Chapter 15 The Wall

　　Agatha instantly retracted her hand, looking at her fingertips with suspicion.

　　However, the accompanying nun closest to her had already witnessed the strange scene. The nun immediately widened her eyes in surprise: "Gatekeeper, just now your hand..."

　　Agatha frowned, unsure of what had happened. At that moment, a Guardian warrior beside her stepped forward, cautiously raising his combat staff and tapping the solid stone wall that looked no different from the surroundings.

　　The staff struck the stone wall, producing a crisp sound, but nothing changed on the wall.

　　The Guardian turned his head, nodded slightly to Agatha, then mustered his courage and touched the stone wall directly with his palm.

　　Nothing happened; the wall remained a wall.

　　"It's just a wall," the Guardian frowned. "But just now..."

　　Agatha said nothing, but silently stepped forward and reached out to the wall again with her finger.

　　In the next second, she watched as her finger disappeared into it once more!

　　Without any resistance, she felt as if she were touching only a curtain made of illusion.

　　"It seems only you can pass through it," the accompanying priest said in astonishment, turning his head in disbelief. "But... why is this happening? Why is there such a wall deep within the Boiling Gold Mine?

　　No one has ever reported this before..."

　　Listening to the priest's exclamation, Agatha said nothing, but continued to stare intently at the finger she had thrust into the stone wall—from an angle only she noticed, she finally saw the minute changes occurring when her fingertip touched the stone wall.

　　Her finger and the stone wall seemed to melt simultaneously at that point, though only a little, merging together like heated butter. The color and texture… looked like black sludge.

　　That was how she "passed through" the seemingly impenetrable stone wall.

　　After an unknown length of time, she finally broke the silence in a soft voice: "I don't know why this is happening, but clearly… I'm the only one who can do what comes next."

　　"Gatekeeper?" The accompanying priest was immediately startled, quickly reacting. "You want to go in alone!? Wait, this is too unsafe. This wall is definitely not right. It's very likely that you'll be in danger if you enter rashly..."

　　"Our city-state is being swallowed by the dense fog, and the distorted beings within it show no mercy—the power behind them will not wait for us to investigate the truth before acting," Agatha said slowly, shaking her head, her voice as calm and steady as ever. "Governor Winston's team ultimately arrived here, yet his body is not here. It now seems that these fallen guards were fighting to the last to buy time in the mines… If I'm not mistaken, they were buying the governor time to pass through this wall."

　　The priest was at a loss for words. After a few seconds of silence, he instinctively said, "But it's still too dangerous for you to be alone. At the very least, this should be reported to the Cathedral..."

　　"There's no time, there really isn't any time," Agatha turned around, shaking her head slowly but firmly. As she spoke, she once again felt that bone-chilling cold enveloping her entire body. She could almost clearly feel her blood gradually ceasing to flow, the very matter that made up her body slowly losing its vitality. Though this discomfort lasted only a short time, it made her tone even more resolute. "I must figure out the secret of this mine. This may be the only thing I can do in the remaining time I have…"

　　She suddenly stopped, forcefully suppressing her thoughts and actions, doing her best to regain her composure and looking at her subordinates with a serious expression.

　　"I will pass through this wall. You should know the power of the Gatekeeper—don't worry about me. You have your own things to do. After I pass through, you will immediately return to the intersection we passed earlier. Then, the first and second squads will continue to the excavation area according to the original plan, to investigate the true situation of the Boiling Gold Mine. The third and fourth squads will return to the surface, report what happened here to the Cathedral, and then…"

　　She paused for a few seconds, as if her train of thought had suddenly been interrupted, then waved her hand. "That's all. The rest will be under Bishop Ivan's command."

　　The Guardians, priests, and nuns couldn't help but exchange glances. It was the first time they had seen the Gatekeeper act this way, and they were inevitably a little apprehensive. But under Agatha's exceptionally stern gaze, and under the professional standards they had cultivated almost instinctively through years of training, obeying orders became their subconscious reaction.

　　"Yes, we understand," the leading priest nodded solemnly, drawing the triangular symbol of Bartok on his chest. But then, he couldn't help but ask, "When should we come to pick you up?"

　　"...No need to pick me up—but rest assured, I will return. No matter what happens, I will, definitely return."

　　The priest stepped back. No one noticed the subtle change in her tone when she said "I."

　　Agatha took a light breath and stepped towards the dark wall.

　　Just before touching it, she spoke softly one last time, as if whispering to someone, or perhaps to herself: "Actually... I really like this world..."

　　She took a step forward without hesitation, her body passing through the "stone wall" without any resistance, like one illusion merging into another.

　　Subtle ripples appeared on the surface of the stone wall for a moment, but before anyone could see them clearly, the ripples disappeared without a trace.

　　Darkness, cold, helpless, unable to distinguish up from down, or left from right. Then, all senses seemed to disappear instantly, returning to her later in an extremely slow and strange way—these were all the feelings Agatha had after crossing the wall.

　　After an unknown period, she opened her "eyes" in the darkness, only to find that she could not see anything around her.

　　Everywhere she looked, there was only endless chaos. Vaguely discernible dark masses wriggled slowly in the even darker background, like some kind of viscous, disgusting fluid, or like slowly crawling, indescribable behemoths.

　　Why is it so dark? Didn't I bring a lantern?

　　The question couldn't help but appear in Agatha's mind, and almost as soon as she thought it, a glimmer of light appeared before her eyes.

　　The faint light illuminated the surroundings, and she saw that she was floating in a boundless expanse of black mist, with countless shadowy things wriggling and flowing around her without making any sound.

　　Agatha quietly watched this scene, then lowered her head.

　　Her body appeared in her vision, first her torso, then her hands and feet, and the combat staff that had accompanied her for so many years.

　　"Ah... you're here too..."

　　Agatha muttered to herself, slowly raising the staff in her hand, looking at the familiar patterns on it, and the name she had carved on it seriously when she first received the staff as a Guardian.

　　"Are you a shadow too, like me?" she asked the staff softly.

　　The staff, of course, did not respond to her voice, but something else in the darkness suddenly made a sound.

　　"Bang!"

　　It was a gunshot.

　　Agatha frowned instantly, but before she could look in the direction of the sound, a slightly nervous voice had already reached her ears: "Who's there?!"

　　In the darkness, Agatha turned her head, and at almost the same time, she saw a faint light suddenly appear in the direction of the voice.

　　A small patch of solid ground appeared there, illuminated by an ancient-looking brass lantern. On the open space, she could also see something like a tree stump, and a middle-aged man in a dark blue coat was leaning against the stump, looking like an immobile statue.

　　When Agatha's gaze fell on him, the "statue" suddenly moved. He suddenly raised his head, looking in Agatha's direction with surprise and nervousness: "Who's there?!"

　　Agatha subconsciously felt a hint of disharmony, but quickly put it out of her mind. She walked towards the open space illuminated by the lantern, clearly seeing the middle-aged man's face.

　　Without the slightest surprise, it was Winston, the Governor of Frost City-State.

　　"It looks like you've been here for a long time, Governor," Agatha said calmly. "Now it's just the two of us here."

　　"Gatekeeper… Ms. Agatha?" Winston raised his head sluggishly, his whole person acting as slowly as a badly worn clockwork doll, his speech slow. But as time went on, his speech and expression gradually became more agile and smooth. "You're here too… Wait, how are you here?"

　　"I passed through a wall, a wall deep in the Boiling Gold Mine," Agatha said calmly. She knew that there was no need for any concealment or circumlocution now. "The guards you brought have already been wiped out in the mines, Governor—do you remember them?"

　　"The guards… oh, the guards I brought," Winston frowned, as if he had just remembered, and then a trace of sadness appeared in his tone. "They were all great people. They did their best to allow me to activate the key left by the Queen, but I…"

　　Agatha's expression changed slightly in an instant: "The key left by the Queen?"

　　http:///yt43989/35910721.ht.