Deep Sea Embers

The Frost Queen's plan to dive into the abyss half a century ago was to find out and solve the problem of boiling gold underground in the city-state. Successive consuls have passed on the secrets about boiling gold, the queen, the curse, and the ancient gods of the deep sea. Formed a substantial projection, and penetrated this huge hollow area... Every piece of information is shocking.

But to Duncan, the sum of all these pieces of information is nothing compared to the fact that "the ancient god who invaded the city-state is a replica" is astonishing.

Fan Na was also aware of the shocking information contained in this sentence. This judge who specialized in dealing with heretics and evil spirits looked very serious at the moment. She stared at the "giant pillar" supporting the entire cave, and said for a long time: " First of all, this thing is indeed a remnant of the "ancient god" who invaded the city-state... and the source of this thing is still located in the deep sea below the city-state, so the "fake" that Agatha just mentioned is actually true. Two explanations."

"Yes, there are two explanations," Duncan nodded, "The first explanation is that the 'source' located on the bottom of the sea is genuine, so in a sense, the 'erosion body' projected from that source into the city-state can It is regarded as a copy, that is, a fake, and the second explanation..."

He paused, looked up at the giant pillar supporting the entire cave, and exhaled after a while.

"The second explanation is that the 'source' of the bottom of the sea is also a replica - another Agatha touched at the last moment, not only the ancient god's tentacles in this 'cave', but also learned about the deep sea through this tentacles. The truth in the book, but due to time constraints, she didn't have time to explain too much."

The scene was quiet for a while, Alice raised her head, and glanced at everyone curiously - she didn't fully understand what everyone was talking about, but she was also trying to listen and understand. After a long time, she finally He tugged at Duncan's arm: "Sounds a little scary?"

"Yes, and I can't tell whether the first possibility is scarier or the second possibility," Duncan said "scary", but with a smile in his eyes, he stroked Alice's hair and comforted her. Looking at the puppet who seems to be tense even though it doesn't understand the situation, "You don't have to worry so much, things are no more troublesome than a mirror image of Frost."

"Yes, it won't be more troublesome than the mirror image frost - the premise is that the 'source' under the sea cannot be allowed to continue to develop," Agatha said, she turned her head and "looked" into Duncan's eyes, "like What you said last time, after all, we need to go under the frost again to see if the 'ancient god' who invaded the real world is still there..."

Duncan gave a soft "hmm". He knew that Agatha was not idle and must have already started to prepare for this matter, so he didn't urge him, but at this moment, out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly saw what.

Something shiny flashed in Agatha's right hand, it seemed to be some kind of metal work.

"Agatha, what is that in your hand?"

"My hand?" Agatha was taken aback for a moment, and raised her hand subconsciously. It was only then that she suddenly noticed the foreign object's touch from her palm—the cold metal, but it seemed to have been warmed by body temperature.

It was a brass key with a strange shape.

"The key..." Fanna looked at the thing in surprise, and immediately realized, "Ah, it's what you mentioned just now—the key that Consul Winston finally handed over to another 'Agatha' ? The key left by the Frost Queen?"

Duncan's eyes changed slightly: "Show me."

"Of course." Agatha handed the key to Duncan without hesitation.

The key is made of brass, the handle is a thick "infinity" symbol, and the front end of the key does not have serrations, but a round rod structure with grooves instead, just like the "wind-up key" used to wind dolls .

Alice came over curiously and grabbed Duncan's arm: "Let me take a look... Ah? Is this a key? Why is it different from the keys I've seen before... What is this for?"

No one said a word.

All eyes fell on Miss Puppet.

"Why are you all looking at me?" Alice reacted belatedly, raised her finger and pointed at herself, "What did I mess up?"

"You don't have any special feeling when looking at this key?" Duncan lowered his head and looked into Alice's eyes, "Such as a sense of familiarity, or the urge to touch it?"

"No..." Alice shook her head with a blank expression, "I haven't seen it before."

Fan Na at the side leaned over and whispered in Duncan's ear, "Captain, what do you think..."

"I remember Nina mentioning," Duncan said slowly, "Alice has a keyhole in her back."

Upon hearing this, Agatha "looked" at the Gothic doll in surprise.

In an instant, it seemed that everything was connected in series, and the points across time and space were connected into zigzag lines in this cave eroded by the ancient god.

The key left by the Frost Queen and the doll "Anomaly 099", which looks exactly like the Frost Queen, are the two endpoints of this line that spans time and space.

However, under the gazes of several gazes, Alice just looked around blankly, then raised her arms and groped her back vigorously.

"I didn't touch it," she felt aggrieved and apologetic, "it was blocked by clothes."

"Let's talk about it later, this matter... needs to be cautious," Duncan said in a deep voice, breaking the somewhat dignified atmosphere in the cave, and then he looked up at Agatha, "I want to take this key, is that okay? "

"...Theoretically, this key is an inheritance of the Frost Consuls of the past, and according to Winston Consul, it also condenses the 'information' left by the Frost Queen, but..."

Agatha paused, then shook her head slightly.

"It's all over, of course you can take it away."

"Thank you." Duncan didn't be too polite, and directly handed the key to the pigeon that was parked on his shoulder. With a flash of dark green fire, Ai and the key disappeared from his shoulder. The next second, the pigeon came back , but the key is gone.

It has been sent to the ship, to Duncan's body.

Duncan was fiddling with the key that had just been delivered to him on the Lost Home, while in the underground cavity of the Frost City-State, he looked back at the huge pillar supporting the cave, and then reached out and knocked on its hard and cold appearance. of stones.

"We should leave," he said.

The scale of this cave is very large. Even with the assistance of the spirit body fire, the area that the group has explored so far is only a small part of the cave, but for Duncan, the information collected so far is enough.

He needs time to slowly sort out and digest the harvest here, and the follow-up exploration... can be handed over to Agatha and Agatha's subordinates.

After confirming that there is no pollution from the ancient gods left in the cave, and that the cave itself has a solid support structure, Agatha can bring her men here with relative peace of mind.

Following the path left by the spirit fire, the group safely evacuated the huge void, took the elevator, and returned to the upper mine passage.

On the way out of the Boiling Gold Mine, Duncan asked Agatha curiously: "What do you think about the hollow area below here?"

"Idea?" Agatha thought for a while, "I should lead the team to conduct several explorations, at least to grasp the situation on the surface of the cave and around the huge pillar. If there are any valuable discoveries in the process, I will first I will share information with you for a while, as for later..."

She stopped here, seemed to have considered it seriously, and then slowly opened her mouth: "Afterwards, I will suggest that the city-state find a way to mine the boiling gold in the cave, while avoiding the collapse of the hollow area and the destruction of the root." Under the premise of "pillars", find a way to transport the boiling gold there. Of course, how to implement this part depends on the skills of the professionals in the city hall."

"Aren't you worried about the 'hidden dangers' of boiling gold?" Duncan asked casually, "After all, it may be something left by the ancient gods."

"...The city-state must survive first, and then think about other things," Agatha shook her head lightly, "And after 'seeing' the situation in that cave, I thought of one thing."

"oh?"

"If the boiling gold in the Frost Underground is the product left after the power of the ancient gods penetrated, what about the other city-states in the boundless sea? Is the underground of each city-state... really all right?"

The scene fell silent.

"Frost mined boiled gold from mirror worlds for fifty years after the veins of Queen's Age dried up - and we instinctively thought that boiled gold from mirror worlds, like everything else in mirror worlds, belonged to 'fake', but the fact is that after the mirror city-state was destroyed, the boiling gold did not disappear, and even left a new 'bonanza' in the underground cave we just discovered... The only possible explanation is that, by The 'boiling gold' generated by the power of the ancient gods is not a 'distortion'."

"The boiling gold generated by the power of the ancient gods is not distorted—it can only be a natural part of the world," Duncan said with deep meaning, "This sounds a bit close to the 'Holy Lord Creation' theory of those Annihilation Cultists. "

"Yes, it already belongs to deviant content." Agatha admitted calmly and frankly.

"But you don't look shaken."

Agatha stopped, and slowly raised her head, her eyes seemed to be quietly staring ahead through the black cloth belt.

At the end of the passage is the above ground exit of the mine, from which the bright sunlight is pouring in, warm and bright.

In Agatha's perception, the whole world is still cold, as cold as the grave.

But she knew that the sun was warm.

"As I said just now, the city-state must first survive," the pious priestess said softly, clasping her hands on her chest, as if praying to someone, "there is only one kind of heresy in the world—the one that hinders our survival, That's heresy, and everything else is allowed."