How did that key get to the first archons?

This is the question that Agatha is most concerned about at the moment—because in every historical record, from the perspective of the queen's supporters and from the perspective of the city-state authorities today, there is one thing that is consistent in the description of the "uprising" or "rebellion" half a century ago: the irreconcilable contradiction between the Queen of Frost and the rebels.

The two sides are enemies, and there is no possibility of understanding or cooperation, not to mention any "inheritance" relationship - why did the key of Queen Nora go to the hands of the city-state consul? And Winston also called it a "curse" and a "gift"?

In quick thought, Agatha lowered her head and looked into Winston's eyes, "There was another truth about the uprising back then—was there an ......agreement between the Frost Queen and the rebels?"

"There's no such dramatic twist, Lady Gatekeeper, and while it does sound like a good story - the mad ruler of the city-state and the leader of the rebel army sympathize with each other, and use a great uprising that can end the chaos of the previous dynasty to complete the transfer of power and responsibility, the screenwriters and families will love this theme, but unfortunately, there is no such warmth in real history.

"The great revolt is inevitable, the irreparable rift between the Mad Queen and the subjects of Frost, she was once great, but her failure in the Abyss Project has pushed the city-state to the brink of collapse, the first archons raised an army against the Queen for the survival of more people, and there was no room for peaceful dialogue between them from the beginning.

"But you are not wrong about one thing, there is indeed some kind of 'tacit understanding' between the queen and the rebels,

The Queen knew that her overthrow was inevitable, and the rebels knew that the Queen's madness was more than 'insane, she must have had a lot of secrets.'

"So, the night before the execution, the leader of the rebels, the first consul, found the imprisoned queen, and he wanted to find out what the queen's secret was.

"So the queen gave him the key, and told him that as long as the execution was over, when her life was over, the one who had the key would know everything."

Winston paused, a mocking and helpless expression on his face, he lowered his head, stared at the brass key in his hand, and after a long time spoke with a wry smile, "Do you know what the last words she said to the leader of the rebels? This is never described in later history books, and only the consuls of the past knew about it.

"I did my best, you think you can, it's okay, then now it's your turn,—— that's what she said after the first archon took the key."

「…… All options come at a price." Agatha sighed softly after listening to this untold history.

"Lady Gatekeeper," Winston suddenly looked up and held up the brass key with a strange smile, "Would you like to try it?" Take the key and take a look at what Rey Nora has seen before?"

Agatha hesitated suddenly, staring at the key that Winston had handed her, and felt her already squirming heart thump again, and a low pressure spread from the key, which seemed to condense half a century of darkness and malice—but after a few seconds of silence and hesitation, she took a soft breath and reached out to the key.

A slightly cold touch came from the fingertips.

In the next second, countless phantoms suddenly poured out of the boundless darkness, and the chaotic fragments of light and shadow swept in like a storm, filling Agatha's reason, and in this crazy information fragment, visions began to flash in her mind-

In the endless darkness of the deep sea, some kind of huge and terrifying dark body is slowly growing and growing;

The ancient and chilling gaze looked at the city-state from the depths of the sea, scanning the earthly beings indifferently like an indescribable ancient god;

Dark and terrifying matter overflows and rises from the deep sea, turning into a replica of the real world, in the transformation of the virtual and the real, those substances sometimes turn into shadows, sometimes into entities, and the boundless deep sea is densely packed with chaotic and filthy figures, looking up at the city-state with empty eyes;

And in more distant places, in the darker and deeper seas, the whole world, the whole endless sea, hundreds and thousands

Underneath the city-state, there are shadows, as if the old world sank into the boundless darkness, and the abomination grew from the ancient corpses, constantly rising, constantly rising......

And in the depths of these countless visions, Agatha could always feel some kind of "gaze" that was not a gaze, not any kind of will with a clear source, she felt as if she was gazing at the years themselves, something older than history, larger than the city-state, even as if it came from the deepest part of this world...... I'm looking at myself.

There was no emotion, no malice or goodwill in the "gaze", he just watched, like a soulless shell watching an uninvited guest who ignorantly intruded into the truth, and said indifferently—

"Oh, you're here."

"Boom!"

Agatha felt a rumbling in the depths of her consciousness, the only sanity she had left to rise desperately in the myriad cascading illusions, and in the process, her perception and thinking were suppressed to the limit—she could feel that there was more information, more fragments of thought surrounding her, and that it might even contain the will or words left by Queen Ree Nora, which she could neither see nor understand.

By the time she regained control of the body, all illusions were over, and she opened her eyes in the dark chaos to see that Captain Winston was still in front of her, even in the last position of handing her the brass key—as if only a second had passed.

I'm back in this weird creeping dark space...... Wait, no, something has changed!

Agatha suddenly noticed a strange change in her field of vision, and immediately raised her head in horror and looked around her.

The darkness in all directions seemed to have subsided much more than at the beginning, and the black formless things that slowly wriggled and deformed in the darkness seemed to gradually condense and transform into entities, and between the creeping void and reality, she saw many things that spread out of thin air from the surrounding space - they looked like dry branches, but their scale densely filled the entire space, and the black "branches" bridged and merged with each other in the void, and faint flashes of light swam between them, just like ......

A swift capsule that is transported quickly in a steam pipe.

And in the depths of this complex network of "tree rights" like thorns, through the layers of phantoms, Agatha saw a huge ······ Limb.

It was a strong limb like a tentacle, and its huge scale was like a giant pillar supporting heaven and earth, and the surface of the giant pillar was covered with dull blue lines, and the patterns formed by those lines were ...... It looks like a myriad of pairs of eyes.

Mental pollution? Illusion? Crazy Borderline?

Agatha's mind quickly flashed through countless thoughts, she immediately closed her eyes, only to find that the "giant pillar" that supported the heavens and the earth was still in her field of vision, and she tried to pray to the god of death and use magic to stabilize her will, but found that she was conscious, and there was no sign of erosion.

After several swift emergency responses failed, she realized one thing-

I didn't go crazy, but in a sober and rational situation, I saw a scene that I don't know where it is, and I don't know if it's real or not.

She stood in the midst of this magnificent, terrifying "landscape," as if she had lost her mind, until Archon Winston's voice pulled her back, "Oh, you seem to see it."

The middle-aged archon said, slowly raising his head and exclaiming softly, "It's spectacular, isn't it?"

Agatha hesitated and lowered her head, only to notice that what Winston was "leaning on" on was not a stump at all—it was actually part of the massive "branch" structure around it, the end of a section extending from the branch, and there was a faint black structure on top of it, spreading all the way to the deepest part of this strange space.

"This ...... These branches ......."

"This is the thinking of the old gods, and this is what it looks like in the vision of us mortals," Winston said lightly, "You've only touched the key for the first time, and you can see very little, but I've been with it for more than ten years...... It tells me more than you think."

Agatha was like falling into a dream, obtuse to comprehend Winston's words, and subconsciously repeated: "The ...... of the old gods Think?"

"Isn't it incredible? These branch-like things are not real, and what you see is probably just a thought that flashed through the gods at some moment, and this thought is strongly imprinted here, and it becomes a huge structure that you see, oh, don't try to decipher anything from it, don't try to understand the laws of the flashes, you'll go crazy."

Agatha turned her head abruptly, "Someone has gone crazy because of this?"

"Yes," Winston laughed, "Have you forgotten? Her name is Ray Nora......

Agatha was speechless for a few seconds, and then she spoke softly, "What is that ...... 'thorn bush' beyond that?"

"It's the Dark Lord," Winston said lightly, "a small part of him, the part that pierced into the city-state."