Gun of Ashes

In this complex and eerie valley, 042 finally uncovered traces of clues, while 016 and 011 vigilantly guarded the surroundings. They did not fear enemies, only worried about being unable to protect this man in a chaotic battle, as he was currently the sole individual they could communicate with.

The lone sanity in this mad valley.

042 took out a vial of potion from his pouch, which might help this dying man.

Perhaps due to previous immense suffering, the man offered no resistance to 042’s violent injection, lying on the ground like a corpse, only his slightly heaving chest signaled that he had not yet passed away.

Time slowly passed, the potion took effect, and the man’s breathing intensified, greatly improving his condition, his muddled and collapsing gaze fixed on the cold demon hunters.

”Who...who are you?”

His voice was filled with fear.

042 was clad in armor, flames flickered under the pitch-black face mask, providing only unknown terror in this oppressive environment.

”The ones who came to save you.” 042 replied briefly, ”So tell me, what exactly is going on here?”

The man seemed to not hear 042 at all, speaking rapidly as though something was chasing him.

”Strangers...strangers!” His voice grew sharp, displeasing 042, who did not want something strange to be attracted by the man’s voice.

”Are you...from outside?”

Panic caused his eyes to widen, the remaining parts of his whites seemed to retreat to the edges, as if his entire eye socket would become pitch black.

”Outside?” 042 listened to his words, then nodded, confirming this point.

Yet, seeing 042’s affirmation, the man grew even more frantic, attempting to struggle but was firmly choked by 042’s powerful hands.

”You are demons! Demons! Surely the Pure Land has fallen!”

042 harshly covered the man’s mouth, trying to make him quieter.

Well, the most troublesome step of the demon hunters’ work had arrived. Normal people, when facing extreme fear, became mad, and usually, it was very difficult to glean any information from the mouths of these lunatics.

042 did not placate the man, rather he showed a fierce face, raising the nail sword viciously and said.

”Exactly, I am a demon, your last Pure Land has been taken by me... But if you answer my questions, I will allow you to live, understand?”

”No, no, no...”

The man howled, but 042 was not polite, the nail sword slightly cut downward, leaving a new shallow wound on his already battered body.

”Of course, you can refuse, but what’s waiting for you is the cruelest punishment.”

011 seemed somewhat discontent with 042’s approach, but he was not concerned about intimidating the man; rather, he worried that 042 might scare their only lead to death.

However, evidently, the man’s will was still intact, or perhaps his desire for death allowed him momentarily to control his panic, breathing heavily, striving with all his might to steady his near-exploding heartbeat.

After a long pause, being pinned to the ground, he nodded with difficulty.

”Good, then the first question... In your view, what happened to the outside world?”

042 asked from a sideways angle, needing to understand the man’s perception of the world.

”Destroyed... Completely devastated, those demons finally escaped their cage, utterly obliterating the mortal world.”

The demon hunters exchanged glances, the world’s destruction appeared like words the Apocalypse Society would say; the entire Valley Town could be essentially confirmed as under the control of the Apocalypse Society.

But the issue was the uncanny oppressive feeling among people, resembling erosion yet different, continuously intensifying psychological pressure.

”Then why say the Pure Land has fallen?”

”Because...because they came... everywhere...”

The man’s words were tinged with madness, hard to distinguish.

Nonetheless, this did not seem like Pure Land talk; people weren’t unable to enter, rather those who came in were mostly killed, appearing like the reason Valley Town was isolated had emerged, not merely due to topographical reasons; they had been controlled by the Apocalypse Society, those zealots severing this place from the societal world, constructing here a brutal Pure Land.

”You do not fear demons, then...” 042 looked at another corpse he had slain, ”why is there still killing?”

The pursuit of the Apocalypse Society was precisely death, the destruction of all things, eventual nothingness.

Thus, everything related would ultimately lead to death, yet 042 needed to know why these current deaths were occurring, whether connected to some unknown power still oblivious to the demon hunters.

”We will die, all will die, but die here and go through the ritual, we will ascend to Heaven.” The man’s voice whimpered, almost indiscernible.

”Meaning to go through some damned ritual, your souls can ascend to Heaven?”

042 was somewhat taken aback by this revelation.

”You wouldn’t understand, this is real...”

Seemingly, upon seeing the slightly mocking expression on 042’s face, the man reiterated his words, but then as if he recalled something, he screamed.

”Yes! You must stop me! You have to stop me!”

He shouted, struggling more fiercely, ”I cannot die here, I must die in the ritual, I must ascend to Heaven!”

042 quipped maliciously.

”If you have money, I could act as a priest to absolve your sins.”

He held the man firmly, evidently the Apocalypse Society’s brainwashing was successful, these residents believed it as truth.

Yet, 042 still felt something was off; if anyone among them had any intelligence, perhaps things wouldn’t have deteriorated to this extent, then without resorting to demonic power, how had the Apocalypse Society accomplished all this?

”042!”

011 suddenly shouted urgently, seemingly time was short, he could only call out 042’s name, but that was already enough.

042 sensed the approaching danger, but with armor protection, his sole contemplation now was the source of danger.

Yet at times, it wasn’t danger.

The man struggled fiercely, as if drawing upon all his strength, he forcibly fled from beneath 042, not caring about being wounded by the raised nail sword, his figure teetering.

011 and 016 simultaneously moved, they couldn’t let this man escape, but suddenly a shriek erupted; a spear-like weapon thrust from the fog outside the window, directly hitting the man, nailing him to death.

Everything transpired so swiftly, 042 swiftly approached the man’s side to question.

”What is the so-called ritual?”

But the man simply answered.

”This is the ritual!”

On his distorted face, there was peace, as if this was not death, but a blessing.

Suddenly, 042 understood, the so-called ritual was death, the death occurring within Valley Town, this was the reason those madmen did not fear death, what they originally intended was to die, to die within Valley Town.

”Ascending to Heaven after death... what nonsense.” 042 fumed.

”No...heed his words, die here.” 016 pointed to the ground, the issue lay within Valley Town.

And 011 did not participate in the discussion, he gazed at the spear-pierced window, the fog behind holding figures moving, possibly those remaining lunatics, they wished to conduct the ritual of death through the demon hunters.

But as he approached the window, 011’s inner pressure grew, he seemed to see something, the stoic demon hunter also elicited bizarre fear.

”042... it’s coming...”

In 011’s eyes, a twisted monstrosity from the fog approached the building slowly, 011 couldn’t discern its form, its entire strange body appeared etched with incomprehensible symbols, the demon hunters couldn’t determine its shape, only feeling fear emanating from it.

”Is this going to be the story’s ending?”

Red Falcon sat beside the house, watching the terrified demon hunters.

”Yes, but don’t expect too much, removing those unusual parts, the ending is quite cliché from a third-party perspective.”

Lorenzo stated calmly, with a tranquil demeanor.

”Yet you said it’s very unique, very important.” Bluebird asked.

”Indeed, this event made me realize something profoundly important.”

Lorenzo got up, walked to the window, and with the demon hunters, looked at the bizarre figure within the fog.

”Oftentimes, when you start to comprehend the ’unknown,’ to endow it with understandable concepts, the ’unknown’ ceases to be the original ’unknown’.”

”At that moment, you were misled, interpreting it incorrectly.”