Chila——

The vicious spikes pierced through the flesh, leaving another meaningless wound on this already scarred body, but the murmurs and roars coming from the ears suddenly became excited, and those blasphemous creatures seemed to be complacent with this successful attack and made a disgusting noise.

Agatha raised her hand and used her cane to fight off the Annihilation Cultist, whose body was covered with bone spurs and had almost completely lost its human form. A crisp and harsh breaking sound came to her ears.

The sound startled her for less than a second, and then she realized that it was the sound of her combat cane breaking.

The weapon that had accompanied him for many years was broken. Facing an endless stream of enemies, it had persisted to the last step.

"You've done very well, Miss Gatekeeper," the disgusting, pretentious voice sounded again, "As a sacrifice, proper preparation will help the effect of the sacrificial ceremony, but excessive exercise is not a good thing."

Agatha held the broken cane and raised her head little by little. The dried blood allowed her to open only one eye. With her narrow and red vision, she could finally see the scene in the hall clearly.

The strange shadowy environment faded away, and what appeared before her eyes was the center of the sewer that had long been completely transformed into a sacrificial site. The walls and corridors on all sides were covered with dirty and blasphemous symbols and traces of erosion. Something like stalagmites or dry branches covered the roof above, and on the floor of the hall in front was a huge "pool" -

That used to be the ground, but now a huge pit was corroded and filled with a dark, sticky substance like mud. The mud was slowly surging, and there were waves of disgusting wriggling sounds.

Countless Annihilation Cultists surrounded this hall. They, and the dark demons that accompanied them, were like a swarm of insects waiting around a fetid cauldron, murmuring prayers and frantic roars at the pool of black mud in the center of the hall. The pool of mud became fuller and more active in the noise-like prayers.

This is a sacrificial scene. They are waiting for the final sacrifice. The "sacrifice" in the minds of these fanatics is the gatekeeper of the Frost City-State.

They had cloned another gatekeeper before, and now that gatekeeper was also arriving at a sacrifice site.

"You think you are acting of your own free will, but you are actually just moving towards a predetermined stage. Don't you think this arrangement is...beautiful?"

In the center of the pool of black mud, the young man with short golden hair opened his arms towards Agatha. He still had a handsome face, but his entire lower body had turned into a swollen, wriggling mass. At this moment, he was actually some kind of "tentacle end" extending and deformed from the pool of mud, simulating the appearance of a human being in a disgusting way.

"Well, it's almost time. You have already adapted to the environment here. Now step forward. It's time for sacrifice."

At the edge of the mud pool, a tentacle-like limb gradually rose up. It grew out of the mud, and its end gradually turned into a hard and sharp structure like a dagger.

This life-threatening sacrificial tentacle slowly moved towards Agatha.

Agatha just looked at it quietly, and suddenly whispered: "Almost... to this position..."

She slowly reached her hand toward her chest.

But in the next second, her movements suddenly stopped.

At this moment, she lost control of her body.

"I know you want to do something, some kind of action that's not in our plan."

In her suddenly dulled perception, she heard the voice of the blond young man coming from the other side. She tried her best to raise her head, but could only see a little figure of the other person at the edge of her vision.

"But unfortunately, in order to prevent the sacrifice from getting out of control, we have been preparing 'safety measures' from the beginning - didn't you notice? You have destroyed so many fakes along the way, and even destroyed more than a dozen of my incarnations. All of this... is actually just to bind you to this mirror city little by little.

"Do you feel that you are increasingly able to sense the location of this sanctuary? Do you feel that you can 'smell' us 'heretics' more and more clearly? Have you ever thought about why this change has occurred?

"Quite simply, you were already one of us before you arrived here, ma'am."

Agatha finally raised her head. In front of her, the sharp spike was getting closer and closer to her heart, but her body was still unable to move.

Now, she finally understood the discomfort she had felt all the way here, and why these cultists had sent so many cannon fodder minions to use "attrition tactics" against her in vain.

Everything is for the purpose of subtle pollution.

The next second, the sharp spike pierced her heart without any delay.

In the pool of mud, the blond cultist suddenly raised his hands high. At the moment when the gatekeeper's heart was pierced, he prayed in ecstasy: "The sacrifice has been offered! The life of this saint will be the first step in the coming of our Lord's kingdom! Shout the name of the Holy Lord and welcome the promised day!"

In an instant, all the cultists in the hall shouted loudly. Those deformed and horrible figures that coexisted with the devil fell into ecstasy, shouting the name of the Holy Lord of the Deep in madness. Some of them waved the daggers they carried with them, frantically cutting their own flesh and blood, and injecting their blood into the black mud surging in the center of the hall. Even the demons beside them fell into frenzy, emitting all kinds of crazy and confused howls!

However, amidst such crazy and chaotic howling, the black substance in the mud pool only surged violently for a few seconds before gradually returning to calm.

The blond cultist at the center of the "pool" finally noticed something was wrong. He suddenly woke up from his ecstasy and looked in amazement at the pool that was returning to calm. Then his eyes turned to the spike that pierced the saint's heart and to the gatekeeper standing at the edge of the sacrifice site.

The scarred and pale gatekeeper.

"...You have no life?!" The madman finally lost his pride and demeanor, pointing at Agatha in astonishment, "You...why are you a corpse?!"

Agatha looked at him calmly, and at this moment, a smile finally appeared at the corner of her mouth.

"Although I didn't understand your ultimate goal before, as a gatekeeper, how could I not notice the abnormal changes in my body..."

As she spoke, she slowly raised her arms. It seemed that as the sacrifice ritual was ineffective, she felt that this body was gradually returning to her control.

"After I realized that you just wanted to lure me to the gathering, and that this might be some kind of sacrificial ritual that would claim my life, I did one thing..."

She grasped the spike that pierced her heart little by little, and gradually exerted force with her fingers, while strands of green flames flowed between her fingers and penetrated into the spike.

She raised her eyes and looked at the cultists in the pool of mud.

"All heretical sacrifices are based on blood - I have drained my own blood."

"You... do you know what you have done?!" The madman's eyes were wide open, and his finger pointing at Agatha was shaking violently, "You... you..."

"It's okay, it's just a small matter." Agatha just smiled and shook her head, with more and more flames emanating from her fingers. "It's good enough to be able to deliver the fire..."

"What did you say..."

The cultist in the mud pool spoke subconsciously, but before he finished speaking, another deafening roar suddenly came from the other end of the gathering place. The earth-shattering movement instantly destroyed the last force holding the sacrificial ceremony together.

A large door deep inside the assembly hall, as well as a large section of wall next to the door, were completely blown away by high explosives!

"boom!!"

The earth and rocks collapsed, cement flew everywhere, and the fragments of the gate and countless black strange substances mixed in it swept into the assembly hall like fragments of a shell. The few cultists closest to the door were blown away on the spot, and the remaining cultists cried out in surprise -

"They broke through the gate!"

"Impossible! They haven't been able to break through for decades... How could a group of phantoms break their own cycle?!"

In the center of the mud pool, the blond cult leader turned his head in shock to look in the direction of the explosion, but before he could see the figures rushing in from the other side of the Thorn Gate, a green flame shot up into the sky at the edge of his vision.

He turned his head and saw that the sacrifice that was supposed to be offered to the Holy Lord of the Deep had been wrapped in flames and was burning fiercely in a terrifying spiritual flame!

At the moment when the door deep in the assembly hall was blown open, Agatha finally broke free from the control of the sacrificial ceremony, and in this extremely short time, she ignited the fire.

The fuel is herself.

The spiritual fire rises!

In her vision that was suddenly filled with faint green flames, Agatha saw that a large hole had collapsed in the wall opposite the "pool", and a group of people who looked like sailors, with the same green flames burning all over their bodies as herself, rushed into the hall.

The fire in them resonates strongly with the fire ignited in oneself.

Agatha smiled.

The knowledge entered her mind and she understood it.

In the flames, she slowly opened her arms and raised them upwards as if in greeting.

"The fire is lit."

★Illustration 33★