Deep inside the secret passage connecting the second waterway, Nemo Wilkins held a lantern in his hand, leading the way and saying in a gloating tone, "Our people have heard the news and evacuated and 'cleaned up' all the traces below. The people from the church are drilling around underground in the central city and XC area - now the spreading darkness is giving them a headache."

"I was worried that you would take the opportunity to cause some damage," Duncan said casually, "After all, you are at home in the Second Waterway."

"We don't have to do this," Nemo shook his head. "We are loyal to Captain Tirian, and Captain Tirian never wants to destroy this city-state. From the perspective of protecting the city-state, we have no conflicts with the church or even the city hall. Now the church is trying to eliminate the cultists in the city, and we will not act rashly and help those cultists."

Duncan nodded, and then asked curiously, "Why didn't the old ghost show up today?"

"Old Ghost..." Nemo hesitated, then sighed softly, "Old Ghost's mental state has become increasingly unstable recently. He is too old, and the church's search for the second waterway has irritated his nerves, reminding him of the battle in the sewer. In order to avoid any problems, I can only let him rest in the tavern cellar."

The last warrior who had been loyal to the queen could not get out of the nightmare decades ago after all - Duncan could only sigh and silently head towards the depths of the second waterway with Alice.

They passed through the secret passage, several secret doors and intersections that seemed to be monitored by secret sentries, and finally entered the second waterway through a path that was completely different from the last time.

Apparently, in order to deal with the search operations of the church and the authorities, the Sea Mist Fleet informants lurking in the city-state activated a camouflage and early warning system that had been prepared long ago.

Finally, Duncan and Alice, led by Nemo, returned to the corridor where the crow had the accident.

"I'll go back first," Nemo said to Duncan. "The situation in the city has been tense recently, and more and more people are following us. I have to keep an eye on the situation above. You should pay attention to the church here..."

He wanted to remind Duncan to be careful and beware of encountering the church's search team here, but he suddenly felt something was wrong halfway through his words. He held his words in his throat for a long time and blurted out: "Be gentle, they are not bad people..."

Duncan couldn't help but laugh: "Don't worry, I know the limits - go back quickly, you have been away from the tavern for too long."

"good."

Nemo left quickly, and the empty and cold underground waterway became quiet for a moment.

Duncan raised his head and looked at the empty corridor in front of him, but his mind recalled the situation when he came here last time.

The young man called "Crow" fell beside the sewage ditch not far ahead. He died on dry ground, but the cause of death was drowning in the sea water. In his pocket, there was a "hieroglyphic" record copied from somewhere.

Now this corridor has been cleared, probably by Nemo and Old Ghost.

Duncan turned around and saw Alice following him obediently, with a serious expression in her eyes outside the veil - but he knew that the puppet was actually just emptying her mind and not thinking about anything.

Of course Duncan knew that he couldn't expect to discuss or reason with this doll. He brought Alice here only because she could see those "threads" - even the "threads" that were occasionally leaked due to the proximity of the mirror world could not escape her eyes.

"If you see the 'line' again, tell me immediately." Duncan said seriously.

"Yeah!" Alice nodded immediately.

Duncan walked slowly forward.

He was still thinking about the "crow" in his mind.

At that time, he and Morris and others speculated that the "crow" had strayed into a place and encountered misfortune. In the end, they searched the entire corridor but could not find any clues. The investigation came to a stalemate. But now it seems... there seems to be an answer to where the crow strayed into.

It is very likely that the mirror frost and the real frost briefly intersected in this corridor. It could be a crack, or it could be a momentary reflection emerging from some puddles of water - the crow passing by unfortunately fell into it.

Regardless of how he crossed that line, one thing is clear:

This corridor should be a weak point in the connection between the mirror and reality.

※※※

Underground, it was cold and damp, and the air was filled with a smell of decay and mildew. It felt as if the entire city-state was a corpse that was gradually rotting away - and that one was walking through the organs of this rotten corpse.

The footsteps sounded a little heavy in the sewer corridor filled with strange smells. Agatha walked forward slowly, confirming the direction of advance through temporary divination and spiritual perception, while carefully paying attention to any movement around her.

Her black dress was badly damaged, and the soft armor lining and the ritual bandages wrapped around her body were covered in blood. The damage to her body had exceeded the limit of self-repair. She could only use divine power to stop the bleeding, but had no time to consider repairing her flesh and blood.

But the good news is that Agatha is increasingly certain that the direction she is heading is correct - after eliminating more and more fake freaks, and after many battles with this malicious replica city-state, she finally "smells" the scent of heresy more and more clearly.

She followed the smell through the streets and alleys of the downtown area, passed through the empty and twisted subway passages, and went into the collapsed sewers. Finally, she discovered this world deep underground in the city-state that had been abandoned for who knows how many years.

The vastness of this place was beyond the records she had seen in the archives, and beyond her imagination after seeing those archives.

Agatha raised her head and looked at the dimly lit wide corridor in front of her. Ancient gas lamps were embedded in the walls on both sides of the corridor. The flames of the lamps flickered due to insufficient gas supply, and the light swayed and danced in the glass cover. The criss-crossing pipes and supporting structures could be seen on the curved ceiling of the corridor. Under the illumination of the swaying gas lamps, everything cast a swaying and distorted shadow, as if there were countless invisible things wriggling in the darkness.

On both sides of the corridor, there were ditches filled with sewage. Disgusting black water flowed down from the grille openings on the walls and merged into the ditches, making a gurgling sound.

Agatha knew where this was.

This is the "second waterway" under the Frost - the place she originally planned to lead the team to explore.

The only difference from the plan was that she had intended to lead a team to explore the underground of the city-state in the real world, but now she was trapped in a copied frost.

Agatha closed her eyes slightly, carefully sensing the flow of air. She blocked out the foul and smelly smells, and relied on her spiritual intuition to search for the locations of the heretics.

She could feel that the longer she stayed here and the more she dealt with those freaks, the stronger her "connection" with this fake city was.

in front of.

The gatekeeper opened his eyes, ignored the slight pain coming from the wounds all over his body, chose a fork in the road ahead, and continued walking deeper into the corridor.

She suddenly remembered something.

Not long ago, she had visited the being who had descended into the frost and was suspected to be an ancient god or the incarnation of an ancient god. At that time, the other party had hinted to her that she should go "underground" to look for clues.

Now, guided by the aura, she was getting closer to the nest where the heretics were hiding.

Those heretics really were hiding underground in the city-state, in the abandoned second waterway - but this "underground hiding place" was not in the Frost City in the real world, but in a replicated foreign land.

Agatha twitched the corner of her mouth.

The road is tortuous, but it eventually returns to the starting point.

She had misunderstood the hint of the descender and mistakenly believed that the enemy was hiding in the second waterway of the real world. Now, she had accidentally entered this replica city-state and found clues in the second waterway of the replica.

Wandering at a fork in the road and finally heading in the right direction - is this also a kind of luck?

Agatha observed the situation around her.

Although she had not conducted an in-depth investigation of the Second Waterway in the real world, she knew some general information about it. She knew that the ancient sewer system had long been abandoned and blocked, and all pipes, shafts and drains leading to the Second Waterway had been closed. In theory, it should be a dry or relatively dry place.

However, sewage can be seen flowing everywhere in the sewer corridor in front of us, and the sound of drainage can be heard from the surrounding pipes from time to time.

In this replica of the Frost City-State, the Second Waterway appears to have been in use all the time - is this also the difference between a fake and the original?

Agatha thought about it, then suddenly stopped.

A sticky and disgusting squirming sound came from all around. Black mud was constantly seeping out from the sewage pipe outlets and the wall surfaces covered with black pollutants.

Those lingering weirdos are back again.

His body was exhausted, his wounds were aching, the ritual bandages had worn off, the blessing of the God of Death was gradually waning, and the weakness caused by the loss of blood was reaching a level that could not be ignored.

But Agatha just raised her head calmly and looked at the deformed monsters gathering before her eyes.

"Come and die."