Shirley stared at the scene in amazement, not knowing how to react for a moment, as if she was facing a bizarre nightmare.
Shirley slowly stretched out her right hand to her. Shirley subconsciously walked over, as if wanting to grab her fingers. However, before she touched Shirley, the elf girl's arm was completely covered by a bark-like substance. At the last second, Shirley only touched a rough and hard branch. Then, this "branch" began to grow rapidly and grew higher and higher towards the sky...
Shireen's face gradually disappeared among the rapidly growing lush branches. In the last moment before the complete transformation, she slightly widened her eyes, as if she suddenly understood something. She looked at Shirley, as if she wanted to tell the latter something - and then, her expression froze at this moment, and she completely merged into the tree.
Now, she has transformed into a small tree with slender branches.
Shirley stared at this incredible scene in a daze, subconsciously recalling the entire process of the other party's transformation into a tree, and the last look the other party gave her. For a long time, she stood there motionless.
What happened? Why did this happen? How did the elf... become a tree
A slight sound of wind suddenly came from nearby, mixed with an approaching malicious intent. Shirley was finally awakened from her shock. She suddenly raised her head and looked in the direction where the malicious intent came from. In the dim forest, she saw a dark red light and a smoke-like shadow mist vaguely emerging, and then quickly dissipated.
Agou instantly sensed the disgusting aura - the aura of a dark demon.
"The Annihilation Cultists! They were hiding in the shadows of those sun remnants!"
Hearing Agou's growl, Shirley finally realized what was happening -
It was the Annihilation Cultists who attracted those "solar remnants" here just now. It might be cooperation, or it might be simple exploitation. They wanted to use those solar remnants to get rid of themselves and Shireen, but the situation developed beyond their expectations. When a solar remnant tried to erode their consciousness, the captain's fire was alarmed and backfired to kill all the attackers. Before, the strong presence of the solar remnants covered the breath of those Annihilation Cultists. Now the latter found that they had been exposed, so they decisively chose to run away.
Shirley glanced towards the dark forest, but suddenly hesitated before taking a step. She swept her eyes across the open space around her and saw that the remnants of the sun that were killed by the spiritual fire had curled up into twisted ashes and were gradually dissipating in the air. The few remaining green flames were burning slowly between the piles of ashes, and gradually faded and went out.
The captain's flames faded - that was a force beyond his control.
Shirley knew very well that the "victory" just now had little to do with her, and she was not sure whether the flame would appear again the next time she encountered danger. Maybe... the "mark" left by the captain for her would only be effective this time
If you chase after them rashly and find that you can't win when a fight breaks out, that would be a lot of fun.
However, her hesitation only lasted for a second or two. Before the smoke and fog in the dense forest completely disappeared from Agou's perception, she gritted her teeth, spat to the side, and took a step forward to chase into the depths of the darkness.
She ran past the small tree that Shirley had transformed into. The thin branches at the top of the tree drooped down and brushed Shirley's shoulders. The branches and leaves swayed, making a slight rustling sound.
After running in the dense forest for an unknown amount of time, Shirley and Agou finally slowed down their pace.
"Their auras have dispersed in front of us, and are fading very quickly." Ah Gou raised his head, his ugly big head turning left and right in the air, the blood-red light in his eye sockets flickering, "There must be some demons among them who are good at hiding their auras, maybe deathbirds... Tsk, this is very troublesome."
"Did we lose them?" Shirley muttered unwillingly, "I thought we could finally catch one or two this time..."
Agou shook his head and said nothing, but tried again to determine the true direction in which the aura was fading.
However, at this moment, the sound of footsteps suddenly coming from a certain direction in the forest interrupted its and Shirley's actions.
Shirley tensed up instantly, lifted her chain and leaned forward to look in the direction of the sound, but the next second, the figure that appeared behind the trees and bushes was not the cultist she expected.
An elf girl wearing a light hunting suit and holding a strange long-handled battle axe in her hand walked out of the dense forest.
Shirley's tense posture froze for a moment. She looked at the elf girl walking out of the forest in astonishment. Looking at her familiar face, even though she knew she was in a strange "dream", she still felt a sense of absurdity and weirdness quietly emerging from the bottom of her heart. Then, she heard the elf girl speak to her with a hint of surprise -
"You didn't receive the order to evacuate? Why are you still outside the Silence Wall?!"
Shirley opened her mouth, and it seemed as if countless words popped up in her stomach in an instant, but when the time came to say it, she couldn't organize a single word. She looked at the "Shireen" who appeared in front of her again with strange eyes, and instinctively wanted to say hello, but quickly realized that the other party didn't know her at all - this was no longer the "Shireen" who took her to the Wall of Silence before.
Just as she was distracted, Shirley heard a second sound of footsteps behind the elf girl. She looked in the direction of the sound in surprise, and a familiar figure in a black dress and holding a huge rabbit doll in her arms appeared in her sight.
"Miss Lucrecia...?"
"Shirley?" Lucrecia walked out of the forest. After seeing the familiar figure at the fork in the road ahead, the "sea witch" couldn't help but show a surprised expression, "I didn't expect..."
This unexpected meeting surprised both of them. Shirley dragged Agou to look up and down at the "Witch Lady" who suddenly appeared, and then looked at the elf girl standing beside her. After a moment, she cautiously took a half step back: "To be on the safe side—"
Lucrecia followed suit and said, "Confirm your identity."
Shirley said quickly, "Where was Alice's head yesterday at noon?"
"In the pot," Lucrecia answered without hesitation, and then asked, "What is my father's greatest hobby now?"
“Fishing, walking the dog, feeding the pigeons—passed.”
"Well, I passed," Lucrecia seemed relieved. She lowered the "baton" in her hand and put the rabbit doll on the ground. "This dream is very strange. It's always good to be more cautious."
Shirley nodded, and at this moment, the elf girl "Shirin" beside her finally spoke: "Do you know each other?"
"Yes, my friend," Lucrecia replied casually.
Shirley couldn't help but glance at the familiar face of the elf next to her with a complicated expression, and then she looked at Lucrecia and said quickly: "Did you find any trace of the Annihilation Cultists when you came here?"
"Annihilation Cultists?" Lucrecia frowned. "I didn't realize that you encountered them?"
"But there weren't just the Annihilation Cultists. I also ran into a bunch of Sun bastards," Shirley said regretfully. "Unfortunately, those Annihilation Cultists ran away in the end..."
Then, she quickly told Lucrecia about her experience, including how she was almost contaminated by a solar remnant and how the captain's flame appeared to resolve the crisis.
But she did not mention the "Shireen" who was with her, nor did she mention the incredible scene when that "Shireen" finally turned into a small tree.
Because another elf girl named "Shirin" was standing next to her, and was listening to the conversation between her and Lucrecia with curiosity.
Before we figure out what these "Shirins" are all about, we should try to avoid any unexpected changes in them.
"Agou and I chased them all the way here. We were about to catch up with them, but they still managed to escape," Shirley shook her head with regret after recounting her experience. "Among them was the 'Death Bird', a demon that is good at hiding its aura and confusing perception. Agou is not good at dealing with that thing."
Lucrecia raised her head and looked thoughtfully at the forest scenery around her, which seemed to be the same in every direction. After thinking for a moment, she suddenly said, "They shouldn't have run too far... You mentioned earlier that they ran away after seeing the spiritual fire kill the sun remnants?"
"Yeah," Shirley nodded, "He ran so fast, not caring about his 'allies' at all."
"So, they were frightened by my father's flames, and they must have been filled with fear as they fled, right?"
"… I think so," Shirley said uncertainly, and a little confused, "Is there any problem with this?"
Lucrecia did not answer her, but looked down at the rabbit doll sitting on the ground in a daze: "Rabbi, I know you are listening."
The bunny doll shook its body slowly and made a small complaining sound: "The rabbi doesn't like cultists. Their minds are stinky and there are disgusting things..."
Lucrecia said nothing, but silently raised the baton in her hand.
The rabbit doll stood up immediately, brushing off the dirt on its body while muttering: "Okay, okay, Rabbi got it, Rabbi will go find them... You must remember to bring Rabbi back!"
"Go... while they are still in shock."
The rabbit doll let out an "oh" sound, and then right in front of Shirley, it exploded with a bang. A ball of white smoke with rough lines that looked like hand-painted style gushed out of its body and rose and spread, instantly covering its funny and terrifying figure - as the smoke dissipated, the figure of the rabbit doll also disappeared from Shirley's sight.
(End of this chapter)