Gun of Ashes

”How are you feeling, Arthur?”

Abigail slowly peeled off and removed the wrapped bandages. Perhaps due to his status as a ranger, Arthur, though older, still had a physique far stronger than most. The once gruesome wounds had now mostly healed, leaving a faint white scar beneath his aged skin.

”Pretty good...” Arthur said, recalling all he had been through, unable to suppress a sigh. ”Being alive feels pretty good.”

Arthur rarely had nightmares anymore, but since regaining consciousness, he always dreamt of that final journey.

That unbearably long journey.

In corridors filled with rust and blood, whether moving forward or backward, there was only a darkness impossible to see through. He ran madly, but never reached the end, only eroding his will in this long despair.

Stepping over dense blood puddles, inhaling the suffocating stench, witnessing one familiar corpse after another...

”You’re pretty lucky, essentially no fatal wounds, just need to take care of the wound on your shoulder.”

Abigail picked up scissors and an alcohol swab, continuing to treat the wounds on Arthur’s body.

”That guy looked truly insane; I was already powerless then, sharing a room with him, not killed by demons but nearly bitten to death by him.”

Arthur said with a bitter smile, glancing to the other side of the ward where a patient was currently tied to an iron bed—the former perpetual motion pump chief engineer, William.

He didn’t seem to like his current state much, occasionally letting out whimpering growls, struggling like a wild beast.

Ever since the perpetual pump collapse incident over a decade ago, William fell into madness due to intense erosion, becoming a patient who now gnawed at anything he saw. If not for timely rescue during a storm two weeks ago, the unconscious Arthur almost had his throat bitten by him.

”Seems this incident affected you greatly,” Abigail said, observing Arthur’s expression and continuing.

”What does a young girl know...” Arthur tried to rebut.

Compared to Arthur, Abigail indeed was a young girl. She and Nikola were scholars of the new generation at the purification mechanism, and due to years spent in the underground research area, her skin had a somewhat sickly whiteness, looking even younger.

”I just... understand others a bit now.”

”Like what?”

”Living, fear of death?” Arthur couldn’t help but laugh halfway through.

Arthur was never one to fear death. As the commander leading the purification mechanism forward, he was ruthless enough to easily sacrifice others, and himself.

But this time, he was scared. In that abyssal darkness, he feared death so much, even longing to plead for the Death God’s mercy.

”I can’t die yet, at least not with this information. Cole went through such effort passing the torch to me, how can I let it extinguish in my hands?”

Arthur’s gaze shifted to the ground, as if in a daze.

”So, what did you obtain?”

Abigail asked curiously about what Arthur learned in that darkness, though he hadn’t disclosed it to anyone yet.

”Clues, guiding us towards the truth.”

Arthur lifted his head, looking at Abigail, with raging fire in his aged eyes.

”According to Cole’s information, after being eroded, he retained a certain degree of consciousness, which got trapped in a peculiar place.

A place he was extremely familiar with, like a strange spirit world, or perhaps... [gap].”

Abigail paused, having some understanding of the [gap]. In the eyes of alchemists, it was viewed as the end of darkness, a deep spiritual space existing though very few could reach it.

”Do you know what this means, Abigail?”

”What?”

Arthur took a deep breath; he had been pondering all this during the past half month of treatment—the connection between demons and humans, what essentially demons are.

”Perhaps all those who transformed into demons haven’t lost their minds; they’re still alive, just their will separated from fully transformed bodies, imprisoned in a cage named [gap].”

Abigail’s pupils constricted to a point, a chilling wind swept across her spine in the enclosed room.

Seeing her subtle reaction, Arthur chuckled hoarsely.

”Interesting, right? But it’s just my speculation. To verify this possibility, I need Black Mountain Hospital’s full support next.”

”Such a thing...” Abigail still found it hard to believe.

”Don’t panic, you’re still too young. Us, the purification mechanism, no... humans handling demons is like that, facing the unknown, speculating about it, then verifying it in ways we can comprehend, turning unknowns into knowns.”

Arthur continued recalling everything, all that Cole had entrusted him before his death.

”Cole escaped the [gap] for reasons unknown, perhaps we can find a way to awaken him.”

His gaze fell upon William.

”This guy holds many secrets, Abigail.”

Abigail’s gaze also moved to William. After Arthur’s explanation, she understood his identity—he was the former Merlin, meaning the former perpetual motion pump chief engineer.