island was a part of an Elder God. Everything on the island… the stones, the soil, those things that only look like trees, all of it was the same thing…

“The Annihilators who lived on this island used its stuff to build houses and make ships. They ate the things that grew out of this soil. Day after day they held rituals and summoned Demons… tying themselves to the whole island…

“There really aren’t any living people left on the island. Everyone got eaten by ‘it’, by this island… Those idiots… those stupid cultists touched something deep inside the island and woke it up…”

Shirley sat on the ground at the edge of the square with her knees in her arms, speaking in broken bits about the things she had just seen. The fright had not left her. Fear still weighed deep in her mind. The shock of briefly peeking at the “Truth” had put heavy pressure on her sanity. Even though the captain had pulled her out at the last moment, her head still buzzed, and many fuzzy “memories” still poked around in her thoughts.

Dog sat by Shirley’s side. With its grim, terrifying skeletal body, it gently rubbed against her thigh, trying to comfort her shaken heart in its own way. It helped at least a little. Shirley was slowly recovering.

Duncan sat beside Shirley as well. He shielded her mind so those corruption-laden pieces of knowledge would not affect her, and at the same time he asked with interest: “They touched something deep inside the island? What exactly did they do?”

Shirley hesitated and searched through her messy memories. Too much information had flooded into her head all at once just now. It came from the “memories” left inside this living island. She had had no time to sort it, think about it, or even understand it. Now those chaotic memories slowly rolled up again from the depths of her mind, and some useful fragments finally became clear.

“They… they dug too deep.”

“Dug too deep?” Morris frowned at once. “What were they digging?”

“At the center of the island, there was a passage leading underground…” Shirley frowned tightly as she finally pulled out some more useful fragments. “It was when the Sun went out…!”

“When the Sun went out?” Morris’s eyes changed at once. He repeated the words and, almost without thinking, exchanged a look with Vanna and the captain.

Shirley suddenly seemed more alert. She matched the voice she had “heard” with the messy images she had seen, then spoke quickly: “Yeah, that time! After the Sun went out, there was still daylight over the Holy Isle. The cultists on the island all stayed ‘awake’… Then it was like they got some kind of revelation, and they started digging in the center of the island. There was already a cavern there, with black rock deep inside. They went crazy digging downward and found a secret chamber, but the chamber was sealed…”

Shirley paused. Her tone became less sure. “They wanted to get into the chamber, but it seems they never had time to break it, or even touch that big door, before something happened…”

Amber walked over from the side. This young priestess of the Deep Sea Goddess was extremely interested in what Shirley was saying. “So the cultists on the island were all killed because they triggered the defense mechanism of this ‘living island’?”

Shirley blinked. She was about to nod, but then felt she had forgotten something very important. She hesitated, then shook her head.

“…No. They weren’t killed by a ‘defense mechanism’…” She slowly recalled and bit by bit understood the “information” that still circled in her mind. After a few minutes of sorting and thinking, she finally understood that “truth”. “They were killed by a… ‘piece of knowledge’…”

Her words had barely fallen when Morris reacted at once beside her: “Don’t say it.”

Almost at the same time, Amber had already pulled out the storm Goddess’s charm amulet from her clothes and used its sharp end to pierce her own palm. The silent death priest who led the group took out the consecrated ash casket of divine blessing. The more than twenty assault squad members all hurried to shield themselves with charm amulets and sacred relics.

Morris cast several layers of mental wards on himself in an instant. He then wrapped Rahm’s charm amulet and a colorful rune bead bracelet around his wrist. Only then did he let out a breath and nod to Shirley. “You can talk now.”

Shirley was startled by the scene around her. She asked without thinking: “…Is all that really necessary?”

“Yes,” Vanna said seriously as she looked at Shirley. “Because this is a ‘piece of knowledge’ that instantly killed all the Annihilators on the entire island. From what you described, it is tied to the rituals they carried out for years, but this knowledge could still be dangerous.”

Morris added from the side: “Normally, if an investigator happens to gain hidden knowledge and survives it, the safest and most professional thing to do is to copy the content onto parchment sheets using ‘Sacred Cipher’ that has received the Four Gods’ divine blessing. That way you can weaken and filter out the corruption carried by the information. Do you know Sacred Cipher?”

Shirley thought for a moment, then shook her head honestly. “…No. I don’t.”

Morris spread his hands. “That’s fine. You can tell us now.”

Shirley scratched her cheek. That little break had actually relaxed her tense nerves a bit. After she took a moment to put her thoughts in order, she repeated the words she had “heard” just now—

“Humans are a kind of Abyssal Demon that has been highly differentiated. Abyssal Demons are the original molds that were contained in the Abyssal Deep Sea, because humanity and wisdom could not be poured into them.”

The square stayed quiet for a few seconds.

Alice was the first to break the silence. She blinked and looked at Shirley. “…That’s it?”

“That’s it,” Shirley said with a nod. “Just that one sentence… but after those cultists learned this ‘truth’, they almost instantly turned into these… disgusting, terrifying things.”

Shirley half understood what she was saying, and Alice half understood what she was hearing. But beside them, a thoughtful and knowing look slowly appeared on Duncan’s face.

He slowly stood up, muttering as he thought: “That’s not just one sentence… That sentence explains a lot.”

Amber lowered her head and traced Gamona’s Holy Emblem on her chest with her fingers. “Goddess have mercy…”

Morris’s mouth twitched. “…Humans are a type of Abyssal Demon. Even in the Cult of Annihilation’s theories, that sounds a bit too extreme.”

“This isn’t the first time we’ve run into this kind of ‘extreme’ information,” Vanna said, shaking her head with a strange look. “Not since we first got The Blasphemous Tome.” She lifted her head and looked around at the assault squad members sent down from the Tide and the Rest.

There was surprise, deep thought, and confusion on their faces—but no one seemed shaken.

This was a unit that specialized in handling border affairs. Strong will and stable minds were basic traits. Given how things really were out on the border seas, “keeping your cool in the face of unbelievable information and knowledge” was probably already carved into their bones.

“No wonder those ‘Humanoid Husks’ floating on the sea reeked of Abyssal Demons…” Amber said suddenly, lost in thought. “I’ve heard the rumor that the Abyssal Lord created all living things during the Third Long Night, but I never thought of understanding the tie between humans and Abyssal Demons from this angle… If this is true, it really could explain the Annihilators’ summoning ability, and how their symbiotic pacts with Abyssal Demons work…”

As she spoke, her gaze could not help drifting to Dog, who was still lying by Shirley’s legs.

Dog noticed Amber’s look at once and raised its head. “Don’t look at me. My situation with Shirley isn’t the same as those cultists—and I’m not like my brainless relatives either. I’ll have you know I’ve at least completed the great circle of a high school education. I might even be half a step into a City-State University…”

Shirley was left staring by Dog’s last two lines. “…Dog, what are you talking about?”

Dog muttered under its breath: “I don’t know either. The captain taught me…”

Amber opened her mouth, wearing a complicated expression. “Even though I heard about it before, I still wouldn’t have believed there were Abyssal Demons with ‘hearts’ in this world if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes… Sorry. I didn’t mean anything by that.”

Dog grumbled: “You’d better not. I’m with the captain…”

Duncan did not pay attention to Dog’s muttering. After confirming that Shirley was stable, he broke the silence. “We can talk about the link between humans and Demons later. For now, we need to think about our next move.”

As he spoke, he turned his head and looked toward the direction in the island’s interior that Shirley had pointed to earlier.

“Shirley, do you still remember the exact place where they were digging?”

“Yeah,” Shirley nodded at once, again and again. “I remember that part pretty clearly. I even know the way.”

“Then our next target is the ‘secret chamber’ those cultists dug out,” Duncan said. His gaze soon shifted to Amber and the other assault squad members. “But there’s a problem—are you going to come with us any farther? The area ahead may not be as gentle as the Harbor district.”

“…Captain, we’re not canaries that need protecting,” Amber said, her expression turning serious. “We’ve always dealt with the ‘strange things’ along the border, including many dangerous and bizarre existences like this island. We have our own experience and methods.”

Duncan looked at her serious face and stayed silent for a few seconds. At last he slowly nodded.

“All right. Then we keep going deeper.”