The Forsaken sailed at full speed.

The pale light cast by the Wound of the World illuminated the semi-transparent ethereal sails, billowing even without wind. The enormous and complex system of masts and rigging creaked and groaned as if manipulated by countless unseen hands, swiftly and nimbly adjusting their angles. Duncan felt the ship's hull shudder and tilt slightly beneath his feet, turning its prow towards some direction in the boundless sea. The sound of tiny waves lapping against the hull mingled with the "sensory signals" transmitted by the Forsaken itself, echoing softly in the depths of his mind.

For some reason, the moment the ship changed course, he seemed to sense a subtle shift in its atmosphere. Though the surrounding scenery remained exactly the same, it was as if...

He could hear the ship emit a contented sigh.

Duncan left the captain's cabin and strolled onto the deck. He tilted his head back in the night and gazed at the billowing sails and towering masts, then reached out to gently tap the railing beside him, musing thoughtfully, "Were you getting bored of aimless drifting, too?"

The Forsaken didn't respond, only a faint creak echoed from the deck, and several nearby ropes made rustling sounds, wandering around Duncan like snakes.

"...Don't get too carried away, you might even scare people," Duncan glanced at the ropes. "Wasn't it you guys who scared Alice half to death last time, making her run away screaming?"

The ropes swayed in place for a moment, then quickly slithered away.

Duncan took a deep breath, preparing to enjoy the refreshing night breeze of the sea, but suddenly, a distant "touch" appeared in his consciousness.

At first, he didn't realize what it was, but he quickly understood that the touch originated from the city-state of Pland.

Inside the city-state of Pland, Sherry, on the seventh floor of the antique shop, blinked suddenly, then immediately looked in a certain direction—Nina's room next door.

In her vision, a cluster of ghostly green flames was flickering gently in the room—not from Nina, but from the mark left on Agou.

The cluster of flames sensed the growth of extraordinary power, sensing that its host's emotions were fluctuating intensely.

What happened to Agou?!

Sherry, without much hesitation, got up and rushed to Nina's bedroom door, knocking heavily, but there was no response from inside.

She didn't hesitate at that moment, but a second later, she sensed the mark left on Agou pulsating again.

There was no time to think too much—Sherry pushed open Nina's door.

Just like always, Nina never locked her door when she slept.

The bedroom was dimly lit, with only the faint glow of streetlights filtering in through the window, illuminating the outlines of objects in the room. Within her field of vision, Sherry saw nothing out of the ordinary.

Agou and Nina were sleeping quietly on the bed, one with his head facing the foot of the bed, the other lying horizontally across his stomach.

...A very artistic sleeping position.

Sherry, of course, wasn't interested in how the two boys were sleeping. At that moment, she paid close attention to Agou's tightly furrowed brow, and on his arm, which was specifically used for summoning spirits and chain symbiosis, faint white lines were rapidly spreading.

Sherry frowned slightly, casually activating the mark she left on Agou, attempting to use a trace of Duncan's Flame's characteristics to find the source of the "erosion" in the room.

Judging from Agou's current state, coupled with the mark's warning, there was no doubt that extraordinary power was showing signs of erosion.

A faint green flame rose beside Sherry, the ghostly green light illuminating her surroundings, but the fire flickered a few times, ultimately remaining in place.

There was no erosion in the room.

Sherry frowned, moving closer and observing Agou's tightly furrowed brow.

Because she wasn't sure how much of an impact Duncan's Flame would have on a living person, she couldn't release a large area of flame like she did in the factory to "scan" the entire room, but even a spark of Duncan's Flame should react to extraordinary power.

Erosion... not in the real world? On a spiritual level? Or something else?

Sherry thought to herself, then seemed to realize something. She got up and quietly left the room, closed the door, and returned to her own bedroom, where she saw the pigeon spirit dozing on the windowsill.

"Spirit world walk."

Amid a series of "coo-coo" protests from Ai, who had been awakened, Sherry once again entered the dark space filled with starlight. Then, she calmed her mind and, like before when sensing the White Oak and Vanna, sensed the "mark" to which the surrounding starlight belonged.

This wasn't easy, because the mark itself wasn't intentionally left, and it was far less distinct and stable than the "spark" on Vanna's body. Sherry almost instantly locked onto the point of starlight belonging to Agou...

Fan Yu opened his eyes in the darkness, finding himself sleeping on a strange yet familiar bed.

He sat up blankly, and it took half a beat for his mind to recover slightly. He looked around in confusion, finally discerning the outlines of some objects from the darkness.

Some unfamiliar and distant memories gradually awakened. After seeing the scene around him clearly, Agou finally opened his eyes wide.

In an instant, he leaped out of bed and simultaneously uttered a series of extremely angry curses, so angry that he was trembling slightly. The trembling seemed to reveal a hint of fear and relief: "Damn it, damn it, damn it...fucking hell! Not again, not again! What the fuck!"

A series of loud curses broke the silence of the darkness. The cursing didn't come from Agou's familiar voice, but from a younger, more childish one, existing only in his memories. He jumped to the ground, seeing that his hands and feet had also become as thin and tender as in his memories. He was wearing a light pink pajamas, exactly like the one in his memories, with an unfamiliar, skillfully embroidered dog on the torn cuff.

"Stop fucking messing around! Stop fucking messing around!"

Agou roared in the dark room, rushing towards the tightly closed door, kicking and punching at the mottled wooden planks, but the door remained unyielding, as if cast from reinforced concrete. He rammed his head against it, even biting at the doorknob, but these purely vent-driven actions were completely meaningless, only allowing his body to collide with it repeatedly. Time passed, and a bit of morning light filtered in from the distant window, along with the sound he had wanted to hear the least that early morning.

He heard someone getting up in the next room, heard footsteps, and the sound of packing things.

He heard one of the footsteps approach the door, and a very gentle, very soft voice spoke softly, "Agou, Agou? Are you awake? Are you still angry?"

Fan Yu's movements of banging on the door suddenly stopped, as if all his strength had been drained. He leaned against the wooden door, pressing his entire body against the door panel, wanting to listen desperately, yet greedily listening to the sounds coming from inside.

"Agou, Dad will buy you a cake. It's your birthday today... Just wait for Dad to come back, and you won't be angry anymore, okay?"

"Don't go..." Fan Yu suddenly made a sound, at first only a very soft murmur, but soon, the murmur turned into a shout, "Don't go... don't go! No! No!"

He finally burst into tears, even though he knew it was useless, still shouting hoarsely, "Don't! Don't open the door! Don't open the fucking door! Don't open the door!"

But time still ticked by, as if the memories engraved in his mind could never be turned back—the footsteps inside the door moved away.

The sound of a handbag being picked up, the distant and blurred voices of his parents talking, the door handle turning, opening, closing, the key turning once, then another half turn.

Agou slowly sat down in the darkness, carefully calculating his heartbeat.

When his heart beat to the one thousand seven hundredth beat, the startled cry of a fire came from afar.

When his heart beat to the one thousand eight hundredth beat, the acrid smell of smoke and the smoke began to seep through the cracks in the door.

When his heart beat to the one thousand ninth hundredth beat, the screaming on the street hadn't yet gone completely mad, and the dazzling red light filled the window, as if the entire city-state had been thrown into molten lava.

When his heart beat to the two thousandth beat, a light thud came from the direction of the front door—the door had been broken open, as if some behemoth was stepping in with light steps, approaching the locked room step by step.

Then, the room's door finally fell—the wooden door that Agou couldn't open even with all his strength was now scattered like shredded paper.

A terrifying creature appeared outside, a gigantic, pitch-black demonic hound, a nightmare twisted and pieced together from bones, shadows, smoke, and scorching ashes. To an eight-year-old child, this demon from the abyss was almost colossal, and now, its empty, blood-colored eye sockets had already captured the "living thing" in the room.

Fan Yu stared intensely at the demonic hound that appeared before his eyes.

This was a Netherhound—but it was still his spirit.

The spirit that possessed a "heart", the spirit that would rummage through trash cans to find food to feed him, the spirit that would try to tell clumsy jokes to cheer him up, but ultimately only taught him a bunch of swear words.

The Netherhound stepped into the room.

The sound of chewing flesh and bones began to echo.

Agou lay on the floor, feeling his limbs being devoured by the demonic hound. The piercing pain crossed the eleven-year memory barrier, permeating his mind sharply and numbly. He continued to count his heartbeats, counting how long it would take for his spirit to eat his spirit, and calculating how long he would have to stay here—according to his experience, a week? Or two weeks?

His consciousness was gradually becoming somewhat scattered. Even in this pitch-black dream, some distant, sharp, and numb joy was finally catching up, and in his increasingly blurry vision, he suddenly saw the nearby bed, and a figure had appeared in the deepest shadows of the darkness, for some reason.

The figure didn't seem to have appeared suddenly, as if it had been there from the beginning, from the beginning of this dream, from the beginning of every dream, and even—Agou didn't know why he had this startling thought—even from eleven years ago.

It was just sitting there, but until now, he had discovered the existence of this figure for the first time. It was as if a long fog had suddenly broken, allowing him to glimpse the existence behind the fog.

A bit of faint green fire emerged from somewhere, illuminating the figure's face, gloomy and dignified—Fan Yu had seen this face before, but he felt a strange sense of unfamiliarity.

"No offense intended."

The gloomy and dignified figure spoke.

(Book push time~ This time, it's from an old dog, "My Mysterious Detective Agency". The female protagonist runs a detective agency during the day and relies on her authority to control dreams at night, acting as a god through dream-telling. She uses her acting skills to play multiple roles behind the scenes to build a network of power, assisting herself in exploring a world created by humans after the fall of a god, and ultimately leading the world together. )

Chapter 129 Darkness