One after another, tall and thin black shadows emerged from the air in all directions, and the rustling sound of tentacles wriggling in the soil continued to ring out, making people's scalps tingle. The remnants of the sun gathered and approached, standing up from the shadows, revealing their terrifying faces, and eroding this dream forest!
The chains whistled, accompanied by the explosion of compressed and torn air. Shirley shuttled through the clearing in the forest, rushing towards every sun scum that had just entered the dream and had not had time to gain a foothold. She moved forward with all her might, wantonly waving the strange power gained from symbiosis with the Deep Demon - waving the Deep Demon at the same time - constantly knocking down those terrifying creatures that looked like humans but were not humans to the ground and banishing them from this dream.
However, the number of invaders is still increasing, and the sun remnants that she knocked down for a while are also crawling out of the shadows again and again!
The dense forest with interweaving light and shadow became the best place for the sun's remnants to move freely and reshape themselves. The corrupted flesh and blood that was knocked away melted in the shadows and reunited in the shadows. Tall and thin black shadows emerged from the surroundings again and again, and when Shirley's movements slowed down a little, they immediately launched a ruthless attack.
A sharp whistling sound suddenly sounded from behind, and a spike-like tentacle suddenly emerged from the air and pierced straight into the back of Shirley's neck. She immediately felt her hair stand on end, but when she wanted to dodge, it was too late -
After a dull sound of flesh breaking, the pain did not come as expected. Shirley, who was ready to withstand the attack, turned her head in surprise, only to see a battle axe swinging past her from behind - the axe blade swung back, rose up once, and cleanly cut off the other two "spikes" that were attacking her.
The edge of the axe blade flickered with a faint blue light, as if covered by some kind of hot force field, burning and distorting the nearby air. The elf girl "Shirin" held the strange long-handled battle axe in one hand, repelling the attackers and guarding Shirley's flank, while staring blankly at the tall and thin black figures that continued to emerge and gather from all around, and finally couldn't help asking: "These... what are they?"
"Anyway, it's definitely not something that was born and bred in your forest!" Shirley shouted quickly, swinging the chain in her hand high, and knocked over a group of shadows that were gathering not far ahead. "These things are really damn difficult to deal with!!"
Shireen raised her battle axe to block the attack from another direction, but was startled when she heard Shirley's shout. She subconsciously frowned: "These words... are a bit rude."
"If you don't shout out dirty words, they will rot in your stomach. How disgusting," Shirley said with an unbridled and high-spirited smile. She stepped on a ball of flesh that was still squirming and reuniting. The chain in her hand was emitting dark smoke and dust. She looked extremely happy. "I like to be clean. I never let dirty words stay in my stomach overnight..."
Xilin listened to Shirley's theory in a daze, and seemed to be trying hard to understand her logic, but in the end she frowned and shook her head, while focusing on the enemies around her, she muttered, "You're talking nonsense."
A tentacle that was expanding and contracting unsteadily, with eyes and sharp teeth constantly appearing on its surface, suddenly wrapped around Shirley's arm. She felt a tingling sensation in her heart and used all her strength to break the tentacle's restraints. She then pushed back a shadow where the tentacle was coming from, and then subconsciously glanced in Shirley's direction.
A sense of doubt suddenly arose in her heart - she didn't know if it was an illusion, but in just a few short minutes, this elf named "Shirin" seemed to be becoming more...human than before
Was it because of the sudden appearance of the attackers? Was it because of the changes brought about by fighting side by side
Shirley still remembered the situation when she first came into contact with this elf. At that time, the other party did not seem to have so many emotional reactions. Although she had expressions of joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness, those reactions were more like something that was designed in advance. She would only constantly emphasize the plan to go to the Wall of Silence. Other than that, no matter what she said, she would not have much reaction, and there was rarely any vivid "feedback" such as surprise, confusion, and rebuttal.
Shirley didn't have any professional knowledge of psychology or behavioral science, nor did she know how to describe the discomfort she felt, but her experiences from childhood to adulthood had cultivated her instinct to perceive changes in other people's emotions. She could keenly perceive the changes in Shireen - but she couldn't figure out why these changes happened.
But she didn't have much time to think about it.
After the initial confusion, the solar remnants have gradually reacted and gained a foothold here. Now they are in danger.
A hazy shadow flashed from the edge of her vision. Shirley hurriedly only had time to retract the chain in her hand and barely dodge the attack. The next second, another spike shot out from the shadows on the ground nearby and pierced her human arm.
The intense pain made her curse subconsciously. Agou immediately rushed over from the side and bit the flesh and blood spike that gathered from the shadow into pieces. Shirley then quickly retreated, leaving the dangerous attack range. However, before she could breathe a sigh of relief, she suddenly heard a rustling sound coming from behind her again.
She looked back instinctively, only to see a tall, thin black shadow suddenly rising from the ground in front of her. The next second, tentacles suddenly emerged from the tall, thin black shadow's "long windbreaker" and entangled her arms and neck. She was suddenly dragged over by the huge force transmitted by the tentacles. She only had time to scream before she was dragged in front of the black shadow.
The tall and thin black shadow raised its "head" towards her - a mass of deformed and swollen flesh and blood emerged from the collar of the long windbreaker and suddenly bloomed like a flower bud. Right in front of Shirley, eyes, countless sharp teeth, and countless tentacles that squirmed and expanded and contracted wildly, like tongues, opened in the blooming bud of flesh and blood.
In that brief moment, Shirley seemed to hear a thousand voices exploding in her mind, and countless roars and whispers crowded into her brain layer by layer. Those roars and whispers seemed to convey some information to her, but just when she thought she was about to understand those whispers, most of the information slipped through her mind without leaving any trace.
In this sudden "connection", her mind finally recorded only an ambiguous and meaningless sentence -
"… found their… sun…"
Shirley seemed to be trapped in an endless chaos, enveloped by boundless darkness and emptiness, and surrounded by countless noises. She slowly opened her eyes and stared blankly at the blooming flesh and blood buds in front of her. The consciousness of resistance seemed to have been stripped away from her body, and Agou's voice gradually faded away in her mind...
However, in the next second, a loud bang suddenly exploded in the depths of her consciousness. In the boundless darkness, Shirley vaguely saw a faint green flame suddenly jump. The flame illuminated her soul and made her feel a sharp pain in her head - the next moment, she suddenly regained consciousness.
The tall, thin black shadow reappeared in front of her. The "head" made of dirty flesh and blood, like a blooming flower bud, was trembling violently in front of her eyes. The remnant of the sun made a series of sharp hisses and whistles, as if it was in shock, as if it could not understand why its own "pollution" failed to invade the mind of its prey - but soon, it no longer needed to be shocked.
Clusters of dark green flames suddenly appeared on the surface of countless eyeballs in the blooming buds, and in the blink of an eye, the reflections in the eyeballs turned into real, spreading flames. The spiritual fire gushed out from the "head" of the sun's remnants, rapidly burning the dream invader from the inside out.
The monster roared and twitched, spasming violently in the burning of the spiritual fire, curling up into a ball of dark and strange substance, and then, the flames flowing from its body began to spread in all directions, like a predator that smelled the scent of prey, flowing towards the surrounding solar remnants that were constantly gathering around.
The fire was as fierce as the wind, and as the sparks of fire jumped, the surrounding sun residues were ignited one after another, and in almost the blink of an eye they turned into countless burning torches.
Shirley looked at this scene in amazement. The horrified feeling that her consciousness world was almost corroded turned into a trace of cold aftertaste. However, this feeling of fear soon turned into another emotion as the spiritual fire spread. She laughed, with a proud look on her face. She raised the black iron chain in her hand and looked at the sun remnants that were roaring and struggling in the flames with pride: "You bastards want to do some spiritual pollution, right? I am protected by the captain!"
Of course, the sun remnants would not respond to her. The blazing torches fell down one by one quickly, and before they could leave the dream, they turned into ashes flying in the wind in the forest. As for Shirley, although she looked triumphant, she did not really breathe a sigh of relief until the last "torch" fell down, and then turned to look in the direction of Shireen.
Shilin's voice reached her ears first: "Shirley, I don't feel... well..."
Shirley suddenly felt a palpitation and uneasiness. She felt her heart tighten and quickly ran to Shireen's side. The next second, she saw the changes that happened to Shireen.
The elf girl's feet had been gradually swallowed up by the earth at some point. Dark structures like roots had split out from her legs, and were constantly increasing in number and merging into the soil. She raised her head and looked in the direction of Shirley, as if she wanted to raise her arms, but her arms were gradually covered by the bark-like structures - gradually becoming stiff and unable to move.
(End of this chapter)