Gun of Ashes

”Go! Go! To the next one!”

A technician called out, for they were not as numerous as the soldiers. With their limited numbers, they could only hover around the battlefield in a guerrilla manner, providing assistance where needed.

The Armed Iron Serpent stirred up water as it stopped not far away. The carriage opened, revealing soldiers inside, and Peacekeepers moving with them in the open cargo compartment.

The accumulated water would hinder the progress of the Armed Iron Serpent, but with the experience from previous battles, the Purification Mechanism had also factored in weather interference this time.

The defensive line of the Purification Mechanism, with Dunling Tower as the origin point, gradually formed a circle. The area they defended was the higher terrain in Old Dunling, where the flooding wasn’t as terrifying as it was now and was still under control. They could use the Armed Iron Serpent for rapid support.

But beyond this line of defense lay an uncontrollable area, or rather, an abandoned area.

No one knew if the Armed Iron Serpent could advance in such deep water, and even if it could, how much further it could go? No one knew, and no one would attempt it.

Any move away from the position now was a death sentence.

”Hang in there!”

A technician shouted, then the Armed Iron Serpent started up, speeding down the still-passable tracks to the next location.

Watching the technicians depart, Bola turned his attention back to the forefront. The Iron Armored Demons had already marched out of the sea of flames. The fire had scorched them, but compared to their robust vitality, the injuries were not enough to cripple them.

”One, two... three...”

Bola counted in a low voice. Not only had the Iron Armored Demons walked out of the flames, but also the Demons, charred black, possessing strong self-healing abilities, struggling between life and death.

He could see the charred skin peeling away one by one, then new flesh exposed to the air. Bullets had hit their bodies, but were enveloped by tough muscles, shortly after shedding along with the dead flesh.

The Weapon Master gripped his blade tightly, Bola began to be grateful for the technicians’ departure, as at this moment, he wasn’t sure if he could hold the ground.

”Where is Anonymous? Where exactly is their so-called ’Forgotten River’?”

Bola shouted into the communicator. This was the key to winning this war, yet now this trump card was still hidden in darkness. Not to mention, Bola didn’t even know what this trump card looked like.

”It’s not time to show our cards yet, Bola.”

The voice of Left Garrison came through the channel.

”This is a death race; we just need to kill Roger before Old Dunling completely collapses.”

”But what about Roger? Just the Demons he spawned already have us running ourselves ragged!”

Bola retorted. It wasn’t just Bola here facing intense attacks; other areas were the same. Not long ago, he had also received a distress call from Gawain.

For the silent Gawain to seek aid, one could hardly imagine how dire his situation must have become.

”Soon, I guess he will come soon,” Left Garrison said, ”We cannot reveal the Forgotten River yet. We have paid such a great price precisely to lull him into complacency. We cannot fail here.”

Bola remained silent, then asked, suppressing his anger.

”And where are you, Left Garrison?”

”I am where I should be,” Left Garrison’s unperturbed voice echoed in the channel, ”If you start to doubt, then recall the principles you hold firm, Bola.”

His voice weighed heavily on Bola.

”Stubbornly and blindly believe.”

The voice cut off, and Left Garrison put down the communicator, turned around, and looked up at the fire spewing through the iron seams.

”Is this the Furnace Pillar? Truly magnificent.”

Left Garrison marveled. It was an existence comparable to a divine miracle, and now it presented itself before him, uninhibited and spewing fire.

”What are you doing, Left Garrison?”

Merlin asked loudly, standing behind him.

As a staff member stationed at the Perpetual Motion Pump, Merlin was prepared for a desperate battle, yet not Demons but Left Garrison came instead.

”Protect here.”

Left Garrison calmly answered. Beside him was the familiar Mr. Cai that Merlin had seen, who also wore a smile, nodding to Merlin.

”Protect... here?”

Merlin was somewhat confused. As the commander, Left Garrison was supposed to oversee the battle, yet here he was, talking about protection.

”This is the only way to ’Death Row,’ the Demons will first break through the defense line, then the Mechanical Institute. They will crawl down the vertical well, in swarms, like insects exposed after earth had been turned over.

They will overrun the Perpetual Motion Pump, then finally reach Death Row along the Furnace Pillar.”

Left Garrison muttered to himself.

”Death Row cannot be hidden from Roger, he will surely come here to destroy our last hope, but the same goes for him as we know he will definitely show up here and we can hold him, until we slay him here.”

Listening to Left Garrison’s words, Merlin’s face subtly changed.

”Are you using Death Row as bait?”

”Of course, haven’t you realized that by now?” Left Garrison looked towards the darkness below, ”How foolish must one be to set up a refuge here?”

Set up at the core of this battlefield.

”But...” Merlin was about to retort, but his words suddenly stopped.

He seemed to have woken up suddenly, a loophole he’d never considered exposed right in front of him.

The loophole of Death Row, utterly unknown to him, and foolishly executed...

”Do you... know something?” Merlin asked.

”I know nothing, it’s all just speculation at this point,” Left Garrison said.

”Anyhow, it’s just my ’interpretation’ of the Death Row plan. If it is correct, then Roger will eventually dig into our minds and find out this information, coming to break it.

If Death Row is false, merely a decoy, then it will still attract Roger’s arrival.

So it’s merely a different ’interpretation.’ The outcome they achieve is the same.”

Left Garrison squinted, looking just like a cunning fox.

”And you say you know nothing!” Merlin asked loudly and persistently.

Left Garrison answered leisurely.

”I truly know nothing, it’s just ’speculation’ on my part.

If Death Row is really just a decoy, then what is the trap set on this decoy? Do you know, Merlin?”

Merlin paused, shook his head, and whispered, ”I don’t know.”

At such a critical moment, met with such things, Merlin felt his brain had turned into a tangled mess.

”Exactly, if we knew, then Roger would definitely know, so to make the plan flawless, no one will know the truth,” Left Garrison said.

”Then who knows all this?”

”Those who are outside of the story.”

Left Garrison retracted his gaze, striding towards Merlin, who still harbored confusion in his eyes, he asked again.

”Why were you the only one to ’guess’ at these things.”

Merlin couldn’t understand, he hadn’t thought of any of these.

”Because I am Anonymous, I am Left Garrison.”

Left Garrison calmly stated, while another scene manifested in his mind, above the ruins of the Broken Dome, in Percival’s narration, the deceased Anonymous.

He remembered he hadn’t dispatched Anonymous to infiltrate the Broken Dome, and with its defenses, Anonymous couldn’t enter easily unless...

Unless he was under strong Anti-Meme Protection so much so that if people around him didn’t purposely pay attention, they wouldn’t even notice his existence.

The person’s link to this world was tenuous, and if pushed slightly, it would completely sever.

In Left Garrison’s memory, only one type of person could achieve such feats.

Left Garrison looked at Mr. Cai beside him, who squinted his eyes and smiled as if wearing a mask.

Mr. Cai was not a name, it was a title, it didn’t refer to one person, but a group of people.

Left Garrison felt a lightness in his heart, a group of Mr. Cais beyond his awareness, lurking in shadows, outside the story.

And among those people outside the story, apart from Mr. Cai, who else were there?