Embers of Embers

Chapter 28 Normal
It's like there are countless mosquitoes whispering in your ears. The harsh and anxious sound consumes Eve's calmness. Uneasiness, panic, panic and other negative emotions are trying to devour her reason.
Eve wanted to scream, but she was pulled by Lorenzo. This psychotic scum had an unspeakable sense of reliability at the moment. He held Eve's hand to maintain his last sanity.
The two of them ran desperately in this dark secret passage, but it seemed that there was no end, and they could never see the end of the road. Behind them, although the red tide of death had disappeared, the murmur that kept echoing in the darkness was warning. Two people, it's still chasing after them.
"Don't be afraid, that thing can't catch us!"
As if to comfort the girl, Lorenzo said suddenly.
"A group of combinations of human bodies. Although it is beyond common sense, it still follows the laws of reality to a certain extent. For example, if you are too fat, you cannot run fast, and if you are too big, you cannot squeeze in."
As he said that, he picked up Eve, and Eve was completely frightened at the moment, like a doll, being played with at will by him.
It was a road higher than normal people. It was extremely hidden in the darkness, but his senses became sharper in the crisis. Without thinking, Lorenzo threw Eve on it, and then he also climbed in.
This is the secret passage of the underground palace. With Sabo's vigilance, it must be connected in all directions. Maybe one of the roads will lead to a hidden exit. If there were not those weird monsters, Lorenzo would have time to try them one by one, but now he can only use this Everything depends on luck.
I really hope that the goddess of luck is still favoring me.
Fear and death followed the two of them. Eve couldn't understand why the detective could remain calm under such circumstances. Why didn't he feel fear?
His calmness and perseverance are far beyond ordinary people. If you think about it carefully and put aside this person's bad personality, he is simply an invincible genius. Whether it is his cunning strategy or swordsmanship, he can crush ordinary people.
Eve was about to ask, but she felt that Lorenzo's hand holding her tightly was shaking slightly. Although it was very weak, Eve still clearly felt it.
He was also scared, this damn detective was actually scared, but Eve knew very well that he was different from her, he was forcing himself to be calm, only in this way could they get out alive.
As for death?Lorenzo didn't care about that kind of thing, he was the kind of lunatic who dared to pull out Winchester and shoot at the door when death was knocking.
Lorenzo wants to live, he must live. He has arrived in Old Dunling, and the wonderful new life is already in his hands. He can feed the pigeons in the square with a cigarette in his mouth, or he can ride a steam tram around the square. The entire mechanical city.
No one can take his life away, not even a monster digging a grave from his own memories.
"Don't worry, fear is normal. That kind of thing will oppress the spirit and force you to have negative emotions. Once you lose, you will become a puppet of fear!"
Lorenzo explained to Eve as if he had faced something like that before.
Enjoying the taste of tobacco vigorously, Eve could only see the flame of the cigarette butt in the darkness and smell the smell of smoke lingering on the tip of her nose.
Eve couldn't see Lorenzo's face clearly, but she could feel another strange emotion welling up.
"We have to leave as soon as possible. If possible, we need to notify Su Yalan Hall who came to the rescue. Ordinary people are just dying in the face of that kind of thing."
The voice was dull, but beneath that dullness was anger and remorse.
This was Lorenzo's fault. He should have realized this problem when he saw Wall's mutated body. Wall didn't know why he had started mutating in the direction of the demon at that time. It's just that I killed him in time, and he hasn't completely mutated yet.
Presumably this was why Wall begged himself to kill him at that time. He had already realized that he was different and he didn't want to become a member of that monster.
I should always be vigilant, but it was the life in Old Dunling that made me lose my vigilance. The strange changes in flesh and blood were obviously so obvious, but I didn't think about it in this direction.
"Then...what exactly is it?"
Eve calmed down her breathing. She tried to calm down, then she clenched her weapon and asked the figure in the darkness.
The question seemed to bring back bad memories for him, and he answered in a difficult voice.
"demon."
……
"God said let there be light, so there was light."
This is the first sentence from the beginning of the Gospel. Believers usually use this to understand God’s great power and holiness, but what is not recorded in the Gospel is that where there is light, there must be darkness.
Some philosophers understand it this way, just like the opposition of all things in the world, only with cold can people understand what warmth is, kindness becomes precious in the face of sin, and only death can reveal the beauty of life.
God seems to be testing mortals. When he brings light, the darkest and deepest abyss rises in his shadow, where monsters called demons are born.
Originally, the word demon came from the Evangelical Church's "Book of Isaiah" to describe those "enemies" who are enemies of God. They are different from the mortals who bathe in the glory of God. They crawl out from the shadow of God. It lures mortals into the abyss of depravity and keeps company with sin and violence. They are abandoned by heaven and live in hell.
Eve was a little dazed. Of course she knew the meaning of this word. The Romans originally established Old Dunling. They not only brought the glory here but also brought faith, although the influence of the Evangelical Church on various countries was reduced to a minimum. , but it still has a large number of believers, and Eve's mother, who has long since died of illness, is one of them.
When her mother was still alive, she told Eve about these things, and even gave her a Christian name, so Eve knew these things close to theology very well, but she was also terrified by knowing them.
"how can that be……"
The entire world's cognition was overturned at this moment, and Eve's finally stable heart began to beat violently again, as clear as a bell in this deep tunnel.
Eve has always scorned the so-called mythological beliefs. She felt that they were just things fabricated by the authorities in order to stabilize their rule and plunder their interests, but what was originally a myth now really existed in front of her, just like Lorenzo As he said, it was by no means a so-called hallucination, but a real thing.
"Nothing is impossible. We must escape as soon as possible. Although we don't know how the demon appeared here, there are at least hundreds of people in this underground palace now. They are still the kind of people who have lost their ability to move due to hallucinogens. Those people are its Grain, it’s just getting bigger and bigger and scarier.”
Lorenzo's voice came from the darkness ahead.
"...How do you know this, Lorenzo!"
Eve stopped following closely, and the whispering in her ears continued to intensify, as if there was a strange monk in her ears. The effect of the hallucinogen and the impact of the demon on the spirit made the girl's condition very bad. She had trouble trusting anyone.
The muzzle of the gun was pointed at the figure in the darkness. It was Eve's own gun, filled with bullets.
"Don't give in Eve, you've been affected by it."
Lorenzo's voice remained calm, not caring that Eve was pointing a gun at him.
Cold sweat slid down the girl's cheeks, her breathing gradually became heavier, various thoughts were tumbling in her mind, and Lorenzo's doubts in front of her became bigger and bigger, catalyzed by this negative emotion.
Why does this detective know so much, why does he choose himself to be with him, is it really for that rescue plan?Of course, these doubts are not fatal enough. The most fatal thing is Lorenzo himself.
A detective who is proficient in combat skills and secret knowledge, the existence of Lorenzo himself is the biggest doubt.
"Don't be afraid of Eve, I can understand you, the first time I faced demons, I was the same as you... I almost killed my friend, they are like this, they will directly destroy a person's mind, the person who fights it Not only to guard against monsters, but also to guard against teammates who have fallen into madness."
In the dark, Lorenzo comforted him, but he had already clenched his sword. This is a dark tunnel with low visibility, and the distance between Lorenzo and Eve is also very close. As long as the sword is drawn fast enough, Lorenzo will Confident in shooting Eve and killing the girl first.
There is no so-called inner dispute at all. Lorenzo has known one thing since the first time he swung his sword at the monster a long time ago. There is a price to pay for fighting against that kind of weirdness. It can be a person's goodwill, or a person's kindness. It can be the bondage to one's own principles, or the warm blood is frozen.
"Eve, calm down, don't let your ancestors down."
The voice became stern. Lorenzo was now like a rigid teacher admonishing his incompetent students. But even as he spoke, the staff and sword were already raised above his head in the darkness. With Lorenzo's arm strength, he could In an instant, Eve was cut into two pieces.
Confusing emotions entangled Eve, and the hand holding the gun was trembling. The two faced off in the darkness for nearly a minute. During this long silence, Eve finally put down the gun in her hand.
"I... what's wrong with me..."
Eve knelt down weakly, her pupils were bloodshot, her beautiful face became pale, her previous youth and vitality were no longer there, she looked like a sick woman.
"Monsters are very weird things. They are not even living creatures. Everything they come into contact with will be dyed with weird properties. Just like a vessel that has been touched by it, ordinary people will have nightmares if they touch it. .
In the same way, once ordinary people look at it, hear it, smell it, etc., and observe its existence, their behaviors will be affected, and the effect will be "crazy" produced according to the strength of contact. "
Lorenzo put down his deadly staff and sword, and while helping Eve up, he put away her gun in case the girl did something stupid again.
“Not even reading the words about it, that’s not looking at it, not touching it, not understanding it.”
Eve turned her head with difficulty, Lorenzo still looked calm in the strange atmosphere, as if he was not affected at all.
"Then why aren't you...scared?"
Lorenzo helped Eve forward, answering her as he walked.
"There are many factors, just like being with a tiger every day. When you see it for the first time, you will be scared to death, but if you see it every day, then you will just think of it as a ferocious big cat."
There is light shining in front, which seems to be the exit.
"So you think that damn thing is just a big cat?"
Seeing the light in the endless darkness, the girl's mood finally eased a lot. She even wanted to laugh when she heard Lorenzo's description.
"When fear becomes normal, it will just become a common emotion. As I said, I used to be a priest, Feileng Cui from the Holy Gospel Papal State. I know very well that the devil is an unknown thing, and the same We need something equally unknown to fight against.”
Lorenzo lifted up the Winchester, hooked his fingers on the retaining ring and swung it up hard. The shotgun rotated gracefully and was loaded during the rotation. The cigarette was gone, and it was stepped on by Lorenzo with its remaining fire and ashes. destroy.
"The unknown that protects us was called God and Faith hundreds of years ago, and now its name is Machinery and Energy."
Lorenzo took off his mask. It felt really uncomfortable to wear this thing, and through the corner of his eye at the exit, the girl saw Lorenzo's appearance clearly.
I always thought that Lorenzo was also afraid, but the detective's psychological quality was so good that he could force himself to calm down, but the real situation was that his face was full of rage. This is not what a person who should be afraid should look like.
The hand holding the gun was shaking uncontrollably. This was not fear, it was just that Lorenzo was too excited.
He knew very well why he was like this. Just like the hunter who sealed up his shotgun, all the trees were burned into charcoal. The hunting forest disappeared in the long river of history. The so-called hunter was abandoned far away by the new era.
But suddenly one day, when you are living in a hazy state, you find that the dark forest still exists, and it is filled with weird things that should be burned to death.
You pick up the dusty shotgun and welcome the new life.
(End of this chapter)