Gun of Ashes

"This is the place."

The two stood at the center of the palace, where a deep well lay, its depth unobservable. The edge of the well wall was adorned with intricate alchemy inscriptions, now a piece of lost knowledge. Perhaps no one would ever decode its meanings; below lay endless darkness, like an abyss.

"This is the Well of Ascension, and it is here that the blood of demons was refined into Secret Blood. Naturally, it owes its capability to countless alchemists who continuously modified and optimized it over hundreds of years. Alas, the alchemists have vanished into the annals of history..."

"I don't know the full scope of the plan, but it all began here."

The Pope gazed at the deep black well, where everything about the Night of the Holy Arrival erupted, and abominable creatures crawled out from that darkness.

"From what I came to understand later, it was here that the War Faction conducted the first experiment to replicate the Holy Grail. It was also during this experiment that Dean Lawrence betrayed us. Both the Holy Grail and the Pseudo Holy Grail went out of control; everyone present directly faced the impact of the corruption and fully demonized without even time for rescue."

The War Faction's objectives, Dean Lawrence's conspiracy, and human greed—these mixed to forge a great error.

"The great divine entity descended here."

The Pope looked across the vast, dilapidated palace, his gaze sweeping from one end to the other.

Even without witnessing it all, looking at this ruined palace, one could imagine the ferocity of the battle at that time; phantom roars of anger seemed to echo faintly.

"Originally, the dome of this Static Holy Temple held enough gunpowder to collapse the entire Saint Nalos Cathedral. It should have been triggered during the loss of control, burying the entire Static Holy Temple, but it was not detonated...

Intense corruption spread directly to the surface, engulfing the entire Seven Hills. The Medanzo Demon Hunters at the Gate of Celestial Kingdom charged in, battling demons climbing from the well shaft..."

The Medanzo Demon Hunters stationed at the outermost perimeter were the first to sense the situation.

"It was a long war, an underground war. After the Night of the Holy Arrival, the Demon Hunting Order disbanded, and we ventured the battlefield amid intense corruption, spending years to accelerate the decay of the corruption. Only last year did the Static Palace return under our control."

That was the closest the Evangelical Church came to the mythic apocalypse, yet this doom came not from an external force but from within themselves.

One mistake after another forged today's situation, and only years after the Night of the Holy Arrival did the Evangelical Church reach the Well of Ascension amid oppressive corruption and successfully recovered the Holy Grail.

So indeed, as the books recorded, demons burgeoned from the shadow of God, and the most terrifying uncontrolled demon outbreak in human history also originated beneath that sacred Saint Nalos Cathedral.

"The subsequent handling also encountered many issues, such as the loss of the Holy Grail."

This was a mistake during his tenure, and he had nothing more to say about it.

"For such a [Messiah]-grade containment item, our usual handling method is to forget. All relevant data rely on memory, leaving no written records.

Given the circumstances then, the Church could not withstand a second Night of the Holy Arrival, so we protected the Holy Grail. To divert attention, we smuggled it to the Kingdom of Vikings, and from there to the Far North, where we built a monastery in that icy wasteland.

It was a life-forbidden zone, with only a few devout priests there year-round. The Holy Grail would be taken deep under the ice layers until our Church recovered and could handle it again."

The Pope spoke while lifting his robe, the white robe outlining a somewhat frail body, the curve extending like a sword spine.

"But the transport ship met with an incident; it sank. The Church's influence has waned, those countries ignored our warnings. That's when I realized my impotence, only learning from subsequent intelligence that it had reached Ingwig."

Both the Holy Grail and the Pseudo Holy Grail were lost. The advantage was that the Pope temporarily did not have to worry about a second outbreak of the Night of the Holy Arrival, but the disadvantage was that the Church indeed was in decline, and the outbreak merely accelerated it all.

"So... why was the Demon Hunting Order disbanded? Logically, weren't they the greatest contributors? They controlled the corruption."

The Priest shook his head, knowing each Demon Hunter met an ill fate; they all died.

The Pope seemed to have anticipated the Priest's question, with an explanation ready in his heart.

"In the subsequent management, the Holy Grail remained intact, and the demons did not escape, but the Pseudo Holy Grail did escape... It was an artificial Holy Grail, an artificial scourge, marking humanity's first complete control over demon power.

It has always been that demons corrupt the will of humanity, occupying human bodies, transforming us into demons. Yet, from the remaining documents, it seemed that the Pseudo Holy Grail operated in reverse... Of course, I am not entirely clear, as those who knew mostly died."

The Pope had not experienced the Night of the Holy Arrival firsthand, but his power allowed him to view the situation more clearly. After all, now he was the Shepherd, unlike the useless previous one. This Emperor of Emperors walked the blood-soaked red carpet to wear the divine crown.

"Humanity successfully usurped uncontrollable power, and such a thing had already happened centuries ago. At first, they could control the Demon Hunters, but that Night of the Holy Arrival, everything spiraled towards chaos.