Gun of Ashes

”So, this is everything that Lorenzo and Arthur planned?”

Bluebird slowly walked over, clothes covered in snow.

”Yes, I only understood everything just before execution.”

Bola said, ”Lawrence’s [Gap] is extremely cunning, he might infiltrate anyone’s mind, which means no one can be trusted.”

”Before the plan was laid out, no one but Arthur and Lorenzo knew the full scope of it.”

Bluebird listened to Bola’s words, eyes looking forward.

There were dozens of massive cannons, most covered in snow, but their terrifying bodies were partially visible. The barrels were over twenty meters long, with a caliber of 180mm, a firing angle of 55 degrees, and weighed 150 tons.

This is one of the Mechanical Institute’s insane weapons, established during the Radiant War. In the envisioned battles, it would travel along railways, and after retaking the south, they would form a bombardment position to launch attacks on Gaulunaro beyond the White Tide Strait.

It sounds incredible, but it can indeed do it. This damned thing can send a complex bullet head weighing about 150 kilograms into the stratosphere to extend its range, hitting targets 130 kilometers away after several minutes of flight.

It was named Ascalon; that group always liked using mythical terms to name weapons. In the ”Gospel,” it was Saint George’s weapon, and it’s the one that killed the Red Dragon that took the princess.

”So, this is what we are to do.”

Bluebird watched the soldiers loading the ammunition; this was a weapon that should only appear in mythology, but now it was held in human hands.

The over twenty-meter-long barrel lifted under the snow curtain, like a lance piercing the sky. If there truly was a so-called god of machinery or of technology, the aftersound of the cannon’s roar would be the most devout prayer to it.

Bola nodded in agreement.

”Yes, the artillery array will conduct a bombardment lasting twenty minutes. We have pre-corrected the trajectory, and it will precisely hit the target. There are nearly a thousand tons of crude oil on that train, and at the moment of explosion, the shockwave will clear several kilometers of ground, then turn it into a fiery hell.”

The snow will instantly melt, the solid frozen soil will be shattered and turned over, forests will fall in patches, and burning ash will cover the skies and earth.

”Is it necessary to be so complex? Just to kill one person?”

”But he isn’t an ordinary person; he can foresee the short future, has terrifying vitality, not to mention that approaching him leads to erosion and collapse. Except for staying out of his range and suppressing him with this longer-range weapon, we really have no other way.”

”Then Lorenzo will die too, right?”

Bluebird asked, somewhat apprehensive.

After a brief pause, Bola nodded and said.

”That’s right, that bastard is dead for sure, no one can save him... but that’s one of the reasons I like this bastard. Even though this Demon Hunter has no moral scruples and will do anything to achieve his goal, ruthlessly pushing anyone onto the tracks, when needed, he will step onto the tracks himself. No one but Lorenzo can ensure getting Lawrence into the bombardment range.”

Bola paused for a moment, then continued speaking.

”Pretty cool.”

”What?” Bluebird asked, thinking he misheard.

”I said, pretty cool, don’t you think?”

Bola said, somewhat enviously.

”All of us, whether it’s the Sailing Dawn following the train or our bombardment position here, we are all just the backdrop for tonight’s assassination. The one truly on the stage is that madman Lorenzo Holmes.”

”He’s singing and dancing, leading Lawrence to ruin. This is simply his most perfect curtain call.”

Bola envisioned that scenario.

”Truly a very performative art of death.”

Bluebird somewhat understood, gazing at that destined to be doomed place, crossing his chest, and praying softly.

”I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. From now on a righteous crown awaits me...”

The next moment, the lance piercing the skies erupted with a sun-like brilliance, piercing through snow and night sky, the booming echo scattering descending snowflakes and gale winds, also tearing Bluebird’s prayer to shreds.

It was as if celestial meteors were descending, driving towards the Promised Land.

Then Lawrence saw it.

The entire night sky was completely illuminated, neither gales nor blizzards could stop its pace, they descended from the heavens exuding the glorious light of death.

The bullet heads disintegrated mid-air, igniting fierce flames, interweaving to form tracks of death, like the falling stars. The snow clouds were dyed a brilliant molten gold, as if about to drip scalding molten iron, it seemed as if a kingdom on high was collapsing, thus coming with both brilliance and apocalypse.

The Celestial Kingdom fell.

”Madman, you’re a madman!”

Lawrence shouted in terror, he turned to run, but it was futile; to kill him, the bombardment range completely covered all his escape routes.

A rain of fire descended, the locomotive was first hit, semi-melted metal pierced directly through the combustion chamber, detonating it, and the entire train derailed and rolled, like a giant snake pinned by the head, the carriages stacked together due to inertia, followed by an explosion of an oil tank.

Blinding pillars of fire surged skyward, scattered oil igniting into flames, covering everything around, and under repeated impacts, even the wind’s direction was forcibly reversed. The cold air instantly crossed a temperature difference of several hundred degrees, and a searing inferno swept through, plunging the whole world into a hell of molten lava.