Chapter 1 The Booming

Boom!

A thunderous roar exploded in the depths of his consciousness, and Morris almost instantly lost control of his own state—even in the shielded state of isolating the main consciousness and solidifying the mind, he was still swept by the spreading impact and teetered in the ensuing, tidal wave of information!

In an instant, his "psychological perspective," which was standing behind and to the side of his body, rotated. His vision no longer saw the words in his mind, but only felt endless mist swirling and rising. The sentences he had just read seemed like a swarm of bees out of control,衝擊 and gnawing at his memories, tearing at parts of his personality. For a moment, he even forgot his name. All that remained in his mind was the title he had seen in the last second—the Gloomy Saint.

But at the next moment, this feeling of dizziness was suddenly stopped by something. Morris felt that his consciousness was forcibly dragged back to the real world by an extremely powerful force. In the process of being "dragged back," he saw many arrays of flashing lights in the thick fog, and in the middle of those lights, there was a largest red light source.

This scene was like Rahm, the god of wisdom, casting a glance at him, but in the next second, the array of lights quickly dissipated, turning into huge waves crashing down.

Then, the giant waves turned into a cloud of collapsing white smoke before his eyes. The fine white ashes, like the ashes of saints, fell on him.

Afterwards, the white ashes burned in mid-air, turning into a rain of falling fire, condensing countless dazzling and crimson flames, rushing towards him as if to burn him to ashes!

But just before the crimson flames fell on him, Morris saw all the fire suddenly dyed with a layer of ghostly green—the raging fire instantly became gentle, and fell bit by bit beside him. A piece of flame touched his shoulder, and he immediately felt someone pat him heavily. The next second, he suddenly opened his eyes and realized that he had returned to his body.

The effects of consciousness isolation and mind solidification were forcibly ended, and he returned to this world from the brink of madness once again.

In the moment his consciousness returned, Morris resisted the urge to "take another look" and forcefully closed the black leather book in his hand.

His movements were fast, but even so, the book flipped violently through several pages before it closed. In the fleeting glimpse of his peripheral vision, some trembling words imprinted themselves on Morris's vision with an extremely strong impression—it was a sentence, a sentence with the strong obsession of someone on their deathbed:

"We shall eventually return to the purest and most holy origin."

The black leather book was completely closed. The words he had seen at the last moment lingered in Morris's mind, and he gasped violently.

Vanna immediately noticed the abnormality here and approached in two steps:

"How are you?"

"…The daily life of a scholar, dealing with deadly knowledge, and then surviving," Morris smoothed his breathing, stretched out his hand to Vanna, "I'm fine, I'm still me—help me up."

As soon as he got up, he asked again:

"How much time has passed?"

"A few seconds," Vanna nodded and replied, "I just saw you open the book and take a few glances, and you suddenly closed it. At the same time, your spirituality was in constant turmoil, and indistinguishable shadows began to emerge in the surrounding mist."

"A few seconds…" Morris twitched the corner of his mouth, but in his mind, he recalled the strange scenes he had seen when he was dragged back from the edge of losing control.

In the next second, a deep and majestic voice appeared in his mind:

"Morris, what's going on over there?"

Morris was startled and quickly straightened his expression, responding in his heart:

"I was just reading a blasphemous book seized from the Annihilation Cultists, and I was accidentally contaminated—Captain, was it you who pulled me back in the end?"

"Yes," Duncan responded, "I suddenly noticed that your mind was under attack, so I used the 'mark' left on you to check the situation. You said you seized a blasphemous book? What exactly is going on? Are you still with Vanna? Where are you now?"

"Vanna and I are together. We are still active in the Upper City. We discovered that Annihilation Cultists are using the fog as cover to enter the real world and are manipulating some forgeries to attack the city-state—we just found and eliminated one of the manipulators," Morris immediately responded, then sorted out his thoughts and continued, "The situation is very strange. After the cultist died, the corpse showed a phenomenon of fusion with elemental matter. It seems to be some kind of extreme 'transformation' result. He carried a black, nameless book with him, and the contents of the book…"

Morris suddenly stopped, his tone becoming particularly cautious, while carefully controlling his thoughts:

"The contents of the book are disturbing. It is the original text of those Holy Body records copied by the 'Crow' before. I only had time to read a small part of it before I was contaminated. Sorry, I can only report this much now—I can't recall the details inside."

Duncan's voice was silent for two seconds, then sounded again:

"Alright, safety first, don't continue to recall what you saw. Take the book with you, and report to me in person later."

Morris breathed a slight sigh of relief:

"Yes, Captain."

At this moment, Vanna suddenly "spoke":

"Captain, how is the situation on your side?"

"Alice and I are on the Second Waterway—it's very quiet here."

Near the center of the city-state, deep underground, at an intersection on the Second Waterway, Duncan raised his head and looked at the empty corridor in the distance.

A thin layer of mist was floating above the corridor, close to the dark ceiling. The mist seemed to appear out of thin air in this space, and it was becoming thicker with the passage of time—but compared to the surface of the city-state, which was completely shrouded in thick fog, the slight mist here was not serious.

"I'm waiting for the Tinder to be in place."

Using the connection of the "mark," he said to Vanna in his heart.

"Tinder?" Vanna's voice sounded a little puzzled.

"The Annihilation Cultists' lair is not in the real world—Mirror Frost is their main camp," Duncan said slowly, "Whether it's the Sea Fog Fleet, the Frost Navy, or the city-state guard and the Church's guardians, the 'invasions' they are destroying in the real world are only slowing down the process of the mirror surfacing. Only by attacking from the mirror side can we truly solve this problem.

"Agatha has already taken the Tinder—she will find the heretics' lair, and then I will help her ignite that place."

Vanna's response was obviously delayed by a few seconds:

"Then…what can we do?"

"Continue to hunt in the fog, eliminate all the forgeries you see, find all the controllers behind them, and hunt as many as you can," Duncan said, "Slowing down the invasion is meaningful. You are buying time for Agatha and reducing the pressure she faces."

Vanna immediately responded:

"Yes, I understand!"

Then, a few seconds later, her voice came again:

"Also…there may be a forgery 'Gatekeeper' active in the city-state, and the Church seems to have no reaction. Do you think…"

Her voice sounded a little hesitant.

Duncan already knew about the forgery, even more clearly than Vanna.

After all, he had already established contact with the real Agatha.

"Don't worry about that 'Agatha'," he responded after a moment of silence, "and don't go after her—but if you encounter her, provide assistance as needed."

Vanna was obviously stunned for a few seconds, and then her tone was filled with astonishment:

"Provide assistance?! Help that 'forgery'?"

"Don't forget, not all forgeries are controlled by the Annihilation Cultists. The most outstanding ones have their own will," Duncan's tone remained calm, "The Gatekeeper will not easily become a puppet of the heretics. Of course, you still need to make your own judgment at that time."

"Yes, I understand, Captain."

This time, there was an unusual solemnity in Vanna's response.

It was as if her sense of mission as an Inquisitor, at this moment, resonated subtly with that "Gatekeeper."

The communication with his followers ended.

Duncan breathed a sigh of relief, then raised his hand, and a small flame ignited on his fingertip.

He stared at the flame, and then spoke softly:

"Agatha, do you really think 'she' will be as you expect?"

A cold and hoarse voice sounded from the flame:

"Yes."

"Why are you so sure?"

"Because I believe in myself."

"But that's just your replica," Duncan said calmly, "There will be slight differences between you, and these differences may cause her to make different decisions than you."

"But you didn't order your followers to eliminate that 'hidden danger'," Agatha said, "You also believe in my judgment."

Duncan was silent for a few seconds before sighing softly.

"There was a human named Brown Scott who proved his humanity to me, and that humanity still works on 'forgeries'—so this time, I don't mind believing it one more time."

"If…I mean, what if my judgment is wrong too? Your trust will be misplaced…"

"It's okay, it's all a small matter."

A small matter…

In the cold and humid sewer corridor, Agatha lowered her head and glanced at the small flame that was still burning quietly in her palm.

The faint heat emanating from the flame seemed to have become the only temperature she could feel in this world—outside the firelight, she felt the whole world was as cold as a tomb.

The "Captain's" voice came again:

"Agatha, how is the situation on your side?"

"I'm still moving forward, I'm almost there. I can feel it, very close."

"I mean your situation. Your voice sounds different than before."

Agatha stopped.

She lowered her head, and what she saw was her scarred body and the wounds that had stopped bleeding.

"It's okay," she said softly, her voice as cold as a tomb, "It's all a small matter."