Chapter 436: Chapter 437: A Field of Ruins Chapter 436: Chapter 437: A Field of Ruins The dazzling starlight spoke to , approached —It had been sitting on the sofa before, yet as it took steps toward , Agatha felt as if she were gazing upon a colossus defying description. For a brief mont, she even lost the ability to judge size or proportion, her scrambled senses unable to comprehend the dinsions of the room, and that giant ford by converging starlight… nearly suffocated her soul.
But it was just a fleeting illusion. In the next mont, Agatha snapped out of her stupor, realizing her sanity was not affected by any presence in the room. It was as though… she had naturally assimilated into this place.
“I…” She steadied herself, looking at the giant constructed of starlight. She knew she had been persistently staring at the “truth” of this indescribable Being, an act normally akin to suicide, but now that she confird she was truly unaffected, her courage swelled, “I didn’t expect you to actually still be here, I just ca to try my luck…”
“Where do you think I would go? Strut out when everything here is in such disarray? Like those heroes in picture books who have fulfilled their quests?” Duncan laughed, sidestepping to signal Agatha to co inside while speaking, then he paused, casting a covert glance at Alice beside him, and added, “I an those picture books with proper content.”
Agatha was a bit dazed, feeling she couldn’t quite keep up with this great existence’s thoughts, but swiftly, she convinced herself that “it’s normal for mortals not to grasp the thoughts of the ancient gods,” and stepped inside the house.
Suddenly, Duncan stopped and glanced at what was in Agatha’s hand.
“…Could you put Sherry down first?” he asked in a strangely awkward tone, “And you, Sherry—how co you seem to be enjoying this?”
“Ah, sorry!” Agatha ca to her senses, hastily setting the frail girl she’d been carrying on the floor, but as she did so, her expression abruptly changed.
The situation had been chaotic at the entrance, and she hadn’t focused on Sherry. Now, she suddenly noticed abnormalities on her—limbs mutated by Profound Demon Symbiosis, chains extending from within, hidden, and that Abyssal Hound sneaking a look at the outside from within the shadows.
“Profound…” Agatha started to speak instinctively as her muscles tensed in a flash.
But before she could act, Duncan’s voice rose from the side: “Relax, it’s just a harmless hound; I occasionally need such a hound to find things for .”
“Harmless…hound?” Agatha spoke with an odd expression, her gaze sweeping the surroundings subconsciously.
Those figures ca into view once more—those who seed like the chosen ones, seemingly blessed by Subspace, appearing to harbor the power of the sun, and souls so enigmatic they were unfathomable…
Her eyes settled back on the girl called Sherry.
The Abyssal Hound, realizing it had been spotted, crouched in the shadows, looking pitiful.
Agatha fell silent.
The ancient god and Its followers were gathered here—indeed, any Profound Demon here could be considered as harmless as livestock.
“Don’t worry, Sherry isn’t a follower of the Death Church,” Duncan, seeing Agatha quiet down, patiently explained, “Her acquaintance with that dog was due to other reasons, and now they both act on my orders, posing no threat to the City-State.”
With that, he pointed to a chair not far away: “Please, have a seat. You must have a lot to say.”
Agatha slowly made her way over, while Duncan watched her movents—she found the chair precisely, but there was evident hesitation and fumbling as she sat down.
“You seem to still need so ti to adjust to your current state,” Duncan said, “Is everything alright?”
This mysterious being seed forever congenial and tranquil. Agatha shifted uneasily, “…I’m indeed not quite used to the way I perceive the world now, though there’s no need to worry about this body. In fact, the changes that have occurred to have several benefits. I can now see many things I couldn’t observe before. It’s just… a matter of adjustnt.”
“I apologize,” Duncan said seriously, “I didn’t anticipate such a transformation—actually, you didn’t have to resort to such an extre asure as Self-Sacrifice.”
“But it was the most efficient way,” Agatha shook her head gently, “There’s nothing more suitable than a gatekeeper to be a vessel for your mighty power.”
Duncan didn’t say anything more and then his attention turned to the other’s current, special attire.
“You look very different from when we last t,” he said casually, “You now seem… more like a priest than before.”
“I am temporarily taking on the duties of the Archbishop,” Agatha nodded lightly, “Archbishop Ivan is no more, now that the battle in the city has ended. Rather than a fully ard gatekeeper, this place now needs soone to lead the church in comforting the souls of the deceased and the minds of the living.”
“Archbishop Ivan…” Duncan’s tone was sowhat solemn; after a brief silence, he sighed softly, “I never t him, but at that ti, I sensed the protection that descended upon the City-State… Although it was brief, his efforts truly weakened the link between the mirror and reality for a while. Without him, many more would have died.”
“May he find peace in the realm of Bartok,” Agatha said softly, “He… bore the burden for many years, and now he can finally rest for a long ti.”
“He will—although I am not quite sure what Bartok’s domain is really like, as a true god, I trust He will fairly treat those noble souls,” Duncan said, and then quickly changed the subject, “Now, tell about the situation within the City-State.”
Agatha nodded slightly.
She knew, as the gatekeeper of the Death Church and also one of the few left in the City-State capable of managing the situation, she should not casually reveal to anyone the current predicant of Frost, especially not establishing more communication with an entity of uncertain origin, suspected of being an ancient god. But after witnessing that towering figure outside the City-State’s ocean, having carried out that “Self-Sacrifice,” she knew that both Frost and she had inevitably established a difficult to sever connection with this mysterious being.
If this entity still had an interest in continuing to watch over this battered City-State, then she couldn’t avoid the matter any longer.
If her choice for today was a sin, then let the church and the Lord judge her.
“The current situation in Frost is… very bad,” she began, her voice low, “As you are aware, we have just lost Archbishop Ivan. The clergy and guardians of the church have also suffered significant losses in defending the City-State. Now fear and tension pervade the city, not to ntion the various negative effects brought about by the casualties—if these are not handled promptly, secondary disasters are highly likely to arise. Creatures of dread might spring from the hearts of the people. With the church short-handed, ‘fear’ itself will spread like a rolling snowball throughout the City-State.”
“In fact, the sunset a few hours from now may mark the beginning of the test—during the previous mirror invasion, Frost has been deprived of sunlight for an extended period, which greatly weakened the City-State’s defenses against transcendent powers. No one knows what might happen on the first night that follows.”
“On the other hand, the situation at the town hall is actually worse than the church’s—aside from the casualties faced by the City-State Guards and the sheriff’s forces, the most serious issue is…”
Agatha hesitated here, but after several seconds of internal struggle, she continued—after all, the disappearance of the Governor could not be hidden from anyone.
“The most serious issue is, the Governor has disappeared.”
Duncan raised his eyebrows, “Disappeared?”
“He vanished in the Boiling Gold Mine Shaft, and I…” Agatha stumbled a bit, as if organizing her words, it took a few seconds before she continued with a complex expression, “Another , led a team to investigate the mine tunnel where the Governor vanished. According to the report from the exploration team who later returned to the cathedral, ‘I’ and Governor Winston had entered an abnormal area sealed off by stone walls and did not return…”
Her tone was low and hesitant; it was clear that ntioning “another herself” did not leave her as composed as she appeared.
And Duncan could almost imagine the struggle, confusion, and contradiction that Agatha went through upon returning to the cathedral and learning about “the other herself” and her actions over the past few days from other clergy.
He watched Agatha calmly, “You can be more straightforward—Frost City-State’s Governor is dead, you have concluded this, right?”
“Yes,” Agatha finally stopped hesitating and spoke openly, “Though there is no evidence, I indeed ‘know’ that he is dead, died in so strange and dark space, and probably we won’t be able to retrieve even his body.”
“You ‘know’,” Duncan emphasized the word “know,” then adjusted his position on the chair, “It seems you will be going back to the Boiling Gold Mine Shaft after this.”
“That place… is where ‘she’ last disappeared,” Agatha nodded lightly, “At the ti of her last disappearance, I felt sothing indescribable, as if I could sense her thoughts. I feel like… she had a lot she wanted to tell , but she ran out of ti…”
Agatha paused, then continued, “And… so of the mbers of the exploration team who returned from the mine ntioned so things to , things the ‘other ’ had told them while leading the team to explore the mine. This matter makes even more uneasy…”
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