Gun of Ashes

What... happened?

The Plague Doctor stood in the darkness, at a loss. His memory was a bit fuzzy, like a dream just awakened from. He remembered he had just been on some cold permafrost, fighting with someone.

Who was it, why was he here?

His consciousness was somewhat clouded. Soon, in the boundless darkness, he saw a faint glimmer. In front of him appeared a burning point of light, which continued to expand, accompanied by the crackling sound, like the splitting of a glacier.

The Plague Doctor curiously extended his hand, trying to touch the light point, but as it burned, countless cracks spread outward with the light point as the center. They filled the dark corners, and the same light surged from the gaps.

The sound of shattering grew louder, the whole dark world began to tremble, as if it would completely collapse in the next moment.

As the fissures collapsed, the Plague Doctor’s gaze, once blank and vacant, regained some spirit. He remembered that the dim stars behind him had burst with radiance, and he shouted loudly.

”Holmes!”

The Plague Doctor called out to the Demon, and the Demon responded.

A sharp blade pierced through the burning point of light, tearing the pitch-black night sky apart. In an instant, the crisp sound of shattering glass continued, one after another, jet-black, deep fragments began to fall, with edges burning with flames, dropping into the endless Abyss below.

Lorenzo came across these countless fragments, carrying roaring flames, shattering the barrier of the Plague Doctor, heading towards the burning star behind him.

The Plague Doctor suddenly understood what was happening, this was a void world, a world of will. The star behind him was his Gap, the dim starry sky had already been torn apart by Lorenzo. Once he invaded his Gap, he would have no ability to counterattack.

He didn’t understand this void world, but in the Plague Doctor’s consciousness exploded an incredible survival instinct. He was a guy hard to kill; if he were to die so easily, he would have died in some lousy surgery hundreds of years ago.

The Plague Doctor wouldn’t die, at least not until he seized the Truth.

Consciousness governed everything, his body began to deform, along with the falling black fragments also influenced, like time reversing, the black shards that should have fallen into the Abyss rose again, attempting to reconstruct the dim starry sky and build a barrier.

But it was all too late.

Lorenzo maintained his throwing posture, the dim starry sky was being reconstructed, a powerful repulsive force pushed him, driving him out from the Plague Doctor’s consciousness, but in his hand, the burning blade had crossed the vast distance.

Like a blazing white meteor, it streaked across the dim starry sky, igniting everything in its path.

...

Ice Bay was plunged into the flames of war, the Plague Doctor’s figure suddenly halted in the darkness, as if something had interrupted his consciousness, and the beast’s body slammed onto the ground. He rolled several times and even knocked down a few trees.

Broken branches pierced his body, and his skin suffered broad abrasions. None of this constituted an injury for the Plague Doctor, yet now he lay in the dark, unable to move.

Burning, something was burning him.

The Plague Doctor could clearly feel the pain brought by the flames, yet his body remained tranquil, with not a single flame flickering.

This pain was so real; the Plague Doctor could feel his flesh dying, twisting in agony and becoming blackened charcoal, collapsing into warm embers, dissipating into the world.

The Plague Doctor gripped his head forcefully, locating the source of pain.

This was the blaze from his mind, a fire that burned consciousness.

Wound after wound cracked open on his head, seeming to be slashed by a blade, white vapor rose from the wounds, and the temperature inside the Plague Doctor was alarmingly high, his heart beating forcefully, as if in the next second, flaming fire would burst from him and turn him into a blackened shell.

”Gap invasion.”

The Plague Doctor panted heavily, he reached out with a grim hand, dug into the cold snow, stuffed it into his mouth, covering himself with the cold snow, he tried cooling himself this way, yet the pain was still so intense.

This was an injury of consciousness, not the body.

Lorenzo hadn’t successfully invaded his Gap, yet he had swung that sword, slashing his consciousness with one blow.

The body’s squirming began to cease, the intensity of erosion dropped sharply, the Plague Doctor needed to soothe his chaotic thoughts. He could hear countless voices, his own, hundreds of thousands of Plague Doctors whispering beside him.

His bloodshot eyes were filled with madness and befuddlement. The resting flesh slowed the self-healing considerably, a large amount of hot blood flowed out, staining the snow red.

The Plague Doctor slowly raised his hand, taking something from his chest.

A brass-colored key.

It looked like it had experienced quite a bit, its surface no longer shiny, covered with scratches and crimson stains.

The Plague Doctor clutched it tightly in his hand, his disordered thoughts gradually calming down with the coldness of the metal.

”Truth... Truth...”

He muttered softly.

...

War, a familiar yet strange word.

People always said war was coming, everyone would die, yet no one knew what war truly entailed, not even had anyone personally experienced it. Everyone spoke of this word with fear and anticipation, until one day it actually arrived.