Ashes Of Deep Sea
Chapter 726 - Chapter 726 Chapter 723 Under the Gloomy Starry Sky

Chapter 726: Chapter 723 Under the Gloomy Starry Sky Chapter 726: Chapter 723 Under the Gloomy Starry Sky The green flame fell like a meteor from the frozen starry sky above, trailing a bright path before crashing down onto the desolate plain littered with strange stones.

After the flame burst open, revealing Duncan and Alice, they stepped into this unknown world amidst the fluttering firelight.

Before the flames had dissipated, Duncan noticed the bizarre, twisted figures in the distance–about a dozen Profound Demons clustered at the edge of the landing site, seemingly dazed for some reason.

He and the demons stood staring at each other, creating an oddly stagnant atmosphere.

It wasn’t until the belatedly alert Alice blurted out that the frozen atmosphere was broken, “Captain! We’re surrounded!”

“…I see that,” Duncan replied, already preparing to “get acquainted” with those demons. The dozen or so creatures in the distance were clearly different from the Profound Demons he had seen in the real dimension, summoned by cultists. Their limbs were markedly more twisted, with eerie dislocations and fractures visible on their bodies. The floating Skull Demon, with a terrifying void atop its head, looked particularly troublesome.

According to Duncan’s understanding, the more twisted a Profound Demon was, the stronger and more bothersome it probably was–the demons before him were so twisted they were practically breaking, definitely the elites of the Mysterious Deep Sea, unlike the weak ones that would flee upon seeing him in the real world…

What he hadn’t expected was that as soon as he was ready to “greet” these natives, the group of creatures in the distance seemed to suddenly come to their senses. They let out a series of chaotic, noisy roars and hoarse screams before exploding in all directions, with half of them disappearing in the blink of an eye.

The other half didn’t run, not because they chose not to, but because they simply couldn’t–it looked horrifying as the Skull Demon was flying unsteadily like an old diesel engine with a leaky cylinder. After fluttering a bit, it would emit a puff of black smoke through the hole in its head and then fall to the ground. After struggling for a moment, it would rise again, only to emit another puff and fall once more…

By optimistic estimates, in half a minute it could fly at most six meters, spending most of the time fizzling on the spot.

Duncan & Alice: “…?”

After a moment’s reaction, Duncan finally noticed the messy traces on the ground at the edge of the landing site–numerous indistinguishable remnants strewn among ridges and furrows, emitting clouds of dust while melding into the ground. All around were terrifying pits and grooves, as if the land had been gouged by some crushing force. It was a chilling sight.

Initially, Duncan had thought these traces were merely a “natural landscape” of the Mysterious Deep Sea, having heard that the place was a “fragmented wasteland”, but now he realized… this was a battlefield, the aftermath of a fierce battle.

Something had arrived here before them, killing almost all the Profound Demons in the center of the wilderness, and those dozen or so demons were just the lucky survivors–

Their twisted forms had been twisted by some violent force.

And now Alice realized the situation as well. Her eyes widened as she looked around and noticed the pitch-black bones scattered in nearby pits, gripping Duncan’s arm, “Captain! The place is littered with demon remnants!”

Duncan glanced at the wobbling Skull Demon trying hard to fly and a few birds of doom hopping on one leg, lost in thought, “…It seems there has been a battle already…”

“Who did this?” Alice appeared quite uneasy, the surrounding scene making her nervous, “Are the internal fights among Profound Demons always this fierce?”

Duncan didn’t speak for a moment, just bent down and carefully examined a piece of bone that had nearly been scorched to cinder, and then opened his palm above the fragment.

A faint green spark, nearly imperceptible to the naked eye, drifted up from the charred bone, floating gently into his palm.

The weak spark still carried the “memories” left behind by the recent battle on this field.

“It was Sherry and the Hound,” Duncan finally said after a moment, looking towards the vast expanse of the wasteland, “They had come here one after another… Theoretically, these traces are what they left behind.”

Listening, Alice’s expression became blank for a moment, not quite catching up, “…Are Sherry and the Hound that powerful?”

“It seems something has happened to them, some kind of significant… transformation,” Duncan frowned slightly, his expression grave, “Especially with Sherry, she doesn’t seem quite right to me now.”

As he spoke, he turned his gaze following the direction of the “marking aura” from Sherry and the Hound.

The boundless chaos permeated this vast dimension, with the stagnant ancient starry sky looming high over the dome of the Mysterious Deep Sea. The dim stars illuminated those fragmented floating islands within the chaotic space–in the range of his vision, he could see many shadows of varying sizes floating in the dim starlight, all of which were floating landmasses, including the “wasteland” upon which he and Alice stood, seemingly just part of numerous shattered islands.

The entire “Mysterious Deep Sea” consisted of countless fragmented floating islands floating within a dimension covered by the stagnant ancient sky, the whole space filled with an atmosphere of desolation and death.

Duncan withdrew his gaze and addressed the person beside him, “Do you feel anything special now? Can you see or hear any unusual information?”

Alice carefully distinguished for a moment and shook her head, “Not for now.”

“Okay,” Duncan nodded slightly, then raised a hand and pointed into the distance, “Sherry and A-Dog’s marks are in this direction, still moving. Let’s chase after them.”

“Right!” Alice immediately nodded and followed Duncan’s steps, muttering under her breath, “Sherry must be terrified… She’s actually very timid… A-Dog, too, is not very brave…”

The two figures exuding a terrifyting aura finally had left towards the distance–they seemed to have no intention of causing trouble here.

The Skull Demon, floating askew in mid-air, trembled slightly, its red eyes in its eye sockets flickering on and off. It watched the two uninvited guests leaving, and for the first time, a concept like “relief” emerged in its chaotic and dull mind.

A Death Messenger, left with only one leg and half a wing, hopped from the rubble not far away, while two Fear Demons, nearly flattened, moved sluggishly through the cracks on the ground. Several Abyssal Hounds, almost torn to pieces, were struggling to crawl away.

What a beautiful day.

A long, spiny limb, like a sword, stabbed from the sky, pinning an abomination of a demon, which was opening its maw to roar and readying its breath, to the earth. Then the limb continued to stride forward toward the edge of the wilderness.

Twelve symmetrical limbs, with many large and small, bizarre and horrific demonic creatures impaled on them, twisted and ugly, some still struggling and screeching, but many were motionless, emitting rolling dust, gradually turning into mud.

The owner of the limbs, however, had already stopped caring–after an unknown period of travel, she had finally reached the end of this land.

The land floating in the chaotic darkness was like an isolated island; nothing but boundless void lay beyond its end. At the edge of this wilderness, rocks and soil came to an abrupt halt. The broken edge of the earth emitted a thin mist, encircling the lone island like low-flowing clouds.

Sherry carefully stopped at the edge of this land, using her barbed limbs to grip the crevices in the rocks, cautiously peeking down over the edge of the floating isle, then swiftly withdrew her gaze.

There was no more road.

What to do next?

She pondered, remaining immobile like a statue at the end of the wilderness, as if dead.

But the demons lurking around, hesitating, knew–the powerful and frightening “Outsider” was still alive. In the lattice of bones that was her ribcage, two dark red hearts and a tuft of flame were still beating slowly, unextinguished.

After what seemed like an eternity, Sherry finally snapped out of her thoughts. She controlled her limbs to step back twice, trying to lower herself–she was tired, she wanted to sit and rest for a few minutes.

After several attempts, she clumsily sat down, carefully folding her skeletal, wing-like structure behind her.

Sitting there on a large rock, she lifted her head, staring somewhat absent-mindedly at the frozen, ancient starry sky above.

The cosmos was cold, filled with an aura of death and desolation, like a grand yet lifeless corpse, its billions of eyes coldly overlooking everything.

So beautiful but also quite frightening, she felt as if she was about to fall into that dense array of stars and become part of them, and yet also felt overwhelmed by them, as if being crushed under this shattered and desolate land.

What words could properly describe such a scene, such a feeling?

Sherry thought earnestly and hard, and suddenly regretted not listening to the captain and reading more books. If she had, she would have a vast vocabulary, rather than being stuck after a long thought with just one phrase–

“…Damn, that’s beautiful…”

Then footsteps suddenly appeared nearby, interrupting Sherry’s reveries, causing the demons hiding in the darkness, full of malice yet hesitation, to finally retreat.

Sherry slowly turned, and saw an Abyssal Hound, larger than all the others and with bones broken and floating in black smoke, coming from the shadows.

It approached cautiously, green flames burning in its hollow sockets. It seemed hesitant, nervous, and faltering. It lingered for a long time about ten meters away before slowly advancing a few steps, placing the object in its mouth onto the ground.

“…Sherry, I found something to eat…”

The statement sounded achingly familiar.