Chapter 366 – The Child Who Shares Secrets
Chapter 366 The Child Who Shares Secrets
Agatha knew that Bishop Ivan’s life had been nearing its end many years ago – underneath the tightly wrapped bandages, there was in fact almost no flesh and blood left, and all that was left to sustain him as he stood, apart from the miracle of Bartok’s descent, was a tenacious soul.
Few people knew what had happened to the bishop’s body, even Agatha, who was the gatekeeper, only knew that it was an “accident” that had happened many, many years ago, and Bishop Ivan never talked about the real situation of that “accident” with anyone, including in Bishop Ivan never talked to anyone about the actual circumstances of the “accident”, including in front of her.
Naturally, Agatha would not take the initiative to touch this secret.
Bishop Ivan’s mind was obviously very heavy, he was silent for a long time before he suddenly said: “We are facing a crisis.”
“Yes, Bishop Ivan,” Agatha nodded, “I will do my best to find out the truth and dismantle the conspiracy of those Annihilationists.”
“No, you don’t understand,” Bishop Ivan however shook his head, “The ‘truth’ of this crisis may have gone beyond our understanding and imagination, Agatha, the activities of those cultists may be part of this crisis, but by no means all of it, I have a feeling ……”
Agatha frowned slightly, “A feeling?”
“A similar aura, like fifty years ago …… before that chaos erupted, an atmosphere very similar to that of today permeated the entire city,” Bishop Ivan said slowly, “The same seemingly normal city-state reveals all the bizarre and inexplicable details, as if suddenly living in a dream world where truth and falsehood are indistinguishable from each other, where we occasionally glimpse horrific sights at the edge of the dream world, and the pathetic minds of mortals refuse to comprehend it all, and the result is that we are unable to glimpse the reality of what’s close at hand……. Have you ever had that feeling? It’s as if …… the distortion is close at hand and we keep our eyes closed.”
“I don’t understand ……” Agatha hesitated a bit, “You mean, cognitive interference? This interference has clouded our judgment?”
Bishop Ivan, however, did not answer her, only suddenly mentioning a seemingly irrelevant topic after several seconds of silence, “Agatha, have I ever told you about the ‘Last Queen’s Guard’ fifty years ago? Have I ever mentioned to you about the ‘Second Waterway’ in the depths of the city-state?”
“The Second Waterway?” Agatha was stunned, and some information then surfaced in her mind, “I know something about this, it was part of the huge underground facility that the Frost Queen built for the city-state at the time, but with the end of the Queen’s era, this unfinished facility was abandoned, and nowadays, due to the serious collapse and the financial pressure, it is still abandoned there- -Most people don’t even know it exists at all.”
“Yeah, abandoned, and only gatekeepers like you or old timers like me still know about it.” Bishop Ivan said, shaking his head.
“What about the ‘Last Queen’s Guard’?” Agatha asked, “Why are you bringing that up all of a sudden?”
“The Last Queen’s Guard, a unit that refused to surrender even after the insurgent army broke through the Queen’s Palace and fought to the end relying on the city-state’s underground facilities,” Bishop Ivan’s voice was low and he seemed to be stuck in memories, “Their last place of entrenchment was the entrance to the Second Waterway –After that, they collapsed all the connecting shafts and were buried underground. And the reason why I brought this up …… today is because just now I suddenly recalled a rumor from back then.”
Agatha’s eyes suddenly became serious, “A rumor?”
“It is said that …… when the shaft was blown up, the soldiers attacking the underground had suddenly heard strange noises coming from deep underground, and in the underground that had completely collapsed, the last of the Queen’s Guards suddenly cried out, as if they were attacking someone,” Bishop Ivan slowly recalled, “For a long time after that, there were frequent reports of people hearing the sound of shouting and charging from the depths of the underground, and eventually there were gradual rumors that the ‘Last Queen’s Guard’ had turned into a legion of mutants in the depths of the earth, and that they were fighting in the darkness every day, full of rage Boiling, only waiting for the new order established by the betrayers to usher in its weakest moment, they will pour out from the underground to settle the old scores of that year ……”
Agatha’s expression stared up, “The most fragile moment of the new order …… You just said that we are facing a crisis beyond comprehension, and an atmosphere similar to that of fifty years ago pervades the city, could this be the most fragile moment? That the legendary ‘Queen’s Guard’ will pour out of the ground? Do you think the legend is true?”
“I do not believe in the legend – the Queen’s Guard has long been all but wiped out, I have witnessed it with my own eyes, even if …… ” Bishop Ivan said, and suddenly paused for a moment, as if he was thinking of something, and But then shook his head, “Even if there were some survivors at the time who survived temporarily in the Second Waterway, they could not have lived to see this day, and the few surviving descendants could not shake the rule of the City-State, not even if we were to meet a crisis today.”
Agatha didn’t say anything for a while, and was silent for more than ten seconds before she suddenly spoke, “The legend of the ‘Last Queen’s Guard’ may be false, but the existence of large-scale uncontrolled areas underneath the Frost City State is true, and what you’re worried about isn’t the Queen’s Guard that already disappeared fifty years ago, but something else east XZ in the Second Waterway?”
“We’ve been searching all over the city for a long time, and although there are quite a few Annihilationists that we’ve caught, they’re all insignificant and minor players, and most of them don’t possess strong stealth skills – there’s no way that they could have created so many ‘fakes’ and ‘forgeries’ in the city-state by virtue of them ‘ and ‘primeval contamination’, much less triggering a disturbance on Dagger Island,” Bishop Ivan nodded, “Right now, it seems that the minions we captured are more like scattered soldiers who ‘leaked’ out of a large lair,” he said. leaks’ out of a scattered army. Now that most of the city-state has been searched more than once, if we have to say that there’s any place that hasn’t been looked …… then I’m afraid that only the depths of the earth remain.”
Agatha pondered for a moment and spoke with less certainty, “But according to the information, most of the areas of the second waterway are severely collapsed and isolated from each other into a death webway, coupled with the toxic substance pollution and extensive darkness zones, it is simply impossible to survive down there – the Annihilationists are living beings as well, removing a small portion of the Magi who are about to transform themselves into Profound Demons, most of the Annihilationists still need a normal human environment to survive …… How could they have been hiding in that place?”
“We should at least look for them,” Bishop Ivan said slowly, “Start by searching the collapsed spots around the Boiling Gold Mine.”
Agatha thought for a moment and nodded gently, “That would require the cooperation of the city hall – protective equipment, underground work machinery, specialized engineers, the cathedral doesn’t have a reserve for that.”
“I’ll intercede,” Bishop Ivan nodded, “What manpower and equipment is needed, you list it, I have a way to get it for you.” “Good, I’ll give you the list before noon,” Agatha wasn’t polite, “Also before the personnel and supplies are in place, I’m going to have another good ‘chat’ with the Annihilationists who have already been captured and see if they can spill some useful information ……”
……
As the night faded and the sky brightened, Vision 001 began to rise from the edges of the city-state, the brilliant sun wheel climbing up into the sky a little bit, the double runic circle sweeping over those towering spires and roofs, the sunlight bringing heat, dispelling the cold that had accumulated overnight.
At the entrance of Cemetery No. 3, the heavy carved iron fence gate creaked open, the gate swept the snow on the ground, leaving two double wings unfolding like curved fans, the old caretaker wearing an outdated jacket stood in front of the opened cemetery gate, inhaling deeply and looking at the sky that had cleared.
The sky has cleared, but for some reason, this clear morning has not been able to stop the irritation in his heart, the old guard looked at the direction of the city blocks, only to feel the vague sound of the carriages and horses into the vague and noisy, just like last night’s restless wind sound.
Even the clear sky at this moment seemed like a fake.
He grumbled under his breath, then looked toward the ramp in front of the cemetery.
The wrinkles on the old man’s face stretched for a moment, but in the next second, all of them wrinkled up again, along with a tight frown.
He saw a small figure appearing on the ramp, making its way this way with difficulty but with great momentum – after noticing the old man’s gaze, the figure even deliberately stopped and waved its hand happily in this direction.
The old guard boarded up his face.
He waited for the other to approach, and only spoke with a grimace after Anne began to pat the snowflakes on her pants and boots, “There you go again – I had a quiet day yesterday, and I thought you’d finally be able to stay home honestly, and then you come back today?”
“I wanted to come yesterday,” Anne spat out her tongue, “but mom said there was just too much snow on the road yesterday, so I couldn’t go out until the snowplow had cleared the avenue ……”
After saying that, she didn’t wait for the old man in front of her to say anything, so she already lightly took out a small bag and handed it over, “Cookies!”
“…… I’m eating cookies every day now,” the old man glanced at what the other party was handing over, his eyelids jumped a little, but he still reached out and took it, “Thank Ms. Belloni on my behalf.”
Annie smiled happily.
“Anything else?” The old caretaker glanced at the girl in front of her, “The cemetery is not offering tours today.”
“It’s okay, just talking to you,” Annie said with a smile, “You know what? We’ve had some new guests in our house recently, guess who?”
Twelve-year-olds are really bad at holding down the secrets of their hearts.
“I’m not interested,” the old caretaker felt puzzled and waved his hand impatiently, “the house is your family’s, you can rent it to whomever you like, what’s it got to do with me?”
“It’s that big uncle with many bandages and black clothes oh!” Annie, however, did not care about the old man s response, her smile grew brighter and brighter, and her tone carried an inexplicable smugness, “It is that …… caretaker grandpa who was at the entrance of the cemetery last time Are you all right?”
(Thanks to World Hall’s Silver Moe~)
(End of chapter)