When the first deformed monster rushed up with a roar, Agatha just slightly turned her body, and at the moment of intersecting with the enemy, she tapped the monster's limbs with her cane, causing it to burn instantly in the "cremation". Then, she raised her cane and pointed it forward before the pale flame fell to the ground, drawing a dazzling white line from the flame, causing it to fall into the intersection ahead, burning those ugly monsters like a spreading fire.

She tried her best to avoid large movements of her body to reduce the effects of fatigue and pain, and also tried her best to avoid contact with those monsters to reduce mental damage - because she didn't know how many monsters were waiting for her ahead, so she had to save her energy.

She was not opposed to death, she knew that after death her body could still fight until it turned into ashes, and those ashes would float in this cursed place, continuing to purify those disgusting monsters - she was never afraid of all this, but before embracing death, she still wanted to investigate the truth here and stop the actions of those heretics as much as possible.

The attacks she encountered along the way became more and more frequent, and the actions of those deformed monsters became more and more anxious. This vaguely proved one thing - the direction she was looking in was correct, and the lair of those heretics was right in front of her.

More black mud seeped out from the nearby walls and vaults. Every hole and every brick seam here was a breeding ground for those deformed creatures. Due to the terrain, the appearance of these "fakes" began to become more bizarre and difficult to deal with.

A slight hissing sound came from the side and behind, and Agatha felt a warning in her heart. She felt her body slow down due to fatigue, and she could only barely twist her body at the critical moment and turn around to block with the cane in her hand - accompanied by a sharp pain in her shoulder, she saw a dazzling spark burst out from the middle of the cane, and a figure in black clothes with a guardian's cane in his hand was knocked away.

The figure fell to the ground, then crawled up like some disgusting mollusk. It raised its head, and under the black hat was a face that seemed to be slowly melting and deforming. In that horrible face, some familiar outlines could be vaguely discerned.

The next second, the flowing face condensed and turned into a young man with clear facial lines and contours. He looked up at Agatha with a confused look on his face: "Captain? Why are you here?"

Agatha's fingers holding the cane turned slightly white, and her eyes froze for a second.

Almost at the same time, she heard a voice—the voice came from nowhere, as if the entire sewer was resonating, and the voice was whispering to her:

"Ah, you recognized him - when you were not yet a gatekeeper, your loyal lieutenant covered your retreat from the darkness... You left him there... Take him back, how about that?"

Agatha did not respond, but walked forward in silence. After three steps, she turned into a gray wind, and then the wind stopped and condensed in front of the young "guardian". When her figure appeared again, the tin cane in her hand had already pierced deeply into the chest of the black-clad guard.

The young black-clad guard looked at this scene in astonishment, as if he couldn't believe that he would die at the hands of the "captain" he trusted so deeply. But suddenly, he seemed to understand something, and murmured softly in his throat: "So it's over..."

"Sorry, it will be over soon," Agatha said softly.

The young black-clad guard slowly lowered his head and laughed: "Captain, you have finally mastered the power of the Ash Wind..."

"Yes, I have practiced for a long time." Agatha said softly, pale flames rose in front of her eyes, and the body of the "black guard" melted and disintegrated in the "cremation", turning into black dust.

"Decisive and cold, it fits your identity as a saint of the Holy Death."

That disgusting voice echoed again. Agatha turned around and saw more deformed monsters taking shape. "Fakes" were rushing towards her from all directions. The owner of that voice obviously had no sense of chivalry. Even when he was "attacking the heart", he was constantly commanding these minions to attack her.

The sounds of flames bursting, canes hitting back, and breaking air echoed in the underground corridor. Agatha resisted the attacks of the deformed creatures and said in a deep voice: "These little tricks can only anger me, but cannot delay my steps. On the contrary, anger can only make me find your hiding place faster. What good does it do you?"

"...Indeed, you are angry and look even more ferocious than before, but it doesn't matter - appropriate emotional fluctuations are also necessary, Miss Gatekeeper."

The echoing sounds in the corridor seemed to fade away, but Agatha's heart was moved - appropriate emotional fluctuations are also necessary? What does this sentence mean?

However, no one here could answer her questions. The owner of that voice had only one purpose, which was to use cannon fodder to continuously weaken her physical strength and delay her steps. Now he had left, and the only ones left here were another group of monsters that had just "infiltrated" from the surrounding walls.

Agatha's eyes narrowed as she faced her enemy again.

※※※

"Our warriors are engaging the enemy!"

A flash of green fire suddenly broke through the darkness in the second waterway, and the figure of pigeon Ai rushed out from the flames and "smashed" directly on Duncan's shoulder, flapping its wings hard and making sharp and noisy shouts.

The sudden appearance of the silly bird and its shrill cry frightened Duncan so much that he almost frightened Alice's head off.

Duncan, who had been searching in this dry and empty underground corridor for half a day, suddenly widened his eyes and turned to look at the pigeon spirit on his shoulder, which was flaming all over. "What the hell are you yelling about?"

Ai tilted his head, stared at Duncan with his small eyes, and nodded seriously: "Our Tangji is under attack! Our Tangji is under attack! The situation is too unfavorable for us... Our warriors are fighting with the enemy!"

Alice leaned forward with her head in her hands: "Captain, did Ai have a stomachache?"

Ai turned his head and glared at the puppet, then stretched out his neck and pecked the puppet's head twice. After making a "dong dong" sound, he shouted at the top of his voice: "Is this reasonable? Is this reasonable? Is this reasonable?..."

Alice screamed when she was pecked and ran away holding her head.

Duncan didn't pay attention to the noise around him. After hearing Ai's second yell, his face became serious and he looked in a certain direction thoughtfully.

"You two, be quiet for a moment." After a few seconds, he suddenly broke the silence and looked at the intersection on the other side of the corridor with an extremely solemn expression. "Ai Yi may have noticed something."

Alice calmed down instantly and looked in the direction where Duncan was looking.

"It's the mark I left behind... It's the 'gatekeeper'," Duncan's voice rang out as he took a step forward. "She's nearby."

Alice looked in that direction, and then suddenly her eyes widened.

"Ah, wired!"

Miss Doll uttered a short cry of surprise, and then ran over quickly - she was even faster than Duncan, like an anxious child trying to catch a balloon that was about to fly away. She trotted to the intersection, and then jumped up to grab some invisible things in the air.

Duncan only saw Alice running over and jumping in front to grab something in the air, and then he seemed to vaguely see something really appear in Alice's hand.

Some white, almost transparent lines that slightly refract the ambient light in the air.

He walked over quickly, and Alice turned her head with a happy and bright smile on her face.

"I caught ..."

Miss Doll's cheerful smile lasted only for a moment. The next second, the faint thread in her hand suddenly began to break and snap, and quickly dissipated into the air as if it were accelerated weathering.

"Ah!" Alice cried out in surprise. "The thread is broken!"

But before she could finish her exclamation, a tall and burly figure walked quickly over from the side. Duncan reached out to the broken and weathered "thread" - a piece of thread that was about to completely dissipate fell into his hand.

In an instant, the line was dyed with a layer of dark green fire.

Duncan turned his head slowly and looked into Alice's eyes. A cluster of jumping green was reflected in Alice's wide eyes.

"I caught it," Duncan said softly.

※※※

One deformed freak turned into ashes in the pale flames, and another deformed freak had his head smashed by the cane and fell down like mud. Agatha turned her body, and the combat cane in her hand cut through the air and smashed hard at the last enemy still standing at the intersection.

Then, her movements suddenly stopped.

She acted completely out of instinct and had no time to think. The huge fear and shock had already shaken her entire mind. She even felt her muscles and bones making a sharp and terrible creaking sound at that moment. Some powerful force from spiritual intuition - perhaps even a direct warning from Bartok, the god of death - suddenly stopped her movements.

She saw her walking stick stop, just a few millimeters away from the last "fake" head that had just crawled out of the mud.

She stared with wide eyes, watching the humanoid figure made of flowing mud slowly raise its head. A pair of eyes gradually formed on its head, and a faint green flame burned on the surface of the body, while a deep voice crackled in the flames -

"Agatha, do you need help?"