Gun of Ashes

An invisible storm swirled within the sealed workshop, countless ghosts forged this windless and frenzied tornado with their wails, the minds and bodies, the metal panels, and the armor all trembled violently.

”Geiger... the index keeps rising!”

Percival’s voice echoed in the channel, intermittent due to the influence of erosion, and soon completely vanished from the channel, leaving only the piercing sound of static, surging continuously like the roaring of a fierce wind.

”Stay alert!”

The voice rang out again, but this time not from the channel. With the channel disrupted, Percival turned on the amplifier of the Armor of Original Sin, letting her voice reverberate within the workshop.

Based on previous battle experiences with Demons, the Purification Mechanism used simple and crude tools like amplifiers to maintain communication.

She said this, feeling as if the air in her lungs was being sucked dry, Percival felt an immense oppression, under the shroud of erosion, she started experiencing symptoms of breathlessness, immediately followed by a surge of emotions, countless complex emotions stirred her heart.

Darkness slowly spread from the depths of her heart until invisible hands reached out from the deep mire, like thriving seaweed, scratching at everything within reach.

Suddenly, Percival had a strange feeling, realizing that the Armor of Original Sin she was maneuvering was in fact a cage, slowly closing in, on the verge of swallowing her into darkness...

The harmonious green light on the indicator turned blood-red, alarms sounded within the armor, emergency measures were triggered, Florun Potion was injected into Percival’s body through pre-laid intravenous tubes, her mind wavered for a moment, before the indicator light returned to harmonious green.

At that moment, she nearly lost control. Percival knew why, just like now, in that seemingly endless storm, she too had collapsed within the hideous armor, staring at the steel piercing her body, and the incessantly oozing blood.

”Percival, are you okay?”

The voice came from another side, as the Sword Dancer approached the Lancer Cavalry, Bola asked.

”I’m fine, watch below, Lorenzo is starting to erode William.”

Percival said briefly, meanwhile, the enormous lance she was maneuvering had been loaded, ready to fire at any moment.

The erosion stirred the storm, and Lorenzo was the core of this storm, the eye of the storm.

In the Critical Breakthrough state, his erosion would break free from the constraints of the body, expanding outward, likewise, once entering this state, Lorenzo would tend toward Demonization.

Underneath the black coat, slight bulges squirmed, Lorenzo’s exposed skin became tough, with strong muscles constantly proliferating, filling his body, the fire in his eyes grew extraordinarily intense, eventually turning into an unviewable pure white.

Lorenzo could smell it, the air was filled with everyone’s emotions, fear, anxiety, sadness, guilt, inferiority... and a certain scent of urine.

Something... felt off.

Lorenzo looked down, only to see William pressed tightly against the chair’s back, trembling incessantly, his heart pounding violently, face flushed, and beneath his legs dripped light yellow liquid. He had lost control.

Ah, this...

”It’s quite helpless, indeed.”

Lorenzo muttered to himself, the next moment he reached out directly, pressing a finger lightly on William’s forehead, unleashing erosion at close range, propelling the pollution of his brain, pushing once more at this cursed everything after so many years.

William’s expression froze, like he had been injected with a sedative, he no longer trembled or struggled, his gaze moved over laboriously, meeting Lorenzo’s, even as the blazing white flames were so dazzling, he didn’t avert his eyes, letting tears swell in his eyes.

”Welcome back, William.”

Lorenzo withdrew his hand, speaking softly.

...

”Awakening successful, William has awakened, but judging by Lorenzo’s erosion intensity, we don’t have much time!”

Merlin observed from afar, Lorenzo raised a sign indicating awakening success, and under Merlin’s command, the medical personnel injected Florun Potion one after another, heading toward the center where William was.

”Where... is this place?”

William’s voice stammered, after his madness he considered himself an Alchemist, and his form of alchemy was gnawing on various strange things, during which he had hurt his throat multiple times.

”Perpetual Motion Pump Core Laboratory, workshop.”

Lorenzo replied, striving to calm the Secret Blood, William had awakened, he needed to lower the intensity of erosion as much as possible, to extend his consciousness time, allowing others to approach.

Erosion doesn’t differentiate between friend and foe, while William endured this, others within the workshop were also subjected to this terrible erosion.

”Perpetual Motion Pump... workshop...”

William slowly raised his head, looking at the magnificent iron Holy Hall, he remembered these, but everything was vastly different from his memory, at that time, the dome only had a few pitiful large searchlights, the surrounding iron walls were far less refined than now, not to mention those large lifts.

”I... I remember I was conducting experiments, then an accident happened... I was locked in a cage, a dark, twisted cage, just like my lab environment, but it seemed endless, no matter which door I pushed open, behind it was just another duplicate laboratory…”