Embers of Embers

Chapter 55 The Rebels
"I thought you wouldn't be back for a few months. How does it feel like the end of the world?"
"It's not that good. If possible, I hope I can take your place next time."
It was still the huge dome, and the stars were clearly visible in the dark night. Arthur sat at one end of the ancient round table, looking at the documents on the table, while the man at the other end of him was talking to him.
"The sky and the earth are endless pure white. There is nothing but yourself. It is such a lonely place. Even the most optimistic people will feel despair."
The man spoke slowly, with the fatigue of the journey.
"What happened while I was away? I see that all of our knight commanders are seriously injured, and even the Sail to Dawn is not in the dock."
"A lot has happened, I thought you knew a rough idea."
"Basically, I would rather you tell it to me than listen to other people. Also, I also heard the communication just now, so you agreed. That Lorenzo Holmes is not an economical person. Deng, aren’t you afraid of any accidents?”
The man seemed aware of Lorenzo's identity and worried about it.
"Actually, wasn't it just a series of accidents from the beginning?"
Arthur slowly raised his head and looked at the man at the other end of the round table. He was wearing a gray robe that completely covered his body. Even his appearance was completely covered by the hood, and he could only see a blur of darkness. .
"After you left a few months ago, we accidentally obtained information about the Demon Hunting Order. A cargo ship of the Evangelical Church sank in the waters near the Viking Kingdom of Nobido, and a vessel called the Sacred Coffin was stored on it. Mysterious item.”
"You should know how difficult it is for the Purification Agency to get to where it is today. At the end of the Glorious War, we have established our dominance with steam engines, but demons are still a deadly threat in the darkness. The Evangelical Church uses this to threaten us to use steam technology in exchange for hunters. The protection of the Demonic Order.”
Arthur smoked a cigarette, and the corners of his eyes were scratched by the years.
"We have won a hundred years of war. We will not succumb to anyone, let alone those fanatical believers. For this reason, we made a deal with the distant Jiuxia, so the general named Zuo Zhen took Kui The dragon fleet is coming.
The Evangelical Church thought that they had no power to fight against the demons, but they didn't know that the purging mechanism had appeared in the deeper darkness. "
"It looks like that thing is very important."
The man in gray robe sounded businesslike and sounded like an extremely old man, but the sleeves were slightly exposed, and the back of his hands underneath were white and young.
Arthur nodded and continued.
"The purification agency was secretly established, and with Jiuxia's technical support, it has the initial ability to fight against demons, but this is not enough. Compared with Jiuxia's armor technology, the secret blood of the Demon Hunting Order is the most advanced, and That sacred coffin is the core of the secret blood technology."
"core?"
This aroused the interest of the man in gray robe. He was a little surprised, as if he didn't expect that the legendary secret blood was so close to him.
"According to the information we know, the sacred coffin has a very special religious significance. We don't know the more specific meaning. After all, the Demon Hunting Order was disbanded six years ago."
"Disband? How is it possible?"
The man in gray robe had never lost his composure before, and his voice couldn't help but become louder.
"Yes, the six-year high-pressure sealing of the Seven Hills is finally over. Our intelligence has been accumulated in that damn small town for six years, like a mailbox full of letters. Most of the intelligence has lost its timeliness. Sacred The coffin is the only useful information among them, and the Evangelical Church seems to want to dispose of this thing, but it sank halfway."
A long silence followed, and neither of the two people under the dome spoke until the man in gray robe broke the calm.
“What’s really going on inside the evangelical church?”
"I don't know, but the problem now is the Sacred Coffin. After you left, Lancelot took over this task. We were looking for sunken ships in the northern seas, but we were boarded first. We don't know who these people are. But they have connections with demons and can be confirmed as enemies.”
Arthur continued to explain what happened after the gray robe man left.
"Since then, we have begun to pursue the Coffin of the Holy God. The enemy is larger than we imagined. Countless demons have poured out. Demons appear every day in the entire Yin Erweg territory. The knight captains are exhausted. , even saying that Galahad has fallen."
"Is the Shrike chasing the Holy Coffin now?"
"To be precise, it's a delay. Lancelot is responsible for the real pursuit. He carries the Armor of Original Sin. He is the only one who can remain rational in the face of pure fear."
The man in gray robe fell silent, seeming to be thinking. After a long time, he asked.
"How many manpower do we have?"
"There are none anymore. No matter how many others there are, if they can't resist the erosion, they will just die. So I agree that Shrike will take that damn Lorenzo on the mission."
Arthur said slowly, having lost the Demon Hunting Order, the purification mechanism is the only torch in the flood of demons.
"And there are many reasons why I made this decision. From what Shrike said, Lorenzo seems to be a witcher."
"A witcher?"
"Perhaps we can get more information from him. After the sudden blockade of the Seven Hills six years ago, until now, Lorenzo is the first living demon hunter we have come into contact with. There are too many doubts. Secondly, Even Eve is there."
Speaking of Eve, Arthur's iron-like determination finally shook a bit. He rubbed his tired eyes and continued talking.
"I failed to protect her. The connection between her and the gap was finally reconnected. The demons discovered her. No one can control the situation except the mysterious demon hunter."
"That was the fault of all of us, and it's not just your fault."
Footsteps sounded, and the man in gray robe slowly walked over. He was barefoot, like an ascetic monk, with obscure symbols and incantations carved on his exposed skin.
Arriving at Arthur's side, he comforted his old friend, and Arthur turned to him and said.
"I have been waiting for you to come back. We need you to preside over the development of the Original Sin Armor. The leap in technology can only enable our basic strength to compete with it. It is not enough to hunt down those powerful demons.
What we need is not a huge legion, but one loathsome demon after another. "
Arthur looked at the dim eyes under the gray robe.
"Now that the Demon Hunting Order has been disbanded, it must be difficult to reproduce those secret blood techniques. Even if we get the key information, we can't do it in a short time. The Original Sin Armor is our only way out now."
Open that Pandora's box and release endless disasters for that glimmer of hope.
"……I understand."
The man in gray robe nodded, let out a long sigh, and looked up at the boundless night sky as if he had made a heavy decision.
"Sometimes I think we are very pathetic...just like a group of mice hiding in the shadows and surviving. The darkness is full of unknown monsters, and the desperate wailing of our kind can be heard at night."
"Sometimes I even feel that everything we do is in vain, just like the law of nature, tigers prey on deer, we are destined to be the hunted, and all sacrifices now are just meaningless resistance."
"But at least we resisted!"
Arthur said in a deep voice, with unyielding and anger.
"We are still different. Compared with those who never thought about resisting, we at least did it. If being destined to be hunted is a theorem and an iron law, we at least broke this iron law and took the first step. step."
He lowered his head and looked at Arthur's angry face and couldn't help but sigh.
"It's great that you are still so motivated."
"It's just that I have to do this. Just like the original decision to establish a purification agency, we can no longer live in fear."
There is steel and fire hidden in the old and turbid eyes.
"Absolutely not."
　Thank you for your support, brothers. Next is the final story of this volume.
　
(End of this chapter)