Chapter 1 The Words of the Gatekeeper

The gatekeeper's words contained a powerful force, accompanied by the thunderous echo of her tin cane striking the floor, her voice spreading layer upon layer in this chaotic and inexplicable depth of the spirit world.

In an instant, the unseen "whisperers" in the room quieted down again, and the whole world fell into a temporary silence. After a few short seconds, a low rumble came from afar—it sounded like a huge body approaching with heavy steps.

Agatha raised her hand, letting her eyeball face the direction of the sound. In the place where her gaze fell was the window nailed shut with layers of wooden boards. A pale light shone through the cracks of the window. Suddenly, all the light trembled, then dimmed, as if a huge thing had come to the window.

The next second, the crisscrossing wooden boards shattered silently. Countless gray-black fragments scattered quietly, then stopped in mid-air near the window, as if frozen in amber. A giant appeared outside the window.

The giant was draped in a black robe representing death. His body under the robe was wrapped in bandages, and only the eyes on his head emitted a dim, unclear yellow light. He stood outside the building, his size almost equal to an entire house. Then, the giant bent down slightly, making his head level with the second-floor window. He turned his head, and there was no expression on his bandaged face. Then, he raised his hand and extended three fingers towards Agatha.

"Three questions," the giant said in a thunderous voice.

Agatha was stunned when she saw the giant.

This wasn't the gatekeeper she was familiar with. The gatekeeper who usually communicated with me didn't have such a huge body. This one was obviously a higher-level envoy… Why would this envoy respond to my call?

But soon, she suppressed the doubts in her heart. The comings and goings of the envoys were all at the command of the Death God Bartok. She didn't need to delve into it. The most important thing right now was to figure out what had happened here.

"I'm looking for the soul that last lingered in this room," she said, pointing her cane at the empty table, "It may have been corrupted, but it's now missing."

Noisy sounds gradually rose, and there seemed to be countless invisible onlookers stirring in the air. The noise interrupted Agatha's thoughts. The eyeball in her hand turned, and she saw wisps of pitch-black matter, like strands of hair, spreading outside the octagonal barrier, like ink droplets in water, becoming more and more numerous.

"The soul has departed, entered the realm of rest. A great power has erased its debts, corruption is no longer an issue."

"Pyromancer." The envoy's eyes, gleaming with clear yellow light, seemed to flicker. There was a clear note of warning when it said this word, and then it retracted one finger.

Agatha felt a sudden dizziness as soon as she heard the word "Pyromancer." She immediately realized that she was coming into contact with some "knowledge" originating from the depths of the world, knowledge that had never been made public to the mortal world.

Agatha moved her eyeball and casually took a small bottle from her coat pocket. After snapping open the cap, she tilted her head back and dropped two drops of eye drops into her eye socket.

The dry and uncomfortable feeling quickly subsided.

But she didn't lose her composure. Communicating with the gatekeepers on "the other side" and frequently coming into contact with some dangerous knowledge was commonplace for her. Even though she was young, she had experience in this area. And since the envoy outside the window chose to tell her this word, it meant that this word was at least within his range of tolerance.

If it were a taboo-level question, the envoy would remind her.

The death envoy in the window said in a thunderous voice, then retracted one finger: Two questions remaining.

Agatha was stunned for a moment, and immediately noticed the word "great power" in the envoy's mouth. She slowly thought and weighed it, and asked the second question: "Where does the great power come from? Who erased the debts of this soul?"

It just feels like there are too many things worth being confused about today.

Agatha calmed herself, took a light breath, and asked the third question: "Who is the Pyromancer?"

"Human."

Human? What kind of answer is that? Does that mean… the Pyromancer is a human? This power that can be called "great power" by the death envoy comes from a human?

What kind of "human" would that be?! Is that still a "human"?!

"The soul has departed. 'The gatekeeper on the other side confirms that the soul passed through Bartok's gate and entered the resting place,'" Qian Huansha said indifferently, "...That's all, no more clues."

The envoy outside the window said, then retracted his last finger, his figure disappearing in a howling gust of wind, without giving Qian Huansha any chance to continue talking.

The spirit world was beginning to expel her, an uninvited guest.

The young gatekeeper stood there blankly. For the first time in her life, she felt a little overwhelmed after talking to the gatekeeper on "the other side." The answer to the last question was still clearly lingering in her mind, but she had no idea what this inexplicable answer was all about!

Agatha frowned deeply.

The strange and suspicious traces of battle in the alley outside, the recent activities of cultists in the city-state, "the Original Element" and the suspicious accidents in the mines, the strange things that happened in this house, the information conveyed by the death envoy...

Just then, a sound of footsteps suddenly came from the corridor outside, interrupting Agatha's thoughts.

The scattered wooden fragments floating in the air danced, instantly reassembling into a complete form. The window of the room was sealed again, and the chaotic pale light spilled into the room from the cracks in the window, falling on the somewhat astonished Agatha.

A subordinate came over from the side and asked after Agatha put away the potion bottle: "Did you find any clues?"

A guard who was taking care of things downstairs came in: "Gatekeeper, the lady has woken up."

The young Senjin woman is awake?

The subordinate obviously noticed Agatha's concealment, but as an experienced guard, he didn't ask anything, nodded, and went back to work.

For safety reasons, she didn't mention the word "Pyromancer" to her subordinates.

Agatha immediately put aside her thoughts and quickly went to the first floor, where she saw Galoni waking up from her sleep.

All kinds of complicated and chaotic lines were entangled in her mind.

She shook her head, raised her hand and put the eyeball back into her eye socket. At the same time, she gently waved her cane, dispersing the pale flames on the floor that outlined the octagonal shape.

In an instant, the spirit world receded, the sound returned, and the color filled her vision again. She returned to the scene where the guards were busy, and her subordinates were still working nervously and orderly around her.

This word obviously possessed power, even directly pointed to extremely deep knowledge. Who knew what would happen if she said it directly—it was best to go back and investigate the literature and data before talking about it.

This sturdy lady with stone-like skin was sitting on the sofa, holding a cup of calming herbal tea prepared by the priest, looking at the coffee table in front of her with a somewhat dazed expression. It wasn't until Agatha sat down opposite her and tapped the table lightly that she reacted sluggishly.

"Hello, my name is Qian Huansha, you should know me," the young gatekeeper said, while carefully observing the condition of the person involved, "Do you know what happened?"

"I… My name is Galoni,"

The female apprentice holding the herbal tea said, her eyes still a little erratic, as if she hadn't completely broken free from her dream, "Sorry, Gatekeeper, I… My mind is still a mess. I feel like I had a very long dream, and I was constantly solving math problems in the dream, proving them over and over again. The learning experience from childhood to adulthood combined wasn't as tiring as this…"

"Solving math problems?" Agatha was stunned for a moment, and then asked with a thoughtful expression, "Do you remember how you fell asleep? Before falling asleep, did you receive anyone, or do anything?"

Memory overwrite, deep sleep, and "solving math problems"... This sounds a bit like the power mastered by the clergy of the God of Wisdom.

But the God of Wisdom, as one of the two great True Gods, why would his clergy do such a thing?

Galoni frowned slightly, as if trying hard to recall, but after a full half a minute, she shook her head apologetically: "I'm sorry, I don't remember. I don't even remember everything from yesterday afternoon until now - if it weren't for these guards reminding me, I wouldn't even know... something happened to my family."

"Excuse me..." Galoni looked at the gatekeeper in front of her with some nervousness. Although the other party looked very young, she was still inevitably uneasy in the face of the highest-level church spokesperson in the city-state, "My teacher, is he okay?"

Agatha was instantly stunned.

"Your teacher?" Agatha asked with some confusion.

"He should be upstairs, his name is Brown Scott," Galoni quickly explained, "I just woke up and I'm a little confused, I forgot to say, he needs quiet..."