Ashes Of Deep Sea
Chapter 727 - Chapter 727 Chapter 724 Reforging

Chapter 727: Chapter 724: Reforging Chapter 727: Chapter 724: Reforging Such a familiar phrase plunged Sherry into a brief trance, where her memories undulated in a fading ocean. From those illusory, hazy bubbles, some longstanding warmth and colors emerged. It took a long while for her to somewhat dully come back to her senses, looking at the unusually large Abyssal Hound not far away.

It was still there, waiting, with hesitation and tension, and a bit of confusion.

As if a layer of sticky mud covered its mind, the hound felt many things were amiss in its head, its past memories blurry, and its current thoughts intermittent. It wasn’t sure what exactly the problem was, only feeling… as if something was missing inside.

A faint light twinkled in its hollow eye sockets. The hound looked at the peculiar Profound Demon nearby, sporting strange skeletal limbs that were somewhat familiar, feeling waves of haziness.

It hadn’t seen her before, but it knew her–it had known her a long long time ago.

Why had the memory’s tiny figure changed like this?

After hesitating indeterminably, the hound carefully walked forward. First, it sniffed the scent in its surroundings, then carefully stepped over the spiny, elongated limbs to approach Sherry.

Sherry silently watched the towering Abyssal Hound. After a few minutes, she slowly stood up and reached out to touch the top of the hound’s head. “Why have you also become so strange?”

The hound awkwardly tilted its head, seemingly wanting to say something, but before it could speak, it felt a push from behind its neck–Sherry suddenly reached out, embraced the hound’s neck, and then forcefully hugged it to her chest.

“…I thought I had lost you…” she muttered softly, her voice trembling slightly with belated fear, “You suddenly fell down, and I couldn’t hold onto you…”

The hound felt its head grow increasingly groggy, its sluggish thoughts stuttering, hardly forming a coherent thought, but just then, it suddenly heard something.

Thump, thump–the familiar heartbeat!

It pressed against Sherry’s chest, the sound of two hearts beating slowly, seemingly piercing through the muddiness in its head. It abruptly woke from a profound daze, recalling everything swiftly with each heartbeat. A glow gradually brightened in its eye sockets as it finally broke the silence, struggling slightly. “Sherry, I… back then…”

But Sherry didn’t loosen her arms, continuing to hold the hound’s neck while whispering, “I know, hound… I know everything.”

The fire in the hound’s eyes flickered momentarily as it ceased struggling, its tone hesitant. “When… did you know?”

“The first time I learned that Profound Demons have no hearts,” Sherry answered softly.

The hound fell silent, maintaining its posture of being embraced by the neck, motionless, pondering deeply for a long while before it muttered, “I’m sorry…”

“It’s okay,” Sherry responded almost instantly, then slightly loosened her grip on the hound’s neck, staring earnestly at this Abyssal Hound which had accompanied her for twelve years, almost having raised her herself. She slowly nodded as if to emphasize, “It’s okay–you’ve always been with me.”

The hound nodded dully, feeling a twinge of relief inside but at the same time, its mind suddenly felt vaguely hazy once more.

That feeling of sluggish thoughts and fragmented memories surged again and again.

“Sherry, my head feels so foggy…” it uttered instinctively.

“It might be because of this,” Sherry quickly realized, looking down at her chest–two hearts were beating in her chest cavity, but soon she furrowed her brows, “…but it seems I can’t take them out anymore…”

As she spoke, she reached out to touch the crisscrossing bone armor on her chest, as if trying to reopen the sturdy “bone cage.”

“Don’t touch them,” the hound immediately spoke up to stop Sherry’s next move, “You could die!”

Sherry stopped, looking helplessly at the hound. “Then… what do we do?”

The hound said nothing, its gaze falling on Sherry’s right hand–the broken chain dangled there, the end of the chain faintly visible with a green flame burning.

Sherry quickly responded and her gaze met with A-Dog’s, thinking of the same possibility.

“… Fix this?” she hesitated to speak, “Is that possible?”

“I think it should work in theory,” A-Dog mumbled with uncertain tone, “after all, we have always relied on symbiosis to maintain our balance, but…” A-Dog mumbled, the tone not quite sure, “this has never happened before, a symbiont surviving so long after the chain breaks is already unprecedented, let alone repairing the chain… To be honest, I don’t know how to handle it.”

Listening to A-Dog’s explanation, Sherry showed a thoughtful expression on her face. She then picked up the broken chain segment, found the other part near A-Dog’s neck, and tried fitting the broken ends together for half a minute before lifting her head, “… It seems just putting them together won’t work.”

“Nonsense, of course it won’t work–you’d at least need a blacksmith if it were just a simple broken chain!” A-Dog snapped, shaking its head, but then lay down due to a dizzy spell, “This might require a strict ‘reshaping’ process… what’s important isn’t fixing the chain, but repairing the symbiotic relationship between us…”

Sherry listened intently, thinking hard, while also muttering, “After all… How did this chain suddenly break in the first place? I only remember when we were in that cave, you suddenly felt unwell, and then you sank into the ground…”

“It’s definitely related to The Saint of the Abyss and also related to the many ‘truths’ you ‘saw’ suddenly in that square,” A-Dog analyzed as it fought the grogginess in its mind, “There were signs before the chain broke, and the initial change occurred right after you ‘saw’ the memories of Holy Land Island…”

It halted suddenly, catching onto a possibility, then continued after a moment, “… Those Heretics, upon knowing the ‘truth,’ were instantly corrupted and twisted, reverting to ‘raw constructs’ from humans, and because you were under the captain’s protection, it appeared that you weren’t influenced by the corruption–but is it possible that the corruption still took effect?”

Sherry was stunned, looking down at her own body.

A-Dog continued, thinking aloud, “You have been symbiotic with me, a Profound Demon, since before you even met the captain, so ‘corruption’ might have already been ingrained in your essence. The memories of Holy Land Island triggered it, awakening your profound demonic side, because it’s something within you, partially bypassing the captain’s protection…

“The chain between humans and Profound Demons is essentially a ‘symbiotic contract’ between two organisms–with strict conditions for establishment, in other words, when your essence changes, it’s tantamount to breaking the conditions that established the contract…

“It’s like the contracts between merchants, when one party, due to force majeure, loses the ability to fulfill the contract, the contract naturally becomes void…”

Sherry, listening puzzledly, finally responded, “Then… what now?”

A-Dog thought seriously, “If it won’t fix, then make a new one, perhaps we should consider establishing a new symbiotic contract–not with your previous state, but with your current state.”

This time, Sherry finally understood.

Hope reignited in her heart, and she found new motivation, “Then what should we do? How are these symbiotic contracts usually formed?”

Though she and A-Dog had been “symbiotic” for over a decade, it had never been a normal contract relationship from the start; she had never performed any summoning rituals like ordinary eradication adherents, thus she was almost completely ignorant in this area.

But A-Dog clearly knew much more.

“In terms of the ‘symbiotic contract’ like the eradication adherents’, the most difficult part is the preparation beforehand. The eradication adherents usually require a series of ritualistic acts to transform themselves, including various bloody ‘surgeries’ and mental reshaping, accompanied by many nefarious and dark deeds, ultimately making their life forms more akin to the ‘original,’ thus enabling them to withstand the power of Profound Demons–but for you, this is the least important part.

“Because you can skip this process, you are already closer to that so-called ‘original’ state than any eradication adherents, and you have adapted to the demon’s power.

“So, what you need to do is just perform a simple summoning ritual–that’s actually the easiest part.”

A-Dog said this while staggering to its feet, walking slowly across the stony wilderness, carving deep grooves in the earth with its claws–it was drawing a complex set of runes, inscribing the “text” of the contract.

“Establishing connection… summoning the demon… these are simple for us, I can prepare all the runes and grounds required for the ritual, and I will supply the magic power needed to activate these runes–all you need to do is stand on the node at the edge of the ritual site. When I’m ready, you just have to outline in your mind the demon you wish to summon.”

It looked up, gazing into Sherry’s eyes, watching curiously from the side, and continued very seriously–

“Usually, this summoning process would last an entire day or even longer, it opens a rift until the demon willing to respond appears at the center of the rune matrix, after which the contract is established, but…”

While speaking, it walked slowly towards the center of those myriad runes, with many runes lighting up around it.

“But Sherry, you don’t have to wait so long–I’m right here.”