An approaching breath suddenly interrupted the current topic.

Agatha immediately retracted her finger that was touching the mirror: "Someone is coming, it's the servant."

"Understand, I won't scare him," the voice in the mirror came directly into her mind, "I'm right next to you. When you look carefully, you will find me."

Agatha nodded, but just before the "her" in the mirror left, she seemed to suddenly think of something and asked subconsciously: "Are you... cold over there?"

“…It’s not cold now.”

The voice dissipated in her mind, and the feeling of being watched gradually faded away. The other Agatha reflected in the mirror returned to her normal image - her eyes were covered with black cloth, she was wearing a priestess' robe, and she stood quietly in front of the mirror.

★Illustration 7★

Agatha hesitated for a moment, and tentatively reached out her hand towards the mirror, but all she touched was cold glass - it even made her wonder if everything that had just happened was really just an illusion.

Almost at the same time, she heard footsteps approaching the door, and there was a gentle knock on the door: "Archbishop, are you in there?"

The old guards still habitually call her "the gatekeeper", while the clergy in the church have begun to call her "the archbishop".

Agatha adjusted her expression and turned around calmly: "I'm here, come in."

The door opened, and a high-ranking attendant in a gray robe appeared at the door and saluted Agatha. "Archbishop, there is an urgent message from the City Hall. Please go to Southport immediately. General Tirian is waiting for you there."

"City Hall? Want me to go to South Port?" Agatha frowned subconsciously, feeling that the news was a little unusual. "Did you say what it was about?"

"No, it was said to be an emergency and should not be spread," the high-ranking attendant said hesitantly, "but... General Tirian sent a message, he said... 'The Master of Fire might be interested'."

The expression on Agatha's face changed slightly in an instant.

"I understand. Go get the car ready and I'll leave right away."

Not long after, Agatha boarded the steam carriage to Southport. Considering the message brought by Tirian, she went alone without any entourage.

On the way to the port area, her mind was full of endless speculations.

What happened? Why did the "General Tirian" react like this? In the previous war, South Harbor was once occupied by fake monsters, and the cleanup work is still in progress... Could it be that they found something among the ruins? Was it a blasphemous holy relic left by the Annihilation Cult, or a suspicious "sample" left after the fake monsters disappeared?

Whatever the possibility, it shouldn't have caused General Tirian to react like this.

With these complicated and somewhat irritating thoughts, Agatha quickly passed through the deserted and empty streets due to the martial law, passed through checkpoints and checkpoints, and arrived at the southern port area which was still under a complete blockade.

Soldiers of the city-state guards are guarding all the intersections. Fully armed church guards are patrolling and inspecting the severely damaged buildings and marking the contaminated areas waiting to be treated. Priests are collecting samples in those contaminated areas. Occasionally, you can see college students wearing heavy protective equipment walking between buildings under the guidance of their tutors - they are civil engineering students, who come today to inspect the status of important port facilities and prepare for subsequent repairs.

The car stopped at an open space on the edge of the security zone, and Agatha, led by two soldiers, walked through busy "work sites" and headed towards a rather remote direction in the port area.

They eventually stopped in front of a large building that looked like a warehouse.

"We can only take you here," the two soldiers leading the way turned around and said to Agatha apologetically, "We don't know what the specific situation is below - the general will explain it to you."

under?

Agatha noticed this statement keenly, but she didn't ask anything. She just nodded to the two soldiers and walked towards the warehouse that seemed to have been sealed for a long time and still had traces of war on the exterior.

The warehouse gate was guarded not by soldiers from the city-state guards but by a team of undead sailors.

In Agatha's eyes, the living were clear figures that were warm and emitting a faint glow, while the undead were hollow and pale shells. Smoke reminiscent of ashes rose from their blurry outlines. After realizing that the entire warehouse was guarded by the undead, Agatha further realized that the situation here was unusual.

Because compared to the city-state guards, General Tirian obviously trusts his undead army more.

"Ma'am," an undead guarding the gate came over. His upper and lower bodies had been separated, with nearly a quarter of his torso missing in the middle. Only some messy floating strips of cloth connected the two halves of his body. He was wearing a new coat that symbolized a frost soldier, but on the sleeve of the coat was an armband representing the Queen's Guard. This undead sailor came to Agatha, and despite his terrifying appearance, he still gave a very standard military salute. "After you go in, someone will take you to the elevator. The general is already waiting for you in the underground facility."

Agatha nodded. She was sure that unless she arrived at the scene, no one would tell her what was underground along the way.

After entering the warehouse, she met another team of undead sailors who came to pick her up. Under their guidance, she found the elevator hidden in the corner of the warehouse, which seemed to have been "dug" out from behind a pile of camouflaged wall panels.

Then she boarded the elevator and followed the iron cage down. It took several minutes to reach an underground facility that was buried deep underground and had never appeared in any official records.

Stepping out of the sedan, in the dim and chaotic vision, she "saw" an open hall. The "silt" left over after the counterfeit invasion subsided could be seen everywhere in the hall. There were undead sailors cleaning up those things, and a tall figure stood at the end of the hall, guarding in front of a big door.

That was General Tirian, the new Archon of the Frost City.

Agatha walked towards the figure.

"Oh, Lady Agatha, you are finally here," Tirian took the initiative to greet her. "I thought you would come here directly from the central area of ​​​​the upper city on a gust of wind as the rumors say..."

"I am used to using Grey Wind to travel - but I won't run across half a city by myself," Agatha said casually, and then raised her head and her eyes fell on the gate behind Tirian. "What is going on here? Why is there such a facility under South Harbor?"

"You are surprised. Everyone is surprised. This facility does not exist in any official records. If it were not for clearing the ruins here, we would never have found it." Tirian shook his head. "What do you think we found in this hidden large facility?"

"Don't keep me in suspense, General," Agatha sighed, and a faint green light flashed behind her eyes covered by black cloth. "There are no outsiders here."

Tirian smiled, then his expression finally turned serious and he turned slightly to the side. "Look for yourself. It's behind this door."

Agatha turned her "eyes" and looked towards the gate.

Bloodstains and dents from bullet holes left in the battle could still be vaguely seen on the gate. Apparently, during the previous Frost Defense War, an unknown battle had taken place deep within this unknown facility.

But now, both the invaders and the guardians have disappeared in that battle.

She stretched out her hand, exerted a little force, and pushed the heavy door open little by little.

The locking device of the door had been broken, and the heavy alloy door retreated to the sides with a creaking sound. A more spacious space illuminated by gas and electric lights appeared in Agatha's perception.

The fishy and salty smell of sea water also penetrated her nostrils.

She stood at the entrance of the hall, staring blankly at the huge machine in the shape of an ellipsoid fixed between solid beams.

And diagonally below this huge machine, at the end of a long slide, is the source of the sea water smell - it is obviously a waterway, with the other end leading directly to the sea.

After standing there in astonishment for a long time, Agatha finally broke the silence: "This is..."

"It's a submersible, ma'am," Tirian exhaled softly, with an indescribable complex emotion in his tone. "It's built based on the blueprint of the last generation of submersibles, and uses many newer technologies. It's much more advanced than what we used back then."

Agatha couldn't help but take a breath after her guess was confirmed. Then she turned her head suddenly and asked, "Who built this?"

"It could be Archon Winston, or perhaps the previous Archons. We haven't found detailed construction and approval records, so we can't confirm who gave the initial order to build it," Tirian said slowly. "Based on the little information we have found, this facility was operating in secret until at least two months ago."