Gun of Ashes

The erosion stirred up a storm without wind, howling ghosts were swept into it, they were like swarms of circling and fluttering crows, sounding that ominous cry in the heart of everyone.

”William! Tell me the details of your experiment.”

Upon hearing Lorenzo’s words, Merlin immediately quickened his pace. He tried to suppress his emotions, maintain his composure, and asked calmly.

”I regard this abnormal erosion that caused all this as a disease, and the demons are patients afflicted by the disease. I am contemplating how to cure it completely... just like I said before, to find that suppression force, that shepherd, but clearly I was wrong.”

Upon learning the truth, this cruel fact nearly crushed William.

”For the benefit of the whole flock, the shepherd sees our restless lambs as no different from hungry wolves who deserve death. It will deal with us; the Red Signal event is such where a force unknown to us suddenly descends.”

William became emotionally agitated as he spoke.

”Just like now, the intensity of erosion keeps rising, they appear out of nowhere, destroying surrounding matter. However, that seems more like an equivalent exchange, it bases on surrounding matter, plunders them to form its own entity out of thin air. As for further details, I am unclear.”

William took a breath and continued speaking.

”I was directly exposed to a high-intensity erosion environment at the time, many people directly collapsed and became demons, some were stubbornly resisting, but it was all useless; I was one of them, I only had about dozens of seconds to think about it then, as to the appearance of those shepherds, I only glanced once.”

”What do they look like?” Merlin asked.

”Angels…”

William recalled that which should not be recollected, with a trace of the sacred on his face, but just as he was about to speak more, he was interrupted by Lorenzo.

”Not angels, just having a sacred appearance. They’re more like spiritual entities, unable to be completely killed, what is seen is merely a replaceable shell for them.”

William stared straight at Lorenzo, while Merlin was stunned beside him, belatedly asking.

”You’ve known about all of this for a while?”

”More or less, but William made me more certain of these things, and that’s also why I warned you back then…” Lorenzo said.

”Because you’ve already encountered them and survived.”

Merlin felt the situation getting more complex, but also more interesting.

”Knowledge is cursed, Merlin, this you know well, it shouldn’t exist within the [fence], and we shouldn’t cross the [boundary],” Lorenzo said, ”If these hadn’t happened, I’d still be hesitant to tell you this… not everyone can face such monsters.”

”Are you ready?”

At this moment William interrupted their conversation, easily accepting these things after a brief surprise, as William was once a chief technician and shared the same rationality as Merlin.

”Though hard to believe, from the results of my experiments, the shepherd is protecting humanity by blocking all information transmission, meaning now every informed person might be killed by it.

That’s why, for so many years, no one truly understood the reason for demons. I regard it as an information threshold, once the information you know reaches a certain value, it crosses the [fence], triggering the shepherd.”

Merlin’s face held no trace of fear, only extreme indifference, like a machine.

”So it means we might all die now, right?”

”Perhaps turn into lunatics like me… but it seems I won’t live long either, will I?”

William said as he coughed forcefully a few times, spat out bright red blood, looking at his bound arms, the flesh beneath began to slowly squirm, it seemed he wouldn’t be able to maintain human form for much longer.

”It’s really bad… Lorenzo, you’ve known this all along, so can you deal with them?”

Merlin spoke while looking at the fully armed Lorenzo, knowing this demon hunter had been aware all along, but due to the presence of an information threshold, he couldn’t tell Merlin these things, couldn’t share the disaster with anyone until now thanks to William’s experiment, allowing Merlin to know, and finally exposed it.

”Probably can, though unable to completely kill such things, I can at least destroy their shells, but they’ll always make a comeback. As for what happens afterward, I don’t know.”

Lorenzo had some confidence regarding these matters.

Lorenzo had always been in a predicament, knowing too many secrets, unable to share them with anyone, for that would drag others into disaster. He could only endure the fear alone.

But now, things were somewhat different, whether it was schadenfreude or something else, looking at Merlin, he suddenly felt he had a comrade.

”Then it’s up to you, and before being killed, I’ll try my best to transmit this information in a way the shepherd can’t perceive.”

Merlin showed no expression, yet from his speech, one could hear his current fervor.

Lorenzo was not surprised by this kind of Merlin, he was an alchemist, a scholar; knowledge was incredibly precious to him, and knowledge that could free humanity from the curse, was above all else.