Gun of Ashes

”Don’t worry, just watch everything from behind the scenes.”

Lawrence turned and looked out the window, the view was infinitely wonderful.

”After all, ’Lawrence’ is already dead. Humans are greedy, and that greed will slowly, bit by bit, drag reason into madness.”

He laughed, recalling the image of Lorenzo in his mind. Lawrence once thought he had done things perfectly enough, but he never imagined that the biggest winner would be him, would be this person.

”You won everything on the table, great sir.”

Lawrence raised his glass towards the void, as if toasting to a long-gone friend.

...

The blood reeked of stench, mixing into the slightly scorching steam, and a sharp whistle echoed in the darkness. Steam spread and expanded, feet stepped into shallow puddles, everything in this underground made Donas uncomfortable, but to apprehend those damn guys, he still came down.

Actually, it was also for himself. During this curfew period, if he cracked this case, he might be promoted, hopefully to an office job, never having to come to such a hellhole to investigate again.

Pres and Eve were not far behind Donas. These officers were incredibly timid, and on such a short advance, they had already spread a great distance between one another.

With obstructed vision, attacks could come easily. After leaving the tunnel, Donas held the wall and moved along it.

After prolonged exposure to steam, a layer of tiny droplets had formed on the wall, and as his hand brushed over them, they gathered and fell.

Donas progressed slowly, and soon his hand on the wall felt something.

One small pit after another, it was clearly caused by gunfire. With Donas’s many years of experience, it seemed a great calamity was upon this group, leading to internal strife.

But then he touched something different. They were cracks, but unlike any cracks he was familiar with. From the feel of it, they were more like scratches, seemingly caused by something sharp.

Suddenly, Donas’s heart jumped. He felt countless scratches, as if something like a rain of sharp blades had happened here. He didn’t know why such things filled him with fear, but then he felt liquid passing over his palm.

It wasn’t condensing water, but some thicker liquid.

Donas stopped, slowly lifted his foot, and felt a strange pull from the water accumulated on the ground… This wasn’t condensation; it was blood, large patches of blood.

The nauseating stench filled his nostrils, amplifying the fear tenfold instantaneously. Donas didn’t understand what was happening; he wasn’t new to corpses or fresh blood, but none of those prior experiences hit as fiercely as this one.

The demon’s corruption magnified everything, the officers behind him also seemed affected by this power, with many halting in the darkness, some even shuffling backward, trying to escape.

Turning back, Donas wanted to say something to his officers, but although they hadn’t encountered anything yet, that bizarre fear had already devoured all his rationality.

He opened his mouth, but another voice interrupted him.

”Huff...”

Something was breathing in the darkness, a breath carrying a nausea-inducing odor, wafting through the slightly heated air.

The breath sounded so deep and prolonged that it was not a human sound at all.

In an instant, all movements halted. Without any communication, Donas could clearly sense the silence of the moment, followed by a heavy footstep shattering this stillness.

The eerie entity moved in the darkness, its sound blurred by the shrill whistle, making it hard to pinpoint its location.

Donas breathed deeply; he couldn’t utter a word. And then the urgent sound of fleeing arose. An officer could no longer endure the unbearable fear and darkness, screaming as he fled towards the tunnel’s exit.

This action directly incited the others. Under the shroud of corruption, the wills of these ordinary people were fragile, scattering like a flock of birds.

Donas wanted to shout, to tell them not to run, because if there truly were some inhuman anomaly advancing in the darkness, then at this moment everyone was protected by the diffusing steam and whistle. Running now was undoubtedly exposing oneself to the darkness.

But it was all too late. A piercing long wail echoed in the darkness, and the high-pitched roar tormented everyone’s eardrums. Then came the violent friction, as if steel and rock clashed, leaving massive scars on the walls.

Donas also moved at this moment, survival instinct driving him to rush into the darkness. At this moment, his mind was blank, erosion gradually consumed his rationality, and when those gunshots and screams erupted, it undoubtedly accelerated the collapse of reason.

The officers couldn’t see what was in the darkness. They fired instinctively, but could only glimpse a corner of the evil malice in the brief firelight.

Rationality began to collapse upon observing the anomaly, followed by sharp bone blades piercing through their bodies, nailing them to the walls.

This sudden mutation triggered a barrage of gunfire, lighting up the darkness as officers screamed.

Perhaps experienced enough, Eve was not unfamiliar with such situations. Indeed, when the breathing sound started, she was aware of everything, but she had no way to explain, not even time to warn others—it was like a trap. Someone wanted to kill everyone investigating this cargo.

”Don’t shoot! That kind of thing can’t be killed with bullets; you’d be better holding onto them for a clean exit!”

Eve only had time to grab Pres next to her. To her surprise, Pres’s reaction was relatively alright, not succumbing to extreme fear like ordinary people. He still retained some semblance of rationality, allowing him to think in this desperate situation.

Pres was puzzled about this, too. Strangely enough, he felt like he had some courage at the moment, barely sustaining himself amid this despair.

But then the whole darkness began to shake, dust and rubble fell, as if the entire space was about to collapse.

”Run! Run fast!”

Eve shouted anxiously. Even though the darkness blocked her view, she was still certain that it was a demon. Only a demon could do all this.

At this moment, they were just unarmed mortals. Even if Eve was the captain of the Ingwig squad, from Arthur’s state back then, he could barely resist as well.

Run, just run, like a terrifying dream. From the moment they entered this tunnel, they departed from reality, stepping into fear.

In the dark, it was nearly impossible to determine direction. Amid chaotic rushing and constant cries, Pres saw some light in this damned darkness.

”Here!”

The light was so welcoming, Pres moved towards it instinctively.

Eve wanted to stop him. The sole light in this darkness was so obvious; if you approached it, those creatures might also discover your whereabouts. Comparatively, darkness was the safer place.

Like a moth attracted to a flame, Pres charged ahead, but as he progressed, his pace gradually slowed; the closer he got to the light, the clearer he saw what lay beneath it.

Flames surged.

Blinding white light spilled from the cracks of Iron Armor, as if sunlight was encased beneath that steel, pure destruction and inescapable death.

Pres froze; he was utterly unprepared, facing death just like that. Yet sometimes, life is just like that, sudden, giving no chance for you to prepare.

Gunshots robbed him of his hearing, with only a faint buzzing humming in the silence, then blinding white flames burst from the muzzle, once again tearing through the darkness.

Lorenzo gripped his Folding Blade tight, leaping over Pres and chasing the fleeing Demon.