Chapter 423

Chapter 423: Moving Forward

It was the deep, dark sea floor beneath the city-state. The Elder Gods had stretched Their tendrils into the Mortal Realm, and in that unspeakable darkness They grew stronger day by day—

It was visible. Those foul and terrifying tentacles of flesh were Its body: cold and chilling. Yet It was also formless, because Its will that spread upward had already crossed the dark sea trench and pierced the thick rock and soil beneath the city-state. For the past fifty years, or even longer, Its unimaginable power had been drilling into this city and stabbing deep into the Boiling Gold mine.

“Lady Gatekeeper, we are now inside It,” Winston said. “This was once rock. But the power of the Elder Gods has transformed the rock into part of Its flesh. This dark substance beats together with the source on the seabed, through more than a thousand meters of stone and seawater. With every throb, it pulls that mirror world city-state a little closer to our Mortal Realm… Do you hear it? Thump, thump… Flesh is squirming, tightening, dreaming. This place… is thinking.”

Winston murmured like a Prayer and slowly raised both arms, as if to embrace the endless darkness around them and the branch-like structures that crossed and joined like a thorny thicket. Between those branches, dim points of light darted like fireflies. Little by little, Agatha really seemed to hear that low sound—thump, thump…

This Anomaly, buried deep inside the Boiling Gold mine and spread over who knew how wide an area, was giving off the sound of a heartbeat.

Even her own heart seemed to be affected by that heartbeat, ready to beat in time with it.

But a faint warmth suddenly rose in her chest and snapped Agatha awake. She realized that her human mind had just stepped back from the edge of madness. Her expression changed at once, and she stared hard into Winston’s eyes.

“Your mind is already unsound, Governor Winston—you have been affected by this place.”

“Ah… is it?” Winston waved his hand as if it did not matter. “Maybe. At first I thought I could, like the Queen, calm this Elder God again. Then I thought I could at least slow it down for a while. After that I thought I could at least stay sane until the end. So in the end… I have already failed without even noticing?”

“Calm this Elder God, like the Queen did?” Agatha caught the key point in the Governor’s words. Her eyes changed at once as she faintly realized the real reason he had come here. “You mean that fifty years ago, the Frostholm Queen really did manage to put the power of the Abyssal Lord to sleep?”

Winston smiled: “What do you think caused the sea cliff to collapse back then?”

Agatha froze for a moment before speaking in doubt: “The sea cliff collapse… After the Queen was decapitated, the whole execution ground fell into the sea… That wasn’t an accident?!”

“It was a sacrificial rite. The main sacrificial victim was the Queen herself, along with the first group of opportunists who chose to betray her after the uprising began. Of course, the whole execution squad and many rebel officers were buried with her as well,” Winston said calmly. “We sealed the detailed records from that time, so few people know what really happened after the sea cliff collapsed. Thousands died in that ‘accident’, but in fact, almost all the commoners survived. Those who were swept into the waves… even if they were only one meter from the shore, had no chance to struggle. They were ‘pulled’ straight down to the seabed.

“After that collapse, the Anomaly inside the Boiling Gold mine stopped expanding for a time. Only then did the first Governor realize that everything had been part of Ray Nora’s plan. The cold truth passed to the Governor through The key left by the Queen. Just as she said, it was now our turn.”

Agatha fell silent. After a moment, her eyes grew complicated: “You came here to recreate that sacrificial rite…”

“It is rising,” Winston said. “The knowledge carried in The key tells me that to slow this process, you must touch Its mind. Fifty years ago, Its power still slept in The Deep Sea, so the Queen could only offer herself to The Deep Sea as a sacrifice. But now Its power has already stabbed deep into the city-state, so this is the best place to reach It. This was the method the Queen left inside The key. Every Governor who took The key became tied to this duty and spent their whole life preparing for it. I prepared everything as well. Only one thing… I failed to account for.”

Winston pulled at the corner of his mouth. It barely counted as a smile.

“Not everyone is Ray Nora.”

Agatha listened in silence. Then she lowered her head and quietly gazed at the brass key lying in her palm.

This was something the Frostholm Queen had created with some kind of supernatural power. She had taken the “knowledge” she had touched and a part of her own “thoughts” and condensed them into The key in physical form.

But for some reason, Agatha kept feeling that The key should have other uses.

It should not exist only to tie all the later rulers of Frostholm to a burden of duty.

But the Governor, Winston, was clearly unable to answer any more of her questions now. And she herself seemed to have no way back.

After learning the truth of this dark space, Agatha understood one thing. She had not passed through a stone wall to reach some location. Instead, she herself had been merged directly into a huge mass of Anomalous matter.

What waited for Winston here was death. What waited for her was return and assimilation.

She looked at her palm. The skin that touched The key had already begun to soften and warp. Thick black substance seeped from her skin and slowly covered The key.

But she still wanted to go farther. She was… curious about this place.

“Is there anything else we can do?” Agatha lowered her head and looked at the silent Governor of the city-state. “Are you going to stay here and wait for death to come?”

“Death has already come, Lady,” Winston said, shaking his head. “We are only looking back on our failed lives before we breathe our last. There is nothing left to do. Sit down and rest, like me.”

“You have already done what you should,” Agatha said calmly. “As Frostholm’s Governor, you at least faced this so-called ‘curse’ bravely. Falling short does not mean you did nothing.”

But Winston only shrugged at himself: “Incompetence is a sin.”

“I will keep going,” Agatha said. “I want to pass through this ‘thicket’ and go to where that tentacle is. Will you come with me?”

“It no longer means anything to me, Lady,” Winston replied softly. “If you wish to go, then go. Leave me here. My road has already ended.”

Agatha stared at him for a few seconds, then held out the brass key: “This is yours.”

Winston did not reach for it. He lifted his head and looked into Agatha’s eyes: “Keep it. You have already taken it. Now it is yours. This is how we have passed it down until now.”

Agatha fell silent for a moment, then put The key away.

“All right. Then I will go on alone.”

She said farewell to Winston, turned around, and propped herself up with her Gatekeeper’s cane as she took a step forward in this dark, empty space.

“Lady Agatha,” Winston’s voice suddenly came from behind her. “Does this really mean anything?”

Agatha turned her head slightly: “Why do you ask?”

“Even if you learn more truth ahead,” Winston said, “even if you really pass through this ‘forest’ and touch that limb of the Elder God—what can you change? You can no longer stop any of this. You cannot even pass what happens here to the outside world. The investigation is over. If you cannot pass on information, no matter how much you know, it is meaningless.”

Agatha stopped walking. After a moment’s thought, she spoke softly: “I am Frostholm’s Gatekeeper. This is my duty. And besides…”

She paused. The hand that held the brass key pressed against her chest without her noticing.

It was still cold all around. The feeling of her blood slowly freezing was stronger than ever. But for some reason, ever since just now she had felt a faint warmth beating in her chest, as if an unseen flame were flickering there, supporting her as she walked forward.

In her mind, thoughts that did not belong to her fluttered softly. The strongest among them was a stubborn will. It pointed straight toward the huge, unreal tentacle beyond this thicket.

“It does have meaning. I am not walking forward alone. I have no proof, but I think… everything I see here will be known by someone, in the end.”

“Oh, is that so? That is good then… Lady Agatha, it is truly enviable that you still hold to your faith even at the last moment.”

Winston’s voice fell silent. Nothing more came from that direction.

Agatha turned back and saw a small consecrated lantern shining in the darkness. It lit up a dry “tree stump”, where a middle-aged man in a dark blue coat was quietly leaning.

A bullet hole had pierced his temple, and in his lowered hand he held a finely crafted revolver.