Gun of Ashes

The time was nearing dawn, and the distant sky was faintly brightening.

The streets were filled with cold mist, condensing on every object at this cusp of day and night, draping everything in a layer of frost.

There were already pedestrians on the street, strolling leisurely, but their gazes couldn’t help but turn towards Stuart’s mansion. The gunshots from last night and the noise brought by the mounted police had awakened most of them, leaving them curious about what had happened here, whispering among themselves.

A small number of soldiers disguised as mounted police still guarded the nearby streets, repelling those prying eyes one by one.

The atmosphere was like the winter of Old Dunling, with a chill that stung the skin.

Lorenzo was sitting in the corner of the room, with a weary look in his eyes. His mind still echoed with pain as he smoked a cigarette, swallowing clouds of smoke, trying to make himself feel more comfortable.

The Cleaners were outside dealing with the indoor bloodstains. In such circumstances, they were the best at indoor cleaning. After a brief survey of the scene, they began cleaning up the body parts and bloodstains. The heavy scent of blood permeated, making it feel like a slaughterhouse.

Yawei was guarding outside the door, negotiating with those Cleaners. Although Selyu had no emotional attachment to this mansion, it was Stuart’s property, and Yawei had to handle it well.

Selyu sat on the soft bed with her knees in her arms, looking somewhat downcast, as if she couldn’t muster any energy.

”Are they still cleaning up?”

Listening to the rush of water outside the door, it seemed that those Cleaners were vigorously scrubbing the floor.

”Probably.”

Lorenzo answered casually, glancing at the city slowly awakening outside the window, then at Selyu.

”Are you sure you don’t want to sleep for a while?”

Since the arrival of the Purification Mechanism, Selyu hadn’t slept at all. It was evident that the girl was a very regular person, and staying up late made her look very uncomfortable.

Selyu shook her head, she couldn’t sleep.

This wasn’t Selyu’s first encounter with such a bizarre assault, the dream that seemed to tear apart the mind, that ever-following hunting dog.

”Lorenzo, do you think it’s... an attack from the mind?”

Selyu thought for a moment and asked.

”To be precise, it’s an attack directly applied to the will, bypassing spatial distance, bypassing physical obstacles... Of course, what I’m saying might not be accurate; Demons of this nature, no one has fully understood them yet.”

Lorenzo wasn’t entirely sure of his speculations either.

”But does such power really exist?”

Selyu couldn’t believe it, didn’t dare to face that real world.

Actually, Selyu’s reaction was very normal, the most ordinary reaction possible, that the creatures of legend one day tore through the books and truly appeared beside you, all the rules of common sense were casually destroyed, leaving you alone wailing in helpless terror.

Lorenzo didn’t speak; this was why the Demon Hunting Order and the Purification Mechanism existed.

Not everyone can accept that unknown fear. Someone has to stand up, as a bulwark against despair, to deaden fear and reason.

To separate that terrifying world from the normal world.

Humans can’t continue living in fear.

”Selyu, you need to rest.”

”But I really can’t sleep, once I close my eyes...”

Selyu said, trembling slightly.

She was a mature-minded child, where no matter what kind of incident should have been able to shake her, but that bizarre dream was different. It had grasped Selyu’s most vulnerable point; as soon as she closed her eyes, she would return to that cold alley, waiting for another destiny’s arrival.

That was her nightmare.

”I’m afraid to sleep.”

Selyu looked at Lorenzo, her expression somewhat haggard.

”Aren’t you afraid?”

She asked, the Demon Hunter in front of her seemed as if nothing had happened, neither scared nor anxious about the unknown, he was as usual, as if this terrifying life had become routine in his eyes.

”Of what?”

”Dreaming, no one can guarantee that I won’t fall back into that bizarre everything once I sleep again.”

”And...”

Selyu recalled fearfully, the new destiny in that dream, the fate without Lorenzo’s arrival, she would still be a beggar, living in the cold winds of Gaulunaro.

She clearly remembered that feeling of memory gradually fading away; Selyu would become a beggar in that dream, instead of the female Duke of Stuart. All the past would vanish under that mysterious power until she couldn’t distinguish it anymore.

”Can you distinguish it?”

Selyu asked.

”Lorenzo, can you tell reality from illusion? What if now we are just inside some dream?”

”I don’t know.”

Lorenzo said softly, with his eyes full of complexity, unable to see the truth of this world, or perhaps there was no such thing as truth to speak of, only endless delusion.

If it weren’t for that Ghost echoing in the Gap, without Medanzo’s help, Lorenzo might not have woken up from that eerie illusion, or it wasn’t an illusion at all, but someone invading his Gap, shaping it into a phantasmal world, attacking Lorenzo’s will.

This was terrifying power indeed, as Lorenzo couldn’t observe the enemy’s attack position, didn’t know the conditions for the attack, and everything about it was unknown.

”Selyu, do you trust me?”