Deep Sea Embers

Intuition told him the girl in the black dress must have a plan; otherwise, she wouldn’t be so bold to expose herself.

Also, Duncan didn’t miss the two names mentioned by the cult leader: Dark Hound, and Annihilation Sect.

The Dark Hound was obviously referring to the giant black skeleton dog summoned by the girl. The Annihilation Sect needed no further elaboration that it’s an organization too dangerous to be registered at the city hall.

How many more strange dark sects are still nested in the gutters of this world?

While Duncan’s thoughts were spinning, the girl who summoned the dark hound had begun to fight by tightening her grip around the chains. She’s guarded in her posture, and that sarcastic smirk indicated the girl’s not fretting in the slightest: “Annihilation Sect… too bad for you, but I’m not with them. Unlike you mongrels who must work for some evil god to sleep peacefully, I only do things for myself!”

“You can’t deceive us with that statement. Only the Annihilation Sect knows how to summon the deep sea creatures! I advise you to stop resisting, heretic! This is the territory of the Sun! Even the curses of your dark hound cannot protect you!” The leader in the center of the assembly hall glared at Shirley and threatened, “Speak, what are you planning?! Annihilation and Sun are not aligned, but we have never been hostile. Why do you disguise your identity and blend into our sacred assembly?”

“I just wanted to get some information out of the not-so-bright heads of you mongrels.” Shirley grinned mischievously as a series of rattling sounds came from the chains connected to her body. Those chains were clearly alive in the way they squirmed with her chuckle. “Also, I said it already, I am not from the Annihilation~!”

But before Shirley could finish speaking, a series of crackling sounds had popped around the hall, setting the oil lamps into a burning frenzy. Before she knew it, small fireballs had risen from the torches and floated into the air, circling around and forming an entrapment around herself as the target.

It’s pretty obvious the experienced cult priest had used the delay he made to unleash this spell.

“Surrender yourself, heretic,” came the threatening voice under the golden mask, “the power of the sun god has sealed off the entire assembly ground from the outside. I know the abilities of you heretics from the Annihilation Sect. You borrow powers from the mouth of those demons you summon. I admit the Dark Hound under you is terrifying, but it’s of no consequence if you can’t borrow power from the deep sea!”

Duncan wondered if he should intervene and help the girl called Shirley. It’s nice to see two dark forces bite each other, but if he did ignore this, he would be letting the information go from this windfall.

“Give up resistance and take refuge in the realm of the sun god. Tell me everything you know, and the merciful Sun will forgive your sins… Get on your knees, young sister… You can’t cast your spells here…”

However, in the face of the death threat, Shirley remained unfazed, like someone that’s deaf to the hypnotic voice of the golden mask. “Maintaining this forcefield must take a lot out of you, right?”

The sun priest snorted coldly: “Hmph, the power my lord gave…”

Before his voice fell, the girl in the black dress jumped without indication!

Raising her right arm that’s embroiled in black fire, Shirley whisks herself into a spin for momentum as the Dark Hound on the ground becomes a weaponized spinning hammer of bones. The hound sent numerous cultists flying from the initial charge, but most of all, the hound sent the priest smashing into the opposite wall with a deafening crunch upon impact.

It’s obvious something had snapped inside the cult leader because that body instantly went limp. In fact, there weren’t life signs left in the mask wearer.

Duncan: “…”

He really didn’t expect this.

Talk about fast. Without waiting for the other cultists to react to their leader’s death, Shirley raised her arm again with that iron chain of bone hammer and spun it into a terrifying arc. After several louder crushing snaps and knocks, the entire hall had become a splat of mangled flesh and blood.

This time, the surviving cultists finally came back to their senses. Regardless of the shock in their hearts, everyone roared and rushed at the perpetrator. They threw daggers and swords through the air, and in response, Shirley unleashed a series of curse words and more attacks: “GO TMD your lord! You damn bastards!”

The giant hound broke through the air, this time not even letting the victims fly out and ripped them to shreds with his jaw and claws. Round and round Dog went, and death and screams continued until several thumping gunshots rocked the room….

The Sunists, with revolvers, finally found the gap they needed after so many of their comrades died. They were the cautious bunch and brightest since they kept their distance right from the beginning.

Brass bullets pierced the air there. Two landed on the metal chain and ricocheted off with sparks. The rest burrowed into Shirley’s flesh, causing the girl to wince at the pain.

“Uhhh…” Stumbling unsteadily for a while, she appeared weakened and ready to drop when the sound of iron whistled through the air again. “Dog! Help me block out the pain!”

The Dark Hound, slashing at the cultists on his own now, lets out a deafening roar. The next second, one of those gun-shooting cultists was directly blasted off from the shockwave and made a head-first impact to the nearest pillar, effectively becoming a mini version of Alice.

Duncan silently took two steps back as the undead hound continued his rampage. He didn’t want to interfere yet and lowered his presence – one for information, the other was that he didn’t want to get blood splattered on his new outfit. If he went home today and Nina saw the mess, he would never hear the end of it.

As for the one individual utilizing the meteor dog weapon, Duncan doubted the lady needed his help now…

She’s in good shape.

In fact, the whole battle lasted no more than a minute, just enough time for Duncan to recite the multiplication table twice. Then just as the girl clutched the chain connecting her with that hound called Dog, she froze and caught a glimpse of Duncan hiding in the corner.

Despite being stunned and confused by the calm appearance of this eccentric “cultist”, Shirley did not hesitate and flung Dog at the final target with unabashed hostility.