Gun of Ashes

But in the previous war, all stored weapons were used in No. 13 Fortress. It was also due to the influence of these Anti-Memes that The Inexpressible was able to fall into a deep sleep... or rather, humans lost their awareness of it. When humans remember its true form again, the erosion will reopen the channels, awakening it, and now its murmurs constantly arise, trying to make humans remember it again.”

”The war has stripped you of technology and supplies, you can’t continue weakening the connection, and it is following its instinct to hunt. Sooner or later, it will break out of its cage due to hunger.” Lorenzo said.

”Yes, this is also why someone must still exist in the Western world, and the frequency of Demon appearances is so high—The Inexpressible needs sacrifices.” The elder lamented, ”The war continues, but our defeat is certain, and all our efforts only serve to prolong humanity’s existence as much as possible, trying to delay the day of failure.”

”We dispatched the Nation-Builders, who led the second wave of Rejuvenators to rebuild civilization, but under the impact of the murmurs, destruction repeated time and time again.

This is not meaningless. With each failure, we accumulate a little, though it is small. Yet it is also our cornerstone, and such accumulation becomes ever more grand amid countless deaths until one day a new civilization rises from the ruins.

Until the reborn humans stand firm in the hopeless darkness.

Until humans can not only resist such darkness but also counterattack.

Until... seekers like you, follow the fragments of history, and find their way here.”

The cold electronic eyes reflected Lorenzo’s figure, and Lorenzo bowed his head, pondering on something. Then he questioned the elder.

”Why did the Nation-Builders incite war? Was it to kill more humans as sacrifices for The Inexpressible?”

”Not at all. The Inexpressible, in essence, spreads through erosion, and during the war, we almost severed all avenues of recognizing information about The Inexpressible.

We burned books and forgot history. We ’Dimension Reduced’ it, granting it a fixed form, turning the entire fortress into a cage, imprisoning it eternally. Although its murmurs still resonate in the night, humans cannot bear such ’information,’ and they turn into bloodthirsty and insane monsters. Yet, such creatures will be killed by other humans, isolating the ’path’ once more.

This is a perfect closed loop, but there are still slight flaws, just like this shelter. Its lifespan is almost eternal, but not truly eternal.”

The elder’s words struck Lorenzo’s heart, sparking an elusive understanding of the answer to the problem.

”We humans inherently have a connection to The Inexpressible. Although with our efforts, this connection is drastically weakened, it does indeed still exist.”

”Population growth will deepen this connection, won’t it?” Lorenzo asked.

”Yes, in our time, a species must be controlled when its numbers rise—more birds mean killing birds, more wolves mean killing wolves.

In the face of this more terrible monster, the population needs to stabilize at a certain value, one that allows development but won’t awaken it.”

”Then why don’t you disclose all knowledge and technology to the world to accelerate our development?” Lorenzo was puzzled.

”Because we have already done so.”

The elder slowly opened his hands, and behind him, the containers on the well walls broke one by one, light fading away, finally leaving a dark scene—the reality of the shelter.

No longer glorious, desolate and broken.

”At the initial design, the shelter could support multiple reboots, but as you see, these containers have long been shattered, and over the long years, we have restarted countless times, more than you can imagine, my child.”

The elder looked at this grand yet long-dead structure, where he spent endless time, so long that he barely remembered what the outside world was like.

”Imagine having world-shattering technology in your mind, but to realize what’s in your head requires foundational equipment beyond this era, and your life is so short that you can’t live to see that day, let alone face the threat of erosive pollution.

All we can do is release knowledge and technology in phases, waiting until the outside civilization reaches a critical point, then guide them into the next stage.

Accelerating development is not a simple matter, not to mention that a vast amount of knowledge has already been polluted and thus destroyed.

But actually, there is no knowledge left in the shelter either. Under the erosion of time, most equipment has stopped, the database fell silent, even the power-providing reactors have cooled down.

Even I have to cut myself down to my head to minimize resource consumption and to live longer.”

He chuckled self-deprecatingly.

”Moreover, even if there was, what would it matter? The Nation-Builders who were supposed to lead you have become ignorant, and they might not recognize these lost technologies. The Secret Keepers, who once stood guard here, are the same, dying one by one, leaving only me.”

His agitated expression calmed down, and the elder’s voice brought back a sense of mirth.

”Of course, the most important thing is that the shelter must maintain absolute silence to avoid any possibility of being noticed by The Inexpressible. This is the chance for humanity to start anew, and I cannot risk putting such a chance on the gambling table, I dare not gamble.”