Chapter 1 Agatha

Agatha suddenly stopped.

At the end of her vision, an anomaly at the alleyway intersection interrupted her wandering thoughts.

In that corner shrouded in dim light, clusters of revolting black substances were surging. They seeped from the nearby ground and wall surfaces, like viscous grease overflowing from pipes. Amidst the sticky, nauseating sounds, the mud-like masses almost instantly began to take on human-like forms, casting hostile gazes at Agatha.

"They really are persistent..."

Agatha couldn't help but sigh softly, but her physical actions didn't hesitate in the slightest. Before the mud could fully coalesce, she had already raised her staff, pointing it at the nearest mass.

Pale flames ignited out of thin air, instantly engulfing the writhing "Primal Essence," the power of cremation directly reducing it to ashes. The next second, a gray whirlwind swept through the alley, howling as it passed through the rising humanoid counterfeits, as if carrying immense devouring and weathering power, turning them into dry, eroded dust.

However, more and more mud-like substances continued to seep from the nearby walls and ground, and more and more grotesque humanoid figures appeared at the intersection, blocking Agatha's path.

The gray wind subsided, and Agatha's figure solidified from within it. A few more traces of fatigue appeared on her face, and after sensing a strange aura suddenly emerging from the mud, her expression turned even more grave.

She looked towards the source of the aura and saw a "counterfeit" formed from Primal Essence rapidly writhing and mutating. Within seconds, it transformed into a young man with short blond hair, a white shirt, a black waistcoat, and a smiling face.

"Miss Gatekeeper, you have quite the stamina," the young man said with a slight nod, his tone very polite. "I wonder if you're enjoying your exercise here?"

"It would be naive to think you could exhaust me to death here with these attrition tactics," Agatha said, her gaze icy as she watched yet another avatar of the young man, calming her breathing. "Death means nothing to me. I can still fight after death. The soul of a Gatekeeper never tires, and I will find you one day."

"Of course, of course, truly killing a saint of Bartok wouldn't be that simple," the young man laughed, his smile quite radiant. "I never considered killing you. I just need to keep you here as long as possible. These empty shells for you to slaughter are merely entertainment, a pastime for your boredom."

"Well, these heretics certainly have a peculiar way of treating guests," Agatha said, knowing that the other party was using various methods to stall her, but at least for the moment, she didn't mind saying a few more words to recover her strength. "I'm suddenly a little curious, is your main body also so leisurely right now? I can feel that I'm gradually approaching your hiding place. With each monster you control that I eliminate, I can more clearly sense your location... How many more places do you have to hide?"

The smile on the blond young man's face finally stiffened for an instant, but only for an instant. He quickly smiled cheerfully again. "Ah, it seems I overlooked something. Bartok's watchdogs have always had a good 'sense of smell.' Then how about we make a bet?"

He raised a hand, as if making an inviting gesture.

"Let's bet on whether you find my main body first, or whether Frost becomes the first earthly kingdom of the Holy Lord's arrival—the stakes are your soul, and the lives of everyone in Frost..."

A pale flame suddenly exploded, engulfing the area where the young man was standing before he could finish speaking. The next second, Agatha had transformed into a howling gray wind, which slammed into the intersection. The assembled counterfeit monsters immediately surged forward, trying to block the gray wind, but they were all disintegrated and shattered by the power of the wind of death. In the blink of an eye, the gray wind collided with the blond young man, who was already engulfed in pale flames, sending him flying into a low wall across the street.

After a deafening crash, the flames were dispersed by the wind, and Agatha's figure emerged from the gray wind. She held her staff level with her right hand, the tip piercing directly through the blond young man's chest, pinning him firmly to the wall.

"Sorry, no bet," Agatha said, gazing into the other's eyes with a calm expression. "Clergy are prohibited from gambling."

"Interesting..." The cultist pinned to the wall twitched the corner of his mouth, speaking as he spat out filthy black mud from his mouth and nose. This body was dying rapidly, but he seemed to have no fear or pain. "I hope your composure and confidence can last a little longer..."

Life flowed from the body, and the blond young man's body rapidly disintegrated and melted, turning into a viscous black substance that flowed down and quickly dried as it hit the ground. The remaining counterfeit monsters under his control also stopped moving, reverting to lifeless piles of "Primal Essence."

Agatha pulled her staff out of the wall, shaking off the filthy substance clinging to the tip with some disgust, then calmly raised her head, looking towards a certain direction in the upper city. She had eliminated another avatar, and in the process of its life flowing away, the connection between the Gatekeeper and the heretic hiding in the shadows was further strengthened.

It felt... closer.

"Composure and confidence... I do always believe in myself..."

Agatha murmured to herself, then took a few deep breaths, using her staff to support her body, and slowly walked in the direction she sensed. In a puddle behind her, a cluster of ghostly green light was emerging from the reflection in the water, quietly illuminating the dim alley.

The puddles in the alley, the windows of nearby buildings, the metal lampposts of distant streetlights... all the smooth, reflective surfaces reflected the tiny shadows of flames.

Candles burned brightly in the Silent Cathedral. The sound of the staff and heels striking the ground broke the tranquility of the Meditation Sanctuary as a tall figure in black robes crossed the dark-colored gate and arrived at the platform where the black "Spirit Coffin" was placed.

The slightly hoarse, aged voice of Bishop Ivan came from the Spirit Coffin: "Agatha, you're back. How is the situation in Second Aqueduct?"

"The first group of people just arrived at the West Sector entrance. Just clearing the connecting shaft and..." Agatha replied. "You have to have some patience, Bishop Ivan."

"Oh..." The voice in the coffin was silent for a moment, then asked, "Then how is the situation at the West Sector entrance?"

Agatha: "..."

After a moment, she sighed: "What do you expect from an underground facility abandoned for half a century? I deployed twelve heavy machine guns and three steam walkers, with all bullets blessed by holy oil and flame, as well as one hundred and fifty fully armed Silent Monks, to disperse the darkness there. The good news is that we have successfully restored the electricity and lighting in the shaft, and the subsequent exploration may be a little smoother than expected—if we don't encounter more collapses and gas leaks."

"No sign of heretics?"

"Not yet," Agatha shook her head. "But the situation deeper inside is still unclear. Second Aqueduct is too large, and the collapsed areas are isolated from each other. We've only gained a foothold in the first passage of one area. But there is one situation that is quite concerning..."

The sound of cloth rubbing came from the coffin, and then the dark coffin lid was pushed open from the inside, and Bishop Ivan, looking like a mummy, sat up from inside.

"A concerning situation?" the "mummy" asked in a low voice. "What happened?"

"At the end of some old pipes, we found traces of repairs and modifications, as well as some suspicious branch pipes extending into the dark depths," Agatha said with a frown. "We consulted the original blueprints in the archives and confirmed that those pipes were not on the original design."

Bishop Ivan was silent for a while, then asked, "...What is your opinion?"

"It looks like someone continued to maintain the Second Aqueduct after it was abandoned, and made some modifications to it," Agatha said, stating her thoughts. "This maintenance wasn't continuous, so many areas were still abandoned after several years of upkeep, but deeper in the sewers, there may be things that are still functioning."

Bishop Ivan listened quietly, and after a long time, he slowly spoke: "Second Aqueduct... it's a vast underground kingdom, enough to hold countless secrets. Even if you fill it with all the Guardian forces, you still wouldn't fill all its corridors and intersections, so don't pay too much attention to those insignificant traces of modification—focus on searching for those heretics. As for other matters, let the people at City Hall worry about them."

Agatha glanced at Bishop Ivan, then nodded thoughtfully.

Bishop Ivan noticed the fatigue in the Gatekeeper's expression: "You don't look like you've rested well. An exploration operation of this scale shouldn't be enough to tire you out like this. Are you not in good condition? You've seemed preoccupied since you came in."

Agatha opened her mouth, hesitated for a few seconds, and then spoke: "There is a bit... I feel uneasy."