Embers of Embers

Chapter 93 The Broken Armor
"To be honest, Lorenzo, you are really unexpectedly outstanding in some aspects."
In the dark corridor, Shrike mocked Lorenzo.
The great detective followed him slowly, pretending not to understand.
The farce ended with Seleucid being left behind. When Shrike realized the identity of Miss Stuart, he called the guards to look after her and took her to have a look at the exhibition, while Lorenzo went with him to have a look. That's a real showpiece.
"Is that stuff polluting?"
During Lorenzo's actions in Ende Town, he roughly understood the origin of the original sin armor. Those scholars from the Far Eastern Nine Summers made the demon into the armor. From the last moment, Lancelot, who fought with him, had that weird mobility. Judging from the strength, the erosion of this thing is not much worse than the secret blood.
"No."
"No? How is it possible?"
Lorenzo was a little surprised, but the shrike in front of him continued to move forward. From his words, it sounded like he was not lying.
"Yes, so this matter is being handled by the Shattered Dome, and our task now is to transport this thing to the Perpetual Pump in a few hours."
Shrike turned around, his face slightly illuminated by the candlelight on the wall.
The destination has been reached, and the door behind him slowly opens, with the sound of dust and metal rubbing against each other. It is the huge warehouse at the deepest point, with countless sealed boxes quietly stagnating in it. The guards are fully armed, there There is an isolation area in the center, where a bronze giant kneels on one knee.
"Those monks didn't talk about the origin of the armor. Maybe they didn't know it. From what we know about Jiuxia, they control the armor technology very strictly."
"An armor that was smuggled out?"
Lorenzo walked forward slowly. The broken armor was covered with verdant green moss after the baptism of time. The surface of the metal had been oxidized, and most of the joints were rusted to death. There was a huge wound on his chest, and the steel deck cracked out. The huge hollow, the broken part bent inward, seemed to be penetrated by something.
The decorative cloud patterns have lost their luster, and now they are like twisted claw marks spreading over the dead body.
"It's not polluting."
After stopping for a long time in front of the dead armor, Lorenzo said slowly.
Demon hunters have always been absolutely keen on demons, but before this armor, Lorenzo could feel nothing, just monotonous nothingness.
"There are no traces of steam technology, and the demonic part of it looks long dead."
Lorenzo walked along the armor circle. At this moment, he finally looked like a detective, piecing together the traces one after another to restore its original appearance.
"I think this should be an armor that was abandoned on the battlefield. Only in this way can the monks get this thing. Just like your scavengers, Jiuxia's logistics team did not find this wreckage.
The demonic part had long since died with the fatal blow to the chest. The metal parts had decayed under the baptism of time. There were no traces of steam technology. It can be judged that the year it was made should be before Jiuxia's visit... This should be Armor from decades ago. "
Lorenzo looked over, his eyes slightly cold.
The interior of the armor is a complex mechanical structure, but it is different from steam technology. It is an operation method that Lorenzo has never seen before. The energy required is not the power brought by the steam engine. Maybe... that is Something called a mechanism.
"So in your opinion, what is the use of this armor? It is just a piece of scrap metal now."
Lorenzo asked the shrike beside him.
"You have to ask those lunatics of the Ever-Moving Pump, but I know a little bit about it at the moment."
Shrike seemed a little proud. There were not many opportunities to show off his knowledge in front of this detective.
"The purification agency has a formula for dealing with demons. Just like you demon hunters rely on that kind of...intuition to detect demons? But we are different. Geiger, the last deputy director of the Mechanical Institute, discovered the weak radiation on the demons and created He used the Geiger counter to calculate some formulas, such as using the intensity of radiation to predict how long it would take for the demon's pollution to be eliminated in a natural state."
This is the progress of knowledge, and the mysterious belief in the gods of the Demon Hunting Cult, and the purging organization chooses to believe in science. It can be said that this is a group of firm materialists.
"We can investigate one by one based on different radiation intensities, and then deduce how long ago this armor was scrapped. We can even deduce the extent of Jiuxia's armor technology."
Shrike's voice gradually became filled with awe. In his opinion, it was obviously a very common technical reappearance, but speaking it in front of Lorenzo gave him a strange feeling, like a staunch believer and a scholar who denies everything. meet.
Lorenzo didn't say anything. He saw the technical power of the purification mechanism again. It had to be said that it was worthy of being the country that developed steam engines. Something new would appear here every day.
He stretched out his hand and stroked the back of the armor, where the penetrating wound had penetrated. The entire back had completely exploded, and the armor was shattered. The scene that could be expected at that time was that the knight in the armor was directly shattered inside the armor. It broke into a ball of flesh.
But Lorenzo still felt that it was not too much. Touching the wound, he felt that he seemed to have overlooked something.
"Um...are you interested in letting me smoke a cigarette?"
Lorenzo took out the cigarette with mandrake, and although he asked questions, he lit the cigarette butt directly, closed his meditation in front of the armor, and then the infinite light disappeared.
Mandrake can make people fall into that weird spiritual vision. In that state, many people can see fragments of reality, an inexplicable memory, or a key clue.
But while the herbal medicine provided help, it also deepened the connection with the darkness. Lorenzo had fallen deeply. When he was in the church, the sudden appearance of the woman was the best proof. From that time on, Lorenzo was in the darkness. The depth has reached such a level that even if you don't take any herbs, you will still enter a state of spiritual vision from time to time.
According to Lorenzo's idea, he had already decided to quit smoking for one year, but he had only quit smoking for a week.
He knew that this would only worsen his condition, but he had a strange idea about this armor, and he had to confirm it.
Shrike's voice became blurry. He knew clearly what Lorenzo was doing, but before he could stop it, everything was elongated by a strange force. After the endless night, there was light. Lorenzo saw it, and it was a desolate world. , he tried to move forward, but his body felt heavier than ever before. He lowered his head, and the heavy armor was reflected in the clear water.
He entered the armor and was on the distant battlefield.
(End of this chapter)