Deep Sea Embers

When the first deformed monster rushed forward with a roar, Agatha just turned her body slightly, and tapped the monster's limbs with a cane at the moment of intersecting with the enemy, causing it to burn instantly in the "cremation". Then she raised her cane and pointed 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 is trying to avoid large-scale physical activities to reduce the impact of fatigue and pain, and at the same time try to avoid contact with those monsters to reduce mental exhaustion-because she doesn't know how many monsters that can't be killed are waiting in front of her For herself, she must save her energy.

She does not dislike death, she knows that her body can still fight after death, until it turns into ashes, and the ashes will also float in this cursed place, continuously purifying those disgusting monsters—she has never been afraid of this Everything, but before embracing death, she still wants to investigate the truth here and stop the actions of those heretics as much as possible.

Along the way, she was attacked more and more frequently, and the actions of those freaks became more and more restless, which already vaguely proved one thing—she was looking in the right direction, and it was the heretics in front of her. lair.

More black mud oozes from nearby walls and vaults. Every pore, every brick joint here is a hotbed for the birth of those deformities, and due to the topography, the way these "fakes" appear It started to get weirder and more difficult.

A slight hissing sound came from the side and rear, and Agatha felt a warning in her heart. She felt her body was sluggish due to exhaustion, so she could only barely turn her body around at the critical moment, and turned around with the cane in her hand to block—with her shoulders There was a sharp stabbing pain, and she saw a dazzling spark burst out from the middle of the cane, and a figure in black with a guardian's cane in his hand was blown away.

The figure landed on the ground, and crawled up again like some disgusting mollusk. It raised its head, and under the black top hat was a face that seemed to melt and slowly flow out of shape. In that terrifying face , some familiar outlines can be discerned vaguely.

In the next second, the flowing face condensed and turned into a young man with a well-defined face—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 whispered to her:

"Ah, you recognized him—when you were not the gatekeeper, your loyal vice-captain covered your retreat from the darkness...you left him there...take him back, how about it?"

Agatha didn't respond, but stepped forward in silence. After three steps, it turned into a gust of gray wind, and then the wind suddenly stopped and condensed in front of the young "guardian". The tin cane had penetrated deep into the chest of the black-clothed guardian.

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

"Sorry, it will end soon." Agatha said softly.

The young guard in black slowly lowered his head and smiled: "Captain, you have finally mastered the power of the Wind of Ashes..."

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

"Resolute and cold, it fits your identity as a disciple of the Holy Death."

The disgusting voice echoed again, and Agatha turned around, only to see more freaks taking shape, and "fakes" coming towards her from all directions - the owner of the voice obviously didn't say anything Chivalry, even when he is "attacking the heart", he is constantly directing these minions to attack him.

The sound of flames bursting, the sound of the cane hitting back, and the sound of breaking the air echoed in the underground corridor. While resisting the attack of the deformed thing, Agatha said in a deep voice: "These little tricks can only irritate me, but they can't delay my steps—— On the contrary, anger can only make me find your hiding place faster, what good is this for you?"

"...It's true, you are angry, and you look more fierce than before, but it doesn't matter - proper mood swings are also necessary, Miss Gatekeeper."

The voice echoing in the corridor seemed to be fading away, but Agatha's heart moved—is it necessary to have appropriate mood swings? What does it mean?

However, no one here can answer her question. The owner of that voice has only one purpose, which is to use cannon fodder to continuously weaken her physical strength and delay her footsteps. Another batch of monsters "infiltrated" from the wall.

Agatha's eyes were fixed, and she faced her enemy again.

...

"Our warriors are engaging the enemy!"

A green flame suddenly pierced the darkness in the second waterway, and the figure of Ay the pigeon rushed out of the flames and "smashed" directly on Duncan's shoulder, flapping his wings vigorously and screaming loudly.

The sudden appearance of the silly bird and its high-pitched cry startled Duncan and nearly knocked Alice's head off.

Duncan, who had been searching for a long time in this dry and empty underground corridor, suddenly stared, turned his head to look at the flaming pigeon spirit on his shoulder: "What's your name?"

Ai tilted his head, looked directly at Duncan with his small eyes, and nodded with a serious expression: "Our detective is under attack! Our detective is under attack! The situation is too bad for us... Our soldiers are fighting Engage the enemy!"

Alice held her head and leaned over: "Captain, did Ai have a bad stomach?"

Ai Yi turned his head and stared at the doll, stretched out his neck and pecked the latter's head twice, and after making a "dong dong" sound, he shouted loudly: "Is it like a word? Is it like a word..."

Alice exclaimed from being pecked, and ran away with her head in her arms.

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

"Be quiet, both of you." After a few seconds, he suddenly broke the silence and looked towards the intersection on the other side of the corridor with a particularly solemn expression. "Ai may have noticed something."

Alice calmed down instantly, and looked in the direction of Duncan's gaze.

"It's the imprint I left...it's the 'gatekeeper'," Duncan's voice sounded, and he had already stepped forward, "She's around here."

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

"Ah, wired!"

Miss Puppet let out a short exclamation, and then ran over quickly—she was even faster than Duncan, like an impatient child trying to catch a balloon that was about to fly away, she arrived in a short sprint Near the intersection, then jumped up to catch something invisible in the air.

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

Some white, almost transparent, faintly refracted... threads of 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 happy smile only lasted for a moment, and the next second, the faint thread in her hand suddenly began to shatter and break, and quickly dissipated into the air like accelerated weathering.

"Ah!" Alice exclaimed, "the thread is broken!"

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

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

Duncan turned his head slowly, he looked into Alice's eyes, and in Alice's widened eyes was a cluster of jumping green reflections.

"I got it," Duncan said softly.

...

One deformed monster was turned into ashes in the pale flames, and the head of the other deformed monster was crushed by the stick, and he collapsed like ooze. Agatha turned her body, and the fighting stick in her hand cut through the air and smashed hard. To the last enemy still standing at the intersection.

Then, her movements stopped suddenly.

It was completely instinctive, and before she had time to think at all, the huge sense of fear and awe had directly shocked her entire mind. She even felt that her muscles and bones made a harsh and terrifying creaking sound at that moment. A powerful force derived from spiritual intuition—maybe even a direct warning from Bartok, the god of death, suddenly stopped her movements.

She saw her walking stick come to a stop, within a few millimeters of the head of the last "fake" that had just risen from the mud.

She widened her eyes, watching the human-shaped figure made of flowing mud slowly raise her head, a pair of eyes gradually condensed on the head, a dark green flame was burning on the surface of the body, and a deep voice was speaking Crackling in the flames—

"Agatha, do you need help?"