Gun of Ashes

Lorenzo slowly crouched down and gently stroked the exposed ice, which had already developed slight cracks due to the vibrations.

"We haven’t hit bottom," Lorenzo said, observing the dark blue beneath the ice.

Under Lorenzo’s scrutiny, he found the ice to be at least tens of meters thick. This meant the depth of the crater far exceeded his imagination. With blazing white lights flashing in his eyes, Lorenzo could barely distinguish some shadows sealed in the dark blue ice, frozen here for who knows how long.

"Creating such a crater is pointless, isn’t it?" Lorenzo asked, "It can’t block the demons, it can’t stop erosion, nothing can be stopped. We can’t even stop it ourselves, so why did our predecessors reshape this terrain?"

"Perhaps there was a war here once?"

The Plague Doctor said tentatively, but he regretted it immediately, feeling a strange kind of excitement.

He had seen Ascalon’s bombardment, which could easily strike a crater several meters wide in the permafrost, containing semi-melted metal and scorched earth. Back then, it was in such a crater that he retrieved Lawrence’s head.

What kind of terrifying explosion could create such a huge crater? Even Demon Hunters would be vaporized into dust in an instant.

"Is this a battlefield?"

Listening to the Plague Doctor’s words, Lorenzo pondered, then rose and looked elsewhere.

Standing within this gigantic crater, the end of Lorenzo’s vision was blurred by the morning light, unable to see its limits.

"Many years ago, this place suffered a devastating blow, the attack covered an extremely wide area, even affecting the sea. The seawater flowed into the crater and froze over time into its current form."

As Lorenzo associated, with so much fighting and killing over time, many people had almost forgotten that Lorenzo’s true nature was a detective.

"This means the entrance to the sanctuary might be underneath this ice layer."

Lorenzo roughly understood why Merlin never found the World’s End; the entrance to the sanctuary was within the ice layer, and during the time when supplies and manpower of Merlin were about to collapse, it was naturally impossible to find the entrance. Not to mention the effect of the Anti-Meme, Merlin’s survival after leaving here was already a miracle.

"Is that why he left such a vague hint?"

Lorenzo muttered to himself; exploring the Silent Sea was so important, yet the only hint was to follow the aurora.

Initially, Lorenzo thought those guys from the Purification Mechanism had no concrete information. Now, it seemed, they were also affected by the Anti-Meme. Those who left this place might forget the detailed information about it, ensuring the safety of the World’s End, and these guys couldn’t remember what they had forgotten, leading to such seemingly black-box actions.

"Then what about those things? Holmes, do you think such an explosion couldn’t destroy those artificial structures?"

The Plague Doctor glanced at the giant structures in the distance. If this place was indeed created by some kind of explosion, how could these buildings within the core of the explosion remain unscathed?

"It’s simple, would you build structures in the explosion zone after such an attack?" Lorenzo retorted, "Only a fool would build on scorched earth and ruins unless the explosion couldn’t shake it at all."

"Such an attack didn’t manage to destroy it; that’s why it’s the ’sanctuary’."

Lorenzo said, stepping forward.

...

The group continued to move deeper for a long time. Due to the dread of the Anti-Meme, the deeper they went, the more frequently they injected the agents, and the supply of agents carried by the Black Angel was rapidly declining, uncertain how much longer they could hold.

Along the way, Lorenzo also realized the enormity of those artificial structures; despite walking for so long, their size within his view still hadn’t changed much. Instead, along the journey, he recognized many peculiar objects.

"What do you think these things are? Holmes."

The Plague Doctor pointed at the protrusions on the distant ice surface as he walked.

It was a giant construct, half-exposed, barely recognizable as some kind of machinery, but the scale was too vast. The Plague Doctor had never seen anything like it, and Lorenzo didn’t know what it was either. Cleaning the ice surface and looking down, the mechanical structure within the ice layer didn’t extend much before breaking off. Only its remnants were visible here.

"Who knows?" Lorenzo said self-deprecatingly, "We’re like a group of primitives walking through the streets of Old Dunling... To be precise, the ruins of Old Dunling."

The more they advanced, the more debris appeared, some protruding from the ice surface, some sealed beneath it.

Gradually, the snow also lessened considerably, as if this place were a Pure Land, with only the crystal-clear ice remaining. Under the light’s illumination, the things under the ice became visible, the group seemed to walk through a giant museum, with history frozen beneath their feet.

Seeing more things, coupled with his own experience, Lorenzo could roughly deduce some of the functions of the debris. Some appeared to be weapons, others seemed to be armor. He even saw some corpses, though all were desiccated beyond recognition, some resembling humans, others appearing like demons.

The mood was somewhat complex; this was human civilization before the endless cycle. Though only debris remained, there was still a trace of glory to be seen. Those people once tried so hard; Lorenzo found it hard to imagine their achievements.

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