Embers of Embers

Chapter 478 The End of the Road
The smell of disinfectant mixed with the smell of blood, they hovered around Lorenzo and made him sneeze.
Rubbing his nose vigorously, Lorenzo leaned back lazily, and then his eyes fell on the scavengers around him.
These autistic guys were busy at the scene, struggling to carry away the wounded. The surviving personnel all saw what the angels looked like. Judging from the regulations, these people were contaminated at the moment and needed to be isolated.
The entire purification mechanism was running at full speed, and there was only a crashing sound above the head. The guide rails were dragging materials through various rooms. Steam was also rising at the end of the corridor. The Original Sin Armor was half-kneeling on the ground.
Although they are too large to move within the Perpetual Pump, they can only move on the guide rails, but when the Original Sin Armors are set up in the corridor, they can serve as a solid artillery to guard.
"The workshop has been temporarily blocked. The residual corrosion intensity inside is very high. It will probably not be put into use for some time."
A voice sounded from Lorenzo's side, and Arthur walked over. He had always been above the dome, peeping at all the actions in the workshop.
"What a terrible discovery, Mr. Holmes."
Arthur rarely smoked a cigarette, and his old hands trembled slightly. It was unclear whether it was affected by erosion or because of fear.
He frowned and looked at the mess in the workshop.
The solid walls of the well are covered with scars left by the claws of beasts. The charred original sin armor fell down. White smoke is still rising from the pitch-black skeleton. The remaining fire is still burning, but they are covered by the falling objects from the dome. The light rain extinguished everything, and gradually everything became calm.
It's not like the angels left nothing behind. Their bodies turned into ashes and scattered all over the ground. They were spread over the dead bodies, and they seemed to be covered with dust after a long time.
"Do you know? According to the inspection by the scavengers, the intensity of corrosion inside has reached a terrifying value. An ordinary person will turn into a demon after being exposed to it for a few minutes. This kind of power is just the remnant left by the battles of those monsters. … Just such remnants are enough to cause us numerous casualties.”
Arthur sighed. He thought that after so many years of hard work, although human beings could not completely defeat the demons, they should at least have the capital to fight against them. But when this deeper darkness appeared, all he could feel was A deep sense of powerlessness.
Angels don't die, but humans do.
Arthur turned his head and looked at Lorenzo. He was not delighted by knowing this, but deeply tired.
At a certain moment, Arthur felt like he was wavering. He didn't know if he was really capable of defeating all this if he persisted like this?Or is it that the balance between humans and demons is maintained until the near future, when this balance is broken by some force.
"What are you going to do with this?"
Lorenzo asked, "The Silent Ones, like the Goblins, have memetic contamination and will spread through different media. The scavengers need to strictly control all participants in this experiment."
Not only Merlin and Arthur were insiders, but even the scavengers themselves were part of the group that should be contained.
"Ordinary staff will have their memories wiped. We don't know whether this method can protect them, but it can at least block the transmission of 'information'."
Arthur said slowly. Before the experiment started, he and Merlin had simulated many plans based on their conjectures.
"Those with knowledge, such as Merlin and I, will be put on the scavengers' watch list. If anything unusual happens, they will deal with us."
"Do the scavengers know this?" asked Lorenzo.
"No, the original intention of the scavengers was to take over our existence when the purging agency was corrupted by demons and out of control. After the arrival of the Nine Xia Fleet brought innovative technology, they also gradually evolved into a meme army, specializing in dealing with these Incidents related to erosion pollution.”
Arthur continued.
"They won't know anything, they will just act on orders, and even if the target is Queen Victoria, they will pull the trigger firmly."
"What about the rest? Now that you know such precious information... Although this information itself is a vicious curse, will guys like you give up easily?"
Lorenzo asked, he wanted to know what the purge agency would do with this information.
It can be said that the Silent Ones' information has completely subverted the purification agency's previous understanding of demons. Demons are just by-products of epidemics, and the real enemy is strange erosion. These Silent Ones, who are like shepherds, are actually the guardians of mankind. .
So who are their enemies?
"So many people have died, will you back down? Arthur."
asked Lorenzo, who was worried.
"How could you give up?"
Arthur said without hesitation.
"You also said that so many people have died, so many ancestors, and there are many more people who have been forgotten and we have never heard of. After so many years and so much sacrifice, we have finally reached this point. , do you think it’s possible for us to give up?”
The joy was suppressed in the voice, no...it should be described as ecstasy, Lorenzo looked at Arthur, he found that he was not trembling with fear, he was happy, very happy, if it wasn't for maintaining his image, he Almost jumping with excitement.
With hot fire rolling in his old eyes, Lorenzo saw himself in Arthur's figure, his former self.
More than a year ago, he and a girl named Eve acted in the dark tunnels of the lower city, where he discovered the existence of demons for the first time in a long time.
Lorenzo still remembered how excited he was at that time, almost roaring with joy, and his confused life suddenly had a goal to vent.
Arthur must have the same mentality now. He, as well as the previous knights of the Purification Agency, are all moving forward for an almost nihilistic goal. It was not until so many years later that Arthur finally saw it on an almost endless road. At the end.
He can't retreat, he will run with all his strength, even if he falls and can't stand up again, he has to climb to the end. This is the closest he gets to all this, how could he be scared away by death? .
"The scavengers and the Perpetual Pump have already made a preliminary plan. We will transform a laboratory to study these. It will be completely independent of the purification mechanism system and will be assisted by multiple agencies."
Arthur had already prepared everything.
"The location of the entire laboratory is confidential. They have sufficient reserves. After the experiment is carried out, there will be no population movement. At the same time, the material transportation will be handled by mechanical guide rails, and its entirety will be protected by a huge antimemetic system. , I don’t know if this can prevent those guys from coming, but this is the highest level of defense we can currently achieve, and then it will be under the surveillance of scavengers and protected by three generations of armor.
All the information about the interrogation experiment will be centralized and integrated, and it will be placed in a secret room in the laboratory. The secret room is only used for the most basic experimental research and recording. No more than three people can enter at a time. Everyone has the right to get the full picture of the information in it, but after knowing this, their memory will be erased, which means that the secret of the experiment can only exist in that secret room except in our brains. "
He said and knocked on his head. After thinking hard, he realized that this was the safest way to block information.
"But someone has to know the whole picture and organize the experiment. Merlin will be responsible for this. He is the only person in the entire laboratory who knows the whole picture, and he will not tell them. All the experimenters will only carry out his research orders. May assist in research without knowing the information, just like a humanoid tool.”
"And after this?"
Lorenzo asked again.
This time Arthur fell silent. He seemed to be thinking about something, his expression became ferocious, and finally relaxed slowly.
"I haven't thought about it yet."
"Didn't think so?"
Lorenzo thought he had heard wrongly.
"Yeah, I just didn't think about it. I didn't think about the future at all. To be honest, Lorenzo, I didn't even think that we would make such great progress in dealing with monsters during my tenure. I couldn't think about the future at all."
Arthur said with a wry smile.
"Yes, what should we do next? No one has thought... More than ten years ago, none of us dared to think about this, that we can actually confront the monster with frontal firepower."
He looked at the remains of the armor. As long as the third-generation armor like this waited for the factory's production capacity to increase, they would turn into a torrent of steel and overthrow everything.
"Anyway, we are moving forward, Lorenzo. No matter whether it is hell or heaven ahead, we have to get there to see it."
Arthur said and patted Lorenzo on the shoulder. He walked towards the other side. Arthur's command was still needed at the scene. The new third-generation armor was put into the workshop, but this time it was not a coordinated operation, but Responsible for helping to clean up the battlefield.
Probably because the third generation armor was mass-produced, everyone found that this big guy had more wonderful uses.
"By the way, Lorenzo, there is something else about the Victorian royal family."
Arthur stopped suddenly, turned to Lorenzo and said.
"You mean the war?" Lorenzo said.
"Yes, this war is too weird. It started suddenly. Even I don't know this. You must know that I am also Arthur, and the Phoenix family is also a meritorious family. The queen directly ignored everyone to do this. Faced with my The Queen didn’t reply to my question. In fact, she hasn’t seen anyone since a few days ago, but I remember she said she was willing to meet you and give you an answer, right?”
Arthur had become suspicious of the Queen as early as the news of the war arrived.
"You also think something is wrong with her?"
"Well, according to previous inspections, William applied for experiments more than once, but they were all rejected by the Victoria royal family. Only the Queen has this power. William was also carried away by the desire for secrets, and he conducted experiments in private." Arthur explain.
"But he paid the price, and his death has its due value...even if it's many years late."
The scavengers dug something out of the hideous mess. Picking up the broken and burned bones, they reluctantly pieced together a broken human form.
"Perhaps it's not too late, Arthur. If William survived at that time, you who don't have the armor of original sin will only cause a greater disaster."
Lorenzo didn't think it was so bad.
"probably."
Arthur was too lazy to continue thinking about anything.
"So what do you want me to do, Arthur? Kill the queen, take all the power, and defeat the monster in one fell swoop?"
Lorenzo said eagerly, as if it was not a big deal.
"How is it possible to kill the queen and who will replace her? In fact, she is the most suitable person to be the queen. The curse will always plague the Victorian royal family. Even if they have sinful desires, those desires will be firmly locked In the Platinum Palace.”
Arthur said terrible things.
"I need you to go see her and see how she's doing."
Lorenzo heard something different.
"Do you think she might have been corrupted?"
"It is possible that there is no such proposal in the disaster plan. All high-level commands are corrupted and communications remain silent. At that time, scavengers will replace us... But everything cannot be left to the plan."
Arthur took a deep breath, walked quickly to Lorenzo, and whispered to him.
"But have you ever thought about another possibility? For example, the queen has not been corrupted. She has always known what she was doing, whether it was vetoing William's experiment or launching a war. So what is her purpose?"
Arthur's voice quickened.
"You are right, Lorenzo. If we had obtained this information more than ten years ago, it would not have helped us, but would have harmed us. Is it possible that the Victoria royal family had known this information for a long time, but due to the existing power There's no way to deal with it, they just have to keep it secret and clean up anyone who tries to touch it."
Lorenzo felt that his mind was touched by something, but he didn't think about it for a while, but asked.
"So now that the experiment is allowed, is it because the Victorian royal family thinks that the existing power can handle it?"
"No, the experiment was not allowed. The queen tried to stop it before it started, but I ignored it... So if this guess is true, then she feels that the power we have now is still unable to handle this."
Arthur raised his voice and left again.
"Anyway, if there is anything unusual about the queen, please report it to me. Now everything is crowded together, war, demons, angels, like a crazy storm, trying to swallow everyone up."
Lorenzo looked at Arthur's back, and suddenly he thought of something that had touched him. When Arthur expressed his conjecture, he felt that the image of the Victorian royal family was so similar to that of the Silent Ones.
They are all keeping a sinful secret, a cursed secret, but the existing power is not enough to deal with this despair. They can only eliminate the relevant people and control the spread of the disease as much as possible.
Lorenzo shuddered.
(End of this chapter)