Duncan looked at the nervous Agou and smiled as kindly as possible - he felt that there might be some misunderstanding between him and the other party, and it would be better to resolve this misunderstanding as soon as possible.

But just before he was about to speak, he suddenly saw a flash of blood in Agou's eyes - although it was impossible to tell any emotional changes from a bony head, he seemed to be able to feel the sudden intense excitement of this deep hound.

The next second, he heard Agou's stuttering voice: "You...you are the 'Mr. Duncan' we have been dealing with these two days?"

Duncan was stunned, then he glanced at Shirley next to him.

He didn't see any communication between Agou and Shirley, but it was obvious that these two individuals connected by chains had a convenient means of sharing intelligence.

"It's me," Duncan said in a gentle tone with a smile, "Do you need me to explain anything? Or is there anything you want to know?"

"No!" Ah Gou almost screamed, his whole body retreating, "We don't need to know any 'knowledge' or 'truth'. We have no intention of prying into your secrets!"

"...I always feel that there are still some misunderstandings between you and me, but it seems to be getting harder and harder to explain." Duncan sighed and shook his head helplessly. "Forget it, let time slowly help us build mutual trust. As for now, there are some things I want to understand."

Ah Gou hung his head: "Please...please go ahead."

Duncan frowned. He was actually very curious as to why he, a notorious ghost captain in the real world, had such a great influence among the Abyss demons. Because in his impression, the Abyss was a "place" that was particularly close to the warp. The demons entrenched in the depths of the Abyss should be closer to those "lower shadows" than the mortals in the real world. Correspondingly, they should not be so afraid and resistant to the Lost Homeland returning from the warp.

However, it now seems that those demons, which are "dangerous existences" to humans, are actually afraid of the Lost Homeland just like humans, which makes him quite confused.

However, before figuring out the problem, he first focused on the "nightmare" in front of him - this nightmare came from deep in Shirley's memory and was very likely a reproduction of the truth that happened eleven years ago.

"I want to know about this dream," he said, his eyes falling on Shirley, "I know this is a very painful memory for you. If you don't want to talk about it, you can refuse."

"...There's nothing I don't want to say," Shirley just shook her head gently, "I should thank you. You interrupted this nightmare, so I can suffer less... As you can see, this is what I went through."

"A big fire..." Duncan nodded slightly, then looked at Agou, "What I saw was the first encounter between you and Shirley?"

Agou turned his face away: "I was just a deep demon at that time."

"Then how did you suddenly get the 'heart'?" Duncan asked curiously, "From what I just saw, you almost killed Shirley back then."

"...I don't know." Agou was silent for a few seconds, shaking his ugly head slightly. "When I first became self-aware, I saw Shirley lying on the ground dying."

Duncan looked deeply at the Deep Hound, and then his eyes moved along the chain around its neck, and he saw Shirley's dark and twisted half body that was fused with the chain.

"After that, you guys just...fused together?"

“I guess so,” Shirley whispered, lowering her head, hiding her eyes and expression in the shadow of her hair. “Actually, I don’t remember it very clearly. After all, I was only six years old at the time, and I was confused for a long time afterwards… If you are really curious about how I gradually developed this relationship with a deep demon who almost killed me, you can go find a psychiatrist to hypnotize me, maybe…”

“No need.”

Shirley's words were suddenly interrupted, and then she was surprised to feel a big hand pressing on her head.

The palm was actually warm.

"Sorry, I don't want to open up your scars. I just want to know the details of what happened eleven years ago," Duncan gently touched the girl's hair. He knew that his questions would not be pleasant for Shirley, who had just escaped from a nightmare. "You should know that in the incident eleven years ago, not only did the sun fragments appear, but there were also countless cultists active, and the Deep Hound... theoretically, it should be a summoned creature of the Annihilation Cult."

Shirley looked up in a daze. She heard Duncan continue, "A demon-like creature from the deep sea suddenly gained human nature. This is a kind of 'mutation' in itself. Have you ever thought that this mutation might have been affected by a certain trigger back then?"

Shirley blinked and said a little slowly: "Sun fragment?"

"I'm not sure... No one knows what form the sun fragments take, or what powers they have. But in the teachings of the Sun Cultists, the 'Real Sun God' does not have the power to 'grant humanity' or anything like that," Duncan shook his head. "So the thing that caused Agou to have humanity might be... something other than the sun fragments."

"You mean, there might be more than just sun fragments that appeared in Plande City-State eleven years ago?!" Shirley finally came to her senses and her eyes suddenly widened.

"It's just a little suspicion," Duncan patted Shirley's shoulder gently, then retracted his hand, "Because I've always felt that there is a big inconsistency in this matter: the sun fragment is the 'holy object' of the sun cultists. According to the description of those cultists, its power is actually very simple, and in mysticism it is only related to the 'real sun god'. However, in the chaos eleven years ago, the cultists arrested in the official documents alone included annihilation cultists and end-of-days preachers, who have nothing to do with the 'real sun god'... Why are they involved?

"Of course, it can also be explained that the power of the sun fragments is so great that even people who do not believe in the sun god are affected and go crazy on the same day, but this cannot explain why a strange...'phenomenon' like Agou appears - a demon that already has the attribute of madness, but suddenly gains sanity during the incident. What's going on?

"There are still many suspicious things, including but not limited to the veil covering the 'fire', the remaining memories in your and Nina's minds, and the strange phenomena in the sixth district... We have always attributed all these abnormalities to the fragments of the sun, but now think about it carefully, is this really the power of the 'Sun Realm'? The so-called real sun god is too omnipotent."

Duncan expressed his doubts, some of which had actually arisen before today. It was only after seeing the changes that happened to Agou eleven years ago that his suspicions became more certain.

The fire eleven years ago might really have been caused by solar fragments, but there was definitely something else that played a role in the whole incident!

Shirley was still a little dazed. She was not very good at thinking about such complicated things. In her daze, she heard Agou's voice ringing quickly in her mind: "Shirley, are you okay? Was he casting a curse by touching your head just now? Are you conscious? You..."

"I'm fine," Shirley replied in her mind, not knowing whether to laugh or cry, "Agou, you're too nervous."

"Nonsense, how can I not be nervous! You have directly come into contact with a pollution source that is enough to drive ordinary people crazy instantly!" Agou's voice was panicked, "Then how do you feel?"

Shirley thought about it and touched the top of her head uncertainly.

As far as she could remember, the last time someone stroked her hair like this and comforted her softly like a child was many, many years ago.

“…warm.”

She spoke softly in a trance.

Agou was shocked: "Shirley, are you really crazy?"

“…Just shut up!”

Duncan had no idea what Agou and Shirley had exchanged during that brief moment. He just looked thoughtfully at the window filled with dim red light, and suddenly asked, "What's outside?"

Shirley was stunned: "Huh?"

Duncan raised his hand and pointed to the window: "What's outside the room?"

"I... don't know," Shirley blinked, suddenly realizing that in this nightmare that kept bothering her, an option that was impossible seemed to have suddenly appeared at this moment. "I have never thought about this problem. Every time I dream, I am trapped in this room..."

"But now you've broken free," Duncan walked to the door of the cabin, turned around and whispered. Those words were like a temptation in the darkness, throwing an unprecedented choice in front of Shirley and Agou, "Would you like to try it, while you're awake... to see what the edge of your dream looks like?"