Gun of Ashes

Chapter 457: Chapter 76 The Invincible Mr. Holmes Fell

does not exist.

For a moment, it felt like all the bones in Lorenzo’s body were being pulled away, losing the support of that framework, and he powerlessly sat back into his seat.

He is Medanzo, he is 047. Everything Lorenzo held onto since the Night of the Holy Arrival, all the fury, all the sorrow, all the unforgivables, and even Lorenzo Holmes himself...

A sudden, inexplicable sense of desolation washed over him. Lorenzo had given his all to eliminate the Demon, yet now he himself was a fictional existence.

All of this is merely a stretch of insane delusion.

An utterly meaningless delusion.

At this moment, everyone’s eyes were filled with pity, as if they were pitying this sad soul.

”I know this might be hard to accept, but Mr. Holmes, according to the data, you’ve become a detective in your new life in Old Dunling.”

Anthony seemed to have won this round. Lorenzo was a madman, using any means to his end. Even if he lost his hands, he would use his teeth to tear out the enemy’s throat. Yet now, Anthony had destroyed everything he had.

”As a detective, you should be aware of the importance of evidence, and now all evidence proves that 042 does not exist. Your real identity is 047, a Demon Hunter bearing the name Medanzo.”

Lorenzo lowered his head, seemingly looking at his own photographs.

Long ago, Lorenzo felt he looked similar to Medanzo, but now that boundary of similarity was broken, the two faces overlapping, turning into madness.

”There have been similar cases in Black Mountain Hospital...”

Merlin suddenly spoke then, his tone devoid of any emotion.

”A Knight suffered such severe corruption that his memory became dislocated. He forgot who he was and then lived in the sanatorium for many years, appearing normal aside from amnesia, but over the long life, he made new friends, formed a new social circle...”

The hollow gaze reflected that lost guy, resembling a stray dog whose spine had been snapped.

”He had a new life, but then one day his past self awoke, he remembered everything...”

The voice, calm yet tinged with sorrow, seemed to suggest the person in the story was sitting there right now, another self awakened, and his hands tore open his chest, another bloody head stretching out.

”He became someone entirely different from before; now and past became blurred, he couldn’t even tell who he was at the moment. The woman he loved before amnesia had started a family, and his post-amnesia self was living with a familiar yet strange woman. His life collapsed, but the culprit was himself...”

”Mr. Holmes, you were polluted by the Pseudo Holy Grail. Even a Demon Hunter as strong as you couldn’t feel the corruption progressing, being gradually eroded in all these long years.”

Anthony concluded.

Everyone was looking at the man with his head hung low; he was like an unruly blaze before, very hard to extinguish whether by gale or storm, but now that flame withered gradually, like melting snow, shrinking to a tiny wisp, unable even to illuminate himself.

”Invincible Mr. Holmes has fallen~”

A ghostly voice rose, very faint, yet so clear in the silent meeting room, the person repeatedly mumbled it with a nursery rhyme’s melody.

”Invincible Mr. Holmes has fallen~”

Lorenzo slowly lifted his head, his despondent gaze scanning everyone present.

His face evoked sympathy and empathy, like a small dog drenched by rain, you can’t help but want to pick it up, but suddenly there was a hint of a smile on that sorrowful face, immediately turning sinister, shattered steel being reassembled, growing more solid.

The flickering flame in the wind began to whirl, exploding into a blazing sea of fire.

Setting aside those damned emotions, just when everyone thought Invincible Mr. Holmes had fallen, Lorenzo toughened up again, with a strange smile, looking mockingly at everyone present.

”Who am I? Where do I come from? Where am I going?”

Lorenzo softly voiced, yet the madness beneath those words touched everyone.

Anthony also became cautious now. Everything progressed as he had anticipated until this sudden turn of events.

Arthur then unexpectedly laughed together with Lorenzo, clapping as he laughed.

Invincible Mr. Holmes got back up again, a monster aiming to slay all Demons, before whom no one could defeat him.

Anthony never quite grasped one point; according to him, Lorenzo was a man living amidst insanity, within this long-standing madness, this absurdly bizarre world had been normalized in his cognition.

Lorenzo Holmes himself was an extremely obsessed lunatic, a lunatic stopping at nothing to eradicate Demons, while self-assumed rational and normal people could never predict a lunatic’s next step.

”I come from Florence, heading to root out the Demons; as for who I am... does it matter?”

Lorenzo, contrary to his previous persistence, now no longer cared about who he truly was; he fixed his gaze on Anthony as if ready to draw a Winchester from somewhere and start shooting at any moment.

”No, no, no... to be precise, it doesn’t matter where I come from, after all, those are things of the past. Among these blasted questions, the only one that’s useful, I think, is where I am going.”