Chapter 1 Sherry

Sherry's consciousness jolted awake from a collapsing dreamscape. She opened her eyes in the darkness, finding herself still lying in that thicket of dark, thorny trees.

Whispers and bizarre roars seemed to be right next to her ears, almost drilling into her brain. Icy air currents, like nauseating tentacles, spread from the gaps in the shadows, as if to lick her skin. Something was outside the thicket—a group of writhing things with fluctuating shapes and indistinct outlines. They had smelled the scent of a living person, traveled a long distance, and found this hiding place—a gluttonous feast was about to begin.

Sherry twitched her arm slightly. The stiffness and numbness throughout her body made every movement extremely difficult, but she felt a slight warmth spreading from somewhere inside, nourishing the body that had just died.

She struggled to lower her head and saw that the heart in her chest had completely stopped beating and, in a few short seconds, had shriveled and withered into a pile of black residue. However, a faint wisp of eerie green flame was quietly burning on the surface of the residue—strange, but warm.

She regained a little strength from this limited warmth and slowly struggled to get up.

Her arm swung inadvertently, and the broken black chain on her right arm rubbed against the ground, making a noise that wasn't very loud, but was almost deafening in this dark, silent place.

The whispers and roars outside the thicket paused briefly, then suddenly turned into a chilling howl!

Countless fluctuating shadows rose from the fragmented land outside, and countless grotesquely shaped Abyssal demons took form in狂喜（kuángxǐ, wild joy), rushing to the feast!

Spiritual fire spread and burned in the gaps of the bones. The black residue in her chest had completely transformed into an unceasing flame. Sherry took a deep breath. She heard the movement outside, and the fear of death and an unspeakable agitation were surging in her consciousness at the same time. She gasped softly, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw the two hearts that had fallen to the ground.

After a moment of hesitation, she reached out and picked up the two still-beating "hearts," her eyes, filled with scarlet light, flickering.

The sound of breaking came from the edge of the thicket. A behemoth tore through the barrier of the hiding place, and heavy footsteps and hungry growls reached Sherry's ears.

But she seemed not to hear the sound that had already reached the top of her head, not to feel the breath that was already blowing on her face. She just lowered her head and slowly stuffed the two hearts into her chest, muttering to herself as if talking to herself, "Papa...Mama...don't be afraid..."

The feeling of a beating heart reappeared in her chest. The experience of being "alive" made her feel that the last remaining stiffness and slowness in her limbs had finally completely disappeared. Sherry propped herself up and stood up, and a series of crackling explosions erupted from her body. The edges of the black ribs on her chest quickly grew layers of bone spurs, protecting the two hearts and a cluster of flames within—she raised her head in the darkness, her body slowly rising, and a hideous, spiky demon skull appeared in her field of vision.

A huge rift was torn in the thicket of the hiding place. The huge floating skull looked down at the prey in the thicket with malice. Around the skull were countless swirling, terrifying figures—Death Birds, Soot Jellyfish, Twisted Terror Beasts...

A Gou had once said that if you encounter them alone, you must run.

But this was the Abyssal Deep Sea. There was no place to run here—they were everywhere.

"Sherry, don't be afraid..."

A Death Bird launched the first attack. This chaotic and ignorant demon could no longer suppress the hunger and aggressive desires in its instincts. It let out a sharp, ear-piercing shriek, and its wings suddenly expanded into a cloud, wrapping a corrosive cloud and swooping down towards the thicket—

Then, accompanied by a dull, piercing crash, a dark, multi-segmented bone spur shot towards the sky like a sword, directly piercing the Death Bird!

Immediately afterwards, there was one multi-segmented bone spur after another—black bones stretched out from the thicket like some twisted and symmetrical limb, first piercing the sky, then bending down, supporting a tall body stepping out of the thicket.

Her limbs were slender, and black bone plates covered her like some kind of close-fitting armor, overlapping and intertwined. Sharp bone spurs and blade-like structures grew from the joints of her arms and legs, flashing a dim blood light. Her fragmented chest was covered with thorn-like broken bones. Two dark red hearts beat slowly in the bone cage, and countless segmented bone structures extended from her back, like a pair of huge wings of bones, but also like strange and ominous limbs. These pairs of limbs bent down from the air, supporting her body high in the air like long legs, allowing her to overlook the Abyssal demons that had gathered here from all directions.

She slowly turned her head, and in the pair of empty, void eyes on her face, which retained a human form, the blood light gradually intensified.

A hoarse, ear-piercing cry came from the side. The Death Bird, pierced by sharp bone spurs, struggled violently on Sherry's "long legs" for a few times, then turned into a pile of rapidly dissipating smoke and a small puddle of slowly flowing mud, which was gradually absorbed into Sherry's bone spurs.

Sherry frowned slightly, looked at the position where the Death Bird had dissipated and dissolved, and shook the bone-spurred limb in the air vigorously: "...Disgusting, unappetizing..."

Then she turned her head and looked at the demons gathered around her, but were temporarily in chaos and stagnation due to the sudden change in the situation, and leaned down slightly: "Have you seen a strange Abyssal Hound? It's called A Gou—he's my friend."

The Abyssal demon group retreated briefly for a moment. Some instinctive sense of crisis made the option of evasion appear in their ignorant minds, but only a moment later, the desire for aggression overwhelmed this fragile "reason."

The strange floating skull covered with spikes suddenly opened its jaw, and a huge corrosive cloud instantly condensed and smashed directly towards Sherry.

Then came the Death Birds swooping down from the air, the Abyssal Hounds running and roaring on the ground, and countless bizarre monsters that even Sherry couldn't name—these Abyssal demons, acting entirely on instinct, rushed over in a swarm, roaring and howling, rushing towards the "invader" in their territory in狂乱 (kuángluàn, madness)!

"I knew it..."

Sherry muttered, her tone tinged with annoyance. The next second, her figure suddenly turned into a phantom shadow—

She swept across this fragmented land like the wind. The bone spurs, like giant wings of bones, and like curved limbs, stretched and pierced through the air, piercing every demon entity that dared to approach—without tactics, and without understanding any spells, relying only on the body instincts she had just mastered and the most basic speed and strength, she rushed into the countless demon clusters.

A simple and brutal combat approach—just like when she first swung the chain and threw A Gou at the enemy.

……

Lucrezia looked up at the black stone door that surprised even her, a veteran "Border Scholar," and it took a long time before she looked away.

"...They really dug up something extraordinary," the Sea Witch sighed. "These cultists always create messes that they can't control themselves...as always."

"This is the connection point between the Abyssal Deep Sea and the real world," Duncan said from the side. "According to what I've sensed, there is a 'overlap' of multiple dimensions here. Not only are the real space-times superimposed together, but even a part of the Abyssal Deep Sea is directly superimposed here. Sherry and A Gou should have 'fallen' directly to the 'other side' because their own properties are too close to the Abyssal side."

Lucrezia nodded, but then became a little worried: "...Are you really sure this is feasible? I'm not saying that your power can't open the door, but...if that 'Saint' can't hold on, causing the door to close early, how will you come back then? The other side of the door is the Abyssal Deep Sea, and we know very little about it. Even you, once lost on the other side, I'm afraid..."

"It's okay, I've considered this issue," Duncan interrupted Lucrezia's worries. "We all know that the center of the Abyssal Deep Sea is the Abyssal Saint, and below His 'throne' is the passage to the subspace."

Lucrezia's expression instantly became a little subtle: "...You mean?"

"Making a small hole probably won't have too much impact on the balance of the entire Abyssal Deep Sea. After all, the gap that the Vanishing Sail created in the Abyssal Deep Sea was even larger," Duncan said casually. "If I can't return the way I came, I'll come back from the subspace. That 'Saint' shouldn't have too much of an opinion on this—if that's not feasible, then I'll just call the Vanishing Sail down to crash again."

Lucrezia: "..."

Duncan simply waved his hand: "Let's begin."

Lucrezia saw that her father was ready, so she didn't say anything more. She nodded lightly, then came to the open space in front of the door, pointed the short baton in her hand at the ground, and tapped it lightly twice.

A puff of smoke, like a magic show on stage, rose up with a "bang." As the smoke dissipated, the "brain" with its weird and disgusting shape, wrapped in a spider bone cage, reappeared in front of Duncan.

The "Saint" woke up slowly.

At the edge of the bone cage, the eye stalks seemed to be resurrected from their sleep. Its many eyeballs twitched and trembled, finally noticing the surrounding environment, and the expressionless Duncan and his party standing next to it.

Almost instantly, this monster, which could no longer be considered human, was completely awake. It struggled desperately, seemingly trying to get up, but was unable to move at all because the witch had placed restrictions on it in advance. It could only vibrate the surrounding air and let out chaotic and ear-piercing roars: "What have you done?!"

"Haven't done anything yet, just about to start," Duncan took a step towards the "Saint," calmly staring at the disgusting pile of eye stalks. "You can start praying now—to your Lord."

(End of this chapter)