It was in the deep, dark seabed, beneath the city-state, that the ancient god extended his tentacles into the real world, and grew stronger day by day in that indescribable darkness.

He is visible, and those filthy and terrifying tentacles of flesh and blood are His entity, cold and chilling, but He is also invisible, because His upward-reaching will has long crossed the dark abyss and penetrated the thick rocks and soil of the city-state. Its unimaginable power has been drilling into this city and piercing deep into the depths of the boiling gold mine for the past fifty years, or even longer.

"Madam Gatekeeper, we are now inside it. This place used to be rock, but the power of the Ancient God has transformed the rock into a part of His flesh and blood. This dark substance is pulsating with the source at the bottom of the sea, separated by more than a thousand meters of rock and sea water. And every beat of it is bringing the mirror city closer to our real world... Do you hear it? Plop, plop... The flesh and blood are wriggling, shrinking, and mumbling in their sleep. This place... is thinking."

Winston murmured softly like a prayer, slowly raised his hands, and pointed at the endless darkness around him as if embracing, and at the "branches" in the darkness that were crisscrossed and connected like thorns. Among those branches, dim points of light were still moving quickly like fireflies. Gradually, Agatha really seemed to hear that low sound - plop, plop...

This abnormal area of ​​unknown size, buried deep in the boiling gold mine, is making a heartbeat.

Even my own heart seemed to be affected by the heartbeat and began to beat in resonance.

However, a faint warm current suddenly appeared in her heart, which made Agatha suddenly wake up. She realized that her humanity had just returned from the critical point of madness. Her expression suddenly changed and she stared at Winston's eyes.

"You are no longer sane, Archon Winston - you are under the influence of this place."

"Ah...really? Maybe." Winston just waved his hand nonchalantly. "At first I thought I could calm the ancient god down like the queen, then I thought I could at least delay it for a while, then I thought I could at least stay awake until the end. It turns out... I have failed unknowingly?"

"Like the queen, to calm the ancient god down?" Agatha keenly noticed the key point in the archon's words. Her eyes suddenly changed slightly, and she vaguely realized the real reason why the archon appeared here. "You mean, the Frost Queen half a century ago successfully put the power of the Deep Lord to sleep?"

Winston laughed, "...What do you think happened when the sea cliff collapsed?"

Agatha was stunned for a moment, then spoke hesitantly: "The sea cliff collapsed... After the queen was beheaded, the entire execution ground fell into the sea... Wasn't that an accident?!"

"That was a sacrifice. The sacrifices were the Queen herself and the first group of speculators who chose to betray her after the uprising broke out - of course, the entire executioner group and many rebel officers were buried with her," Winston said calmly. "We blocked the detailed information of that year, so few people know the details after the sea cliff collapsed - thousands of people died in that accident, but in fact, almost all civilians survived the collapse, and those who were swept into the waves... even if they were only one meter away from the shore, they had no chance to struggle and were instantly 'sucked' into the seabed.

"After the collapse, the abnormal area in the boiling gold mine stopped expanding for a while. It was not until then that the first archon realized that everything was in Ray Nora's plan. The cold truth was transferred to the archon through the key left by the queen. As she said, now it's our turn."

Agatha fell silent. After a moment, her expression became complicated. "You came here to recreate the sacrifice of that year..."

"'Him' is floating up. The knowledge contained in the key tells me that in order to suppress this process, I must touch 'Him's' mind. Fifty years ago, His power was still dormant in the deep sea, so the queen could only sacrifice herself to the deep sea. Now, His power has penetrated deeply into the city-state, so this is the best place to touch it - this is the method left by the queen in the key. After taking the key, every archon will be entangled with this responsibility and prepare for it for life. I have also made all preparations for this, but I didn't expect one thing..."

Winston pulled up the corners of his mouth in a way that could not really be called a smile.

"Not everyone is Leigh Nora."

Agatha listened silently, then lowered her head and stared quietly at the brass key still lying in her hand.

This is something that the Frost Queen created with some extraordinary power - she condensed the "knowledge" she touched and part of her own "thoughts" inside the key in the form of a physical entity.

But for some reason, Agatha always felt that this key... should have other uses.

It should not only exist to bind the successive rulers of the Frost City-State to a responsibility.

But at this moment, Governor Winston was obviously unable to answer any more of her questions - and she herself seemed to have no way back.

After learning the truth about this dark space, Agatha understood this: she did not pass through the stone wall to reach a certain place, but was directly integrated into a huge mass of abnormal matter.

What awaits Winston here is death, and what awaits him is return and assimilation.

She looked at the palm of her hand and saw that the skin where her hand touched the key had already shown signs of softening and deformation. Some sticky black substance was oozing out of the skin and covering the key little by little.

But she still wanted to walk a little further, she was a little... curious about this place.

"Is there anything else we can do?" Agatha lowered her head and looked at the city-state governor who had stopped talking. "You want to wait here until death comes?"

"Death has come, ma'am - we are just looking back on our failed lives before we take our last breath," Winston shook his head. "There is nothing to do. Sit down and rest like me."

"...You have actually done what you should do. As the Archon of Frost, you have at least bravely faced this so-called 'curse'," Agatha said calmly, "Just because you are unable to do something doesn't mean you have done nothing."

Winston just shrugged self-deprecatingly. "Incompetence is a sin."

"...I have to go further. I want to go through this 'thorn' and head to where the tentacle is," Agatha said. "Would you like to come with me?"

"It means nothing to me any more, ma'am," said Winston quietly. "If you want to go, go ahead and leave me here—my journey is over."

Agatha stared at him for a few seconds and handed him the brass key: "This is yours."

Winston did not reach out his hand, but raised his head and looked into Agatha's eyes: "Take it. You have already taken it. It is yours. This is how we have passed it on until now."

Agatha was silent for a moment and put the key away.

"Okay, I'll go on my own then."

She said goodbye to Winston, then turned around, propped up her cane, and took a step forward in the dark and empty space.

"Ms. Agatha," Winston's voice suddenly came from behind, "does this really make sense?"

Agatha tilted her head slightly: "Why do you ask?"

"Even if you learn more of the truth ahead, even if you can really pass through this 'bush' and touch the limbs of the ancient god, what can you change? You can no longer stop this, and you can't even pass on what happened here to the outside world. The investigation is over. Without being able to pass on information, no matter how much you know, it is meaningless."

Agatha paused, and after thinking for a moment, she spoke softly: "I am the gatekeeper of Frost, this is my duty. And..."

She paused, and the hand holding the brass key pressed unconsciously against her chest.

The surroundings were still very cold, and the feeling of her blood gradually coagulating was stronger than ever, but for some reason, she had always felt a slight warmth beating in her heart since just now, as if... there was an invisible flame jumping there, supporting her to move forward.

In my mind, thoughts that do not belong to me are jumping gently. The strongest of these thoughts is an obsession - the direction in which the obsession points is the illusory and extremely huge "tentacle" outside the thorn bush.

"It makes sense. I am not moving forward alone. Although there is no evidence, I think...everything I have seen here will eventually be known to someone else."

"Oh, really? That's great... Ms. Agatha, you still held on to your faith until the very last moment, which is really enviable."

Winston's voice stopped and there was no more movement in that direction.

Agatha turned around and saw a small lantern shining in the dark, illuminating a dry "stump". A middle-aged man in a dark blue coat was leaning quietly against the stump.

His temple was pierced by a bullet hole, and in his lowered hand was a beautifully crafted revolver.