Chapter 420: This Way Is Not Enough?
Chapter 420: This Road is Impossible?
Fog has gradually invaded the second waterway, those hazy and chaotic fog like a veil floating near the roof of the sewer corridor, giving the impression as if those deep and heavy roofs have disappeared, and the second waterway is being gradually swallowed by the “sky”.
The small, old man, wrapped in an outdated coat, walks quickly in the strange silence of the sewer corridor – decades have eroded his body, and for many years he has not been able to move as quickly as this, but for some reason, just today, just now, he feels lighter once again, as if youth had returned to this shell, and the soreness of his joints and the weakness of his muscles had disappeared.
He walked faster and faster, and the large wrench he carried in his hand was no longer as heavy as it had been at the beginning, as he flew through those memorized corridors and forks in the road, darting doggedly in a direction he could no longer remember, but which was extraordinarily familiar.
He had to catch up with the army, for the time for the rendezvous was near.
A piece of collapsed rubble suddenly blocked the old ghost’s path.
“There is no road …… There is no road?” The old man stopped and muttered in dismay as he looked at the collapsed piece of rock in front of him, chaotic memories reorganizing themselves haphazardly in his mind, trying to explain the existence of this collapsed area, and he seemed to recall some-
Oh, it was dynamite, it was the explosives planted in the corridor that were detonated after the guards retreated through the connecting shafts so that they could hold back the rebels who had stormed the sewers ……
But no, not all of it, this collapsed area didn’t just seem to be holding back the rebels, many years ago, when the young soldier ignited the dynamite …… The corridor collapsed and blocked something else ……
The old ghost stood blankly in front of the blocked corridor, bending down again to tap the stone in front of him with the large wrench in his hand, and mumbling vaguely.
The path should be open, it had to be open for it to work, or he wouldn’t be able to get to the rendezvous, but it was collapsing, what should he do? Wrenches can’t fix collapsed rocks ……
A hazy mist suddenly appeared in the field of vision, the old ghost who was hammering on the stones looked up in bewilderment and subconsciously took half a step back, he saw wisps of mist escaping from between the cracks of those piles of stones, slowly filling the entire corridor and filling his field of vision.
He heard a distant murmur and hiss from the fog, followed by what seemed like a hoarse voice yelling out – “Is this reasonable?!”
But no one appeared in the fog, and between the drifts of that mist, the old ghost only saw the rubble that had collapsed and blocked the road in front of him suddenly disappear.
The originally blocked corridor became open again, the gas lamps embedded in the opposite wall emitted a dim glow, and deep in the chaotic corridor, one could vaguely see the black mud that seemed to have dried up for decades, slumbering quietly in the equally dry drains.
“The road is through …… The road is through ……”
The old ghost’s head was in a trance for a moment, as if he was trying to think about why those collapsed rocks would suddenly disappear away, but soon, this point of doubt disappeared into his misplaced and tangled memories, and he did not hesitate to take a step forward, stepping into that corridor shrouded in dimness.
……
Agatha suddenly raised her head, and the guardsmen and priests and nuns following her immediately stopped, each with their nerves tensed, wary of any movement that appeared in the fog.
“Did you guys hear footsteps?” It took two or three seconds before Agatha suddenly broke the silence, “Footsteps other than ours.”
“There were,” the accompanying nun nodded softly, “just a moment ago, very slight, but close enough to be like ……”
“As close as if it overlapped with us.” Agatha said with a serious expression, while at the same time, her eyes slowly swept over the mine tunnel next to her.
This was already the depth of the Boiling Gold Mine, following the direction pointed out by that “Sergeant Bread”, Agatha and the team led by her arrived at this mine tunnel from the only path in this direction, and even at such a deep place, the fog was still everywhere.
The lighting system was still functioning properly, the dim light illuminating the supports and footing of the track structure in the mine, and there seemed to be something strange in the interplay of shadows.
Agatha saw two identical support pillars appear on the opposite sidewall – those two support pillars were like mirror images, from the surface texture to the location of the stains.
In the other direction, she saw several crisscrossing top beams stacked together, their intersections actually seeming to blend together.
The accompanying priest in the procession lifted his carrying lamp and came to one of the support structures that presented an anomaly, and after nervously observing it spoke in a low voice, “The Gatekeeper ……”
“I see it,” Agatha interrupted the priest, her tone still calm, “It’s clear that the space the ‘fake’ is in is overlapping with our reality.”
“The space where the fake is located?” One of the guards subconsciously repeated.
Agatha suddenly fell silent for a moment, as if she was feeling that annoying trance again, and then she raised her hand to rub her forehead, “That’s right, all the forgeries are supposed to come from an anomalous space and time, and now all the evidence suggests that this anomalous space and time is gradually drawing closer to our real world, perhaps …… Perhaps we can call it a ‘mirror image’ ……”
There was a slight hesitation in her tone, and it felt as if certain knowledge naturally surfaced in her mind, as she subconsciously spoke of this information, she suddenly felt another strange sensation coming from her body-
Cold, boundless cold, as if she was being placed in an incomparably chilly corridor, and all the blood in her veins had long since lost its heat.
But in the next moment, the sensation disappeared, the illusion of being in a cold, lonely corridor vanished, and she drifted off for a moment to see her loyal men still surrounding her, the glow of the lanterns and gas lamps quickly dispersing the chill that lingered in her consciousness.
“Is …… it because there isn’t enough time …… or is it because it’s too close ……” Agatha subconsciously muttered to herself. The nearby minions did not hear this muttering from her.
A Guardian Warrior was raising his lamp to look around when he suddenly seemed to have discovered something: “There’s a man down over here!”
Agatha quickly came back to her senses, and with a complete expression on her face, she quickly stepped to the place that the warrior had discovered.
A warrior wearing the equipment of the city-state’s elite guards collapsed in the mine tunnel, looking like he had been dead for a long time.
A black combat coat with a metal breastplate as well as steam-organ driven power arm guards was still on the outside, a steam backpack was on his back, and a thick breathing mask was on his face.
Agatha bent down and wiped the blood off the warrior’s chest nameplate with her fingers, staring at the name in silence for a few seconds.
“It’s Sergeant Blythe.” She broke the silence softly.
“The blood is red, and the body shows no signs of disintegration and melting,” the accompanying priest said next to her, “It’s ‘genuine’.”
Agatha didn’t make a sound for a moment.
The situation was as she had judged it to be, a real Sergeant Blythe had fallen in this mine tunnel, and his replica had appeared before the eyes of the Church forces exploring down the shaft under the effect of a thick fog – the forgery was fake, the information was real.
“There are bodies here too!”
Soon, another Guardian warrior exploring forward raised his carrying lamp high in the air and called out in the distance.
More corpses appeared in the next mine tunnel.
Agatha quickly led the way forward, finding more and more war dead deeper into the mine tunnel – all of the city-state’s elite guards, Consul Winston’s own warriors.
The causes of death were varied, ranging from wounds torn by sharp blades, to blunt wounds caused by blows of heavy force, and even gunshot wounds.
And near these corpses, Agatha and her men had found dried black mud, mud that, if pieced together as a human being, was feared to far outnumber the soldiers of the Guard who had died in battle.
“…… A vicious battle that lasted a long time, this unit encountered a far more numerous enemy in the mine tunnel, and they still continued to advance hundreds of meters farther in the engagement …… most of the warriors had run out of bullets. In the end they were fighting with bayonets and steam gloves.”
Agatha examined the nearest few corpses, making judgments based on the traces left by the corpses and the situation of the scene, and at the same time, an increasingly strong uneasiness was surfacing in her heart.
There were many fallen warriors, the team led by Consul Winston was obviously in a bad situation, and this battle might have erupted several hours ago – was the Consul still alive after such a long time had passed?
As if in response to this uneasiness in her heart, a Guardian warrior who was driving the road in front of the group suddenly stopped.
“Gatekeeper, there’s no road ahead!”
“There’s no road ahead?” Agatha was startled and immediately got up and walked forward.
It was just as the gatekeeper had said.
The group had reached the end of the mine tunnel, but there was only a flat and solid wall in front of them, there was no way out!
But this was clearly not normal.
Agatha quickly looked back in the direction she had come from and saw the guardsmen who had died in battle silently falling into the darkness, and among those bodies, there was no figure of Consul Winston.
“Perhaps His Excellency the Consul took his team to another direction after realizing that this road is not accessible ……,” the accompanying priest said while guessing.
“There is only one road,” Agatha immediately shook her head, “And with the traces left at the scene, I don’t think that Consul Winston had the chance to take the remnants of his guards to find another way here.”
The priest frowned tightly, “But this place is blocked ……”
Agatha ignored it, instead turning around and slowly walking towards the flat, solid wall.
After a slight hesitation, she reached out her hand and tried to touch the wall.
Her fingers went straight into it.
(End of chapter)