Deep Sea Embers

It was indeed the nun—the one who had been talking to Duncan and Shirley not long ago and was currently theoretically praying in the main hall.

But now she had collapsed here, dead near the entrance to the underground church. Even until the last moment when Duncan pushed the door open, she was, in fact, physically leaning against the door.

From what he could tell, the nun was trying to block something from invading the underground church and had endured fierce fighting before falling.

“It seems... It’s like she just died...” Shirley had dared to come over and poked her head out from behind Duncan’s figure.

“Yes, it looks like it’s not been long since she died, and even...” Duncan said, reaching out and putting his hand on the nun’s arm, “even the temperature is warm.”

The body at the entrance to the underground sanctuary was still warm, and the blood stains on the scarred body had not dried up yet, which gave even Duncan the feeling that the battle was still going on when he and Shirley had just stepped into the church.

Perhaps, the nun was still breathing during their exploration.

But that’s impossible....

The church had been abandoned for eleven years. Whatever vision caused its destruction must’ve occurred back then as well. There’s no way the nun could’ve been alive for all these years!

Duncan took on a grim face as he slowly stood up and looked around.

The underground chapel of this community church was just a spacious basement as he thought. There were no lights here, and even the oil and gas lamps that were supposed to ward off evil spirits were extinguished. If not for the faint light coming down from the stairs, it would be complete darkness here. Nevertheless, he could still make out the faint outlines of the goddess statue at the end with various scriptures hanging from the wall.

Duncan stepped over the nun’s body, looking for traces of battle in the basement. He saw the dents on the walls and columns, the potholes made by bullets, and the traces of being burned by flames. They should all be left over from the battle.

But he did not find the “enemy”, the “invader” that the nun had fought desperately before she died in battle.

He then turned his head and looked at the dark hound, who was following behind Shirley and cautiously watching the room as well: “Dog, what can you see?”

“Traces of time and space being severely distorted... It doesn’t seem to have the ‘overlapping reality effect’ like on the surface levels. However, the truth is, time and space are far more distorted here than anywhere else in the church,” Dog’s tone was particularly grim when speaking. As the only supernatural expert in the three “person” squad, his analysis was obviously much more organized than Duncan’s blind guess, “The entire underground sanctuary in my eyes is shrouded in a layer of mist, and the wrong time and space have completely replaced reality. But... I didn’t find anything other than the phenomenon of space-time distortion.”

“What about the ‘intruders’ who attacked here?” Duncan frowned, “That nun can’t be here to fight the air, right?”

“...... There are no intruders,” Dog sniffled—though it had no respiratory system, “no scent of the living, nor the scent of the dead or demons.”

Speaking of this, he paused and added: “Please believe my judgment in this regard. The best thing that we hounds are best at is hunting. Distinguishing the scent of prey in the environment is the basic ability of a predator, unless...”

Duncan raised his eyebrows: “Unless?”

Dog quickly looked around as if suddenly becoming very cautious and alarmed: “Unless something from subspace came out from here... I can’t track such a thing, but if it’s something from subspace, you should be more familiar with this subject than me...”

When Duncan heard this, his face immediately stalled due to how out of the blue this was: “Sorry, I’m really unfamiliar with this.”

Dog quickly lowered his head: “You... if you say unfamiliar, then it’s unfamiliar....”

Duncan thought for a bit and understood the dark hound didn’t believe his denial. Unfortunately, he had no excuse otherwise because he really didn’t know a thing about subspace!

He recalled the rift he saw when he observed the statue in the church’s main hall, the chaotic light and shadow leaking out of the rift, and the strange visions he saw at the bottom of the ship.

Subspace... is it really something from subspace that came out?

“If it’s really something that ran out of subspace...” Duncan frowned as if talking to himself, “How did they manage to break directly into the main prayer hall of a storm church? Shouldn’t a place like this be the safest? Judging by the traces and clues, the intruders did not attack from the outside but appeared directly inside the building...”

“That’s beyond me,” Dog shook his head, “the secret of the four major churches is a knowledge blind zone for us shadow demons. We don’t know much about subspace, and it’s you humans who are crazy enough to study that taboo....”

“Humans have always been a very bold race,” Duncan casually added and looked at the hound, “but I’m a little surprised now. The deep sea is closely adjacent to subspace. How could you demons be more afraid of subspace than us humans? Isn’t that place supposed to be the same thing as your home’s front door?”

“It’s the same logic as those who live near a volcano. You wouldn’t expect them to drink magma, right?” Dog curled his tail behind his butt after making that remark, afraid the offensive language would anger the great ghost captain. “We live near the edge of subspace, so we know better than any mortal not to dabble with that place.”

Duncan mused over this detail, figuring out a new question that just came to him: “... Is that the reason why your kind is so afraid of the Vanished that managed to return from subspace?”

Dog shrunk his neck and nervously glanced up at Duncan. Normally he wouldn’t answer such a question, but since it’s coming from the owner of the Vanished itself, he decides to be honest on the matter. “Actually.... if the Vanished had just returned from subspace once, then it wouldn’t be so terrifying. The key is that the ship kept dropping back and forth between reality and subspace. It’s like witnessing something oscillating between the two dimensions.”

Duncan didn’t expect much initially, but after hearing this new and important piece, his heart jerked to attention: “Oscillating between the real world and subspace?”

“Yes, everytime the ship would directly penetrate the spirit world and the deep sea, dragging everything it encounters along the way like a rampaging cannonball.” Dog obviously felt uncomfortable speaking of this and curled up on the floor, “I still remember the terrible scene when the ship dropped down from the upper levels like a meteorite. The flames that wrapped around the ship were screaming with twisted souls of you humans. Even us demons were caught up in the carnage and had to flee everywhere....”

“This happened many times. It smashed through all of the dimensions until it fell into subspace. Then it would pop back out several days later. Imagine seeing this occur on a rinse-and-repeat cycle, going up and down, up and down. Even us demons were traumatized afterward....”

Dog gulped with great difficulty after spelling out his woes. Oddly enough, it felt good for the dark hound like he just went to therapy.

“I want to emphasize something. Prior to that event, we demons didn’t know what fear was. Our instincts were always about fighting and fighting, but afterward, our kind learned what fear meant as an emotion. And I... I am one of the parts from the Nether Lord that had the deepest ingrain of fear due to that event.”

Duncan almost became lost for words after hearing the story: “That... I see. I now understand why you have such a big psychological shadow hanging over your head.”

“You... don’t you know this?”

Duncan almost broke his façade and blurted out: how the XXXX am I supposed to know what the original captain did? Why am I always the scapegoat for all the blame?!

But no matter how big the complaint was, he could only stuff it in his heart. “I probably didn’t pay attention at the time....”

Dog: “....”

Seeing the devastated appearance of this dark hound, Duncan sighed and added: “I’ll pay attention next time.”

His tone was very sincere, which left Dog to the point of being touched and unable to move.

On the other hand, Duncan himself was briefly stuck in deep thought.

If what Dog said is true, that’s to say the Vanished had at one point completely fell out of control. It kept returning and going from subspace.