A sharp blade flashed, and a "demon of fear" that looked like a piece of expanding and shrinking meat and constantly uttered strange whispers and murmurs was cut in half and quickly turned into rising smoke and dust and still slowly wriggling residue.

However, more ominous auras were gathering in the cave, and whispers and overlapping whistles that were enough to pollute the minds of ordinary people continued to come from the depths of the dark door.

More and more dark demons have sensed this rift to the real world and are invading through the gate. Their invasion is causing a chain reaction across the entire Holy Island and is beginning to change the "environment" of the island.

Lucrecia casually shook off the black residue on the sickle, raised her head and looked solemnly at the "black door" that was constantly rising and falling, and said in a deep voice: "...I feel that the 'atmosphere' of the island is changing."

"Fanna just sent a message that the figures of the Deep Demons are appearing in the valley," Morris said quickly, holding up a brass mechanical device with a complex structure and many complicated sacred runes engraved on the surface. He was alert to the movement in the black door and said, "They are emerging in the fog, and some have begun to show their physical form."

Lucrecia frowned. "We have already dealt with all the demons that emerged from the Black Gate... Is there another 'entrance' to the island?"

"It's the 'breath' of the abyss," Morris shook his head. "This island is located at the border. It has never existed stably in the real dimension from the beginning. Now, this black door is gradually 'pulling' the entire Holy Land Island to the other side. The breath leaking from the door is changing the 'depth' of the entire area... The deeper the place, the more likely the abyss demons will grow out of thin air."

Lucrecia's face was gloomy. She turned her head to look at the green flames that were still burning quietly in front of the black door, and calmly raised the sickle in her hand: "It's not a big problem. There is a fleet and a large group of professional church warriors outside. It won't be difficult to deal with these demons. You just watch from the side. I will deal with the things coming out of the door. Father should be back soon."

Morris remained silent, but in the corner of his eye, a new outline was gradually emerging on the wriggling and undulating surface of the black door.

More demons are entering the real world - at first, a few strange-looking guys with missing limbs ran out of this door. They were easy to deal with, but after that, all those that came out of the door were "healthy deep demons" that met Morris's cognition.

Brutal, powerful, and carrying uncontrollable rage, any one of them who runs into the city-state would mean a terrible massacre.

What's worse is that these chaotic and unintelligent demons are almost immune to all spell effects based on "wisdom" and "knowledge".

But this is not a big problem.

Morris casually pressed the "mechanical device" in his hand against his shoulder. The delicate mechanism that seemed to be made of brass instantly penetrated into his body like a phantom. Then, various sounds of gears turning, pistons operating, and air valves ventilating came from his body.

Along with the whispered prayers to Lahm, the god of wisdom, the old scholar's hunched and aged body seemed to be briefly injected with the vitality of steel and engine oil - his back slowly straightened, and there was a clicking sound from the spine as the steel parts were reset. A layer of metallic texture gradually spread and covered his skin, glowing with the unique brilliance of brass. His eyeballs melted, and two finely cut rubies rolled out from the brain of the differential engine and were pushed into the eye sockets by the mechanical arm.

Morris moved his arms, and a hissing sound of steam decompression and a faint white mist emerged from the joints. He looked up at the figure that was squeezing out of the black door - a huge floating skull covered with hideous bone spurs and terrifying in appearance - and strode forward.

He passed Lucrecia and punched the terrifying skull demon. Along with the hissing of the steam valve and the crisp sound of bones breaking, the demon only stayed in the real dimension for less than half a second before the old man punched it back into the deep sea.

Lucrecia raised her head and looked at the old scholar who usually had a very elegant and easy-going temperament in a daze: "......?"

"When I was young, I often sought knowledge in dangerous secret places and even in strange areas. In those places far away from the civilized world, I often encountered crude enemies who lacked sufficient wisdom." Morris turned his head and smiled on his copper face. The exquisite brass gears and shining reeds rotated and vibrated in the gap between his jaws. "At that time, I realized a truth - mental retardation is immune to the baptism of wisdom."

He turned around and punched a Deep Hound that was just emerging from the black door on the head, and actually smashed the demon's head directly into its chest!

"The knowledge blessed by Lachem cannot leave a trace on their smooth brains," Morris shook his wrist to reset the steam booster tube in his joint, "but the steam-powered iron fist blessed by Lachem can."

Lucrecia continued with a dull expression: "..."

She had thought that this elegant and easy-going old man was the most normal person on the Lost Homeland... So there was no normal person on her father's ship? !

※※※

When the dark demon that suddenly emerged from the thick fog was flattened in the blink of an eye, Amber hadn't reacted to what happened.

She didn't even know how Vanna rushed from one end of the valley to the other in an instant.

After killing a demon, Vanna walked over as if nothing had happened. She held the giant sword in one hand and came to Amber: "The demon is gaining a physical form. This 'Holy Island' has sunk into the abyss. Inform the warships near the coastline to be alert to any large physical forms appearing in the nearby waters. No matter what they look like, they will be sunk if they dare to approach."

Amber was stunned for a moment, then she came back to her senses from her brief shock and nodded hurriedly: "Okay...Okay!"

Vanna frowned when she saw this. The habit she had developed as an inquisitor over the years made her scold him: "Focus, Sister. We are in the devil's territory."

"Yes!" Amber straightened her back subconsciously and answered loudly.

Fanna waved her hand and said nothing more. She just looked around seriously, observing the thick fog that was slowly flowing in the valley.

Half an hour ago, bizarre shadows began to emerge from the fog from time to time. Those shadows moved and changed, outlining many disturbing demonic outlines.

On the nearby rock walls, some stone clusters that looked as hideous as skeletons were also vibrating slightly, as if they were gradually becoming active.

And a few seconds ago, a demon condensed into a physical body from the shadows in the fog and was "born" directly in the "real world".

Various signs indicate that this "holy island" is rapidly deviating from the real dimension and "sinking" towards the dark side, and this change is obviously related to the captain's actions.

She didn't feel uneasy because she trusted the captain - but the others at the scene clearly didn't know enough about the Lost Home Fleet.

"Is everything okay on the Lost Homeland?" Amber came closer and whispered with some concern.

Vanna frowned, looking confused: "…What are you talking about?"

"I know that ship is strange and powerful, but hasn't Captain Duncan left now?" Amber quickly added, "If there really is a demon approaching...do you need the Tide to help look after it?"

Vanna understood Amber's worry, but her expression became more subtle. After a moment of silence, she shook her head: "It's okay, there are people staying on that ship."

Amber was stunned, and seemed to want to say something else, but at this moment, a strong light suddenly rising from the direction of the coastline interrupted all her actions.

The Marines and priests stationed in the valley were startled for a moment and looked in the direction of the strong light - for a moment, they thought it was a fierce sunrise.

A dazzling fireball was slowly rising into the sky. In the hot and terrifying light, it seemed that many tiny things were burning in the flames, turning into wisps of smoke.

After a long silence, Amber finally broke the silence hesitantly: "...What is that?"

"That's 'Nina got a fright'," Vanna pursed her lips, squinted her eyes and looked at the fireball, her tone was quite indifferent, "It jumped really high this time... It seems that the deep demons that appeared in the nearby sea area are in luck today..."

※※※

In the sudden darkness and chaos, Duncan, Shirley and Agou felt as if they had passed through an infinitely long tunnel - time seemed to have passed in just a moment, but their senses created the illusion that this "journey" was endless.

At the end of the "tunnel", when the darkness began to fade, countless bizarre illusions came upon them, and distorted starlight burst into their eyes like a waterfall. Shirley and Agou were stunned by the magnificent and strange scenery for a moment, but Duncan suddenly had a strange association -

[The transition is over]

The moment this thought came to his mind, he felt grounded again - the long tunnel and twinkling stars in front of him suddenly disappeared, and the darkness in the deepest part of the deep sea, as well as the huge, mountain-like, and shocking "Ancient God" came into view as his vision gradually became clearer.

He came before the Holy Lord of the Deep.

He could only see a small part of this "ancient god".

A small, undulating "mountain range" stretched across his field of vision. In essence, that "mountain range" was actually a dark-colored tentacle - a dark blue light covered its surface, and there were many irregular lights embedded between the dark blue lights, flickering slowly like breathing.

This huge tentacle extended to the end of the darkness, where it branched out into many branches, connecting to many nearby broken floating islands floating in the air, entwining and piercing into the depths of those floating lands. At the other end of the tentacle was a structure like a magnificent tower, which was the intersection of many other similar tentacles. The entire structure was like some kind of strange "starfish", and the "main body" in the center was raised high, with countless lights all over it, like millions of eyes, blinking slowly in the darkness, watching the uninvited guests who came here.

Duncan raised his head and quietly stared at the ancient god lurking in the darkness. After a long while, he spoke softly, "I'm here to find you."

The dark "mountain" surface rippled with light and responded with a low murmur. In the murmur, Duncan heard a voice -

"We finally meet, 'Fire Usurper', and... LH-03 whom we haven't seen for a long time."