Gun of Ashes

”He is much like you, yet a bit different. You fear death, clinging to this world rife with desires, whereas he refused to die for that beautiful Golden Era.”

The new Pope grabbed the withered skull, staring intently into the hollow darkness beneath.

”Lorenzo de’ Medici is still alive, isn’t he?”

After a long pause, the corner of the old Pope’s mouth pulled into what looked like a smile.

”He is dead, died on the Night of the Holy Arrival, and his body was buried in the Seven Hills along with the saints of the past. Aren’t you quite aware of this?”

”Oh, really?”

The new Pope also smiled, watching the old Pope playfully, and then said.

”Your Eminence, you are an excellent Secret Keeper. No matter how I tortured you, even throwing you into here, you never gave me any answers nor told me any secrets... You disguised yourself well then, but now it’s different. Your Eminence, your pathetic appearance is indeed laughable when you try to disguise yourself...”

The new Pope saw through its lies instantly and continued.

”He survived, and you know this, right? Perhaps you don’t know the specifics, but you know he won’t die easily... You were once adversaries with him, but now you cover for him because it involves you, doesn’t it? And whatever makes you lie to me, it must be related to the ’Truth.’

The old Pope’s voice trembled, ”No... it’s not...”

”In fact, I already know, at least part of it, Lorenzo de’ Medici is still alive. He has obtained ’immortality,’ but he achieves it by occupying others’ bodies, right?

Gabriel... that’s what you call this Authority, right?”

The old Pope was completely petrified. In this desperate place for so many years, it thought it would never feel fear again, yet now that unfamiliar feeling returned, gripping its throat.

”No...”

”Let me think, this so-called ’Sword Scabbard Treaty’ is related to the Authority of Gabriel. Lorenzo de’ Medici obtained it at the end of his life and used the power of this Authority to occupy someone else’s body to live on, while his original body died on the Night of the Holy Arrival.”

”Impossible! That Authority has already been sealed away! And Lorenzo de’ Medici was so old, he couldn’t possibly withstand the Secret Blood...”

The old Pope shouted, but his voice immediately dropped. It looked at that devil-like face, unable to believe it.

”You’re lying to me...”

”Indeed, this long torment is effective. At least your thoughts are no longer as sharp as they used to be.”

The new Pope looked on with pity. The once powerful Pope had become mad under the long torment at the bottom of the well, far from what he used to be.

”Those materials have long been burned to ashes in the Night of the Holy Arrival. Even if I became the Pope, I barely obtained some fragments, but you know I’m very clever. If I weren’t clever, I wouldn’t have become the Pope, so I pieced together this story from those materials...

I also know you won’t speak. This time I came merely to have you confirm the truth of my story, and it looks like it’s true, Lorenzo de’ Medici is still alive.”

The new Pope spoke slowly, and as he narrated, the madness on the old Pope’s face intensified.

”What surprised me most is that you actually covered for him. You don’t want me to know these, so... the Authority of Gabriel is related to the ’Truth,’ right?”

This sentence completely detonated the old Pope. It clawed and bit madly at the new Pope, but its attack was so powerless, merely futile, wailing and crying, till it finally stopped, voice filled with agony.

”Why, why are you so obsessed with the ’Truth’?” The old Pope couldn’t understand.

”I never cared about these things before. I took things easily. Demon Hunter was just a job, but the Night of the Holy Arrival changed everything. Many people died, people I knew, people I liked, people I loved, even me, lost half my life that night...”

He said, unable to help but touch his hideous face, then revealed a twisted smile.

”Since then, I’ve been thinking, why do I fight? We say it’s to maintain human rationality, but we don’t even know what the enemy actually is. Yes, what are demons really? Why did they appear in this world? If they are shadows of God, then where is this so-called God?

What exactly are demons?

What is going on in this world?”

The new Pope’s voice was very calm, but within the calmness, there was a rage that could not be extinguished.

”Everyone died so easily, yet we didn’t know why we died, it’s really laughable...”

The old Pope stopped crying, and in a trance, the so-called rationality returned to this body, briefly clear in this despairing well.

”But that is not a good ’Truth.’ You won’t like it, it would only lead to greater mistakes.”

”I don’t care.”

”You will die.”

The new Pope paused, seeming to remember something, and asked.

”Do you know Jiuxia?”

”That Far East country?”

”Yes, there is a saying there.”

”What?”

”If I could learn the Way in the morning, I am willing to die in the evening.”

The new Pope tossed the cigarette box, with a few remaining cigarettes in it. It wasn’t something expensive, but in this place of despair, it’s like a treasure.

”Smoke sparingly, it might be decades before I come again, after all, we Demon Hunters can live a long time.”

With that, he turned to leave, the lantern lighting the path ahead, the flowing blood constantly extending forward, like a crimson ocean.

The old Pope somewhat dazedly picked up the cigarette box, watching that slowly departing figure, suddenly gripped by immense fear, as the light kept leaving, darkness dragging it back bit by bit, driving it into madness again, wailing.

”Come back! I beg you to come back!”

It’s so dark here, so lonely.

”I beg you! Kill me!”

Such immortality is too painful for the old Pope, yet it cannot die, it’s bound to this colossal flesh, it will feel hunger, feel thirst, but it will never die.

The new Pope ignored it, merely grabbing the chain he arrived with and tracing his way back to the entrance.

That light was getting smaller and smaller until it almost disappeared from view, the old Pope was collapsing, enduring endless darkness, finally seeing the light, yet now that light was leaving, it cursed vehemently.

”Do you think that by taking a human name, you become human? You and I are the same, monsters! Absolute monsters!”

In the deep dark, that hateful voice echoed.

”You’ll end up dying here with me, Raphael!”

Raphael stopped his steps, turned around but couldn’t see the old Pope anymore, only a slowly writhing darkness.

The lantern illuminated his surroundings; there were innumerable corpses, one after another, they were also cast down from the Well of Ascension, over the long years, bodies piled up like small mountains.

”Of course, I’m sure I’ll die here...”

Raphael whispered, looking sadly at those deceased... they weren’t ordinary people, they were Demon Hunters, all the corpses were Demon Hunters, and that was the ultimate fate of all Demon Hunters.

They originated from the Well of Ascension and will finally end at the Well of Ascension.