Gun of Ashes

”This place is...”

Lorenzo looked somewhat perplexed at this clear and cold world. Just a moment ago, he was still in the dim underground, but now he appeared here, with a naked man standing before him, trembling as if enduring immense pain.

”So cold... Why is it? Why won’t it take me away?”

Horner crossed his arms, hugging his chest tightly.

So many things were beyond his comprehension. He had always been so insignificant, barely remembered by anyone.

He staggered towards Lorenzo, his footsteps faltering.

”As long as... as long as I kill you, I can leave, right...”

Horner murmured to himself.

Lorenzo gripped the Nail Sword with vigilance, seemingly guessing where this place was.

The eerie [Gap] filled with that familiar sensation, even without having seen the bench and fallen moon many times, Lorenzo could still be certain of this.

This wasn’t his [Gap], but rather the [Gap] belonging to the man before him, the Demon’s [Gap].

”Does that mean... Demons possess such a strange thing? Or are there other conditions involved?”

Lorenzo glanced around; his detective’s instinct allowed him to link and confirm many things.

But before Lorenzo could deduce anything further, Horner lunged at him, the Nail Sword gleamed coldly as it viciously struck down.

At this moment, Horner was no longer that twisted mass of flesh. In this mental world, he was at his most original essence, that of human form.

Blood spurted everywhere, staining the white snow red.

Horner stared blankly at the metal embedded in his chest. Initially, he was panicked as blood gushed over him, and he wailed and screamed, but then came confusion.

It was excruciating pain, yet he did not die.

He then let out a mad laugh.

”This... this place is Hell!”

He said it, tears streaming down like a madman.

Endless cold and hunger, he wouldn’t even die; Horner was forever trapped here, unable to leave.

But suddenly, as if grasping some last hope, he looked up at Lorenzo, his crazed eyes causing the Demon Hunter to shudder slightly.

”You can enter, so there must be a way out, right?”

”What are you talking about?”

Lorenzo did not understand his words; he knew little about this [Gap].

”I need to rely on my own strength... my own strength.”

Dean Lawrence’s words murmured in his ear, that small voice like insects awakening and pushing through the soil, almost imperceptible, but soon it grew progressively louder, from a low murmur to chaotic screams, and the poor will utterly succumbed to madness under this baptism.

Horner looked at Lorenzo with a twisted face, then charged at him viciously, having completely lost his sanity.

Lorenzo instinctively swung the Nail Sword, leaving wound after wound on his body, but it was not enough to kill him; this was his world, a spiritual one.

How could metal kill an ethereal will? Moreover, even Lorenzo was uncertain whether he held a weapon forged from metal or was merely grasping his wretched illusion.

The entire world seemed to sense Horner’s madness, with fierce winds rising, cold surges washing over Lorenzo, bringing extreme frost.

They mourned for Horner and raged because of him.

”Will can be destroyed... or replaced by a stronger will.”

A ghostly voice echoed; at some point, a crack in the fractured space appeared behind Lorenzo, Watson smiled at him with a nod.

She slowly raised her hand, and power surged from the cold [Gap]. At that moment, Lorenzo seemed to see everything, all the pathways of flowing power.

From one [Gap] to another, traversing with immense force.

In that instant, Lorenzo saw many things; shattered memories sliced into his being like daggers, fragments of Horner’s life flashing in his mind, chaotic and disordered, as if to tear apart his fragile brain.

From his beginning to his descent into death.

That was everything about Horner, revealing that he too was one of the Exiled People, adopted yet subjected to discrimination, living a mundane life until that scarlet figure entered his life.

”Lawrence!”

Lorenzo roared.

And then everything collapsed.

A new will replaced this place, issuing the command for death, causing the entire icy world to shatter and break, piece by piece falling into a dark void like withering life returning to zero.

In Arthur’s incredulous eyes, the sharp Nail Sword ripped through twisted flesh, the Demon Hunter drenched in scarlet burning blood, crawled out bit by bit from the horrific carcass like a returnee from Hell.

The coldness solidified the blood onto the sturdy Armor like a kind of crimson flower, blooming on the statue-like Armor, an abominable sight.

Still seemingly in disbelief, Lorenzo bowed his head, looking at the demon completely dead behind him, without smashing its heart or severing its head, yet now it was dead, truly dead.

The sealed secret finally revealed itself, Lorenzo wiped away a part of it.

Unable to fear or endure the pain, his mind went blank in an instant.