Everywhere.

After the landing party had moved a distance from the coastal shallows towards the interior of the Sacred Isle, that scalp-tingling sight finally presented itself to everyone.

Humanoid figures seemingly formed from black silt could be seen everywhere, "embedded" in all sorts of places as if swallowed by their surroundings—the ground, walls, roadside boulders, even tree trunks. They had completely merged with the things that had consumed them, like countless bizarre and horrifying sculptures frozen on this Sacred Isle devoid of living souls. And the struggling postures displayed by each "sculpture" conveyed a single truth to everyone—

"They" were once alive.

Shirley felt her scalp prickle. Those black human figures that might emerge at any moment from the mist, fused into the walls or the ground, sent shivers down her spine. She hugged her arms and cautiously followed beside Duncan, while trying to avoid the upward-reaching limbs or heads on the road, muttering, "Those cultists... are they all dead? Did they all die here? Are those things we saw on the sea before also them? Could it be that the entire Annihilation Sect is finished like this?"

"Annihilation Sect members in other parts of the world are still active, they have infiltrated countless city-states, and they are not so easily wiped out," Vanna frowned, casually saying while watching her surroundings. "But at least, the Annihilation Sect members on this 'Sacred Isle' should all be dead... This fanatical dark cult has finally suffered a severe blow... That's at least good news."

"Good news, but hardly relaxing," Morris said cautiously. "The key now is not how many Annihilation Sect members died here, but how they died, and how they turned into this..."

Morris paused, raising his head to survey the buildings looming in the mist around him. "This is the 'Sacred Isle' they have operated for who knows how many years. They regarded this place as a haven to escape the Church's pursuit, and even built towns and ports here, which shows that this border island has always been a safe and stable place... at least until this island began to devour them."

"Devour..." Shirley subconsciously repeated the word used by the old scholar, suddenly becoming nervous and staring at her feet. "This place won't 'eat' us too, will it?! What if the ground suddenly sinks in, and we become like those things..."

This was obviously not just Shirley's worry. A sense of unease was also brewing among the marines—although those who came here were all elites of the Church and "professionals" specially dealing with various abnormal phenomena in the border area, it was inevitable to feel nervous when facing the bizarre situation on the Sacred Isle.

But just as Duncan was about to say something, Alice, who was walking beside him, spoke first: "It won't."

Shirley didn't react to the doll-like girl's answer for a moment: "Huh?"

"It won't devour," Alice said casually, as if absentmindedly, "Because the restoration process has ended, this place is now stable again."

The team suddenly stopped.

Duncan realized something, staring into Alice's eyes: "Did you 'see' something again?"

Alice stopped a beat later, but after hearing the captain's words, she showed a somewhat blank expression: "Huh?"

Shirley immediately said, "The restoration process has ended, you just said."

"...What restoration process? I didn't say anything just now..." Alice scratched her hair, her blank expression not at all like she was pretending (of course, she couldn't do such a difficult thing), "...Why are you all looking at me?"

Duncan stared at Alice again for a while. He knew that this doll never lied to him, so he just slowly nodded in the end, and exchanged a quick glance with Morris and Vanna beside him.

"No additional mental reactions nearby," Morris said.

"Let's continue," Duncan nodded, leading the team deeper into the island. At the same time, he inconspicuously moved closer to Alice, paying attention to the doll's condition at all times.

The landing party soon passed through the road in the center of the small port, and after crossing a condensed white mist, they arrived at an open square.

Vanna frowned as she looked around: "...It's hard to imagine that those cultists could actually create such a place. I really don't know how long they spent building all this."

In the square, black humanoid blanks "embedded" in the ground, already "fused" with the surrounding objects, could still be seen everywhere.

Judging from the postures of the half-exposed human bodies and their distribution, it seemed that when a certain event occurred, these people had the last few minutes or ten minutes to escape—they ran wildly from the island's interior towards the sea exit. All the "human bodies" in the square faced the coast, and some of them seemed to have tried to save themselves with magic, or rather, the power of "spells." The ground around these humanoid blanks showed traces of being damaged by acid or explosions, indicating that they had not died in the initial moments of being devoured, and had tried to "dig" themselves out with crude and desperate means—but this did nothing.

They all became chilling black "sculptures" in the square. This process of "transformation" may have been the direct cause of their deaths.

Duncan strode slowly through these bizarre black "sculptures."

Suddenly, he stopped, his gaze falling on one of the "humanoid blanks."

Vanna immediately noticed: "Captain?"

"This one moved just now," Duncan came to the humanoid blank with only its upper body exposed on the surface, and said in a low voice while staring at it.

And right under his eyes, the black human figure moved a little bit more—it seemed to be stiffly and slowly raising its head, and slowly reaching forward.

Very, very slowly. If one wasn't staring closely, it would be almost impossible to notice its movement.

It was still slowly "running away" towards the coast!

Shirley instantly felt chills all over her body.

She even suddenly felt that the other humanoid blanks around her had begun to move as well, feeling that they were all still alive, and were all slowly struggling to move towards the coast. She also felt that their spherical heads without facial features seemed to be turning towards her, and invisible gazes were focusing on her!

She felt her heart pounding wildly, and the tension that had been accumulating since landing on the island seemed to be soaking into every blood vessel. She felt a sharp stinging pain in the arm connected to A'gou—this reminded her of when she had just completed symbiosis with A'gou, and her body was not yet adapted, and she had not felt this pain for many years.

In the corner of her eye, she saw chains.

Countless chains, chains extending from those "humanoid blanks" swallowed by the ground, were slowly growing in the void, seemingly wanting to wrap around herself, or around A'gou. She could no longer distinguish the "difference" between herself and A'gou. She felt that her thoughts were being mixed with A'gou's, and that she seemed to have become a... an "individual" close to A'gou, and A'gou... its humanity and wisdom were slowly transforming into something else...

"...We dug too deep..."

A voice that seemed to be a superposition of countless voices drilled into Shirley's mind, rumbling like it was about to drill a hole in her memory.

Countless illusory chains spread from all directions of the entire Sacred Isle, quietly linking her and A'gou together.

"...We dug to the source..."

Shirley slowly raised her head, somewhat blankly but instinctively looking in a certain direction in the island's interior, as if strongly attracted by something there.

"...We are the same as them... the source revealed a truth to us..."

Countless storm-like fragments drilled into Shirley's consciousness. In the chaotic flashing light and shadow fragments, bizarre and grotesque "impressions" flashed through her memory—an extinguished sun, turbid sky light, whistling and loud noises in the mist, ecstatic believers, guidance, revelation, excavation, the Sacred Cave, a secret room, glaring lights, an alarm, wriggling shadows, the Sacred Isle suddenly... coming alive.

The island was alive.

They had dug up something they shouldn't have dug up—when the sun went out.

The layers upon layers of voices were still rumbling in her mind, a "truth," a "truth" that instantly caused all the Annihilation Sect members on the entire Sacred Isle to be contaminated and transformed into humanoid blanks, was being poured into Shirley's consciousness bit by bit—

"...Humans are a type of highly differentiated Deep Sea Demon. Deep Sea Demons are primal castings contained in the Depths due to their inability to be infused with humanity and wisdom..."

Shirley slowly widened her eyes.

Through the shared vision of her and A'gou, she saw the world clearly for the first time.

But she only saw it for a moment.

In the instant when her humanity and reason were teetering on the brink, she felt a warm flame light up in her soul—the dark, wriggling things and incomprehensible torrent of information that filled her eyes suddenly shrank and collapsed into the small island in the mist, and then, she felt a rough, large hand gently pressing on her hair.

She and A'gou both woke up suddenly, and then instinctively retreated, wanting to get away from the countless humanoid blanks here.

She accidentally tripped over a chain under her feet, and fell backward in a disheveled manner.

But the captain caught her slender arm.

"Looks like you saw something," Duncan felt the feedback from the flame mark, and only spoke gently after confirming that Shirley's reason was gradually returning to stability. "What did you see?"

"The island is alive!" Shirley finally came to her senses, suddenly widening her eyes. "We are standing on a piece of flesh of the Deep Sea Overlord!"

(End of this chapter)