Ashes Of Deep Sea-Chapter 337 - 341 Three Questions and Answers
Chapter 337: Chapter 341 Three Questions and Answers
Chapter 337 -341 Three Questions and Answers
The Gatekeeper’s words contained a powerful force, and as her tin staff struck the floor with a thunderous echo, her voice spread layer by layer into the chaotic depths of the Spirit Realm.
In an instant, the unseen “whisperers” in the room fell silent once again, and the whole world plunged into temporary quietude. A few seconds later, a deep rumbling came from afar—as if a massive body was approaching with heavy footsteps.
Agatha raised her hand, directing her eyes toward the source of the sound, and where her gaze landed was the window boarded up with layers of planks—the gaps of which shimmered with a pale faint light. Suddenly, all that light flickered, then dimmed as if a colossal thing had come before the window.
The next second, the crisscrossed wooden planks silently shattered, countless grey-black fragments quietly scattered, and then paused mid-air near the window as if frozen in amber. A giant appeared outside the window.
The giant wore a black robe that signified death; its body underneath wrapped in bandages, with only the eyes on its head emitting a dim, unclear yellow glow. It stood outside the building, its stature nearly as large as an entire house, and then, the giant bent slightly forward, aligning its head with the second-story window—it turned its head, its bandage-covered face devoid of any expression, and then raised its hand, extending three fingers toward Agatha.
“Three questions and answers,” the giant spoke with a voice thunderous as thunder itself.
Agatha was taken aback at the sight of this giant.
This was not the familiar Gatekeeper she knew—the one who usually communicated with her didn’t possess such a colossal body; the one before her was clearly a higher-ranking emissary… But why would this emissary respond to her summons?
But quickly, she suppressed her doubt—emissaries’ comings and goings were commanded by the god of death, Bartok. There was no need for her to delve into it. What mattered most was to understand what was happening here.
“I’m looking for the soul that last lingered in this house,” she said, pointing with her staff to an empty table nearby, “He might have been contaminated, but now he’s nowhere to be found.”
“That soul has left, it has entered the realm of rest, a powerful force has erased his debts, contamination is no longer an issue.”
The Death’s emissary outside said with a thunderous voice, and then retracted one finger: two questions remaining.
Agatha hesitated, first noting the “powerful force” mentioned by the emissary. She quickly pondered and weighed her option before asking her second question, “Who is the source of this powerful force? Who erased the soul’s debts?”
“The Usurping Flame,” the emissary’s eyes, glowing with turbid yellow light, seemed to flicker as he spoke the words with a clear note of warning, and then he retracted another finger.
Upon hearing the term “Usurping Flame,” Agatha felt a sudden dizziness assail her. She instantly realized she was touching upon some sort of “knowledge” that stemmed from the world’s deep layers, knowledge that had never been revealed to the mortal realm.
But she didn’t lose her composure—dealing with gatekeepers from “the other side” and occasionally encountering dangerous knowledge was routine for her. Even though she was young, she had experienced this before, and since the emissary outside chose to share that term with her, it indicated that the word was at least within her capacity to endure.
If it had been a truly forbidden issue, the emissary would have warned her.
Agatha steadied her mind, took a gentle breath, and asked her third question, “Who is the Usurping Flame?”
“Human,” said the emissary outside, and then he retracted the last finger. His figure disappeared in a howling gale, leaving no chance for Agatha to continue the conversation.
The wooden fragments, scattered and suspended in the air, danced around, and in an instant, they reassembled into their original form. The room’s window was sealed shut once again as the chaotic pale light filtered through the cracks into the room, casting its glow on a somewhat perplexed Agatha.
The young Gatekeeper stood there, dazed, feeling at a loss for the first time after her conversation with a gatekeeper from “the other side.” The answer to her last question was still clear in her mind, but she had no idea what this seemingly nonsensical answer meant!
Human? What kind of answer was that? Did it mean… the Usurping Flame was a human? Could it be that a power dubbed “powerful” by Death’s emissary came from a human?
What kind of “human” would that be?! Was this still a “human”?!
Noises gradually grew louder again, and the air outside the triangle seemed to be teeming with countless invisible onlookers stirring restlessly. The noise broke Agatha’s train of thought. The eyeball in her palm rotated, seeing strands of ink-like black substance spreading outside the triangular barrier, growing more abundant as though ink droplets in water.
The Spirit Realm began to expel her, the uninvited guest.
She shook her head, lifted her hand to place the eyeball back in its socket, and picked up her staff to lightly wave it, dispersing the pale flames outlining a triangle on the floor.
In an instant, the Spirit Realm faded, sounds returned, and color and light once again filled her vision. She was back in the bustling scene of the guardians, her subordinates still working nervously and orderly around her.
Agatha moved her eyeballs and fetched a small bottle from her coat pocket. After pinching open the cap, she tilted her head back and dropped two drops of eye drops into her eye sockets.
The feeling of dryness and discomfort quickly receded.
A subordinate came from the side, and after Agatha put away the bottle of eye drops, he approached and asked, “Did you find any clues?”
“The soul has already departed. The gatekeeper ‘on the other side’ has confirmed that the soul has passed through Bartok’s gate and entered the place of rest,” Agatha said indifferently, “…That’s all, no more clues.”
For safety reasons, she didn’t mention the term “Usurping Flame” to her subordinate.
The word clearly held power, and might directly refer to extremely dangerous dark knowledge—just saying it out loud could have unknown consequences—it’s better to investigate the literature carefully after returning.
The subordinate clearly sensed Agatha’s concealment but, as an experienced guardian, he asked nothing more, nodded, and went back to work.
Just then, a series of footsteps suddenly came from outside in the corridor, disrupting Agatha’s thoughts.
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A guardian who was in charge of taking care downstairs came in: “Honorable gatekeeper, the lady has awakened.”
The young Senkin woman is awake?
Agatha immediately set aside her thoughts and quickly rushed to the first floor, where she saw Garland, who had awakened from her slumber.
The robust lady, with skin like stone, sat on the sofa, holding a cup of calming herbal tea prepared by a priest, her gaze somewhat vague as she stared at the coffee table in front of her. It wasn’t until Agatha sat down across from her and gently tapped on the table that she belatedly reacted.
“Hello, my name is Agatha; you should recognize me,” said the young gatekeeper, while carefully observing the condition of the person opposite her, “Do you know what happened?”
“I… My name is Garland,” the female apprentice holding the herbal tea said somewhat sluggishly, her eyes still seeming to drift, as if not completely freed from the dream, “I’m sorry, Honorable Gatekeeper, my head is still a mess. I feel like I had a very long dream, constantly solving math problems, proving them over and over. I’ve never been so exhausted, even with all my learning experiences combined…”
“Solving math problems?” Agatha was momentarily stunned before asking with a thoughtful expression, “Do you remember how you fell into such deep sleep? Before falling asleep, did you meet with someone, or do something?”
Garland slightly furrowed her brows, as if making a great effort to remember, but after a good half a minute, she still shook her head apologetically: “I’m sorry, I don’t remember. I can’t even recall anything from yesterday afternoon till now—if these guardians hadn’t reminded me, I wouldn’t even know… that something happened at home.”
Agatha frowned deeply.
Memory overlay, deep sleep, and “solving math problems”—that sounded almost like the power possessed by the clergy of the deity of wisdom.
But the deity of wisdom was also one of the four major gods; why would His clergy do this?
They were not heretics.
There seemed to be too many bewildering things today.
Agatha massaged her temple with a bit of a headache.
All sorts of erratic lines entangled in her mind.
Strange combat traces in the alley outside, the activities of the Heretics recently appearing in the City-State, the “Prime Element,” the suspicious accidents in the mines, the bizarre incidents occurring in this house, the messages conveyed by the Messenger of Death…
“May I ask…” Garland looked nervously at the gatekeeper before her, young as she might appear. Facing the highest-ranking church spokesperson in the City-State, she couldn’t help feeling uneasy, “Is my mentor okay?”
“Your mentor?” Agatha was somewhat puzzled.
“He should be upstairs; his name is Brown Scott,” Garland hurriedly explained, “I was a bit confused when I first woke up, I forgot to mention, he needs quiet…”
Agatha froze instantly.
