Deep Sea Embers

“I remember telling you to ask for help when you are in trouble.” Duncan lowered his head and quietly spoke to the girl covered in blood, “Why didn’t you look for me?”

“I… I forgot,” Shirley blinked, feeling a sense of relief as the buzzing noise evaporated from her head. Then showing a tangled expression, “I was very confused just now… that’s right, these guys won’t stop screeching in my ear with their weird prayers. It made me all dizzy…”

Slowly turning to glance at the attackers frozen in stasis, Duncan could fault the girl for losing her cool. It’s the first time he had seen something this strange as well. They’re more beast than human at this point. If not for the tattered clothes on their body, Duncan had every reason to believe they were actual monsters from a horror flick.

Then Duncan frowned after recalling another detail, “Were they the ones who hit you? Where did they all come from?”

“They hit me!” Shirley immediately proclaimed like a distraught child running home to tell her parents. It’s weird, but that reaction came to her out of reflex. “I don’t know where they came from. Dog said they’re Ender Missionaries, the crazy bastards that worship subspace…”

“Ender Missionaries… people who worship subspace?!” Duncan didn’t expect an encounter like this on a random night. Looking over to Ai, who’s still flying around the room, “Don’t zap them yet.”

As he ordered, the few surviving Enders had already shown signs of being erased by Ai’s powers in how they’re flickering like a shoddy tv signal.

“The network is connected! The network is connected!” Ai flutters back to reality and lands on Duncan’s shoulder, her beak pecking the ghost captain in protest of interrupted work.

“Alright, alright, I get it. More fries for you later. First, send them to the ship instead,” Duncan nodded to the dove, “I’ll pick them up on deck over there.”

“Mission accomplished! Mission accomplished!” Giddy with joy, Ai took to the air with hurricane speed and swept the Enders up with a green vortex that instantly spirited them away.

Shirley was stunned to see what was happening in front of her. In fact, the battle ended so abruptly and strangely that it didn’t feel real at all.

Mr. Duncan didn’t make a move at all. In fact, the man didn’t care what tricks or special curses the Enders had from beginning to end. He just showed up here, and then, as if he had a slight interest in the group, he plucked them away like someone casually picking up a stone from the roadside.

He may not have even realized that those cultists have “combat power.”

“How is your injury?” At this moment, Duncan’s voice suddenly came, interrupting Shirley’s cranky thoughts.

“XXX it hurts like hell…” She grinned and waved at the guy, only to have her wound pulled and relapse into pain.

Duncan made a concerned face: “Do you want me to take you to the hospital?”

“Don’t!” Shirley cried out instantly, “I don’t have any money…”

Duncan was dumbfounded: “Is this a time to worry about money? You’re already in that state!”

“I didn’t finish,” Shirley finally sat up after much struggle, “my physique is different from ordinary people’s. I will definitely be discovered when I go to the hospital. If I attract the church’s attention, I won’t be able to explain it. You see~”

The girl raised her right arm to show Duncan the healing wound. After the curse was dispelled, the healing ability returned and quickly closed the gash. As for the heaviest injury on her back, it’s healing too, but slowly and hurts like hell.

“As long as those Enders stop yapping then I’m not afraid of them,” Shirley glances down at the blood soaking her dress, “they wouldn’t have stood a chance otherwise… EEEE~! It hurts so much…”

A slight crackling sound suddenly came from nearby, interrupting Shirley’s muttering.

She and Duncan followed the noise simultaneously and found it’s coming from one of the corpses in the room. The body had already been deformed and mutilated, but the grayish-white smoke fuming out of the corpse was alarming. Imagine a burning ember crackling and turning red from the heat. That’s exactly what’s happening to this corpse. Before they knew it, the entire body had disintegrated into a pile of ash before suddenly sinking into a black hole that manifested on the ground.

“…… The Enders dedicated themselves to subspace, and now it is their time to pay that price.” Dog’s hoarse voice answered the question from the side, “Not even their ash will remain in this world.”

“…… Hmm, at least they’re environmental when they die. No one has to clean up after them like the mess made by those Suntists.” Duncan throws out his thought without considering how poor of a joke his sentence was. Then looking down at the palish-looking Shirley: “Are you feeling better now? If you are, come with me.”

After he said that, a cluster of dark green flames emerged out of thin air.

“Go with you?” Shirley took a second to grasp the meaning, “Where to…”

“You’re not going to spend the night here today, are you?” Duncan raised his finger and pointed to the mess in the room, “Do you think this place can still be inhabited?”

Shirley looked around the hut that she and Dog called home for many years. Everywhere she looked, it’s smashed furniture and debris from the fighting. There’s nothing of value left in this place.

The girl didn’t say anything for a while and only glumly looked down at the ground.

“The patrolling guardians don’t seem to have noticed the commotion here. We can still pack your things if you want,” Duncan sighed. He knew Shirley’s mood couldn’t be good, but there was nothing he could say to comfort her. “But regardless, you can’t stay here anymore. Even if you don’t mind the broken furniture, we don’t know if those Enders will revisit this place. You’re a target to them now…”

Duncan didn’t have the heart to continue. He knows Shirley was a child that’s far more mature for her age due to the harsh environments she grew up in.

“I… will pack some stuff,” Shirley said sullenly.

“Need help?” Duncan asked.

“No need,” Shirley shook her head, “I have… very little.”

Indeed, the girl had very little to pack.

Duncan only waited for a short while before Shirley finished the task: a small tin box for carrying, a rag doll, and a few tattered clothes she had salvaged from the former closet.

“We’re taking all these… so we’re not coming back in the future?” Dog peeks up at the small tin box and sullenly asks, which doesn’t get a response at all.

Duncan knew he had to do something now after hearing that. Coming over to Shirley’s side, he lowered himself to eye level and patted the girl’s head in a comforting manner.

“Let’s go, let’s go home.”

A green fireball promptly shot out of the old-looking hut and soared through the night sky. Its destination, Duncan’s Antique Shop.