Deep in the secret passage connecting the Second Waterway, Nemo Wilkins held a lantern in his hand and led the way while saying in a somewhat gloating tone: "Our people have received the news and have evacuated and 'cleaned up.
After cleaning up the traces below, the church people are drilling underground in Central City and XC District - now the spreading darkness should give them a headache."
"I was worried that you might take the opportunity to cause some damage," Duncan said casually. "After all, you are the home field in the Second Waterway."
"We don't have to do this," Nemo shook his head, "We are loyal to Captain Tirian, and Captain Tirian never wants to destroy this city-state - from the perspective of protecting the city-state, we and the church, and even the city hall
There is no conflict. Now the church people are trying to eliminate the cultists in the city, so we won’t act on impulse and do something to help those cultists.”
Duncan nodded, and then asked curiously: "The old ghost didn't show up today?"
"Old ghost, he..." Nemo hesitated in his words, and then sighed softly, "Old ghost's mental state has become increasingly unstable recently. He is too old, and the church's efforts to organize manpower to search for the second waterway have also failed.
Something stimulated his nerves, which reminded him of the fight in the sewer. In order to avoid any trouble, I could only let him rest in the cellar of the tavern."
The last warrior who had ever been loyal to the queen still couldn't get out of the nightmare decades ago. Duncan could only sigh, and went to the depths of the Second Waterway with Alice in silence.
They passed through secret passages, passed through multiple secret doors and intersections that seemed to be monitored by hidden sentries, and finally entered the Second Waterway through a completely different path than last time.
Obviously, in order to respond to the search operations of the church and the authorities, the Sea Mist Fleet informants lurking in the city-state activated a set of camouflage and early warning systems that had been prepared for a long time.
Finally, Duncan and Alice, led by Nemo, returned to the corridor - the place where the crow had an accident.
"I'll go back first," Nemo said to Duncan. "The city has been tense recently, and more and more people are following me. I have to keep an eye on the situation above. You should pay attention to the church here..."
He wanted to remind Duncan to pay attention to safety and be careful about meeting the church's search team here, but in the middle of the sentence, he suddenly felt that something was wrong. He held it in his throat for a long time and said: "Be gentle, they are not bad people."
…”
Duncan couldn't help but became happy: "Don't worry, I know the appropriateness - go back quickly, you have been away from the tavern for too long."
"good."
Nemo left quickly, and the empty and cold underground waterway became quiet for a while.
Duncan raised his head and looked at the empty corridor in front of him, but in his mind he recalled the situation when he came here before.
The young man named "Crow" fell beside the sewage ditch not far ahead. He died on the dry ground. The cause of death was drowned in seawater. In his pocket, there was an unknown card.
Where were the "hieroglyphic" records copied from?
Now this corridor has been cleaned up, probably by Nemo and the old ghost.
Duncan turned his head and saw Alice following him obediently, with a serious expression in the eyes exposed outside the veil - but he knew that the doll was actually just emptying its head and not thinking about anything.
Of course, Duncan knew that he couldn't expect to discuss or reason with this doll. He brought Alice here just because she could see those "threads". Even the "threads" that occasionally leaked due to the proximity of the mirror world could not escape her.
s eyes.
"If you see the 'line' again, tell me immediately." Duncan said seriously.
"Yeah!" Alice nodded immediately.
Duncan walked forward slowly.
He was still thinking about the "crow" in his mind.
At that time, he, Morris and others all speculated that the "crow" had wandered into a certain place and met with misfortune. In the end, they searched the entire corridor and failed to find any clues. The investigation was stalled. But now it seems...
At that time, there seemed to be an answer to where the crow had strayed.
Most likely, it's a mirror
Like the frost briefly intersecting with the frost of reality in this corridor, it may be a crack, or it may be a momentary reflection emerging from the water somewhere - the crow passing by unfortunately fell into it.
.
Regardless of how he crossed that line, one thing is clear:
This corridor should be a weak point in the connection between the mirror and reality.
Underground, it was cold and damp, and the air was filled with a rotten and moldy smell, giving people the feeling that the entire city-state was a corpse that was gradually rotting - and that he was walking in the entrails of this corpse.
middle.
Footsteps sounded in the strange-smelling sewer corridor, which sounded a little heavy. Agatha walked forward slowly, confirming the direction through temporary divination and spiritual perception, while carefully paying attention to the surrounding disturbances.
Her black clothes were severely damaged, and the soft armor lining and the ceremonial bandages wrapped around her body were stained with more blood. The damage to her body had exceeded the limit of self-repair. She could only use it first
The magic stopped the bleeding, but he had no time to think about repairing his flesh and blood.
But the good news is that Agatha is increasingly certain that she is heading in the right direction - after eliminating more and more counterfeit freaks, and after many confrontations with this malicious replica city-state, she finally overcomes
I can "smell" those heresies more and more clearly.
She followed this smell through the streets and alleys of the lower city, passed through the empty and twisted subway passages, and got into the collapsed sewers. Finally, she discovered this place that had been abandoned for countless years and was located deep underground in the city-state.
world.
The vastness here exceeded the records she saw in the archives, and exceeded her imagination after seeing those archives.
Agatha raised her head and looked at the dimly lit wide corridor ahead. Ancient gas lamps were embedded on the walls on both sides of the corridor. The flames of the lamps with insufficient air supply flickered on and off, and the light swayed and danced in the glass cover.
The criss-crossing pipes and supporting structures can be seen on the vault of the corridor. Under the illumination of the shaking gas lamp, everything casts a swaying and twisted shadow, as if there were countless invisible things crawling in the darkness.
On both sides of the floor of the corridor, there were ditches flowing with sewage. The disgusting black water flowed down from the grille openings on the wall and merged into those ditches, making a gurgling sound.
Agatha knew where this place was.
This is the "Second Waterway" beneath the frost, a place she originally planned to lead the team to explore.
The only difference from the plan was that she originally planned to lead a team to explore the city-state underground in the real world, but now she was trapped in a replica of the frost.
Agatha closed her eyes slightly and carefully felt the flow of breath in the air. She blocked out the foul smell and relied on her spiritual intuition to search for the location of the heretics.
She could feel that the longer she stayed here and the more she interacted with those freaks, the "connection" between herself and this fake city was gradually strengthening.
in front of.
The gatekeeper opened his eyes, ignored the vague pain coming from the wounds on his body, chose a fork in the road ahead, and continued walking deeper into the corridor.
She suddenly remembered something.
Not long ago, she visited the being who descended in the frost and was suspected to be an ancient god or an incarnation of an ancient god. At that time, the other party hinted to her that he wanted her to go "underground" to look for clues.
Now, guided by her breath, she is constantly approaching the lair where the heretics are hiding.
Those heretics are really hiding underground in the city-state, hiding in this abandoned second waterway - but this "underground hiding place" is not in the Frost City in the real world, but in a copied foreign land.
Agatha twitched her lips.
The road is winding and winding, but we finally return to the starting point.
She misunderstood the hint of the descendant and mistakenly believed that the enemy was hiding in the second waterway in the real world. Now she has accidentally entered this replica city-state and found herself in this replica's second waterway.
Found a clue.
Wandering on a fork in the road and finally heading in the right direction - is this also a kind of luck?
Agatha observed the situation around her.
Although she has not investigated the Second Waterway in depth in the real world, she does know some general information. She knows that the ancient sewer system has been completely abandoned and blocked, and all pipes, shafts and drainage channels leading to the Second Waterway have been closed.
Close, theoretically, it should be a dry or relatively dry place.
However, sewage can be seen flowing everywhere in the sewer corridor in front of you, and the sound of drainage can be heard from time to time in the surrounding pipes.
In this replicated Frost City-state, the second waterway appears to have been in constant use—is this also the difference between a fake and an authentic product?
Agatha thought, then suddenly stopped.
A sticky and disgusting squirming sound came from the surroundings. From the sewage pipe mouths and the wall surfaces covered with black pollutants, black mud was constantly seeping out.
Those lingering freaks are here again.
The body is very tired, the wound is aching, the ritual bandage has been torn, the blessing of the God of Death has gradually weakened, and the weakness caused by the loss of blood has reached a level that cannot be ignored.
But Agatha just raised her head calmly and stared at the deformed monsters gathering in front of her eyes.