Such a familiar sentence made Shirley fall into a brief trance. Her memories seemed to rise and fall in a faded ocean. Some long-lost warmth and color emerged from those illusory and hazy bubbles. Then, after a long time, she slowly came back to her senses and looked at the abnormally huge Deep Hound not far away.

It's still waiting there, hesitant and nervous, and a little confused.

As if there was a layer of sticky mud covering his mind, Agou felt that there were many things wrong with his brain. His past memories were vague and his current thoughts were intermittent. He was not sure what went wrong, but felt that... something seemed to be missing in his heart.

There was a faint light flickering in his empty eye sockets. Agou felt dazed as he looked at the dark demon with strange skeleton limbs and a familiar appearance not far away.

It had never seen her, but it knew her—had known her a long, long time ago.

The little guy in my memory...why did he become like this?

After hesitating for an unknown amount of time, Agou finally walked forward cautiously. He first sniffed around, then walked over the long limbs covered with barbs and came in front of Shirley.

Shirley stared at the tall Deep Hound quietly. After a few minutes, she slowly stood up and put her hand on the dog's head: "Why are you acting weird too?"

Agou tilted his head slowly, as if he wanted to say something, but before he could open his mouth, he felt a push from behind his neck - Shirley suddenly reached out and hugged Agou's neck, then held him tightly in her arms.

"...I thought I couldn't find you..." She whispered softly, her voice trembling slightly with belated fear, "You suddenly fell down, and I couldn't pull you back..."

Agou felt his head becoming increasingly dizzy, his thoughts were slow and intermittent, and he could hardly form a coherent train of thought, but at this moment, he suddenly heard a sound.

Boom, boom—that’s the familiar sound of heartbeat!

It pressed against Shirley's chest. Through the hideous and intertwined bones, the sound of the two hearts beating slowly seemed to suddenly pierce through the sluggishness in its mind. It suddenly woke up from a long, muddled dream, and quickly recalled everything with every heartbeat. The light in its eyes gradually brightened, and it finally spoke to break the silence, struggling slightly: "Shirley, I...at that time..."

Shirley did not loosen her arms, but continued to hug Agou's neck and whispered: "I know, Agou... I know everything."

The fire in Agou's eyes flickered for a moment, and he stopped struggling. He hesitated and said, "When did you know?"

"When I first learned that the Deep Demon had no heart." Shirley answered softly.

Agou fell silent. He remained in this position with his neck hugged, motionless, and no one knew what he was thinking. After a long time, he muttered, "I'm sorry..."

"It's okay," Shirley said almost immediately, and then she loosened Agou's neck a little, looked seriously at the Deep Hound who had been with her for twelve years and almost raised her, and nodded slowly as if to emphasize, "It's okay - you have always been with me."

Agou nodded slowly, but while he felt a little relieved in his heart, he suddenly felt a little dazed in his mind.

That feeling of slow thinking and fragmented memory appeared again, in waves.

"Shirley, I feel dizzy..." it spoke subconsciously.

"Maybe it's because of this," Shirley reacted instantly, and then looked down at her chest - two hearts were beating in her chest, but soon she frowned again, "...but I can't seem to take them out..."

As she spoke, she reached out and touched the criss-crossing bone armor on her chest, as if trying to reopen the sturdy "bone cage".

"Don't touch them," Agou immediately said to stop Shirley from taking the next step, "You will die!"

Shirley stopped and looked at Agou helplessly: "Then...what should we do?"

Agou didn't say anything, but his eyes fell on Shirley's right hand - the broken chain hung there, and a faint green flame could be seen burning at the end of the chain.

Shirley also reacted quickly, her eyes met with Agou's, and they thought of the same thing.

"…Fix this?" She asked hesitantly. "Is this okay?"

"In theory, I think it's possible. After all, we have always relied on symbiosis to maintain each other's balance. However..." Agou muttered, his tone uncertain, "This has never happened before. It is unprecedented that the symbiont can survive for so long after the chain is broken. As for repairing the chain... that's even more incredible. To be honest, I don't know how to do it."

Shirley listened to Agou's story with a serious expression on her face. Then she picked up the broken chain and found another part of the chain near Agou's neck. She put the two broken ends together and fiddled with them for half a minute. She looked up and said, "...It doesn't seem to work if we put them together directly."

"Nonsense, of course not - if it's just an ordinary chain that breaks, you'll have to find a blacksmith to repair it!" Agou shook his head for a moment, but then he fell down because of the dizziness in his consciousness. "This thing may require a strict 'reshaping' process... The important thing is not to repair the chain, but to repair the symbiotic relationship between us..."

Shirley listened carefully and thought hard, but couldn't help muttering, "After all...how did this chain suddenly break in the first place? I only remember that when we were in that cave, you suddenly said you were feeling unwell, and then you sank into the ground..."

"Anyway, it must be related to the Lord of the Deep, and also to the fact that you suddenly 'saw' many 'truths' in that square before," Ah Gou tried his best to analyze while fighting the dizziness in his mind. "There were signs before the chain broke, and the initial changes occurred after you 'saw' the memory of the Holy Island..."

It suddenly stopped talking halfway, as if it had caught some possibility, and continued after a moment: "... after learning the 'truth', those cultists were instantly polluted and distorted, and were restored from human beings to 'rough objects'. Because you were protected by the captain, you did not seem to be polluted at the time - but is it possible that the pollution is still effective?"

Shirley was stunned for a moment and looked down at her current body.

Agou was thinking and said, "You have been coexisting with me, the Deep Demon, from the beginning, long before you met the captain, so the 'pollution' has actually been rooted in your essence, and the memory of the Holy Island activated it, awakening your side as the Deep Demon. Because this is something in your body, it is equivalent to partially bypassing the captain's protection...

"The chain between humans and the Deep Demons is essentially a 'symbiotic contract' between the two creatures, and this contract has strict conditions for its establishment. In other words, when your essence changes, it is equivalent to destroying the conditions for the establishment of the contract...

"It's like a contract between businessmen. When one party loses the ability to perform due to force majeure, the contract will naturally become invalid..."

Shirley was listening in a daze, and after a while she said, "So... what?"

Agou thought about it seriously and said, "If it can't be repaired, we can make a new one. Maybe we can consider re-establishing a symbiotic contract - not based on your previous state, but based on your current state."

Shirley finally understood this time.

Hope rekindled in her heart, and she instantly regained motivation: "Then what should we do? How is this symbiotic contract usually made?"

Although she and Agou had been "coexisting" for more than ten years, it was not a normal contractual relationship from the beginning. She had never held any summoning ceremony like ordinary Annihilation cultists, so her knowledge in this area was almost blank.

But Agou obviously knew more than her.

"According to the 'symbiotic contract' of the Annihilation Cult, the most difficult part is the preparation. The Annihilation Cult usually needs to transform themselves through a series of ritualistic behaviors, including various bloody 'operations' and spiritual reshaping, accompanied by many evil and dark activities, in order to ultimately make their life form closer to the 'original' so that they can withstand the power of the Deep Demon - but for you, this is the least important part.

"Because you can completely skip this process. You are now closer to the so-called 'original' state than any Annihilation Cultist, and you have already adapted to the power of the devil.

"So all you have to do is perform a simple summoning ritual - which is actually the easiest part."

As Agou spoke, he stood up shakily and walked slowly across the gravel-strewn wilderness, leaving deep grooves on the ground with his claws - he was drawing a set of complex runes, writing the "text" of the contract.

"Establishing a connection... summoning a demon... This is very easy for us. I can help you prepare all the runes and venues required for the ritual. I will also provide the magic power required to activate these runes. All you have to do is stand at the node at the edge of the ritual field. When I am ready, you can outline the outline of the demon you want to summon in your mind."

It raised its head, looked into the eyes of Shirley who was watching curiously, and continued to speak seriously -

"Normally, this summoning process would last a whole day or even longer. It would open a rift until a demon willing to respond to the summoning appeared in the center of the rune matrix, and then the contract would be established. However..."

As it spoke, it slowly walked towards the center of the countless runes, and beside it, many runes were gradually lighting up.

"But Shirley, you don't have to wait that long—I'm right here."