Gun of Ashes

”Return home? If what you say is true, Medanzo, you should know what will happen once I connect with the Static Holy Temple.”

Lorenzo felt a headache coming on. From his perspective, he hadn’t spent much time in the Gap, yet in this short duration, he had already been hit with enough shocks.

The world he once knew was collapsing, or perhaps, new structures were being built on that barren plain.

The Static Holy Temple is the Gap, another Gap.

During his time in the Demon Hunting Order, Lorenzo always attributed various bizarre mysteries to Demons. At the time, the Static Holy Temple, from a realistic standpoint, was merely that vast structure hidden beneath the surface. When the command echoed in his mind, Lorenzo didn’t think much of it, after all, too many secrets were hidden in that grand underground structure.

The mysterious Shangdafeng Demon Hunters resided there, assisting in the execution of tasks with their bizarre foresight, but Lorenzo had never imagined its true form would be like this.

When ”abnormal” becomes commonplace, people come to see it as ”normal.”

The Gap is a bizarre mental world, it connects every Demon Hunter, but they have never glimpsed its truth.

”The Static Holy Temple can scout my position... pinpoint me from this eerie Gap. The secret order is still executing, this will only lead to endless trouble.”

Lorenzo spoke sternly. Among the few transactions he and Watson had made, one was to sever the connection.

The Evangelical Church held too many secrets. Their mysterious technology was terrifying, and Lorenzo also knew that once he did so, the reconnected Static Holy Temple would surely find him. What awaited him then was the pursuit from the Church.

The endless Holy Hall Knight Order.

He had been away for too long, so long that the city that birthed him had become so unfamiliar, like a monster in the dark. Just seeing the silhouette outlined by the flames made him feel fear.

”So Lorenzo, I believe we should make a trip home. There lies all the truth... at least for us, it does.”

Medanzo said slowly.

The Demon Hunters were born in that underground palace. That ominous forbidden technology originated from there, and it is also the source of the Night of the Holy Arrival.

The center of the enigma.

If there is a place closest to the truth of the Demons, it must be the holy Seven Hills. Buried beneath the Saint Nalos Cathedral lies all the secrets.

Lorenzo was momentarily stunned. He certainly understood what he meant, not about reaching the Static Holy Temple from the Gap, but reaching there in reality. This was indeed a simple solution, after all, the Evangelical Church was the center of all mysteries. As long as he got there, it would be fine, assuming Lorenzo could survive the siege from the Holy Hall Knight Order.

”Then think carefully, Lorenzo. You must know, the Static Holy Temple connects not only you and me, but also all other surviving Demon Hunters.”

Medanzo said meaningfully.

Like some ominous revelation, Lorenzo spoke involuntarily.

”Dean Lawrence was also a Demon Hunter...”

Indeed, the Dean who once held the name Shangdafeng Demon Hunter, now Dean Lawrence has completely disappeared into the shadows, without a trace. But using the Static Holy Temple...

”No, the fact that he is still alive means the Church doesn’t know his location either, the Static Holy Temple can’t fully help us.”

”But at least there would be some clues, wouldn’t there, Lorenzo?”

Medanzo continued, with a sense of urgency he never had before.

”Haven’t you noticed? We are about to reach that mysterious truth.”

The enigma shrouding the entire world.

What exactly is a Demon?

The twisted and terrifying rift sealed up again, and the whole gray and cold world reverted to that monotonous form. Medanzo looked at him with some disappointment.

”Lorenzo, think with your own thoughts, not bound by the Church’s ideology.”

Lorenzo said nothing. He just looked silently at Watson on the other side.

”Looks like the conversation broke down.”

Watson finally spoke, shrugging helplessly, but the smile on her face widened.

”So, Lorenzo, think about it, is hatred more important or the truth?”

She said, and then the frozen tide thawed, the surging seawater rolled and roared. Lorenzo instinctively rushed toward Watson, trying to stop her, but soon the ice beneath his feet shattered, the dark blue and cold seawater pulling him down completely. In the chaotic blur, the cold, jagged ice scraped against his body like sharp knives.

The whole world seemed like a funnel, Lorenzo was plunging into its darkest depths.

It was a strange sensation; he had never realized how he arrived in the Gap, but at this moment he clearly felt how he was leaving it.

Falling, endlessly falling, reaching the deepest point.

A mystical, haunting sound echoed in the near-deathly silent dark blue around him, and then the dead-blue color began to deepen, revealing an unobservable black silhouette, so immense that Lorenzo’s eyes could barely encompass it within his field of vision, as if some ancient creation.

It fell with Lorenzo, until he lost consciousness, until he reached that deep abyss.

The icy cold wind swept by, refreezing the gradually calming sea surface, then a vast swathe of snow swept over, covering the shattered ice with a thin layer of cold snow again.