Chapter 572.
Chapter 572 – Diffuse the Depths
The tall, thin, shadowy man across the street muttered softly as if he were talking to himself, causing Shirley to instantly control her impulse to swing the dog at the man.
She reacted at the first opportunity, the skill of observing words and disguise that she had learned since she was a child made her expression instantly flawless, while looking at the middle-aged man across the street, she slightly loosened Dog’s chain and made a puzzled and a little nervous appearance, “What’s wrong?”
The shady man opposite her spread his eyebrows at the words and waved his hand at Shirley, “Don’t be nervous, compatriot, we are not yet aware of all the laws of this Dream of the Nameless One, and it is normal for there to be a slight deviation when entering the dream realm, except that ……”
The other party paused when he said this, and a hint of doubt gradually appeared in his gaze towards Sherry: “I didn’t expect that a compatriot as young as you could even appear here, is it really okay for you to enter the Dream of the Nameless One in this manner?”
“The connection with the Profound has nothing to do with age,” Shirley immediately shook the dark and sturdy chain in her hand, and the Dog beside her immediately matched it with a tame low growl, “I’m a veteran Summoner, don’t be deceived by my appearance.”
“…… Well, it’s my rudeness,” the Annihilationist on the opposite side seemed to have dispelled the doubts in his mind, and a raw smile surfaced on his shadowy face, and then he raised his head and looked at his surroundings for a moment, and his gaze soon fell on that not far away “demarcation line”, his complexion was thoughtful, “Eroding the border …… Luck is good, it looks like we are not far from that ‘wall’. ”
Seeing the other party’s attention shifted to other places, Shirley immediately breathed a sigh of relief, and then noticed the other party unintentionally mentioned the “erosion of the border” and “wall” such a strange words, she controlled the expression on her face, these words silently note down, and then continued to play the long unused, but not the same as the other party, but the other side of the wall. Then, while continuing to use her long unused but still skillful acting skills, she casually mentioned, “The border was spreading outward like crazy, and it was quite scary to be honest.”
“You caught the erosion zone expanding?” The shadowy man raised an eyebrow, “Ah, that sounds pretty unlucky – but it’s always going to happen more and more as the Dream of the Nameless One continues to evolve, and according to that group of ‘preachers’, the decay of this dream and the collapse is destined to happen, that’s why we need to find that wall of silence as soon as possible …… Don’t delay.”
While saying that, this Annihilationist slightly raised his right hand, and a dark chain appeared in the air beside him, and the soot at the end of the chain coalesced into a half-rotted “Death Bird” made of skeletons and shadows.
After the appearance of this profound demon immediately issued a shrill and unpleasant chirping, and then flapped the tattered bone wings and flew into the air, as if sensing the flow of some kind of air in the dream world, and after a few moments, it landed on its master’s shoulder, and I do not know how this chaotic and unintelligent demon completed the communication with its “master”, and the latter quickly determined a general idea of what it was. The latter quickly determined a general direction and looked up into the depths of the forest: “First, go this way.”
Shirley didn’t say anything, and with Dog in tow, she honestly followed this tall, thin and shadowy cultist, walking with the other party towards the depths of the forest.
But underneath the calm exterior, her brain had already begun to spin rapidly – she pondered the other party’s purpose, pondered how she should inquire about something without arousing his suspicion, pondered how she should make herself act more like a normal Annihilationist, and also pondered what position she should use once her disguise failed to The first time to solve this guy.
She felt her mind rapidly flexing – it was as if all sorts of ideas were coming back to her after she finally didn’t have to think about those sleep-inducing letters and numbers.
She carefully controlled the distance between herself and the cultist –
Not too close, too close to draw alarm and suspicion.
Much less too far away for a dog to swing at – she had to make sure the other person was within range of one of her own dogs.
“I’m Sarah, what’s your name?” After a few seconds of silence, Shirley made up a random name for herself and opened her mouth to inquire.
Growing up in the ghetto, she was familiar with this kind of small lie.
“Richard,” the cultist walking in front of her said without looking back, “The Holy Lord has given us a shortcut to the ‘Essence’, and a name is not something that matters, young compatriot.”
“Oh …… you’re right, I was just asking off the top of my head,” Shirley nodded hurriedly, then asked as if offhandedly, “Is there a lot of people ‘in’ this time around ‘ a lot of people?”
“Another dozen or so church brothers and sisters are moving with us, they come from different city-states – but I’m not sure about the specifics, the saints up there are arranging everything, and like you, I’m just carrying out the orders conveyed by the messenger.”
“…… Hey, they see me as young, they don’t tell me anything and let me come in to spy on the situation,” Shirley muttered casually, complaining in an emotionally sincere tone, “And I just came in and also encountered the expansion of the erosion zone, today is too unlucky –Luckily, the Holy Lord took refuge.”
The cultist who called himself Richard glanced back this way slightly, seeming to suspect nothing at all in his demeanor.
After all, the Profound Hound walking with this girl was the strongest “proof of identity” – the only people in this world who could live in symbiosis with a Profound Demon were the Annihilationists, and as long as this identity was clear, then this was definitely a “compatriot! As long as this identity is clear, then this is definitely a “compatriot”.
At best, it’s an inexperienced compatriot with a lot of problems.
After realizing this, Shirley’s own guts grew a little bit.
She began to use her “young and inexperienced” status as an excuse to ask one question after another.
Dog’s slightly puzzled voice sounded in the bottom of her heart: “Shirley, why do I feel that you seem to be quite excited?”
“Nonsense, how can you not be excited about getting credit for something!” Shirley’s face didn’t move as she talked to the cultist in front of her, but in her heart, she muttered to Dog, “If I fool around a little more, the captain will definitely reward me – maybe I won’t have to memorize my vocabulary for the next couple of days… …Ah Gou Ah Gou, do you think if I catch a live one back, I can use it to cover my math homework?”
“How are you going to catch someone back inside the dream world?” “Ah …… well, I forgot about that.”
……
Deep in the neighborhood, vines and giant trees that seemed to have grown and spread out from the dream world wrapped around and covered every building in sight, turning the entire neighborhood into a silent and dark eerie forest.
Dark-colored vines climbed the nearby high walls, tiny thorns wrapped around the lamp posts of the streetlights, towering trees blocked the entrances to the alleys, the crowns of the trees covered the roofs of the buildings, and there were branches crisscrossing among the trees that directly passed through those buildings that were plunged into dead silence, and as if they were one, they directly merged into the solid concrete walls, presenting a weird scene of blending and twisting symbiosis with the city’s architectural complexes. It was a bizarre scene of fusion and twisted symbiosis with the buildings in the city.
And in this weird and dead scene, Duncan and Alice’s footsteps appear particularly abrupt, and even …… as if this “diffuse dream” in a tearing discordant noise, in the uninhabited streets echoing.
Duncan frowned tightly, his eyes swept over the dead street in front of him.
The canopy of trees blocked the sky, whether it was the “sunlight” from the sea outside the city-state, or the cold glow of the World’s Creation that appeared vaguely in the night, it was all blocked by the luxuriant plants over the neighborhood, giving the street a disturbing dark atmosphere, and in this darkness, he and Alice had not seen any people walking along the way. did not see any silhouettes.
This was certainly not normal.
The city was under curfew after nightfall, but even on the curfewed streets, one should be able to see the church guards patrolling the streets.
But there was not a single one – not only was there no one on the streets, but when passing some of the houses on the street, Duncan and Alice did not see any figures appearing in the houses either.
Even if the lights were on in those houses right there, and even from the setup it looked as if someone had been moving around in the living room a moment before.
“There’s no one to be seen in the neighborhoods covered by the ‘forest’, both on the pavement and inside the buildings,” Duncan said, turning to the puppet head Alice was cradling in her arms, “It’s as if everyone has disappeared, just like you guys did .”
“Just like us?” Lucrecia’s voice came from the puppet’s mouth, sounding slightly distorted, “Does that mean that the entire city of …… has been transferred to this ‘dream world’?”
“It’s hard to say, but at least everywhere Alice and I have traveled people have disappeared,” Duncan shook his head, “You didn’t meet any other people from the real world into the dream world over there?”
“No,” Lucrecia replied immediately, “Right now I’m still moving around with this elf who calls herself ‘Shireen’ and I haven’t met anyone else along the way.”
Duncan listened quietly, then turned his head back to Alice, “Can you see the ‘line’ around here?”
“No,” Alice shook her head, “I haven’t seen any along the way.”
Duncan nodded with a sullen face.
Spirit body threads can’t hide from Alice’s eyes, even the most brilliant concealment skills, as long as the “person” is still in the real world, Alice will see those “threads” floating in the air, and now even this mannequin said that he didn’t find anything! …… That can only mean that at least within the scope of the streets where the changes occurred, the “people” have indeed disappeared.
This is not the same as what happened to Taran El or that elf girl in Prand.
Although it seems that this incident is still related to the “Dream of the Nameless One”, it is clear that …… the scale and power of this dream has developed to an unimaginable degree.
Duncan raised his head and peered into the darkness towards the center of the mutated neighborhood.
Suddenly a shadow in the dimness caught his eye.
It was a structure that snaked and undulated between the buildings, as if it were a giant vine, or part of a structure extending from some sort of exposed root system.
It lay dormant in the darkness, as silent as everything around it, but somehow ……
Duncan always felt that there was something different about the huge “vine”.
(End of chapter)