Gun of Ashes

Chapter 478: Chapter 87 Abyss_2

Memory reconstruction collapses again, then immediately restructures, randomly piecing together into a grotesque form.

It is at this moment Lorenzo realizes his life is filled with loopholes, those pasts he believed to have existed, upon careful reflection, are completely blank; that night of the Night of the Holy Arrival, his own wishes, all are blank.

Those illogical, conflicting memories are like someone has meticulously pruned them with a scalpel, cutting away all the dubious, unknown parts, leaving this newly formed Lorenzo living like a fool in delusional memories.

But then Lorenzo suddenly laughs, his voice hoarse, seeming to laugh too forcefully, and he can’t help but cough.

Heracles finds it hard to describe his own emotions now, feeling he is trapped with a lunatic, impossible to fathom his mind, one second the sorrowful Lorenzo suddenly breaks into mad laughter, even if he’s not crazy, Heracles feels like he’ll be driven insane.

”I found it, Heracles! I found clues!”

Lorenzo suddenly lunged forward, his bloodstained hands gripping Heracles’ collar forcefully, both joyful and sorrowful.

”Yes... it must be this way.”

In that brief moment, Lorenzo thought of many things, but as if by some hidden suggestion, he suddenly remembered Horner, the guy he killed in the [Gap], after killing him, Lorenzo gained some of his memories, then he thought of another person... Medanzo, or perhaps 047.

The lonely ghost living within his own [Gap].

To this day, Lorenzo finds it difficult to judge whether 047 in the [Gap] is real, or another fragmented personality, but at this moment he has a bizarre speculation.

He wants to prove that speculation.

”What clues.”

Heracles asks.

”Do you think, can another person’s memories appear in one’s own memory?”

Lorenzo suddenly asks.

Heracles becomes nervous, while Lorenzo continues thinking.

According to Lorenzo’s perceived past, his implantation of Secret Blood was conducted along with other Demon Hunters, at that time the so-called Cardinal Medici had already retired, not appearing before the public for a long time, so how could he have been present at the Secret Blood implantation ceremony?

Or perhaps the old man secretly conducted a personal Secret Blood implantation, where the implanted person’s memory was stitched into his own, then, who could that implanted person be?

or 047, or neither of them.

His memory has become dislocated, Lorenzo is already unable to distinguish whether this is his own memory or 047’s, but he finally has some direction for investigation.

He laughs again, a strange laugh, Heracles has become accustomed to these, and this time he doesn’t react very much.

”Heracles, the Memory Palace isn’t entirely abstract and disorderly, it is still based on some aspects of our reality, right?”

Heracles isn’t sure why Lorenzo has dragged the topic onto this again.

”For example?” he asks.

”Like the palace being a place we are familiar with, like opening a memory, I damn well have to twist the doorknob, and open the door!”

Lorenzo is somewhat emotionally unstable.

”These are based on our common sense of reality, aren’t they? Clearly, it’s a spiritual world, yet we still have to rely on our subconscious common sense to perform the act of ’opening the door’.

Lorenzo recalls that infinitely extending spiral staircase, always descending into that Abyss.

”If you put it that way... indeed, it is.”

Heracles never noticed these, but from this point, it can be seen Lorenzo hasn’t gone mad, this guy still has the ability to think.

”Indeed... I’ve found you.”

Lorenzo murmurs softly, sitting down again.

A strange smile appears on his blood-stained face, he then reaches into his embrace.

His top has been torn into a pile of pieces, and he straightforwardly removes them, soon finding a metal box within the pile.

It is Lorenzo’s inseparable cigarette case, the previous one was pierced by Lawrence’s sword in a battle with Lawrence, though thanks to the cigarette case, otherwise what got pierced would’ve been Lorenzo himself.

He forcefully kisses the surface of the metal box before opening it, a few cigarettes lying inside.

”Want one?”

Lorenzo speaks while clamping a cigarette with his lips, tossing one towards Heracles.

”This... Wind Tobacco.”

Heracles was about to ask Lorenzo how he could think of smoking, but he then smells that distinctive scent, although faint, but it doesn’t escape Heracles’ perception.

”Are you about to enter the Memory Palace again?”

Heracles understands what Lorenzo intends to do, and asks worriedly.

”Of course, one must pursue victory.” Lorenzo says, but there is no enemy here... no, the enemy is himself, that memory hidden deep within the darkness.

”You won’t go insane again, will you?”

”No telling...” Lorenzo lights the cigarette, taking a deep drag, his eyes slightly dazed.

”Heracles, don’t use Wind Tobacco in the future.” he says.

”This item... it can communicate with darkness.”

Heracles is taken aback, then immediately asks.

”Knowledge from the Order?”

”Exactly, this thing can induce hallucinations, but unlike the Hallucinogen, its so-called hallucination is more like a twisted reality, a reality humans cannot glimpse, precisely because humans cannot understand these things, so when humans see them, they believe they are hallucinations.” Lorenzo says.

”Like you see a colossal creature spanning the heavens, you think it’s a hallucination, but... perhaps it truly exists, only Wind Tobacco allows you to communicate with darkness, permitting you to glimpse those...

Yes, Spiritual Vision, that’s how they describe this phenomenon, the deeper your connection with darkness, the more ghostly things you can see.”

Lorenzo takes another deep drag, exhaling clouds of smoke.

”Perhaps, our meeting is also manipulated by darkness.”

Heracles clearly doesn’t understand, but Lorenzo continues speaking.

”These things, these things related to darkness, they possess Magic Power, like a grand vortex, the more you know, the deeper you delve, until everyone is sucked into the vortex’s core, drowning.”

The cigarette is already half-consumed, Lorenzo feels his eyelids heavy, seemingly about to fall asleep at any moment, Heracles looks at him, can’t help but ask.

”Is it worth it?”

He doesn’t understand, Lorenzo truly is a peculiar character, Heracles has never seen such a human, not seeking wealth and power, what he so crazily pursues is merely destruction, yet is it worth it?

But Lorenzo doesn’t answer him, he closes his eyes, his consciousness drifting between sleep and wakefulness, when he opens them again, that magnificent palace appears once more before him.

”Yes, it’s based on my subconscious common sense, just like I can only walk on the ground, not fly forward.”

He mutters softly, soon returning to that spiraling stairway.

Lorenzo stands at the edge of the first stone step, body slightly leaning forward, and then sees those countless stone steps extending downwards into the darkness.

It looks like an Abyss, unfathomable, unsure if there’s a bottom, but after a while, Lorenzo suddenly bursts into laughter, his previously cold face showing a delighted expression.

If Lorenzo has any unbearable memories, then surely he would bury them in the deepest, unknown recesses, the deeper, the better, until even light cannot reach.

Lorenzo initially had some doubts, but at this moment he’s rather indifferent.

”The stairway is so long...”

He says casually, glances at the Abyss, and mutters to himself.

”I won’t fall to my death... can consciousness die from a fall?”

Lorenzo asks rhetorically, and then spreads his arms, without hesitation, letting his body tilt unsteadily, before plunging into that Abyss.