Deep Sea Embers

An approaching breath suddenly interrupted the current topic.

Agatha immediately withdrew her finger touching the mirror: "Someone is coming, it's an attendant."

"Understood, I won't scare him," the voice in the mirror came directly into her mind, "I'm right by your side, when you search carefully, you will find me."

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

"...It's not cold now."

The voice dissipated in my mind, and the feeling of being watched gradually faded away, and the other Agatha reflected in the mirror returned to the normal mirror image——with her eyes covered by a black cloth, wearing a priestess' gown, Stand quietly in front of the mirror.

Agatha hesitated for a moment, and tentatively stretched out her hand towards the mirror, only to touch the cold glass—one even suspected that what happened just now was really just an illusion.

And almost at the same time, she heard footsteps coming to the door, and at the same time there was a light knock on the door: "Archbishop, are you inside?"

The old subordinates among the guards still habitually call her "the gatekeeper", while the clerical priests in the church have begun to call her "the archbishop".

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

The door opened, and a high-ranking church attendant in a gray tunic appeared at the door and saluted Agatha: "Archbishop, there is an urgent message from the city hall, please go to Southport immediately—General Tirian has already It's waiting for you there."

"City Hall? Let me go to Nangang?" Agatha frowned subconsciously, feeling that the news was a bit unusual, "Anyone explain what it is?"

"No, it's an emergency and it's not appropriate to spread it," the high-ranking attendant said with some hesitation in his tone, "But...General Tirian sent a message, saying...'The owner of the fire may be interested'."

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

"I see. Go prepare the car. I'll start right away."

It didn't take long for Agatha to take the steam car to Southport. Considering the message from Tirian, she didn't bring any entourage, but went alone.

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

In the end what happened? Will that "General Tirian" react like this? During the previous war, Nangang was once occupied by counterfeit monsters, and the cleanup work is still going on... Could it be that they found something among the ruins? Is it a sacrilegious relic left by the Cultists of Oblivion, or is it a suspicious "sample" left after the counterfeit monster has subsided?

Regardless of the possibility, it should not be possible for General Tirian to have such a reaction.

With all these disturbing thoughts, Agatha quickly walked through the deserted and empty streets due to the state of martial law, passed through checkpoints and checkpoints, and arrived at the southern port area, which was still under complete blockade. .

The soldiers of the City Guard guarded all the intersections, and the heavily armed church guards were patrolling, inspecting, and marking the polluted areas waiting to be dealt with in severely damaged buildings. Some priests collected samples in those polluted areas, and occasionally College students in heavy protective gear can be seen walking through the buildings under the leadership of their instructors—they are civil engineering students who are here today to check the status of important port facilities and prepare for subsequent repairs.

The car was parked in an open space on the edge of the security zone, while Agatha was led by two soldiers through the busy "work sites" and walked 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 send you here," the two leading soldiers turned around and said to Agatha apologetically, "We don't know what's going on next—the general will explain it to you."

under?

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

It was not the soldiers of the city guard guarding the warehouse gate, but a group of undead sailors.

In Agatha's eyes, the living are clear figures that are warm and exuding a faint radiance, while the undead are hollow and pale shells, and smoke reminiscent of ashes rises from their vague silhouettes—— After the entire warehouse was guarded by undead people, Agatha further realized that the situation here was far from normal.

Because compared to the city guard, General Tirian obviously trusted his undead army more.

"Ma'am," an undead man guarding the gate came over. His upper body and lower body had been separated, and nearly a quarter of his torso was missing in the middle. Only some messy and floating cloth strips connected the two halves of the body. Wearing a new coat that symbolizes the Frost Soldiers, but on the sleeves of the coat is another armband representing the Queen's Guard-this undead sailor came to Agatha, even though he looked terrible, he was still fine An extremely standard military salute, "After entering, 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 going on underground.

After entering the warehouse, she met another team of undead sailors who were supporting her, and under the leadership of the other party, she found the elevator that was hidden in the corner of the warehouse and seemed to be "dug" out from behind a large pile of camouflage wall panels. .

Then she took the elevator and descended with the iron cage. It took a few minutes to reach an underground facility that was buried deep underground and never appeared in any official records.

Stepping out of the car, she "saw" an open hall in the dim and chaotic field of vision. In the hall, the "silt" left after the counterfeit invasion subsided can be seen everywhere. There are undead sailors cleaning up those things, and a tall The figure stood at the end of the hall, guarding in front of a gate.

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

Agatha stepped towards the figure.

"Oh, Ms. Agatha, you are finally here," Tirian greeted proactively, "I thought you would come here directly from the central area of ​​the upper city with a gust of wind..."

"I'm used to traveling with the gray wind—but I don't have to run across half the city by myself," Agatha said casually, then raised her head, and her eyes fell on the gate behind Tirian, "here What's the situation? Nangang underground...why is there such a facility?"

"You are surprised, everyone is surprised - this facility does not exist in any official records, if it is not for cleaning up the ruins here, we really can't find it here," Tirian shook his head, "Guess, What have we found in this large hidden facility?"

"Don't be fooled, General," Agatha sighed, and a dark green flame flashed past her eyes covered by black cloth, "There are no outsiders here."

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

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

Bloodstains and dents from the bomb craters left in the battle can still be seen vaguely on the gate. Apparently, in the previous Frost Defense War, there was an unknown accident in the depths of this unknown facility. fighting.

Now, however, both the Raider and the Guardian have disappeared from that battle.

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

The locking device of the gate has been destroyed, and the thick alloy door receded to the sides with a creaking sound, and a more spacious space illuminated by gas lamps and electric lights appeared in Agatha's perception.

The smell of salty sea water also penetrated into her nostrils.

Standing at the entrance of this hall, she "looked" blankly at the huge machine in the shape of an ellipsoidal giant egg fixed between the solid beams in her vision.

And at the oblique bottom of this huge machine, at the end of a long slideway is the source of sea water breath—it is obviously a waterway, and the other end leads directly to the sea.

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

"It's a deep submersible, ma'am," Tirian exhaled softly, with an inexplicable complex emotion in his tone, "It was manufactured based on the blueprint of the last generation of deep submersibles, and many newer technologies were applied. Much more advanced than the ones we used back then."

The conjecture in her head was confirmed, and Agatha couldn't help taking a breath, then turned her head suddenly: "Who built this?"

"It may be Winston's Consul, or several previous Consuls - we have not found detailed construction and approval records, so we cannot confirm who gave the initial construction order," Tirian said. He said slowly, "Based on the small amount of information we have found so far, at least until two months ago, this facility was operating secretly."