Gun of Ashes

The glow of the Purifying Flame was shrouded in darkness, and in an instant, Watson lost track of Sainy Loter. Now, only she remained in this desolate darkness.

After hesitating for a moment, Watson made the same move as Sainy Loter, leaning forward and plunging into the unknowable darkness together.

The fall didn’t last long; in just a brief moment, Watson touched the ground, the mottled blade piercing the slightly soft soil beneath her. She slowly got up and saw Sainy Loter standing in front of her.

Turning her head, Watson could vaguely see the staircase in the darkness, realizing that it had already reached its end.

”Quite brave. I always hesitate for a long time, not because I’m afraid of death, but because I fear being stuck here forever. If that happened, I’d never know the [Truth].”

The sound of chains arose as Sainy Loter handed his chain to Watson.

”Hold onto it tightly. In this boundless darkness, it’s easy for us to lose our way. It’s our credential for returning.”

Watson said nothing more and grasped the chain as Sainy Loter had instructed, following behind him.

This was an incredibly eerie space, where the keen vision of a Demon Hunter was useless, and even the flames seemed to diminish, unable to dispel the overwhelming darkness.

The air was filled with a stench, freezing cold, condensing into frost on the blade.

While advancing slowly, Watson seemed to kick something. She stopped and stared at it, and then her eyes filled with fear of the unknown, looking elsewhere, only to see similar things. At this moment, Sainy Loter’s voice leisurely sounded.

”I’ve always been curious about the fate of Demon Hunters. Although most of us die battling demons, there should always be one or two lucky ones who survive to the end. But there aren’t. It’s as if at some special point in time, all Demon Hunters vanish, and new ones appear.”

He bent down, setting right a head so corroded its features were unrecognizable.

”Or perhaps it’s a secret execution within the Demon Hunting Order, I’ve considered that too. After all, as we age, our control over the Secret Blood weakens, which is understandable... until I discovered this place.”

He sliced open his wrist, and searing blood fell to the ground, while burning white flames rose, illuminating the dim space.

For a moment, Watson felt a hint of suffocation. She looked at the illuminated place, a scarlet fleshy ground, upon which lay countless bodies, each one a Demon Hunter. The corpses nourished the land like nutrients, corroded, devoured, and fused into one.

Originating here, and ending here.

”Though there’s no ’Revelation,’ I’ve found a technique to replicate the Secret Blood. It’s right here. This place is like an emergency armory. Perhaps the predecessors anticipated that one day the Demon Hunting Order would face a devastating setback, and this place became an emergency armory. Each body here contains Holy Silver, and within the Holy Silver is stable Secret Blood.”

”Is the new Order born from this place?” Watson asked.

”Of course, albeit cruel, at least we’re still here.”

In response to all this, Sainy Loter answered with great calm.

”An unimaginably massive demon, a ’Messiah’-class demon called Leviathan...”

Watson gradually recalled the classifications and records of demons in the Demon Hunting Order. She looked at the countless bodies, and the vast and endless flesh beneath them.

These weren’t legends but reality. She was standing on the body of a demon beyond imagination, and this demon was enveloped in a construct of pure Holy Silver, much like the relationship between the Silver Binding Bolt and the Secret Blood. Moreover, across the ages, it continued to grow...

Watson dared not think further. She believed that after acquiring Authority - Gabriel, achieving [Ascension], she had touched the [Truth]. Yet compared to what she now saw, she was still so insignificant.

”And have you considered how long humanity has truly existed? 016.”

Sainy Loter dragged the chain, continuing forward. He was glad, for these secrets had been hidden in his heart for too long, and it felt great to share them now.

Watson didn’t respond. She felt her thoughts had stalled under the barrage of information.

This was the end of Hell.

”Hundreds of years? Thousands? Or tens of thousands? If human history is really so long, then why is there no record of that past era?”

He continued to question.

”016, have you never wondered where those technologies, surpassing modern times, originated? Like the Silver Binding Bolt! Like the Heart Core Network!”

”The Era of Origins, the Dark Era, the Age of Silver... the Golden Era.”

Watson whispered the conjectures once proposed by Lorenzo de’ Medici, ideas that coincided with Sainy Loter’s.

Yes, in that more distant age, an age no one remembers.

”This is a bulwark forged of Holy Silver, but what exactly is it protecting? 016.”

Sainy Loter murmured.

”It bars the advance of the Silencer. In other words, from the beginning, it was designed to protect something from being destroyed by the Silencer, and you know that those monsters are driven by the [Truth], destroying anything daring to cross the [Boundary].”