Gun of Ashes

Selyu didn’t give Lorenzo a chance to speak at all, her cold gaze fixed straight on him.

”So... Lorenzo, now that you’re fully armed, is it because you’re used to this way of life, or are you afraid of something?”

Lorenzo always carried weapons with him, lived with them, slept with them, one might say he himself was a terrifying weapon.

”Why do you think so?”

Lorenzo asked back. He wasn’t angry at Selyu’s relentless inquiry; instead, he found it intriguing.

”Do I need to be afraid of anything?”

Lorenzo asked again, but this seemed more like a question for himself than for Selyu.

What is there for the invincible Mr. Lorenzo Holmes to fear?

It seemed like nothing.

Whatever hardship came his way, Lorenzo overcame it. He might die but would come back again, wielding his Nail Sword to strike his enemies.

Selyu suddenly stood up, and Lorenzo, lost in thought, didn’t notice until he smelled her close proximity. Before he could say anything, Selyu pressed down on his eyes, forcefully pried open his eyelids, fully exposing his bloodshot gray-blue pupils.

The space between their eyes closed infinitely, his vision covered by Selyu’s pupils, a sense of the deep blue sea pressing down, and for a moment, he held his breath.

”What are you afraid of?”

This wasn’t a question but a statement. Selyu clearly knew what Lorenzo was afraid of. She stood on the bed’s edge to get higher, her body leaning towards Lorenzo, pressuring him.

”I saw it in your eyes.”

Selyu’s voice swirled around his ears. During the conversation with Lorenzo before, he perhaps hadn’t realized, but Selyu fully sensed the presence of fear.

When she asked what was behind that hatch, what the Purification Mechanism intended to do, Lorenzo had an inkling of fear, instinctual fear, fleeting but firmly grasped by Selyu.

Fear... of what?

Lorenzo’s eyes widened in understanding. There were indeed too many things in this world worthy of his fear.

He might have truly walked out of darkness. Rather than being driven by hatred, something else began to drive him. Previously, it was vengeance, resentment, and rage, but now they’ve been replaced by something new.

Something more precious, more worth bleeding for.

Arthur once said these words to Lorenzo, having lost many family members, he buried himself in work, constantly hunting demons, treading the path of obsession and madness. For a time, Arthur felt he was about to become something inhuman. Beneath the human façade, his invaluable heart slowly turned cold, hard like stone.

There was nothing particularly wrong with that. Arthur self-destructively walked down a dead-end road until a beam of light saved him. That light was the birth of Eve. Though her birth was fraught with trials, seeing the child in the cradle, Arthur suddenly felt maybe... things weren’t so bad.

Something more beautiful and precious tethered him, making Arthur human, keeping him from being consumed by stone and iron.

When Lorenzo heard this, he was dismissive, believing no one on a dead-end path could be so easily saved because he was such a person back then. However, things changed, something more precious replaced the dark and filthy things in Lorenzo’s heart.

For instance...

For this barely beautiful world, for the still decent life, for everyone he knew, for these things Lorenzo couldn’t forsake.

”This is my enemy, the war I should fight.”

Lawrence’s words echoed like a spell, and the Selyu before him was shredded by sharp claws, turned to burning ashes that dissipated before him.

Lorenzo shuddered, breathing heavily, letting out deep gasping breaths.

He was afraid, afraid of that dark future.

Selyu was startled by Lorenzo’s sudden reaction, instinctively retreating. Watching Lorenzo, disheveled as if waking from a nightmare, filled with fear, his forehead beaded with cold sweat.

What could possibly make Lorenzo so afraid? After a brief panic, Selyu composed herself, carefully examining Lorenzo.

”Someone is going to die, aren’t they?”

Lorenzo didn’t speak, for him this was indeed a terrible development. Every time alone with Selyu, it was like this; the damned girl before him couldn’t help but unearth his secrets.

”Will it be... me?”

Selyu fixed her gaze on Lorenzo, cupping his face, continuing her speculation.

”No... it’s nothing,” Lorenzo swallowed hard, adjusting his mood, ”there are things you shouldn’t know.”

Indeed, there were things Selyu shouldn’t know, no—she mustn’t know the real goal of this voyage.

A new cycle had begun, and the Silencers were all drawn to something, allowing forbidden knowledge to spread in a small circle. This prompted the journey to the World’s End, but Lorenzo knew clearly that the success or failure of this action was a mystery. No one could predict the ending, and even if they succeeded, it wouldn’t mean the end of the cycle.

It was a gamble, one where losing meant everyone knowing the truth would face reckoning by the Silencers. Whether it was Lorenzo, Arthur, or Queen Victoria, all who knew of forbidden things couldn’t meet a good end.

Selyu couldn’t, she definitely couldn’t know this.

If the gamble was lost, only they would die, but the world would enter a new cycle. Though war was brutal, more people would survive.

Selyu slowly released her hand, sitting back down with some disappointment.

”You’re always like this, Lorenzo,” she sighed helplessly, ”you always shut everyone out.”

Selyu, uncharacteristically humorously, spoke, clearly troubled.

”Do you like someone like Red Falcon?”

”Huh? Red Falcon?”

The sudden change in tone bewildered Lorenzo, played by Selyu, leaving him dizzy. He really hoped she’d never meet Erin; otherwise, the two together would be a disaster.

”I have power and wealth, but this... gap, I really can’t bridge it.”

Selyu bit her lip, looking even more troubled.

”What are you even talking about!” Lorenzo yelled loudly.

”Isn’t it? That’s how it is in the books I read.”

Lorenzo paused, suddenly overwhelmed by a sense of sadness, thoughts surging from the fate of the world to what to eat for breakfast tomorrow. In the end, he furiously wondered, relying on someone like Selyu to handle Stuart’s future, is that really reliable?

What began as a tense, deep atmosphere soon devolved into a quarrel over trivial nonsense. But both weren’t foolish, knowing the pointless bickering was merely an excuse to avoid something. Gradually, the mood turned silent again.

”Lorenzo.”

Selyu broke the awkward silence, speaking expressionlessly.

”I’ve always wanted... to do something for you.”

Toying with the dagger in her hand, it might cut a throat, but some enemies couldn’t be killed by a mere throat slashing.

Lorenzo didn’t respond, and Selyu said nothing more, getting up to leave. As she reached the door, Lorenzo suddenly spoke.

”Have you ever kept a hedgehog?”

Selyu turned back, not understanding what Lorenzo was saying.

”I haven’t either, but sometimes in the meadows, I see a few. They’re interesting little creatures, covered in sharp spines. They seem to want to befriend other small animals but always end up accidentally wounding them. It wasn’t intentional, but watching something you love bleed, that’s not pleasant, right?”

Lorenzo, head hanging low, reminisced about the things he lost, friends who vanished in the storm, doors that would never open again...

”But don’t worry too much about the hedgehog. It’s quite a happy creature. Its spines are sharp enough to easily pierce enemies...”

”Can a hedgehog really survive alone?”

Selyu cut off Lorenzo’s words, briefly pausing, responding hesitantly.

”Maybe.”

After a moment of silence and brief eye contact, Selyu opened the door, halted by a voice calling out again from behind.

”You won’t die, Selyu.”

Selyu didn’t look back, leaving the room, closing the door behind her, leaving Lorenzo alone in the narrow space once more.

At this moment, Lorenzo resembled Bola during their talk, hands already gripping the Winchester, fingers repeatedly brushing the gun’s handle, watching the storm outside the cabin window, the lightning casting his face in ghostly white.

”No one will die.”

Lorenzo vowed.