Chapter 379 – Trapped
Chapter 379: Trapped
The cluster of shadows in the Spirit World subsided, and the loud noises and monstrous malice that permeated the entire space quickly dissipated.
Agatha raised her left hand and quietly “watched” the withered heretic collapsed on the edge of the triangle, the latter was curled up on the ground in pain, the black chain extending from his body had been broken, the smoke and dust on the broken chain was rising, and it was being weathered into the form of sand, section by section.
After the death of the symbiotic Phantom Demon, the heretic’s life would soon reach its end as well – but for the moment, at least, he would be able to answer some questions.
Though Agatha didn’t really expect the stubborn heretic to actually cooperate with her, she slowly walked over and stopped at the edge of the triangle, looking down at the dying cultist.
“It surprises me that you were able to completely erode and replace a piece of infrastructure, and even replace all the priests …… under the eyes of the Church,” she said slowly, her voice seeming to mingle with the low reverberations from the catacombs, a dizzying sound that could weaken most people’s defenses of will, “How did you do it?”
The dying heretic struggled to raise his head, but only a sneer appeared, the fear surprisingly gone from that withered face, “Guess?”
Agatha was unmoved, “Your lair is within Frost City, isn’t it?”
“Ho……” the cultist’s head trembled as he braced his body so that he lay on his back on the pale ground as a way to meet Agatha’s downward gaze, “Don’t waste your efforts, so what if it’s in Frost …… You won’t find it …… When you find the Sanctuary, that’s when we’ll succeed, stupid cleric ……”
Agatha’s face was expressionless, just gently lifting her cane and pointing the end of it at the cultist’s chest, “What the hell do you want? Pollute the city-state with so-called ‘primitives’? Or are you trying to replace the living in the city-state with ‘fakes’ that can’t even stabilize themselves? What connection do you have with the power in the deep sea? Is it related to the Subterranean Project?”
A cluster of pale flames flared at the end of the cane, the flames burning flesh and soul, the immense pain it brought caused the cultist’s body to convulse and spasm, yet the heretic, who had already descended into fanaticism, merely clenched the crowns of his teeth and stared angrily at the Gatekeeper in front of him, all that squeezed out from between his clacking teeth was the creepy, eerie laughter, “Heh… . heh …… that which is promised …… is coming …… to …… whoever …… can cannot escape ……”
Agatha finally frowned, she slowly raised her arm, the cultist was actually picked up in mid-air a little bit by her cane, the pale flames burned the latter’s body which had already been twisted due to the long time of symbiosis with the Profound Demon, making it just like a piece of fluttering rags in the fire.
Her voice was icy cold, as if it was flowing in a tomb, “One last question, how is it that you heretics …… can speak the name of the God of Death?”
In the pale flames, the withered cultist’s face slowly bloomed a smile, as if he was exceptionally happy, in seeing the church’s gatekeeper in confusion because of this question, even the pain of the “cremation” has been half eliminated.
“The Profound Holy Lord has brought revelation …… All the faiths in the world point to nothing different …… Those of us who have received revelation have long since crossed the so-called boundaries… …Gatekeeper, do you think there’s really any difference between your deity, and the Holy Lord?”
Agatha’s face instantly changed, the cultist in front of her even compared the Holy Lord of the Profound to the God of Death, such blasphemous words caused her anger to surge up, however, that cultist revealed his last smile of relief amidst the flames burning his body, and didn’t even give her a chance to continue her interrogation, as his opponent swallowed his last breath, with only a small remnant of his body remaining that was quickly turned into ashes.
“…… The words of a madman are upside down and wrong.”
Agatha’s face was grim as she slowly lowered her cane, the anger in her heart was still there, but these emotions did not interfere with her normal thinking judgment – after controlling the ups and downs of her emotions, she immediately began to think.
After taking out the other party’s final remarks comparing the Profound Holy Lord to the God of Death, this diehard cultist from the beginning to the end had actually revealed quite a lot of information that could be speculated upon.
They did have a “lair” within Frost City, and they called this lair a “sanctuary”, which meant that it was indeed a place for holding ceremonies, which was consistent with the information known so far. The sanctuary was “hidden” in a special way, so it was extremely difficult to find, and the other party mentioned that when the sanctuary was found, that was the time of their success……. Therefore, it is very likely that the hiding method of that place had something to do with their So, the hiding method of that place is probably related to the process of their “ceremony”, the closer the ceremony is to completion, the more obvious its hiding ……
Is it because the ceremony will inevitably give off some kind of aura? Or is it because exposing the sanctuary is an essential part of completing the ritual?
The cultist also mentioned the phrase, “The Promised One is coming”, which may correspond to the ultimate “prophecy” of their belief system, that the power of the Profound Lord will turn the real world upside down, and that the Profound Sea, which is located in the depths of the world, will become the new “reality” – the “reality” of the world, and the “reality” of the world. “Those crazy Annihilationists have always regarded the Profound Sea as their promised land, and there should be no doubt about this.
But how will this process be realized? By simply dropping “primitives” into the city-states? This is obviously not enough …… Those “fakes” can hardly even maintain their own stability in the long run, how can they contaminate the entire city-state?
Unless …… the Annihilationists have a way to stabilize the “fakes” for a long time, they can create such an environment, or …… transform the Frost into such an environment! ……
Agatha frowned, quickly ended her thought and looked up and around.
She was still in the Spirit World, things around her illuminated by the pale light spilling in from the cracks in the ceiling, appearing shadowed, and slight noises were looming from all directions again; the never-satisfied shadows of the Spirit World were stirring again – a feast simply couldn’t keep them quiet for too long.
The young Gatekeeper shook his head, his left hand lifting to place his own eyeballs back into their sockets.
The vague noise around them instantly disappeared, and the shadowed light and the black, white, and grey composition of the space winked back into color, and the real world came to life. Agatha breathed a soft sigh of relief and fumbled for the eye drops from her clothes, but suddenly her movements stilled.
The surrounding area was quiet and empty.
Agatha raised her head and looked around, but she couldn’t see the black-clad guards she had brought with her, nor could she see the sewage center manager who had escaped earlier, nor could she see the three cultists or the ashes and debris left behind by the dozen or so “fakes” – the ones she had theoretically destroyed in the spirit world.
Theoretically, after she eliminated those cultists and “fakes” in the spirit world, the remains of their destruction should appear in the real world at the same time.
The silence around her was too eerie, and she couldn’t even sense the scent of any living person in the vicinity.
Agatha’s brow furrowed as she rolled her eyes, soothing the dryness of her eyeballs while cautiously observing her surroundings, and then slowly made her way towards the door that was not far away.
The slightly rusted metal gate was left ajar, looking like it had been left open by someone in a hurry to leave.
With a creaking noise, the metal door was pushed open a little bit.
Behind the door was a long corridor, the gas lamp in the corridor burned calmly and brightly, but the warmth and peace of mind brought by the light could not be felt at all.
“Ta …… ta …… ta.”
The sound of cane and heels hitting the ground echoed crisply and hollowly through the corridor as Agatha walked slowly forward along it.
The entire sewage treatment center was empty.
But there were no enemies in sight either.
She just walked right through the plant area to the open space outside the plant.
The sky was dusky, chaotic heavy clouds covered the sky above the city-state, between the clouds there was only a little breathless light diffused out, barely able to make out that it was daytime at the moment, the buildings as far as the eye could see were all covered in this layer of obscure sky light, lingering in a cold, dead and eerie atmosphere.
Agatha clearly remembered that she had arrived at the sewage treatment center when it was still sunny and nice outside – the sun was high in the sky, and the city-state was cloudless.
The sun?
A sudden twinge of doubt flooded Agatha’s mind, and immediately afterward those many doubts expanded into a clear rip in her cognition as she snapped to a realization, raising her head once again to scrutinize the sky.
There was only a chaotic glow of unknown origin in the sky, and there was no sign of any celestial body that could be called a “sun”.
Agatha tried to remember what the sun looked like, the concept of the sun.
She could not recall, as if there was a heavy curtain covering her mind, so that she could not recall what the “sun” in her memory looked like, but only one thing was very clear – there should exist a kind of heavenly body called “sun” in this world, which could be called the “sun”. “Sun”, rightfully hanging high in the sky, able to glow and shine all things!
“…… Cognitive interference that can affect the Gatekeeper …… is incredibly strong and covers the entire environment ……” Agatha muttered softly to herself, and after a brief moment of dismay, she had quickly calmed down and looked around again.
“It’s the Otherworld.”
(End of chapter)