Embers of Embers

Chapter 339 Traceability
"You want to... eradicate the demon."
042's voice was trembling. For the boy, what the old man longed for was so terrifying. From his perspective, fighting against the demons seemed very difficult, let alone eradicating them.
"Is this what you wanted all along?"
Many people didn't understand what Lorenzo Medici wanted to do, and he never revealed his purpose to others. He remained silent, and no one knew what was going on in his mind.
"Yes, those people in the church are really sad, extremely sad. Do they think that I will fail when I get old? No, no, on the contrary, I will succeed."
The old man was extremely excited and told 042 everything he had conceived. These things had been accumulated in his mind for too long. He was like a dancer on the stage, but the audience in the audience was blank until many years later. Today he ushered in 042.
This feels really good, telling my unknown greatness, even though the audience at this moment is only a child who doesn't know anything.
"Do you know? 042, I did not become the Pope, but I became a more terrifying existence than the Pope. I want to end the history of demons and usher in a golden age, but I know that it is meaningless to keep fighting like that idiot. Yes, if you kill one demon, two more will appear, they are endless... I want to kill the demon from the source."
After all the desserts on the small table were eaten, the old man picked up the wine glass leisurely. Under the dim light, the liquid in the glass looked like scarlet blood.
"I secretly controlled the Pope and even the entire Feileng Cui, searching the past of the entire Evangelical Church, trying to find the source of demons in the history of the church."
"Then did you find it?"
042 was also inspired by the old man's words. The source of the demon, if he could find the beginning of it all, with the ability of the old man in front of him, he might really be able to end it all.
"No, but I found a lot of interesting things...history is continuous and logical, but the history of the evangelical church is different. In the places I found records it has many contradictions and loopholes, which are mixed with a lot of You can also feel that there is a problem here, right?
I spent a lot of time sorting out these, and among those fragmented clues, I came to such an inference that the history of the Gospel Church has been modified. "
"edited?"
"Well, some people have deliberately hidden something, such as the origin of our Evangelical Church. No matter how I search, our origin is full of mythology without the slightest sense of reality. I know this very well. When in power Some people don’t want people to know the truth of the matter, so they use religion to modify it... Some people don’t want us to know our origins, and there are things that they deliberately hide.”
The old man kept stroking his fingers, as if wiping some invisible treasure. Along with his words, 042 could clearly feel that his expression was wandering between madness and reason.
"What's strange is, why didn't anyone discover these vulnerabilities? Or did they discover them but didn't pass on the information?"
The old man asked immediately.
"042 You are a smart kid, why don't you guess why this is happening?"
042 was taken aback, he seemed a little hesitant, but under the encouragement of the old man's gaze, he spoke slowly.
"After eliminating all kinds of impossibilities, the only remaining result, no matter how weird and absurd, is the only truth."
"Well, that's a good idea. I like it. Although it sounds a bit extreme in self-recognition, there's nothing we can do about it. There are too many things in this world that can mislead us. Sometimes we have to become paranoid," the old man said. Appreciating 042, "Go on."
"is it okay?"
042 glanced at the old man, and then expressed his guess.
"If someone is deliberately hiding something from the beginning of the Evangelical Church until now, then if they really exist, they should be an organization similar to ours, and more hidden than us. It is even said that they exist in our Evangelical Church. Among them, and within our senior ranks, only then can the record be modified.”
042 became frightened as he spoke. If what the old man said is true, what do these people want to do?They are all leaders of the evangelical church. What are they trying to hide?
"Yes, I came to the same conclusion as you at the beginning. There are some damn guys inside us who are causing trouble. In order to find them out, I became a cardinal, controlling different puppets, and gradually disintegrating the power of the entire Evangelical Church. Hold it in my hand again.”
The old man also became confused, with confusion in his voice.
"The Pope became my puppet, and Lawrence also controlled the Demon Hunting Order with my support. Those families that refused to surrender were destroyed by me, and potential enemies were quickly killed by me...
My power has reached its peak, I am the pope in the shadows, I am Florence, the Evangelical Church, and even the Holy Evangelical Papal State! "
He gripped the wine glass tightly, and the green veins wrapped around his arm like poisonous snakes.
"But something strange happened. I controlled everything, but I still couldn't find those guys, as if they didn't exist and were invisible.
After that, I thought about it for a long time. I felt that I would not be misled or make misjudgments. I was confused about this for a long time and did not solve these problems. But then I stopped caring about them and continued to solve them. The devil's problem. "
After taking a sip of wine, the old man moistened his throat and continued.
In this dark underground, only his voice echoed slowly. The demon hunters stood like sculptures. Sometimes 042 could see through the shadows with his peripheral vision, and under the hood were pairs of closed eyes. .
"I put these anomalies aside and re-planned the history of the Evangelical Church in the later time... No, to be precise, it was the history of humans and demons. Listen carefully, 042, there are not many such history lessons."
The old man called 042, calling back his wandering eyes.
"Under my classification, the history of humans and monsters can be roughly divided into four eras, the Dark Age, the Silver Age, and the Golden Age.
Don't you understand something?In fact, that’s good to understand. "
After seeing 042's somewhat confused eyes, the old man continued.
"According to the records of the Gospels, humans and demons coexist in the world, but humans have no power to resist demons and live in darkness. This is a desperate era and a dark age, but with the gospel church With the establishment of the world and the emergence of demon hunters, humans have the power to fight against demons for the first time, and the Silver Age has arrived."
The old man said this and smiled, with a bit of narcissism in his tone.
"But, in the Silver Age, we were only evenly matched with the monsters. Until I appeared, I integrated those scattered powers together. We have never been stronger, and the monsters are also being wiped out by us. Fading away, this is the golden age, my age.”
042 was not surprised by the old man's narcissism, he then asked.
"But you said four eras, and this is only three."
"Yeah, I just... can't confirm the existence of that era. I named it the traceability era."
The old man became serious and took another sip of wine. Some red liquid remained on his beard, like a bloodthirsty beast.
"Have you ever thought about it like this? 042, neither humans nor demons can appear in this world out of thin air. We need a starting point, and with the power of demons, they can be easily destroyed Human beings, we may not be able to wait until the arrival of the Silver Age, and we will perish.
But we survived, which is very wrong, isn't it?
Another question is where did the Book of Revelation come from? Although the Gospels say that the priests obtained it in the north, when did it appear?Did humans create it, or was it the so-called God?
It's interesting, isn't it? The further you trace back to the source, the more you will find loopholes in this world...those loopholes that guys want to hide deliberately. "
042's eyes were a little dull, he seemed unable to accept so much information for a while, and his mind was chaotic, like a viscous chaos.
"After researching for a long time, I came up with the hypothesis that before the Dark Ages, humans and demons existed in the Era of Source Tracing. The occurrence of these things, the arrival of the dark age, and the destruction of all technologies due to the ravages of demons... This explains the mystery of [Baptism of God's Family] and the silver-binding bolt, doesn't it? These things are far beyond our current cognition , a technology that is difficult to replicate.
Doesn’t it all make sense to you? "
The old man looked at 042 with a bright light in his eyes and was very happy.
But this sounded so unbelievable to 042 that it was a bit difficult to accept, and his voice trembled.
"Is that so?"
The old man's expression suddenly declined, but then it rose again.
"I don't know, it's just my assumption, but I still have a chance to confirm it now."
Putting down the wine glass, the old man smiled kindly, and the sound of slight footsteps sounded. At some point, the demon hunters opened their eyes and pulled out the sharp nail swords. They were surrounding and marching, their eyes seemed to be watching. Looking at a certain empty nothingness, then blazing white fireworks rose from under the eyes, illuminating everything underground.
"Not only that, 042, I also found those guys, those guys who deliberately hide their history."
The old man said again, attracting 042's attention back.
“I found the guys, or the guys found me.
Yes, everything is explained, although I consider myself a... great man?Hahahaha, I am indeed a bit narcissistic, but ah, in the long history of the evangelical church, in this long Silver Age, there must be people who can match me, right? "
The old man suddenly grabbed 042's hand, and his rough palm gently rubbed the young body, as if wiping a treasure.
"Yes, there must be someone like me who discovered these loopholes, but why, why didn't they pass on the information? It's actually very simple, because they are all dead. These histories that were deliberately hidden are cursed Knowledge, they touched the cursed knowledge, touched the [boundary], and were killed, killed by those who guarded the secret."
The old man laughed hoarsely, and with his laughter, the rising white flames shook violently. The demon hunters' eyes swept back and forth, as if they were looking for something, but there were only the old man and 042 underground.
042 felt a little scared. He couldn't explain this feeling clearly. He just felt extremely scary, as if something was staring at him in the corner of the shadow. It was slowly squirming until it crawled out of the darkness.
"They came to kill me... When I saw them, I understood everything. It was mortal thinking that limited me. This world is hundreds of times more complicated than we imagined.
But unfortunately, I am Lorenzo Medici, how could I die so easily?I am the one who wants to lead the golden age! "
The old man seemed to be mentally affected and had difficulty controlling his emotions. Sometimes he acted like a madman, and sometimes he was as quiet as a sculpture.
"Who are they?"
042's pupils were constricted, and his heart was beating violently.
The old man paused in his words and asked.
"You will die. No one who touches the [border] will die well."
042's face was ashen. He could feel that he seemed to be only one step away from the truth of this world. As long as he stretched out his hand, he could lift the soft curtain, but he also felt the extreme fear.
The old man is right, this is the [Border]. Once he understands all this, 042 will also touch the [Border]. He will burn and flicker in the darkness, watched by all the weirdness in the potential darkness.
But 042 couldn't bear it. He knew that when he asked this question, it would be the beginning of disaster, but he was too curious. No one could refuse this, so he asked again.
"What are they! What are they going to do!"
After a brief silence, the old man let out a hoarse laugh. He stretched out his hand and rubbed 042's head vigorously, as if stroking a cute animal.
"Ah...human beings have too many selfish desires. I am too old. When I was young, I could still hold these tightly in my hands. But now that I am old, those people have begun to resist me. Even Lawrence In the end, he chose betrayal.
I found that human beings need a unified will, a strong will. Only in this way can the golden age continue, and we can drive out all the demons, instead of being content with the status quo like now.
Before I retired to seclusion, I met the new pope once. He was extremely confident. After all, he was the first pope to break away from my control in so many years. At that time, in the Cathedral of San Naro, I talked with He had the same conversation as now, and I tried to tell him this, but after listening, he refused to fight, refused to continue fighting.
I thought they would understand me and work together to build that perfect era and drive out all the demons, but they refused. They were afraid of the truth and they were afraid of death.
Only then did I realize that these people could not lead the golden age. They were just pigs who were content with the status quo. No matter how many demons there were, as long as the demon hunters still existed, they could not shake their status... Just like in the beginning I was the same back then, I had enough to eat and drink, so who cared about whether there were demons or not? "
The old man said scary words in a relaxed tone.
"grown ups."
Suddenly the witcher's voice interrupted the conversation. He stood beside the old man and reported to him.
"011, what, has anyone seen them?" the old man asked.
"Yes." 011 replied.
"How much longer."
"About 5 minutes left."
The old man nodded and continued.
"Can you Shang Dafen witchers see this far into the future?"
"It's just temporary. The blood of the Holy Grail is about to burn out. After all is consumed, you can see the future in a few seconds at most." 011 replied.
"yes……"
The old man sighed and talked to himself.
"Sometimes I really want to know what kind of future Lawrence sees. After all, he has used so much blood of the Holy Grail. I am also curious about what the future looks like that would make him choose to betray me."
The old man turned his head away, looked at the face under the hood, and asked again.
"Will you betray me? 011, you know, it is very difficult for you Shangdafen Demon Hunters to get here without alerting the Demon Hunting Order."
"No, we also long for that golden age." 011 said.
The old man looked at his face and smiled.
"It's really good. They are all good kids..."
"But... Sir, you pre-installed the Holy Grail blood on our bodies before, plus the part of the Holy Grail blood he used," 011 said, his eyes falling on 042, "What about you? ?You have no more Holy Grail blood to use."
"Don't worry about that, go get ready and greet our guests."
The old man said as he picked up the pocket watch on the small table, twisted it gently, and started timing.
5 minutes countdown.
"Let's go back to the previous topic, what exactly are they and what they want to do, but before that, I want to tell you a mythical story, which will make it easier for you to understand."
The old man looked at 042 again, holding the exquisite pocket watch tightly in his hand. Under the rotation of the machine, he could feel a slight tremor, like scattered dust, and time slowly passed in his hands.
"You know, Wild Hunt?"
"Wild Hunt?"
042 vaguely remembers this thing. He likes to read books, and he has also read many books about mythology and stories.
"Yes, the Wild Hunt is a legend spread in the Western world. Whether it is Leiber, Inverg, or even the Viking countries, there are records of it. Although the specific images are inconsistent depending on the region, they are But they share a common description."
The old man suddenly started telling fairy tales.
"They are existences that bring death, and those humans who look directly at them will join their safari, chasing and hunting under the dark night."
"Think about it carefully, 042, don't look at it in a mythical way, look at it as an actual existence that can be understood by others... talk about it." The old man encouraged.
"A group of unknown beings possess extraordinary power...will they carry out some kind of hunting? Hunting a specific kind of people, and hunting everyone who sees them, and they also exist in multiple regions?" 042's The description was dry, and he didn't know how to describe it all.
"Absolutely. I also learned about this myth by accident, but later after they came to kill me, I connected them with the Wild Hunt and found that all the stories were complete."
The old man's expression was no longer as excited as before, but instead extremely calm.
"They are existences similar to the Wild Hunt... No, it's possible that they are the 'Wild Hunt' in mythology, but people don't understand what they are, so they can only give them the name 'Wild Hunt' and add Deification.”
"Sir, what are you talking about?" 042 became more and more confused about his words, and at the same time, the uneasiness in his heart became more intense, even turning into boiling fear.
"Yes, that's right. The 'Wild Hunt' is the guardian of the [Border]. Anyone who touches this cursed knowledge will be targeted and hunted by them. The history of the Evangelical Church is They were modified deliberately to protect the [border]. Those who stand shoulder to shoulder with me can also realize that these people were all killed by the Wild Hunt.
That's it. Not only in the Evangelical Church, but also in Leiber, Inverg, and the Viking countries, people have discovered the source of demons and discovered the [border]. "
The old man ignored 042's questions at all. He seemed to be completely immersed in the beauty he had spun.
I'm so happy. The old man is not alone. In the past history, there were people who stood in the same position as him. He held his pocket watch tightly and said softly.
"Look, here they come."
For a moment, something seemed to be caressing 042. It seemed to be a group of snakes. They were entangled in 042's body and coiled along his neck. He could clearly feel the cold touch, and then the fear boiled to To the extreme.
All thoughts were violently torn apart and destroyed at this moment, leaving only empty chaos in my mind. The sharp sound of wind whizzed by, as if countless nail swords were slashing on the metal armor, bringing out dazzling waves. The sparks also set off chaotic string sounds, which all hit 042's eardrum, and then blood overflowed from the ear canal.
"Welcome! Unknown guests!"
Lorenzo Medici welcomed them with his head held high and his hands open.
Fireworks rose at this moment, and the demon hunters swung their nail swords and struck the beating arc light.The demon hunters of Shangda Feng have been releasing their powers here until they saw their arrival in the future.
Countless black arcs of light danced, shattering stone walls and materials. Under the light were unformed angels, with broken wings propped up behind their backs. The demon hunters had already seen their arrival, and at the moment before they completely arrived, Gave a fatal blow.
The broken body then fell, falling in front of Lorenzo Medici's eyes. On his delicate face, his dull eyes stared at this disturbing old man, while he picked up the wine glass and poured it with all his strength. The ground was pressed against its hideous wound, and scarlet blood gurgled out, filling the wine glass.
"Do you think there is a new blood of the Holy Grail?"
Lorenzo Medici said happily, and then he drew out his nail sword and penetrated the angel-like being in front of him. Above his head, with the death of the first angel, dozens of black arcs burst out one after another. , the evil light illuminated everyone.
Under the shroud of erosion, the abominable holiness descended.
(End of this chapter)