Gun of Ashes

Ende left, the carriage raised dust and quickly disappeared at the end of the street, while Ban’er just stood there, somewhat dejectedly looking at the remaining hallucinogen, the liquid inside the exquisite glass shimmering like starlight.

It was the key everyone longed for, the key to the Celestial Kingdom, with its brilliant light swirling within, Ban’er couldn’t resist picking up one. A sharp iron whistle sounded from afar – the Death Gods were riding towards them.

There was no prospect of capture; even though he wasn’t clear on what their plan was, Ban’er knew that his journey ended here.

Ban’er took a deep breath. It’s hard for a normal person to face death calmly, and he was no exception, but for the sake of his thoughts, he remained.

”I’ll ascend to the Celestial Kingdom...”

He comforted himself this way, then turned his gaze to the remaining people in the room.

”All of you, over here! Prepare your weapons!”

Ban’er shouted fiercely. Ende had sealed his fate, but he did not resent Ende; this was what they were destined to do.

His subordinates appeared panicked. They had been smuggling secretly for so long without being discovered, it could be said they had not worried about this at all.

Yet that iron whistle echoed all around, like a flock of black birds announcing death, spiraling above the building.

Ban’er could die, but certainly not like this.

He grabbed all the hallucinogen at once, signaling the crowd to retreat. This was the junction to the Lower City District; fleeing towards the district they could hold out a bit longer.

Everything was so laughable; sometimes karmic retribution comes so swiftly, Ban’er slammed open the iron door he had sealed and once again dove underground. Thick steam obscured the view, but he remembered the path; getting in from another corner, after passing another water inlet, they could reach the Lower City District.

The iron whistle sounded like a death-inducing reaper; the mounted police had already broken through the gates, the War Airship hovering above, observing the situation around.

”Conduct a thorough search, if there’s resistance, open fire directly.”

Sheriff Donas shouted, cautiously pushing open the door, and a rapid gunfire erupted immediately. Bullets zipped through the wooden door, and the sudden noise threw the entire street into chaos.

He ducked to one side, signaling the mounted police with his eyes, everyone had their guns raised, proceeding with a wave of shooting into the building.

After the gunfire subsided, Pres charged in first, dust kicked up, in the chaos he immediately raised his gun and shot, despite being an ordinary officer, Pres had surprisingly good marksmanship, shooting a fleeing figure dead in one shot.

The marks of unloaded goods were visible, shattered wooden crates were everywhere. After securing a firepower advantage, Donas advanced with the officers.

They thought there would be an intense gunfight, but Ban’er and his people had already escaped without a trace.

The officers swiftly occupied the building, this time Suyalan Hall was fully committed, determined to eradicate the last of the hallucinogen.

”Sheriff, there’s a tunnel here.”

Pres shouted, the dark door opened in front of him. If there were no surprises, those people escaped through here.

Donas hurried over to check, but the path was dark, filled with hot steam. They hadn’t brought lighting equipment, which undoubtedly increased the risks of moving forward.

His face darkened; this time, Donas had almost captured them successfully, or rather, he was just a step short. He didn’t want these bastards to escape but also feared the underlying dangers in the dark.

There wasn’t much time for Donas to think. The longer they delayed, the more likely those people would escape.

”Move forward, watch out for each other, don’t get separated.”

Donas said, leading at the front to boost morale; this operation was not only about promotion and a raise but also about removing this damned tumor from Old Dunling once and for all.

The officers didn’t say much; in fact, they weren’t afraid. They were a regular army, extremely strong in firepower, and numerous, righteousness triumphing over evil seemed perfectly justified, nothing to fear.

Yet perhaps due to encounters with weird individuals like Lorenzo, Pres acted slightly cautious, staying a bit back and not daring to be complacent.

Some officers were left behind to guard the scene, simultaneously preventing any stragglers from escaping.

This was a raid, everything happened absurdly fast.

”Don’t misfire.”

One officer reminded, they moved forward in pairs, as firearms weren’t very effective in these narrow corridors and could easily cause friendly fire.

Eve was also in the team, perhaps due to being a newcomer, she was placed in the last group, and she was accompanied by Pres, who had previously guided her.

The two were somewhat old acquaintances. If Eve had listened to Pres’s words back then and not chased that damn Iron Serpent, perhaps none of the events that followed would have occurred.

”This time you better listen to my...advice.”

Pres thought for a moment, whispering softly to Eve beside him.

In the dim light, Eve turned back, looking at Pres, not quite understanding his words, ”What do you mean?”

”I mean, this place is very dangerous, it’s not on the surface, we can only move forward, or backtrack, and this is still a single tunnel. When gangs fight, they love and hate this type of terrain, as long as the firepower is sufficient, in this tunnel, you won’t have time to escape, or press forward.”

For some reason, Pres, being an officer, seemed quite familiar with gangs.

”This enclosed space is very dangerous,” Pres continued to murmur, ”and I also have a strange feeling.”

In Suyalan Hall, there weren’t many people Eve was familiar with, Pres could be considered one, so she could still listen to his nonsense.