Chapter 179: Chapter 183: Nighttime Invasion
“Nina hurried downstairs in dismay upon hearing that the teacher had already left, her eyes wide with surprise. Then, complaining a bit, she said, “Uncle, why didn’t you ask him to stay? Letting the teacher leave in such terrible weather…”
“It’ll be dark soon,” Duncan replied, locking the front door and speaking casually as he headed towards the stairs. “He drove here; a little rain shouldn’t affect him too much.”
“But the teacher looked like he was feeling unwell,” Nina followed Duncan up the stairs, muttering to herself, “He should have rested a bit more…”
Duncan thought about it for a moment, pondering that if the old man did rest a bit more here, it might not just be a matter of feeling unwell anymore—there was a chance of a catastrophic failure in willpower checks, not to mention seeing the Creation of the World tonight, let alone tomorrow’s sun…
But he couldn’t explain that to Nina, so he just uttered a few evasive phrases and moved on to the dining table on the second floor.
Nina had already prepared the steaming hot meal—beet soup, roast bread, vegetable rolls, and sliced ham.
Clearly, there was an extra portion.
“We’ll save what’s left for breakfast tomorrow,” Nina murmured, then looked up at Duncan curiously. “What were you and the teacher talking about? I couldn’t hear clearly from upstairs, but it seemed like you were having quite the animated discussion…”
Duncan silently watched Nina, having been observing her like this since she came upstairs. As always, she was bustling about with a smile, never showing true anger even when complaining, always busy with endless tasks, as if she had boundless energy and was perpetually looking forward to tomorrow.
Duncan could only see this side of Nina; he didn’t have Morris’s eyes that could “see through reality,” nor could he see the blazing flame within her.
If he hadn’t heard it with his own ears just now, he would never have imagined that the Sun Shard, which affected countless people, was quietly “sleeping” here right under his nose.
The Sun Shard… What exactly is it?
Duncan had once thought it was a tangible, Transcendent object, and had later determined through various clues that it was a severed sunbeam. However, now he realized that this object might be sleeping within Nina’s body…
If that thing truly originated from a “star” that he was familiar with, what kind of transformation would a star need to undergo to shed such a strange… “fragment”?
“Uncle Duncan?” Nina noticed the gaze from across the table and shifted awkwardly. “Is there something on my face?”
“…No, nothing at all,” Duncan shook his head gently, tearing the bread as he casually asked, “By the way, have you been feeling unwell lately? Have you had that strange dream again?”
“Nope,” Nina waved her hand, “The hypnosis session Miss Heidi did last time worked pretty well. I haven’t had any weird dreams since then, and I’ve been feeling quite energetic every day.”
She paused, then looked at Duncan with slight concern. “Uncle, is something wrong? I feel… you’ve been acting a bit strange, especially after your conversation with Mr. Morris… Ah, it’s not because of my test scores last time, is it?”
“It’s not, don’t worry about it; your teacher certainly didn’t come here to complain,” Duncan suddenly raised an eyebrow. “Let’s eat first.”
Nina nodded and started eating. At that moment, Duncan seemed to sense something and looked uncertainly towards a direction outside the window.
…
In the Lower City District, within a dilapidated and dim alley, the hastily lit gas lamps finally dispelled the surrounding darkness just before night enveloped the streets completely. Under the drowsy light of the gas lamps, Sherry was lying on the windowsill, staring blankly at the dark street outside.
The raspy sound of a chain could be heard from behind her, as Ah Dog spoke, “Staring outside again? What’s there to see?”
“Can’t sleep. It’s so early, and there’s nothing to do,” Sherry grumbled. “So boring…”
“… How about we go out tomorrow and continue troubling the heretics?”
“… Feels like it’ll be fruitless,” Sherry thought for a moment and shook her head, “I don’t know if the church guys suddenly got competent, but recently it seems like the heretics in the City-State have been wiped clean, you can’t even smell them…”
“Recently, all the Sun Cultists in the city have indeed disappeared, likely they’ve been completely captured,” A-Gou approached, lazily lying down by Sherry’s feet, “but I think you’re not bored just because of this…”
Sherry immediately rolled her eyes, “Then what else could it be?”
“…Are you missing ‘that place’?” A-Gou lifted his head, a faint light dancing in his hollow blood-red eye sockets, “You miss that warm house, that bright room, the piping hot meals, the days someone would wake you up and hurry you to eat, or perhaps… you miss that girl named Nina from Subspace? Or even that Mr. Duncan…”
“STFU! Annoying!” Sherry abruptly yanked on the iron chain in her hand, harshly interrupting A-Gou, “I’m not some crying whining little brat, I’m not that weak!”
A-Gou was unfazed by Sherry’s harsh reaction, “…Yearning for light and warmth is not a weakness, it can only prove that you are still human.”
“Eeek…” Sherry suddenly shivered, then looked disgusted, “How can you suddenly turn so cheesy? You’ve even started talking all fancy, saying it proves I’m still human… Are you complimenting me or saying I’ve made no progress over the years?”
“…Don’t think that just because you’ve merged with me, a Profound Demon, for eleven years, you’ve truly become a demon. Openly acknowledging your human side isn’t a bad thing,” A-Gou shook his ugly large head, “Besides, don’t forget, it’s not just this chain that binds me to you—if there’s any change in your emotions, how could I not understand?”
“…Shut up,” Sherry turned her face away, looking outside irritably, “If you keep blabbering, I’ll really take you to see Nina tomorrow, then I’ll stay with Nina and you can accompany Mr. Duncan, we’ll both have a bright future—scared yet?”
A-Gou finally fell silent.
Yet after a moment of quiet, Sherry couldn’t help but kick the Abyssal Hound beside her with her toe, breaking the silence, “Stop worrying, aren’t you still with me?”
“You’re cheesier than I am,” A-Gou shifted slightly, the iron chain rattling, “Stop, if you keep talking, I’m going to throw up—then there will be another hole in the floor.”
The Abyssal Hound muttered, but through their connected minds, Sherry could feel that “A-Gou,” who had once nearly devoured her alive yet also raised her, suddenly felt better.
In the dim twilight and the faint light of the street lamps, the frail girl pursed her lips, hiding a small smile.
This was just right, everything was back on track, the familiar days had returned, just continue on—don’t think about that peace and warmth that don’t belong to you, especially when that peaceful and warm place is still haunted by a shadow from Subspace.
That warmth was too dangerous.
Sherry let out a soft sigh.
However, the next second, she subtly furrowed her brows, sensing something malevolent approaching, feeling the hairs on her back stand on end.
A-Gou suddenly stood up from his lying position, the massive Abyssal Hound erupting with black smoke and flames, its blood-red hollow eyeballs blazing red, scanning the room with vigilance and hostility.
The room was dark, to save money, Sherry had turned off the oil lamp on the table the moment the street lamps lit up, and now only the light from the street lamps outside illuminated the room, the dim light filling the space, casting bizarre, splotchy shadows of the simple furniture on the floor and walls.
In the simple home, everything was plain and visible, familiar and straightforward.
However, for some reason, Sherry suddenly felt as though the furnishings in the home were unfamiliar—between the patchy light and shadows, from the corners of tables and chairs and the cracks at the foot of the bed, an out-of-place and discordant breath continuously seeped out!
Sherry instinctively tightened her grip on the chain, “A-Gou!”
“I know,” A-Gou growled in response, “I’m looking! Something is entering here… surrounding us… Damn! What is it, I’m dizzy!”
Before the Abyssal Hound finished speaking, Sherry suddenly noticed that the light from the street lamps entering the room through the windows began to twist and dim!
It was as if a heavy black curtain had suddenly enveloped the entire house, the once clear street view outside the windows obscuring all at once, the light from the street lamps shattered into disjointed fragments, turning into pale glimmers falling inside the room, followed by those pale glimmers and ubiquitous shadows simultaneously wriggling, accompanied by a series of nauseating low murmurs and strange noises, several figures emerged abruptly from between the lights and shadows—
They were in tattered black robes, their arms exposed beneath the robes thin as kindling, black tomes hanging at their waists, as if soaked in ink-like filth, a continuous drip of suspicious black liquid seeping from the books, each with a twisted iron emblem hanging on their chest, in the center of which flickered a murky pale flame.
This leader in black robes pointed his finger toward Sherry, incomprehensible hoarse syllables issued from beneath the hood, “You shall perish…”
A-Gou’s cry finally reached Sherry’s ears, “F*cking Doomsday Preachers!!!”