Gun of Ashes

A world war, a great war sweeping across every inch of land—no one can stay out of it.

A storm rose in Lorenzo’s mind as he began to realize the shift in events: Lawrence’s Secret Blood Legion, the Nation-Builders’ cycles of reincarnation, the destined final battle of the end times... everything, all of it, was driving forward in a frenzy, like the wheels of history in motion. He had thought he possessed the power to halt it, only to discover that every single thing was moving along with it.

Arthur’s eyes went dull, his pupils shrank to pinpoints as he stared fixedly at the Queen. His voice showed not the slightest fluctuation, mechanical in its flatness.

”And the reason for the war?”

”That is what I am going to explain. After so many years of research by the Purification Mechanism, have you ever considered the connection between Demons and us?”

The Queen countered, as if she knew everything.

”No, that’s not entirely accurate to say. I’ve read Mr. Holmes’ reports as well as Merlin’s feedback. In essence, ’Demons’ are merely a by-product. What truly threatens the survival of mankind is something called ’erosion.’”

The Queen continued, adding what had been concluded after all manner of incidents and, most recently, the pursuit-experiment.

”The real plague is this so‑called erosion; Demons are merely diseased humans. This has always been a civil war within humanity.”

She raised her head, looking toward the sole shaft of light in the dome.

”Light—we cannot directly observe the existence of light, yet we can, from the things it illuminates, indirectly perceive that it is there. Erosion is the same. We can feel that oppression, we can hear the Geiger Counter’s chattering, and witness the transformations of Demons. All these obliquely prove the existence of erosion, and yet we have never directly perceived it.”

As the Queen spoke, her gaze shifted back to Lorenzo. It was as if she knew something; those godless eyes made Lorenzo’s heart clench with panic.

Much as he hated to admit it, in a certain fleeting instant Lorenzo seemed to glimpse the source of the Demons—or rather, the source of erosion.

Authority · Gabriel.

After undergoing [Ascension], Lorenzo’s voidlike will itself had become a wellspring of erosion. Like light, unseen and intangible, yet capable of detonating astonishing power out of nothingness.

Strictly speaking, using Lorenzo himself as an example was not entirely precise. He wasn’t a purely void existence; Lorenzo still had the anchoring of a physical body. As Watson had once said, Lorenzo was an incomplete [Ascension], not a failed [Ascension].

Each Authority corresponds to a certain characteristic of Demons, and the Authority · Gabriel might correspond to those bizarre Angels, Silencers, Shepherds.

Cold sweat soaked Lorenzo’s back. Perhaps... perhaps those uncanny beings were themselves sources of erosion, and he, this power called Authority · Gabriel, the end point of this [Ascension]—could it be that...

”Knowledge among the Nation-Builders has also been greatly lost with each iteration, but some secrets within do sustain a partial understanding of Demons.”

The Queen’s voice cut off Lorenzo’s thoughts. She did not continue the previous thread but brought up something else instead.

”Take, for example, your so‑called Shepherd theory. I’m afraid I’ll have to disappoint you—this point was realized by the Nation-Builders centuries ago. This world is shrouded by an invisible fence, and humans live in ignorance within it.

Know that human history is long. Throughout that long history there have been others who pursued the unknown as you do. Most of them died, but they still left behind something.”

Lorenzo understood what the Queen meant: like Shermans’ notes, Merlin’s research, the obsession of Lorenzo de’ Medici. These people had little direct connection, yet they pursued, in tacit accord, the same thing.

It reminded Lorenzo of something Oscar had once said when the two of them were talking about writing. Oscar said that if you have an earth‑shattering idea, there is no need to rejoice, because somewhere in this world there is certainly someone else who has thought of it too.

”Then... why hide the secret?”

Arthur pressed at this point. Seen this way, the pursuit-experiment was utterly meaningless—the Nation-Builders had long since grasped this part of the truth.

”If you Nation-Builders hadn’t kept it so secret, the Red Signal incident could have been completely avoided... or so it seems.”

The anger that had just flared in Arthur faded again. He looked at the Queen and realized the origin of this sorrow. He could only lower his head, tormented by the pain that knowledge brought.

”Arthur, knowledge is cursed. The Royal Family has blocked William’s explorations more than once, because we are very clear what the result of exploration is: catastrophe. Yet we had no way to warn him, because that would inevitably trigger the information threshold and draw disaster in.”

The Queen spoke helplessly.

”But we still underestimated a Scholar’s pursuit of knowledge. He initiated the experiment in secret, and all we could do was keep the harm to a minimum. The same goes for your pursuit-experiment. You must have seen those Angels by now.”

Arthur stiffly nodded. This was the sorrow of the world: the Royal Family had long known all the secrets, yet they could not speak of them to others. This knowledge could not be passed on; it was cursed.

”Precisely because of this, I speculate that our predecessors, fearing an even greater catastrophe, carried out self‑castration. They blurred the divisions of historical eras, deified Demons into Gods, voluntarily abandoned the bulk of Alchemy, and kept humanity as ignorant as possible, so that more people might live.”