Gun of Ashes

It was still that familiar and silent world, beneath the fragmented ice plains flowed a dark blue, the enormous full moon half-sunken on the horizon, and you could clearly see the Milky Way spanning the night sky, followed by the cold howling wind pounding everything.

Everything here seemed like an artist’s painting, yet oddly, there was a bench, along with the person on it.

As if waking from an incredibly long dream, Lorenzo leisurely woke up, looking at everything that seemed somewhat familiar.

No idea how long he had slept, a thin layer of snowflakes had accumulated on his clothes, but he didn’t feel too cold. In front of him, a familiar man stood with his back towards him, as if waiting for something.

”Good morning!”

He turned his head, and that face somewhat similar to Lorenzo’s smiled and said.

”Me...danzo?”

Lorenzo held his head, slightly pained, realizing he had returned once again to the end of the connection, the strange spiritual world, or rather a place called the [Gap].

At the deepest of the demon’s erosion, the deepest of dark connections, this unknown and bizarre spiritual world.

”Did you drag me here?”

Lorenzo tried asking, recalling the first time he arrived here, it was Medanzo who had been scheming in the shadows.

”No, this time you got pulled in, I’m also curious about what you were doing, your link with this place suddenly reached its peak, and then you fell into the [Gap].”

Lorenzo listened to his words, a bit stunned.

”You mean I came here by myself.”

Medanzo nodded and then spoke to him.

”Lorenzo, you’ve forgotten a lot, in fact, you’re much more complicated than you imagine.”

That similar gaze contained deep meaning, as if he was hiding something, something even Lorenzo was nearly forgetting, but then Medanzo waved his hand, signaling Lorenzo to come over.

Lorenzo also slowly stood up from the bench, trying to recall how he got here, but unlike the first time, his memories were becoming very hazy, like a dream, fragmented and elusive.

He struggled hard, those blurred memories gradually cleared up. He remembered entering the armor, and then arriving here... it was the Armor of Original Sin that brought him here.

”Does that damn thing have such an effect too?”

Lorenzo remembered Tesla’s warning, that everyone piloting the armor for the first time was accompanied by highly unstable risks, nobody knowing what might happen, and it seemed this was the risk Lorenzo encountered.

Lorenzo walked slowly to Medanzo’s side, just about to say something, but his eyes were caught by the scene before him, Lorenzo looked at what was in front of him in disbelief.

The previously intact ice plains began to fracture, several meters deep fissures appeared on it like giant wounds, extending like a cobweb towards the edge of vision, with dark blue seawater surging between the gaps, and from deeper darkness came the metallic sounds of chains clashing.

The [Gap] was changing, Lorenzo still remembered how it looked when he first came here, but now it seemed like it was collapsing.

”She’s arrived.”

Suddenly Medanzo said, before Lorenzo could react, the ice before him completely shattered, rising seawater mingling with broken ice debris, chains danced wildly, bringing a chilling wind.

Bone-chilling cold descended, sketching out a stunning silhouette beneath the night sky, immediately another familiar guest appeared beside Lorenzo, Watson smiled faintly, looking affectionately at the pair.

”Did you know, I’ve discovered a type of surgery that can destroy my nerves, perhaps this can completely trap her.”

Lorenzo didn’t panic overly; for some reason, as long as Medanzo was by his side, he would always feel everything was under control, even though this Medanzo now was merely a ghostly echo.

”No, she’s temporarily not an enemy, Lorenzo.”

Nobody expected Medanzo to say that.

”What do you mean?”

Lorenzo looked at Medanzo with some unease, in Lorenzo’s doctrine, Watson, as the Pseudo Holy Grail, posed even a greater threat than Dean Lawrence.

”It’s a gift from the devil, what do you think?”

Watson’s voice echoed, though she did not open her mouth, the voice ethereally resonated.

She just watched Lorenzo, causing him to slowly step back, warily observing Medanzo and Watson, the thing Lorenzo feared the most happened, he couldn’t eternally trap Watson, she was that treacherous devil, the heavy ice plains had already shattered, even Medanzo inclined towards her.

”Relax, Lorenzo, actually we are now on the same side, she is a threat to us, but... she is also our ally.”

Having already anticipated Lorenzo’s wariness, Medanzo tried to stabilize Lorenzo.

”You better make it clear, Medanzo, this determines whether after waking up I directly shoot myself in the head to bring everyone down, or do something else to ease up a bit.”

Lorenzo said seriously, he had more than once contemplated ending this damned and absurd life by suicide, but he was never certain of the Pseudo Holy Grail’s properties. The Evangelical Church created this counterfeit derived from the Holy Grail, but no one knew its nature, and it had even not been tested before the Night of the Holy Arrival erupted.

No one knows whether Lorenzo’s death would put an end to this spread, just like nobody knows whether killing the Holy Grail would truly cause the concept of the demon to completely collapse. All of this originates from unproven words, merely a stubborn insistence.