Embers of Embers

Chapter 317 Chess Game
"James Moriarty..."
A voice sounded from behind Anthony. The name made him a little happy, but also made him a little uneasy. Every time he heard it, it always reminded him of those cunning poisonous snakes.
"Actually, I've always been curious, where did you find this... strange lunatic."
Samuel limped over with a cane. He looked extremely embarrassed at the moment, with bandages wrapped around his body and his face pale.
He was hit head-on by a lacquered antimony flying knife and a bullet mixed with cantrera. Fortunately, Samuel had activated Power Yanar to the extreme at that time, and the whole thing was already approaching demonization. In addition, the bullet missed With his heart, Samuel was able to survive this violent explosion and poison.
But this was just barely surviving. When the demon hunter dug him out of the collapsed ruins, his body was extremely strange. Life and death appeared on this body at the same time. While he was being healed, his flesh and blood were poisoned by toxins. necrosis.
That short time was like hell for Samuel.
Fortunately, with this powerful power, Samuel survived in the end. Although he was a little embarrassed, with the physique of a demon hunter, his injuries were healing quickly, and he might be able to fight again in a few days.
"I reminded you, Lorenzo Holmes is dangerous, very dangerous. We still don't know what the effect of the pseudo-Holy Grail on him is. A rash attack will only cost us."
Anthony turned back and looked at his embarrassed deputy. He always gave people a calm and calm feeling, but now his voice was slightly angry.
"Three demon hunters were lost in this operation. Fortunately, it was a secret move we arranged in advance, and the elimination agency was unaware of their existence."
After losing "Apocalypse", every active demon hunter becomes very precious, and their secret blood is the most precious wealth.
"This has nothing to do with us, we don't know why Lorenzo was there, this was a damn encounter," Samuel said.
He had just woken up from a coma and came here to report to Anthony on matters related to the operation.
"Encounter?"
"Yes, we successfully invaded Shermans' camp, but when I found Shermans, he was with Lorenzo..."
"How did he find Shermans?" Anthony asked.
"I don't know, but I think it has something to do with that letter." Samuel analyzed. Although he had only just woken up, he felt more and more that this encounter was full of chance.
"Didn't we also rely on the letter with the secret blood to find Shermans? Maybe the letter was given to more than one of us." Samuel said, "But what is so important about Shermans? How come a cardinal who has been in exile for a long time, and who was on the edge of power even in the Seven Hills, suddenly pays attention to him."
Anthony did not answer Samuel's question, but felt a little awkward. This came directly from the new pope's order. He needed Shermans to confirm something, although his question had been confirmed by the old pope. But Lorenzo's sudden contact with Shermans made Anthony suspicious.
Who sent this letter?
The New Order is still unaware that the Purification Agency has already established contact with Shermans. Now Lorenzo's sudden behavior makes him a little panicked. According to the new Pope's instructions, Lorenzo is most likely to be Lorenzo. Zoro Medici, the mysterious and terrifying old man, finally found a way to immortality.
Perhaps everything he encountered with Lorenzo before, everything he showed was just a disguise. Anthony felt a lot of pressure on this guy who had led the golden age.
Just like this hazy rain curtain, the unknown fog shrouded the old Dunling. Hunters and monsters walked together on the streets of the city, preparing to kill each other at the moment of encounter.
"Our plan has already begun. After you adjust, new instructions will be conveyed to you."
Anthony said to Samuel.
"Moriarty's plan?"
Samuel mentioned the disturbing name again.
"You actually agree with what that lunatic did..."
Samuel knew that his words could not change anything, and they were just words. He felt that he was a sick guy, but compared to Moriarty, Samuel's illness was curable. That kind of thing.
But that guy was different.
"Although Moriarty is sometimes uncontrollable, at least he can indeed bring miraculous effects." Anthony said slowly.
"So where did he come from? I never saw him when I was in the Knights Templar, and his swordsmanship is really bad." Samuel was a little curious. Basically, the demon hunters of the new order are He comes from the Knights Templar, but Moriarty is different.
"He was selected by Your Majesty, a person who can make Your Majesty feel interesting." Anthony said.
He didn't understand this at first, and didn't understand what qualifications such a person had to become a demon hunter, until Moriarty showed him his own weird talent.
The gift of deceit.
Father Anthony is a confidant of the new pope. In the eyes of the exiles, it was his sudden defection that caused the Knights Templar who were originally loyal to the cardinals to rebel, which made the new pope usurp all power overnight and wear the That luxurious crown.
But in fact, Anthony knows very well that all these are just the words of the exiles to comfort themselves. He is not the key to all this. Even if he does not rebel, there will be another Anthony who betrays the cardinals. The truth of all this is new The Pope's formidable power, as the demon hunter named Raphael, is the controller of illusions, and everyone is played by him like a puppet on a string.
Moriarty was given the same power as the new pope, it was not just some so-called trust, but the new pope felt that this power could be perfectly utilized by him, to some extent, they were the same liars, a One deceives the sacred crown, one deceives others' reason.
"You don't seem to like Moriarty. Don't you often say that you are very similar?" Anthony asked.
"Similar does not mean same, Father."
Samuel said in a calm voice, somewhat unwilling to recall the madman.
"The more similar we are, the more we understand each other, right? Just like two people with the same preferences, we know how to please each other, but what if the similarities are two monsters?"
Samuel looked at Anthony's gradually changing expression and slowly explained why he was afraid of Moriarty.
"If it were you, two monsters who met on a narrow road, what would you think? This is my kind, hugging it ecstatically? Or is it because of the similarity, so you also know what kind of terrifying monster the other party is, so you feel Vigilance and fear?"
Samuel walked aside with a cane and sat down on a chair.
"Actually, the above thoughts are considered normal, but Moriarty is different. I admit that I am not very normal either. I am obsessed with that damn sense of victory and accomplishment, but I am just a little paranoid, but I am not crazy.
There's a difference between a paranoid and a lunatic, Father. "
"You seem to know him better than I do," Anthony said.
"It's nature, we're similar but different, and I can understand his part but not the craziness."
Anthony was silent for a while. There were only two of them in the huge study room, which seemed a bit empty. Countless materials were piled on his desktop.
"So you found Moriarty in a mental hospital?"
Samuel's voice sounded again, he seemed to be very curious about Moriarty's origin, and kept asking.
"I don't know," Anthony said.
"You don't know?"
Samuel's voice sounded a little excited.
"He was brought here by Your Majesty. What authority do you think I have to interfere with him?"
Anthony's eyes were also a little helpless. Looking at the bandaged Samuel, he continued.
"However, he is indeed very disturbing. Sometimes I don't know what he will do. However, Your Majesty speaks highly of him and says that he is a person who can give people 'unexpected surprises'."
"The so-called unexpected surprises are uncontrollable, right? I was with him during training. He cut off the hand tendons of a demon hunter. He just thought it was funny. Someone wanted to teach him a lesson, but he used Quan Neng sent that guy to the mental ward. You should know about this, right?
When the demon hunter activates the secret blood, the demon hunter's will is always undergoing the test of erosion. Power Raphael can stabilize the will by implanting beautiful illusions into a person, and it can also bring about extreme madness...that In the chaotic chaos, the demon hunter was eroded by the secret blood and fell into madness. "
Samuel recalled the time during training. At that time, the new pope was in urgent need of a group of demon hunters to fight for him. He extracted the secret blood from the dead demon hunters and injected it into the bodies of the selected ones. He went through hellish training. , and out of the dead a new order was born.
"And that's the strange thing about Moriarty, Father."
"what?"
Samuel recalled carefully that those were the only times he dealt with Moriarty, and it was those times that he couldn't understand this person at all.
"I thought he was some kind of pervert who liked to watch other people go crazy and suffer, and he liked to take pleasure in these sufferings. Then it would be easy to please this monster. I found a few death row inmates for him to have fun with. I just hope he won't have any more fun. It affected other witchers, but he refused."
"Refused?"
"Yes, I refused. I thought it would be a very interesting 'toy' for him, but he refused. He thought it was boring to torture a group of death row prisoners..."
Samuel's voice was trembling, not because of fear, but because of confusion.
“For him, he does like the suffering of others, but there is a prerequisite for this, the prerequisite is the suffering of people who he finds interesting.
But he is a psychotic and lunatic with perverted habits. How can we infer the preferences of such a person? "
Everyone has their own purpose and direction, but only Moriarty makes him feel like a poisonous snake moving forward at will. Even the golden beauty cannot seduce him, but he is full of motivation because of some strange things. .
"At least, Moriarty can still distinguish between 'hobby' and work. The plan he proposed is very good, and it was only implemented after His Majesty's approval."
Anthony picked up the water glass and took a sip. Knowing the stories that happened before, he was still so calm.
"So what's the plan?"
"Lorenzo Holmes, he is suspected to be Lorenzo Medici, and it is certain that he is carrying the False Holy Grail. He is an extremely dangerous guy. If you start a fight with him forcefully, you will be punished by the purification agency. Opposition, and he’s very aggressive himself.”
"Driving a wedge between the two? Instructing the purge agency to find a way to abandon Lorenzo?"
This is not a difficult puzzle to solve, Samuel figured it out easily.
"Is that so?"
Anthony nodded, and it seemed that the plan had been carried out in an orderly manner.
"But this is not enough," Samuel recalled the figure wielding the sword in the wine cellar. "Although the contact time is not long, I don't think these are enough to defeat him, let alone he is suspected of being Lorenzo Mei. Dicky."
As a native of Florence, Samuel was very familiar with Lorenzo Medici's deeds. The old man's life was lost only to time, and after so many years, he seemed to be alive again in a young body. , in the final comeback of the chess game.
No, he has not completely won over time. The new religious order and the new pope will not let him go so easily, even if they are suspected.
"So there are plans that only a sick man like Moriarty could come up with."
Anthony said at this time, his expression was very interesting, he seemed to have been treating all this from the perspective of a bystander, but he was clearly the leader of the new religious order and the representative of Fei Lengcui.
"Lorenzo Holmes is a solid piece of iron, but sometimes you don't have to destroy it with force, you just have to let cracks appear inside."
"Can he do it?"
Samuel was very worried about the uncontrollable Moriarty. He was like a restless lamb, always ready to knock the shepherd to the ground.
"I don't know, but I'm here, right?"
Anthony smiled, and as he smiled, the ferocious scar began to swim, like a centipede clinging to the skin.
"We are all chess pieces under the crown, located on this chessboard called Old Dunling. Different classes see different things, Samuel."
This action can be said to be all done according to Moriarty's ideas. Anthony's existence has no meaning at all. In fact, Samuel is also aware of this, but Anthony's position is at least the dean, and Samuel did not dare to act rashly. questioned him.
"You are only aware of the enemies in front of you, but what about the potential ones?"
Anthony said as he picked up the letter, the letter that triggered the previous series of events. Only Anthony had read this letter, and it was only after reading this letter that the pursuit of Shermans was launched.
But it was a little different from the letter Lorenzo got, there was an extra paragraph in this letter.
"Lorenzo Holmes is suspected of being Lorenzo Medici."
Anthony was certain that this letter definitely did not come from the purge agency. On this chessboard called Old Dunling, there was another player who had never shown up, a player that everyone ignored.
He has secret blood and is aware of Lorenzo Medici's "immortality". After thinking hard, Anthony can only come to one conclusion.
The letter came from Lawrence's remnants.
"What do you want to do again?"
Anthony is the person who presides over all this, the chess player entrusted by the new Pope to the old Dunling. What he wants to hunt is not Lorenzo Holmes, but the greatest benefits that the new order can get in the old Dunling.
This benefit could be Lorenzo Holmes and his false Holy Grail, or it could be Lawrence's remnants and the lost Book of Revelation.
……
"So the psycho has started?"
Looking at Lawrence who just woke up from his seat, the plague doctor asked.
Lawrence had just escaped from the [Gap] shuttle, and there was a little pain of split consciousness on his face. After a while of relief, he nodded, and there was a hint of approval in his words.
"I didn't expect the new pope to find such talent, no, crazy person."
"It seems like their plan is perfect, so perfect that you think it's good," the epidemic doctor said.
"Yeah, it's a pity that they never realized that I had already targeted them."
As Lawrence spoke, he recalled the child's face. It was a little cowardly, a little inner, but also a little crazy. The encounter in Whitechapel was deliberate by Lawrence. He wanted to start with Sigur to check Lorenzo. , it’s a pity that this chess piece could not be used.
However, I am also grateful for these things, so that this chess piece can be ignited today, and Lawrence can easily intervene in it.
(End of this chapter)