Gun of Ashes

The elder took a sip of fine wine, cleared his throat, and continued speaking.

In the dim underground, only his voice echoed slowly. The demon hunters stood like statues, sometimes the peripheral vision of 042 could pierce the shadows, and beneath those hoods were pairs of tightly closed eyes.

”I put these anomalies aside, and later on, I re-planned the history of the Evangelical Church... no, to be precise, the history of humans and demons. Listen carefully, 042, such history lessons are rare.”

The elder called 042, pulling back his wandering gaze.

”Under my classification, the history of humans and demons can be roughly divided into four eras— the Dark Era, the Silver Era, and the Golden Era.

Are there things you don’t understand? Actually, it’s okay to understand it like this.”

Seeing the somewhat bewildered expression of 042, the elder continued.

”According to the records of the Gospel, humans and demons coexisted in the world, but humans had no power to resist the demons, living a desperate existence in the darkness—this is the despairing era, the Dark Era. But with the establishment of the Evangelical Church and the appearance of demon hunters, humans for the first time possessed the power to resist demons, thus heralding the arrival of the Silver Era.”

The elder spoke up to here and smiled, his tone carrying a hint of narcissism.

”However, during the Silver Era, we were just evenly matched with the demons until my appearance, when I integrated those scattered powers together. We became stronger than ever, and the demons gradually disappeared under our purges. This is the Golden Era, my era.”

042 was not surprised by the elder’s narcissism and continued to ask.

”But you mentioned four eras; there are only three.”

”Yes, I just... couldn’t quite confirm the existence of that era, which I named the Origin-Tracing Era.”

The elder became serious again, took another sip of fine wine, leaving a trace of red liquid on his beard, like a bloodthirsty beast.

”Have you ever thought about this, 042? Neither humans nor demons could have appeared in this world out of thin air. We need an origin point, especially considering the power of demons, they could easily destroy humanity. We might not have survived to see the Silver Era.

But we did survive, and that’s very suspicious, isn’t it?

And then there’s the question of where the Revelation came from. Although the Gospel states that the priests found it in the north, when did it actually appear? Did humans create it or was it the so-called God?

It’s quite interesting, isn’t it? The more you trace back to the source, the more loopholes you find in this world... those gaps that those guys tried to deliberately hide.”

042’s gaze was somewhat dazed; he seemed unable to process so much information at once, his mind a tangled mess, akin to a sticky chaos.

”After extensive research, I came up with a hypothesis: before the Dark Era, in the Origin-Tracing Era, humans and demons already existed, but at that time, humans and demons were in a... probably an evenly matched situation, until certain events occurred, the Dark Era came, all technologies became extinct due to the ravages of demons... this explains the mystery of the Divine Favor Baptism and the Silver Binding Bolt, doesn’t it? These things far exceed our current understanding, technology that is difficult to replicate.

Doesn’t it make sense when you look at it this way?”

The elder looked at 042, his eyes bright with delight.

But to 042, it all seemed incredibly unbelievable, difficult to accept, his voice trembling.

”Is it really so?”

The elder’s expression suddenly seemed a bit downcast, but then he perked up again.

”I don’t know; it’s just my hypothesis, but I still have a chance to prove it all.”

Putting down the wine glass, the elder smiled kindly, light footsteps sounded, and before anyone knew it, the demon hunters had all opened their eyes, drawing out those sharp Nail Swords. They circled and advanced, their gazes seeming to stare into some empty void, soon, bright white flames rose from beneath their eyes, illuminating everything underground.

”Not only that, 042, I also found those guys, those who deliberately hid the history.”

The elder spoke again, drawing 042’s attention back.

”I found those guys, or rather those guys found me.

Yes, everything is explainable now, though I consider myself a... great person? Ahahaha, I am indeed a bit narcissistic, but in the long history of the Evangelical Church, in this long Silver Era, surely there were people who could stand shoulder to shoulder with me, aren’t there?”

The elder suddenly grabbed 042’s hand, his rough palm gently rubbing against the young body, as if polishing a treasure.

”Yes, there must have been people like me who discovered these loopholes, but why, why didn’t they pass down the information? Actually, it’s quite simple, because they all died. This history that has been deliberately hidden is cursed knowledge; they touched that cursed knowledge, touched the Boundary, and thus were killed, murdered by those guarding the secrets.”

The elder laughed hoarsely, and with his laughter, the rising bright white flame also shook violently. The gazes of the demon hunters swept back and forth, as if searching for something, but underground, there was only the elder and 042.