Gun of Ashes

Ever since leaving the Static Holy Temple, Watson has felt a strange sensation, as if something is watching her, like hounds chasing their quarry from within the shadows... just like the Silencer.

What is terrifying is not these monsters, but the gaze that watches her. Watson has the courage to face these oddities, yet the endless chill makes her uneasy.

Beyond the alley is Cork Street 121A. Watson finally arrives there through successive [Gaps] and supports herself against the wall, ready to step out of the alley. But when she looks up, she sees a blurred shadow at the alley’s end.

From within the blurry shadow, a pair of equally bright eyes lights up, blocking Watson’s path.

No words are needed; in an instant, Watson understands the other’s intentions. When she extracted those pieces of information from the old Pope’s mind, she had a premonition about all this. She just didn’t expect it to happen so quickly, so quickly that she didn’t have time to contact Lorenzo.

She still has a chance. It’s so close, and Watson is confident she can find Lorenzo amidst the enemy’s onslaught. Perhaps with Lorenzo, there might still be a slight chance of victory.

As Watson thinks this, she suddenly smells a nauseating stench.

Fear, terror, sorrow, wrath—complex emotions intertwine, turning into an overwhelming force, like corrosion, continuously emanating from the shadow and pressing down upon Watson.

What’s more, as Watson slowly raises her hand, she is shocked to find her palm beginning to deform. Her body is being corroded, the intensity of which is terrifying, bringing about bodily transformation in just a few breaths.

”What... exactly are you? A Silencer?”

Watson asks coldly. The intensity of this corrosion is almost as powerful as the Night of the Holy Arrival, capable of transforming a body in an instant.

”Silencer? Is that the name you’ve given us?”

Ed asks, then shakes his head, denying the designation.

”We are the Watchers.”

”Watchers? What are you watching over?”

Watson continues, realizing she lacks the ability to defeat the enemy before her. All she can do is gather more intelligence and find a way to pass it on.

Before her stands a brand new Silencer... or rather a Watcher, with a self-awareness distinct from those machine-like existences, surely driven by a specific purpose that brought him here.

”To watch over this stable world.”

”You’re different from the other... Watchers,” Watson says.

”Indeed, they are just a bunch of the living dead. In theory, I shouldn’t exist either. My awakening affects the world’s stability, but because of you,” Ed says, pointing to Watson, ”people like you have created mistake after mistake. Some mistakes the Watchers can fix, but some, like your existence, they can’t completely eradicate.”

”These mistakes accumulate continuously until reaching a certain value, and then I appear, to correct everything.”

Ed advances step by step. Before he can launch any attack, a deep growl echoes. The young men around Watson, who are still in a drunken stupor, suddenly leap up. They have lost their human form, transformed by high-intensity corrosion into Demons. With ferocious claws raised, they slash towards Watson.