Deep Sea Embers
chapter-570

Ever since they set foot into this peculiar and disorienting landscape that they called a “forest,” Dog had seemed to grow increasingly wistful and introspective. He appeared to be lost in deep contemplation, reflecting on a multitude of experiences from their shared past—events that Shirley had long since forgotten but that remained vivid in Dog’s memory.

Feeling uneasy about his change in demeanor, Shirley hesitated for a moment before deciding to express her concerns. “Is everything alright? You seem… different.”

“Am I?” Dog responded, initially looking confused, then intrigued. “You’re saying I’ve become more reflective and nostalgic recently?”

“Yes,” Shirley confirmed, nodding her head firmly. “I mean, you do have a habit of reminiscing or engaging in philosophical conversations occasionally, like some wise elder, but I’ve never seen you this emotionally invested before. It’s kind of unsettling, to be honest.”

Dog slowed down as he walked, visibly digesting Shirley’s words. He took a moment to analyze his feelings, then tilted his head slightly, letting his vacant, hollow eye sockets scan the shadowy forest surrounding them. A faint, eerie red light flickered deep within those eye sockets.

“This environment—it’s affecting how we feel,” Dog said with a gravitas that left no room for doubt. “A suffocating, heavy air is hanging over this entire forest, compelling me to dwell on random and emotionally charged thoughts. It feels as if we’re enveloped by a colossal consciousness that continuously disrupts our own.”

Shirley’s eyes widened, filled with immediate concern. “Wait a minute. Are you saying that this forest is alive? That it has a mind of its own? And it’s affecting you? How bad is it?”

Dog shook his head slowly. “It’s not exactly the forest itself that’s affecting us, but rather the nature of this realm we find ourselves in. Remember its name: The Dream of the Nameless One. Dreams are expressions of mental and emotional states. But don’t worry; this influence isn’t specifically targeting us. It’s a form of passive environmental interference. How are you feeling, Shirley? Are you alright?”

“I’m doing fine,” Shirley replied, gesturing towards herself. Her expression carried a note of bewilderment. “It’s strange. You’re being affected, but I don’t feel any different. Could it be because I’m generally more easygoing?”

“If it were only that simple,” Dog murmured, his voice tinged with caution. “Don’t become complacent. The most treacherous influences are often the ones that operate subtly. The moment you think you’re impervious is the moment you’re most vulnerable. If you begin to feel sudden shifts in your mood, like depression or anxiety, tell me immediately.”

“Alright, I will,” Shirley agreed quickly, her eyes narrowing as she looked around the shadowy forest that stretched out infinitely before them. “When do you think the captain will be able to locate us? Surely we won’t be stuck in this eerie place indefinitely, right?”

“Don’t worry about that,” Dog reassured her, sensing her anxiety. “Didn’t you feel a subtle calling, like a tug in your heart earlier? That indicates the captain is aware of our situation and is likely working on a way to extract us. For now, our primary responsibility is to stay safe and look out for each other.”

Shirley nodded, still somewhat uneasy but visibly comforted by Dog’s words. “Okay.”

Shirley gave a nod of assent, but just as she did, an unsettling noise ruptured the silence around them. It sounded like a mixture of something both melting and flowing, emanating from a relatively short distance away. The conversation between her and Dog was abruptly cut off by the haunting sound.

The spine-chilling noise caused the hairs on Shirley’s arms and neck to stand at attention. Startled, she quickly gripped the black chain beside her and turned to Dog, urgently asking, “Did you hear that? Was it just me?”

“No, it wasn’t just you,” Dog responded immediately, already pivoting his head toward the direction from which the ungodly sound had originated. What they saw next defied comprehension.

A small cluster of bushes and shrubs began to undergo a rapid and grotesque transformation. From the midst of their dense foliage, geyser-like eruptions of pitch-black matter shot upwards. These masses coalesced into thrashing, tentacle-like limbs within mere moments. At the ends of these wriggling tentacles, slits opened up that unsettlingly resembled eyes. Meanwhile, the towering trees nearby seemed to lose their solidity; their sturdy trunks began to ooze downward like liquid sludge, while their once expansive canopies started to stretch upwards towards the sky. As they did, they disintegrated into countless pale, floating particles under a flickering, flame-like illumination. The ground itself appeared to pulsate and shift as if turning into a pliable, fleshy layer, giving the disturbing impression that something monstrous was tunneling underneath, ready to burst forth at any moment.

Then, all at once, a dissonant symphony of spine-chilling noises engulfed them. The air filled with illusory sounds resembling a mixture of burning, slithering, and hissing static that seemed to come from all directions. The rapidly mutating foliage expanded further and further until it filled their entire field of vision. The very world before them seemed to writhe and transform, assaulting every boundary of what they understood to be possible or rational.

Finally, dark and malevolent entities started to emerge from the ground. They were oozing, shadowy figures that seemed to encapsulate forms so alien and twisted they defied any attempts at description. They looked as though they were composed of countless eyes and serrated teeth embedded in a shifting mass of chaotic darkness. One glance was enough for Shirley to make a decision.

“Run!”

She barely had time to shout the word before spinning around and sprinting in a direction that seemed—by comparison—slightly less chaotic. As she ran, the ground beneath her feet took on the consistency of something between cotton and the flesh of a soft-bodied creature. Each step she took made her feel like she was sending ripples through this nauseating substance, amplifying her feelings of revulsion and terror.

Just then, her bond with Dog she was symbiotically connected to activated, unlocking her body’s hidden capabilities. Adrenaline surging through her veins, she felt as though she was running faster than she ever had in her entire life, propelled by an urgent, primal need for escape.

The chain that Shirley held—a formidable strand of pitch-black metal imbued with an air of menace—snapped taut as she ran at full tilt through the forest. As the chain pulled tight, Dog was suddenly yanked into the air, his body suspended and oscillating in tune with Shirley’s frantic pace.

With a look of resolute determination on her face, Shirley weaved and dodged through the labyrinthine forest, the chain extending behind her, pulling Dog along. After covering a significant distance, she risked a fleeting glance over her shoulder. To her horror, the monstrous aberrations, the living nightmares birthed from the forest, were still in relentless pursuit. Realizing the gravity of their predicament, she screamed, “Switch!”

No sooner had the word left her lips than she exerted a herculean effort to swing the chain forward with astonishing force. Propelled by this motion, Dog was catapulted ahead of her. Demonstrating incredible agility, Dog managed to adjust his posture in mid-air. When he landed, all four paws struck the ground with pinpoint accuracy, and the canine used the residual momentum to take the lead, running even faster than before.

Now, it was Shirley’s turn to be carried aloft by the chain’s momentum, lifted into the air in a dizzying role reversal.

Yet, despite their tag-team efforts to elude capture by switching back and forth, the forest seemed to close in on them as if animated by some malevolent force. It was as though the entire woodland had come alive, transformed into an entity consumed by vindictive rage, and was hell-bent on ensnaring them. They were being hunted, not just from behind but from all sides.

Just when Shirley was on the verge of believing that she could not possibly move any longer, the grotesque forest that had been doggedly pursuing them began to slow. Its horrific advance ceased as suddenly as it had begun, its malevolent energy inexplicably sapped.

Oblivious to this abrupt change, Shirley continued to sprint a few dozen meters ahead before coming to a jarring halt beside a toppled giant tree, gasping for air. “Dog… it stopped… back there…”

Still propelled by the momentum, Dog flew past her and collided with a large pile of boulders with a resounding crash. Scrambling out from the debris, Dog shook its head as if trying to clear its senses and exclaimed, “What?!”

“Um…” Shirley looked somewhat sheepishly at Dog and gestured toward the distant boundary where the sinister spread of darkness and deformity had abruptly halted. “It just stopped advancing.”

“Hold on,” Dog grumbled, making his way to the side of the boulder pile. Opening his mouth wide, he heaved, emitting a guttural “Blaaargh!” The sound of corrosive material sizzling as it struck the earth and rocks filled the air. Having finally expelled whatever had unsettled him, Dog shook his head once more and ambled back to Shirley’s side. Together, they looked at the place where the forest’s malignant spread had come to a sudden stop.

What lay before them now was a stark “border” within the forest—a clear demarcation between two worlds. On one side, they saw lush, vibrant plant life as if untouched by malevolence. On the other, an abhorrent wasteland of distorted foliage, writhing shadows, and unidentifiable organic matter stretched out before them.

Though the creeping vines and slithering shadows within this darkened zone were no longer advancing toward them, their mere presence was horrifying enough to strike a chord of primal fear deep within their hearts.

Shirley found it difficult to keep her gaze fixed on the warped landscape ahead of them. The sheer abnormality of it churned her stomach and tightened her chest. Attempting to regain her composure, her voice quivered as she posed a shaky question. “What in the world is that abomination?”

“I wish I could say, but dream realms are not exactly my area of expertise,” Dog admitted, still standing beside Shirley and cautiously peering into the nightmarish distance. “However, this might very well be the true, malignant heart of the ‘Dream of the Nameless One.’ Some malevolent entity appears to be festering deep within this dreamscape. It’s so massive and far-reaching that even the captain must’ve missed it on his last venture here. And now, unfortunately, we’re stuck in the middle of it.”

“Why does misfortune always seem to gravitate toward me?” Shirley muttered, her forehead creasing in exasperation. But before she could continue to ponder her streak of bad luck, her expression suddenly sharpened. She could sense something, some shift in the atmosphere.

Dog also picked up on the change. Abruptly halting his vigilance over the twisted terrain, the dark hound emitted a low, almost inaudible growl and focused intently on an open patch of land a few meters away from them.

They both felt it: a foreign, yet somehow familiar, presence was inching its way into their current reality. Whether it was a friend or enemy remained uncertain, but the aura it brought with it stirred a sense of caution, bordering on revulsion, within them.

In the next second, their eyes locked onto the open patch of ground as it became a stage for the inexplicable. A figure materialized out of thin air, emerging through a foggy veil as if condensing from the very mist of the dreamscape itself. Slowly, the vague outline took on a more human shape.

What appeared was a tall, slender young man dressed in a dark blue jacket, his features suffused with an ominous air. His presence seemed to contaminate the otherwise pure ground upon which he stood.

As he materialized, both Shirley and Dog caught sight of an unsettling detail: a shadowy black chain seemed to shimmer near his shoulder blades, almost ethereal. At the end of that chain dangled an eerie, bird-like silhouette, an omen that sent a shiver down their spines.

In response, Shirley’s eyes subtly narrowed, and she involuntarily tightened her grip on the chain that linked her to Dog.

Almost simultaneously, the young man—who until now had been seemingly oblivious to their presence—suddenly turned his gaze sharply toward them. His eyes fell upon a girl in a black skirt and a dark hound that stood beside her. A flicker of surprise crossed his face before it settled into a frown.

“So, there are already people in this area?” he mumbled to himself, his eyebrows knitting together as he processed this unexpected development.