boom!

A thunderous roar exploded deep in his consciousness, and Morris almost instantly lost control of his own state - even in the protected state of isolating his main consciousness and solidifying his mind, his mind was still swept away by the spreading impact, and he was on the verge of collapse in the subsequent, turbulent information impact!

In an instant, his "psychological perspective" standing behind his body began to spin. He could no longer see the words in his mind. He only felt an endless fog swirling and rising. The words he had just read were like a swarm of out-of-control bees, rushing and gnawing at his memory, tearing at his personality. He even forgot his own name for a moment. All that was left in his mind was the name he saw in the last second -

【The Lord of the Deep】

However, in the next moment, this dizzying feeling was suddenly stopped by something, and Morris felt that his consciousness was forcibly pulled back to the real world by an extremely powerful force. In the process of being "pulled back", he saw many arrays of flashing lights appearing in the thick fog, and among those many lights, there was a largest red light source.

This scene seemed like a glance from the god of wisdom, Lahm, to him, but the next second, the array lights quickly dissipated and turned into huge waves.

Then, the huge wave turned into a pale dust and smoke that collapsed before his eyes, and the fine pale ashes fell towards him like the ashes of a saint;

Afterwards, the pale dust began to burn again in the air, turning into a falling rain of fire, which condensed into countless dazzling and red flames, rushing towards him as if to burn him to ashes!

But just before the red flames fell on him, Morris saw that all the fires were suddenly stained with a layer of dark green - the raging and exploding fire suddenly became gentle, and fell beside him little by little. One of the flames touched his shoulder, and he immediately felt someone patted him heavily. The next second, he suddenly opened his eyes and realized that he had returned to his body.

The effects of consciousness isolation and mental solidification were forcibly ended, and he once again returned to this world from the critical state of madness.

The moment he regained consciousness, Morris resisted the urge to "take another look" and closed the black leather book in his hand.

His movements were quick, but even so, the book still flipped a few pages violently before closing. In the corner of his eye, some trembling words appeared in Morris's vision with an extremely strong impression - it was a sentence, with a strong obsession like a dying man: "We will eventually return to the purest and most holy origin."

The big black book was completely closed. Morris' mind was filled with the words he had seen in the last moments, and he was breathing heavily.

Fanna immediately noticed something was wrong and took two steps closer: "How are you?"

"…The daily life of a scholar, dealing with deadly knowledge and surviving." Morris took a breath and stretched out his hand to Vanna. "It's okay, I'm still me - help me up."

As soon as he stood up, he asked again: "How much time has passed?"

"Just a few seconds," Vanna nodded and replied, "I just saw you open the book and take a look at it, and then you suddenly closed it. At the same time, your spirit was constantly moving, and indistinguishable shadows began to emerge in the fog around you."

"A few seconds..." Morris twitched the corners of his mouth, but his mind recalled the wonderful scenes he saw when he was pulled back from the edge of losing control.

In the next second, a deep and majestic voice appeared in his mind: "Morris, what happened to you?"

Morris was startled, and quickly adjusted his expression. He responded in his mind: "I was reading a blasphemous book seized from the Annihilation Cult just now, and it was accidentally contaminated. Captain, you were the one who finally pulled me back?"

"Well," Duncan responded, "Just now I suddenly realized that your mind was under attack, so I used the 'mark' left on you to check the situation. You said just now that you seized a blasphemous book? What exactly happened? Are you still with Vanna? Where are you now?"

"Fanna is with me. We are still active in the upper city. We found that some cultists of Annihilation used the fog to enter the real world and controlled some 'fakes' to attack the city-state. We just found and eliminated one of the controllers," Morris responded immediately, and then sorted out his thoughts and continued, "The situation is very strange. After the cultist died, his body showed a phenomenon of fusion with elemental matter. It seems to be the result of some extreme 'transformation'. He carried a black nameless book with him. The content of the book..."

Morris suddenly stopped, his tone became extremely cautious, and he carefully controlled his thoughts: "The contents of the book are disturbing. It is the original text of the hieroglyphic records that the Raven copied before. I only had time to read a small part of it before it was contaminated. Sorry, this is all I can report now - I can't recall the details now."

Duncan's voice was silent for two seconds, and then it sounded again: "Okay, safety first, don't continue to recall what you saw. Take the book with you, and report to me in person later."

Morris breathed a sigh of relief: "Yes, Captain."

At this moment, Vanna on the side suddenly "spoke up": "Captain, how is the situation over there?"

"Alice and I are in the Second Waterway - it's pretty quiet here."

Deep underground near the central city, at an intersection of the Second Waterway, Duncan raised his head and looked at the empty corridor in the distance.

There was a thin layer of fog floating above the corridor, clinging to the dark dome. The fog seemed to appear out of thin air in this space, and it was becoming thicker and thicker as time went by - but compared with the surface of the city-state that was already completely covered by thick fog, the little fog here was not serious.

"I'm waiting for the fire to be in place."

With the help of the "mark" connection, he said to Vanna in his heart.

"Spark?" Vanna's voice sounded a little confused.

"The nests of those Annihilation Cultists are not in the real world - the Mirror Frost is their base camp," Duncan said slowly, "Whether it is the Sea Mist Fleet or the Frost Navy, including the City Guards and the defenders of the Church, the 'invasion' they eliminated in the real world is just slowing down the process of the mirror rising. Only by taking action from the mirror side can we truly solve this problem.

"Agatha has gone with the fire - she will find the den of heretics, and I will help her light the place on fire."

Vanna's response was obviously hesitant for a few seconds: "Then...is there anything we can do?"

"Just keep hunting in the fog, eliminate all the fakes you see, find out all the controllers behind them, and kill as many as you can," Duncan said. "It makes sense to slow down the invasion. You are buying time for Agatha and reducing the pressure she faces."

Vanna responded immediately: "Yes, I understand!"

A few seconds later, her voice came again: "Also... there may be a fake 'gatekeeper' in action in the city-state, and the church doesn't seem to have any reaction. What do you think..."

Her voice sounded hesitant.

Duncan already knew about the fake, even better than Vanna.

After all, he had already established contact with the real Agatha.

"Don't worry about that 'Agatha'," he responded after a moment's hesitation, "and don't go against her - but if you meet her, you can provide help as needed."

Vanna was obviously stunned for a few seconds, and then she said with astonishment in her tone: "Provide help?! Help that 'fake'?"

"Don't forget, not all counterfeits are controlled by the Annihilation Cultists. The most outstanding ones have their own wills," Duncan said calmly. "The gatekeepers will not easily become puppets of the heretics. Of course, the specific situation will require your own judgment at that time."

"Yes, I understand, Captain."

This time, there was an unusual solemnity in Vanna's response.

It was as if her sense of mission as a judge resonated subtly with the "gatekeeper" at this moment.

Contact with followers ended.

Duncan exhaled softly, then raised his hand, and a small flame ignited at his fingertips.

He stared at the flames, and after a moment he spoke softly: "Agatha, do you think 'she' will really be what you think?"

A cold and hoarse voice sounded from the flames: "Yes."

"Why are you so sure?"

“Because I believe in myself.”

"But that's just a copy of you," Duncan said calmly. "There will be slight differences between you, and those differences may cause her to make a different decision than you do."

"But you did not order your followers to eliminate that 'hidden danger'," Agatha said, "and you trusted my judgment."

Duncan was silent for a few seconds before he sighed softly.

"There was once a human named Brown Scott who proved his humanity to me, and this humanity still works on the 'fake' - so this time, I don't mind believing it again."

"What if... I mean, what if my judgment is wrong? Your trust will be misplaced..."

"It's okay, they're just small things."

A small matter?

In the cold and damp sewer corridor, Agatha lowered her head and glanced at the small flame that was still burning quietly in the palm of her hand.

The faint heat escaping from the flame seemed to be the only temperature she could feel in the world - outside of the fire, she felt that the whole world was as cold as a grave.

The "captain's" voice came again: "Agatha, how is the situation over there?"

"I'm still moving forward. I'm almost there. I can feel it. It's very close."

"I'm talking about your situation. Your voice sounds different than before."

Agatha paused.

She lowered her head and all she saw was her scarred body and the wounds that no longer bled.

"It's okay," she said softly, her voice cold as the grave. "It's just a small thing."