How did that key end up in the hands of the first Governor?

This was the question Agatha was most concerned with at the moment—because regardless of which historical record you consulted, whether from the perspective of the Queen's supporters or from the current city-state authorities, one thing was consistent in the description of the "Uprising" or "Rebellion" half a century ago: the Frost Queen and the rebel army had irreconcilable contradictions.

The two sides were enemies, with no possibility of understanding or cooperation, let alone any "legacy" relationship—then why would Lei, Queen Nora's key, be in the hands of the city-state Governor? And why did Winston call it both a "curse" and a "gift"?

Thinking quickly, Agatha lowered her head and looked into Winston's eyes: "There's another truth to the uprising back then—was there an agreement between the Frost Queen and the rebel army..."

"There's no such dramatic twist, Madam Gatekeeper, although it does sound like a good story—a mad city-state ruler and a rebel leader admiring each other, using a great uprising that could end the chaos of the previous dynasty to complete the transfer of power and responsibility. Screenwriters and playwrights would love this subject matter, but unfortunately, there's no such warmth in real history."

"The great uprising was inevitable. The rift between the Mad Queen and the Frost citizens was irreparable. She was once great, but her failure in the Submersion Project had pushed the city-state to the brink of collapse. The first Governor took up arms against the Queen for the survival of more people. There was no room for peaceful dialogue between them from the start."

"But you're right about one thing. There was indeed a certain 'understanding' between the Queen and the rebel army."

"The Queen knew that her overthrow was an inevitable conclusion, and the rebel army also knew that the Queen's madness was not just a simple case of 'mental derangement.' She must have had many secrets."

"So, on the night before the execution, the rebel leader, the first Governor, found the imprisoned Queen. He wanted to figure out what secrets the Queen was hiding."

"So, the Queen gave him the key and told him—as soon as the execution is over, as soon as her life ends, the person holding the key will naturally know everything."

Winston stopped, a mocking and helpless expression on his face. He lowered his head, staring at the brass key in his hand, and after a long time, he said with a wry smile: "Do you know what her last words to the rebel leader were? Later history books have never described it. Only the successive Governors know this sentence."

"I tried my best. You think you can do it, fine, now it's your turn—that's what she said after the first Governor took the key."

"...All choices have a price." Agatha sighed softly after listening to this unknown history.

"Madam Gatekeeper," Winston suddenly raised his head, holding up the brass key with a strange smile, "Would you like to try it? Take the key and take a look at the scenery that Lei Nora once saw?"

Agatha suddenly hesitated. She stared at the key Winston handed over, feeling her already slow-moving heart beat faster again. A low pressure spread from the key, as if it contained half a century of darkness and malice—however, after a few seconds of silence and hesitation, she gently took a breath and reached out to the key.

A slightly cool sensation came from her fingertips.

In the next second, countless phantoms suddenly surged out of the boundless darkness, and chaotic fragments of light and shadow swept in like a storm, filling Agatha's reason. In these fragments of information that came madly, illusions began to flash in her mind—

In the endless dark sea, some huge and terrifying dark limbs were slowly growing and expanding;

Ancient and chilling gazes looked at the city-state from the depths of the sea, indifferently scanning all living beings like an indescribable ancient god;

Dark and terrifying substances overflowed and surged from the deep sea, turning into replicas of the real world. In the transformation between reality and illusion, those substances sometimes turned into shadows and sometimes into entities. The boundless deep sea was densely packed with chaotic and turbid figures, looking up at the city-state with hollow eyes;

And in the more distant place, in the darker and deeper seabed, the entire world, the entire boundless sea, beneath hundreds or thousands of city-states, were all shadowy, as if the old world had sunk into that boundless darkness, and abominations were breeding from the ancient corpses, constantly rising, constantly rising...

And in the depths of these countless illusions, Agatha could always feel a certain "gaze." It was not a gaze, not any kind of will with a clear source. She felt as if she was being stared at by time itself, something older than history, larger than the city-state, and even as if it came from the deepest part of this world... was staring at her.

There was no emotion in that "gaze," no malice or goodwill. It was just staring, like a soulless empty shell staring at an uninvited guest who had ignorantly broken into the truth, and said indifferently—

"Oh, you've come."

"Boom!"

Agatha felt a roar in the depths of her consciousness. Her last bit of reason made her desperately float up in the countless overlapping illusions. In this process, her perception and thinking were suppressed to the limit—she could feel that there was more information, more fragments of thought surrounding her, which might even contain the will or words left by Queen Lei Nora, but she could neither see nor understand it.

By the time she regained control of this body, all the illusions had ended. She opened her eyes in the dark chaos and saw that Governor Winston was still in front of her, even maintaining the last posture of handing her the brass key—it seemed that only a second had passed.

She had returned to this strange crawling dark space... Wait, no, something had changed!

Agatha suddenly noticed the strange changes in her vision and raised her head in horror, looking around her.

The darkness in all directions seemed to have receded a lot compared to the beginning, and those black, formless things that were slowly wriggling and deforming in the darkness seemed to be gradually condensing and transforming into entities. In this constantly changing illusion and reality, she saw many things growing out of thin air from the surrounding space—they looked like dry branches, but their scale densely filled the entire space. The black "branches" bridged and aggregated with each other in the void, and weak flashes of light roamed between them, like...

Swift capsules being transported rapidly in steam pipes.

And in the depths of this complex, thorn-like "branch" network, through the layers of illusions, Agatha saw a huge... limb.

It was a thick limb like a tentacle, its huge size like a giant pillar supporting the sky, and the surface of the giant pillar was covered with dark blue lines. The patterns formed by those lines... looked like countless eyes.

Mental pollution? Illusion? Madness threshold?

Countless thoughts flashed through Agatha's mind. She immediately closed her eyes, but found that the "giant pillar" that supported the sky and the earth still remained in her vision. She tried to pray to the God of Death and use divine magic to stabilize her will, but found that she was sober and had no signs of being eroded.

After several rapid emergency treatments failed, she realized one thing—

She was not crazy, but in a sober and rational state, she saw a "scene" that was located somewhere, and it was not known whether it was real or not.

She stood in this magnificent and terrifying "landscape" as if she had lost her ability to think, until Governor Winston's voice pulled her back: "Oh, it looks like you saw it."

The middle-aged Governor said, slowly raising his head, and sighing softly: "It's spectacular, isn't it?"

Agatha lowered her head hesitantly, only then noticing that what Winston was "leaning" on was not a tree stump at all—it was actually part of the surrounding huge "branch" structure, an end extending from the branch, and there were vague black structures on its upper part, which extended to the deepest part of this strange space.

"This... these branches..."

"This is the thinking of the Ancient Gods. The embodiment in the vision of us mortals is this appearance," Winston said lightly, "You are only touching the key for the first time, and you can see very little, but I have been with this key day and night for more than ten years... It tells me things that are far beyond your imagination."

Agatha understood Winston's words dully, as if she had fallen into a dream, and subconsciously repeated: "The Ancient Gods'... thinking?"

"Isn't it incredible? These branch-like things are not real. What you see is likely just a thought that flashed through the mind of a deity at a certain moment, and this thought is strongly imprinted here, transforming into the huge structure you see—oh, don't try to decipher anything from it, don't try to understand the rules of those flashing lights, you will go crazy."

Agatha turned her head sharply: "Has anyone gone crazy because of this?"

"Yes," Winston smiled, "Have you forgotten? Her name is Lei Nora..."

Agatha was speechless for a moment. After a few more seconds, she said softly: "Then... what is that thing outside the 'Thorn Bush'?"

"It is the Gloom Saint," Winston said lightly, "A small part of him, inserted into the city-state."