It was the deep, dark seabed beneath the city-state, where the tentacles of the Ancient God's Pool had probed into the realm of reality and were growing day by day in that indescribable darkness.

It was both visible—those foul and dreadful fleshy tendrils were its physical form, cold and chilling—and invisible, because the will that extended upwards had already crossed the dark abyss and penetrated the city-state's thick rock and soil. Its unimaginable power had been burrowing into this city for the past fifty years, or even longer, piercing deeply into the depths of this Boiling Gold Mine.

"Lady Gatekeeper, we are now inside it—this place was once rock, but the power of the Ancient God has transformed the rock here into part of its flesh and blood. This dark substance, separated by more than a thousand meters of rock and seawater, pulsates with its source on the seabed, and with each beat, it pulls that Mirror City further into our reality… Can you hear it? Thump, thump… Flesh is writhing, contracting, murmuring. This place… is thinking."

Winston murmured softly as if in prayer, slowly raising his hands, pointing as if to embrace the endless darkness around him, and the crisscrossing "branches" within the darkness, like a thicket of thorns. Between those branches, dim points of light still roamed quickly like fireflies. Gradually, Agatha seemed to really hear that low sound—thump, thump…

This abnormal zone, buried deep within the Boiling Gold Mine and of unknown extent, was emitting a heartbeat.

Even her own heart seemed to be affected by the heartbeat, about to resonate and beat along with it.

However, a faint warm current suddenly appeared in her heart, causing Agatha to suddenly wake up. She realized that her humanity had just returned from the brink of madness, and her expression changed instantly as she stared intently into Winston's eyes.

"Your mind is no longer normal, Governor Winston—you have been affected by this place."

"Ah… is that so? Perhaps," Winston waved his hand nonchalantly. "At first, I thought I could calm this Ancient God like the Queen, then I thought I could at least delay it for a while, and then I thought I could at least stay awake until the end. So… I've failed without realizing it?"

"Like the Queen, calm this Ancient God?" Agatha keenly noticed the key point in the governor's words, and her eyes changed slightly, vaguely realizing the real reason why this governor was here. "You mean, the Frost Queen half a century ago successfully put the power of the Abyssal Saint Lord into slumber?"

Winston smiled. "…What do you think happened to the Sea Cliff Collapse back then?"

Agatha paused for a moment, hesitating to speak. "The Sea Cliff Collapse… after the Queen was beheaded, the entire

execution ground fell into the sea… That wasn't an accident?!"

"That was a sacrifice, the sacrifice was the Queen herself, as well as the first batch of opportunists who chose to betray her after the uprising broke out—of course, the entire executioner corps and many rebel officers were buried with her," Winston said calmly. "We sealed off the detailed information from that year, so few people know the details after the Sea Cliff Collapse—thousands of people died in that accident, but in fact, almost all the civilians survived that collapse, while those who were swept into the waves… even if they were only a meter from the shore, had no chance to struggle and were instantly sucked into the seabed.

"And after that collapse, the abnormal zone in the Boiling Gold Mine stopped expanding for a time. It was not until then that the first governor realized that everything was in Lei Nora's plan—the cold truth was transferred to the governor's hand through the key left by the Queen, just as she said, now it's our turn."

Agatha fell silent, and after a moment, her eyes became somewhat complicated. "You came here to recreate that sacrifice from back then…"

‘, is rising, the knowledge contained in the key tells me that to suppress this process, I must touch ‘, s mind. Fifty years ago, ‘, s power was still sleeping in the deep sea, so the Queen could only sacrifice herself to the deep sea, but now, her power has deeply pierced into the city-state, so this is the best place to touch it—this is the method left by the Queen in the key. Every

governor, after taking the key, will be entangled in this responsibility, and then prepare for it for life. I have also made all preparations for this, but I did not expect one thing…"

Winston twitched the corner of his mouth, which could hardly be considered a smile.

"Not everyone is Lei Nora."

Agatha listened silently, then lowered her head, quietly watching the brass key still lying in her palm.

This was something created by the Frost Queen using some kind of extraordinary power—she used a physical form to condense the "knowledge" she touched and a part of her "thoughts" inside the key.

But for some reason, Agatha always felt that this key… should have other uses.

It shouldn't just exist to bind the successive rulers of the Frost City-State to a responsibility.

But the current Governor Winston was obviously unable to answer any more questions for her—and she herself seemed to have no way back.

After learning the truth about this dark space, Agatha understood this: she did not pass through the stone wall to reach a certain place, but was directly integrated into a huge mass of abnormal matter.

What awaited Winston here was death, and what awaited her was return and assimilation.

She looked at her palm, seeing that the skin of her hand in contact with the key had already shown signs of softening and deformation, and some viscous black substance was oozing out of her skin, gradually covering the key.

But she still wanted to go further. She was a little… curious about this place.

"Is there anything else we can do?" Agatha lowered her head, looking at the city-state governor who was no longer speaking. "Are you going to wait here for death to come?"

"Death has already come, madam—we are just reviewing our failed lives before taking our last breath," Winston shook his head. "There's nothing to do. Like me, sit down and rest."

"…You have actually done what you should do. As the governor of Frost, you have at least bravely faced this so-called ‘curse’," Agatha said calmly. "Lack of ability does not mean inaction."

Winston just shrugged mockingly. "Incompetence is a sin."

"…I still want to go forward. I want to pass through this ‘thicket’ and go to the place where that tentacle is located," Agatha said. "Do you want to come with me?"

"It's meaningless for me, madam," Winston said softly. "If you want to go, then go. Let me stay here—my path has ended."

Agatha stared at him for a few seconds, then handed the brass key over. "This is your thing."

Winston did not reach out, but raised his head and looked into Agatha's eyes. "Take it with you. You have already taken it, it is yours. That is how we have passed it down to this day."

Agatha was silent for a moment, then put the key away.

"Okay, then I'll set off alone."

She said goodbye to Winston, then turned around, propped up her cane, and stepped out into this dark and empty space.

"Madam Agatha," Winston's voice suddenly came from behind, "Does this really have any meaning?"

Agatha tilted her head slightly. "Why do you ask?"

"Even if you know more truth ahead, even if you can really pass through this ‘thicket’ and touch the body of that Ancient God, what can you change? You can't stop all this, and you can't even pass on what happened here to the outside world—the investigation is over. In the absence of information, the more you know, the less meaningful it is."

Agatha's footsteps stopped. After a moment of thought, she said softly, "I am the Gatekeeper of Frost, this is my duty. And…"

She paused, and the hand holding the brass key unconsciously pressed against her chest.

It was still very cold all around, and the feeling of blood gradually congealing was stronger than ever, but for some reason, she had always felt a slight warmth beating in her heart since just now, as if… there

a cluster of invisible flames was jumping, supporting her to move forward.

In her mind, thoughts that did not belong to her were gently jumping, and the strongest of these thoughts was an obsession—the direction of the obsession was precisely outside this thicket, that illusory and incomparably huge "tentacle."

"It's meaningful. I'm not moving forward alone—although there's no evidence, I think… what I see here will eventually be known."

"Oh, is that so? That's good… Madam Agatha, it's admirable that you still hold faith to the last moment."

Winston's voice stopped, and there was no more movement in that direction.

Agatha turned her head and saw a small lantern shining in the darkness, illuminating a section of withered "stump," and a middle-aged man in a dark blue coat was quietly leaning against the stump.

His temple was pierced by a bullet hole, and in his drooping hand, he held an exquisitely crafted revolver.