Gun of Ashes

Chapter 696: Chapter 178: The Grandeur of Humanity_2

Various documents piled up, Merlin cleared a space from the mess to work.

He was never one to appear under the sunlight, spending most of the year like a rat, nesting in the sunless underground.

Now under the sunlight, his pale and sickly face looked almost deathly, making Eve feel a vague fear, fearing that this strange alchemist might collapse at any moment.

”I know what you plan to do, Arthur already told me about it a few days ago when he contacted me.”

”Has he woken up?”

Hearing about Arthur, Eve pursued the question.

”He has woken up, nothing serious... but you, you want to know the reason for your abnormality, don’t you... let me think about how to explain it to you.”

Merlin rubbed his temples, disliking the task of explaining these dirty things to a young girl, as he thought it might affect her pure heart... even though this young girl was fiercer than the professionals when it came to slaying demons.

Glancing at the girl sitting opposite him, Merlin silently sighed.

Should he say, as expected of Arthur’s daughter? Or perhaps... it’s the nature of the Rangers.

”In short, actually you, Eve Phoenix, were already dead before you were born.”

After a pause, Merlin began everything with these somewhat shocking words.

”What... did you say?”

Eve felt confused and couldn’t understand what he was saying.

”Don’t worry, I will explain everything to you... actually, this is also Arthur’s idea, he told me he thought for a long time and suddenly realized that he might have been wrong.”

Merlin continued.

”Maybe you already have the ability to protect yourself, all he did was merely limiting you, but what you need to know is that the more we engage with demons, the closer we are to darkness until we are devoured by it.

Arthur’s protection over you was also just hoping you could stay away from it, but looking at these events, you have also become a part of the ’curse’.

”So what?” Eve asked.

She had heard Lorenzo explain this part about darkness before and could also understand everything Merlin was saying now.

”So he gave up on protecting you, rather than protecting you ineffectively, it’s better to let you wield a sharp sword and protect yourself, after all, Arthur cannot protect you forever, and for that reason, he chose to tell you everything and let you make the decision.”

Merlin said, picking up a cup of water, taking a sip to moisten his throat; this damn place was too bright, both hot and dry, he began to miss the slightly chilly underground facilities.

”In fact, even before you were born, you encountered demons.”

Merlin began recounting the past.

”It was many years ago, during an incident, your mother was attacked by demons while she was pregnant with you.

You also know the nature of demons, physical injuries, as long as they are not too severe and fatal, with our capabilities, most can be healed, but the erosion that directly acts on the spirit, we are helpless against... no, to be precise, helpless against you.”

Merlin observed Eve’s expression, paying attention to her emotional changes.

”We treated your mother and also conducted erosion tests, but unfortunately, your situation was close to birth at that time, meaning there was another fully mature but ignorant consciousness within your mother’s body, I could test her but could not test how much you were eroded.”

”The human will is very peculiar, like a lump of malleable clay, during training, it can be molded into different forms, swords, shields, firearms...

One of the reasons we can resist erosion is due to our relatively complete cognition, able to naturally fight against darkness, but for an unborn ignorant child, she cannot distinguish all of this, she cannot understand light and darkness, or know what demons are... it could be said she may not even have the concept of ’I’.

A child’s will is like a piece of unshaped clay, easily influenced by erosion, molded into the form of a demon.”

Merlin paused for a moment and then asked.

”You understand what this means, don’t you.”

Eve remained silent, revisiting nightmares in her memory, a certain monster crawled out from flesh and blood, accompanied by thick sounds and a woman’s wailing, it clawed cruelly, tearing the fragile body to pieces.

Under Merlin’s narrative, the blurred memories suddenly became clear, darkness was swept away, in fear, she saw the appearance of that monster.

It was a young innocent face, naive yet blood-stained... it was herself, Eve Phoenix.

Eve’s body began to tremble uncontrollably.

”What was certain at that time was that you were already eroded, but the extent of erosion was unknown, yet looking at our records from the Purification Mechanism, young children are extremely susceptible to erosion infection, not to mention an unborn child like you.

You were close to birth, not suitable for abortion, but internally, there were still some risky procedures that could solve everything, but they were opposed by your parents, they had already lost many children and didn’t want to lose you, the last one.