The industrial facilities in the machine yard worked tirelessly, and when you looked up, you could see the molten iron pouring down like a waterfall, burning red, like a molten sun, pouring into the molds below, flowing like a river along the channel through the black earth.

The heat wave was coming, and because it was too turbulent, Shrike handed Lorenzo a respirator, which must be equipped to move in such conditions, otherwise once the hot air is inhaled, the fragile respiratory tract of human beings will be scorched in an instant.

"Follow me. ”

Shrike's voice was a little muffled, and he waved at Lorenzo, countless sparks floating in the air.

In the midst of this massive structure, the heavy hammer sounded one after another, and it was so loud that it was like a giant wielding a hammer to forge a god-killing weapon.

Lorenzo didn't come here very often, let alone witness it in full swing, and you could see a lot of staff walking through it, like arsonists, wearing heavy asbestos suits, their eyes hidden under thick lenses, laboriously manipulating the behemoth.

"Phew, it's like a lava hell. ”

Walking into the elevator, Shrike ripped off the respirator, which he wore in a panic.

"This is industry...... The iron horsemen and chivalry of the old times are vulnerable to it. ”

Lorenzo ignored the shriek, leaning against the edge of the elevator and seeing the structure outside through the hollowed-out gaps.

As the people of the Old Dunling often mentioned, the mechanics had hollowed out the ground, the elevators had fallen in the endless abyss, and the flowing fires could be seen in the darkness, and those were the molten iron that seeped into the ground along the channels, and they were poured into different devices to create steel weapons.

The sound of running water sounded from the end of the darkness, Lorenzo knew very well what it was, and in order to cool down such an industrial system, the mechanical institute diverted the Thames to it, and the screech of steam rang out, and the red-hot gas swept quickly across the perimeter of the elevator, leaving only a layer of cold condensation on the surface of the steel.

"Every time I see this, I realise in amazement that this is the real old Dunling...... Or 'Dunling'. ”

Lorenzo said slowly, "These innumerable complex systems make up the entire Old Dunling, and they control the city, and with human power, they have achieved almost godlike feats."

"yes? Most people don't believe in hollowing out the ground, but it's true, it's a war factory, and we have many of them. ”

Shrike leaned in, too, and the grinding of the rails sounded, and several black skeletons were hoisted, passing in front of their eyes, rising upwards.

The elevator stopped at the bottom of the abyss, and in Lorenzo's memory, they had just descended down the main path of the Furnace Pillar, and now they were at the base of the Iron Tree.

The iron door opened, and after the smoke and dust had passed, Merlin had been waiting for a long time.

"Long time no see, Mr. Holmos. ”

Merlin's dead face smiled as much as he could, and without much pleasantries, he just got out of the way, motioning for Lorenzo to follow.

"We're short on time?" I'll cut it short...... How much do you know about the progress of the Red News incident now?"

"Not much? I just know that you've managed to bring some crazy guys back to their senses, but it's been short-lived. Lorenzo told what he knew.

"Almost, remember the anterior lobotomy I mentioned to you earlier? According to our long-term research on the Perpetual Pump, we have found that the erosion of demons is a cognitive hazard, as long as we keep our sanity, this hazard will continue to approach, but if we interrupt our 'cognition' channel, we can block this hazard, and in the same way, the will of the recipient itself will be imprisoned under the skull, and become a fool with only instinctive reactions. ”

Merlin walked briskly, Lorenzo hadn't seen this strange alchemist for a long time, and now judging by his movements, he was much more active than before, and it seemed that he was very excited about discovering knowledge.

"We brought in a couple of death row inmates from the prison for experiments, and let them stay in the same room for a long time with the captured demons, of course, there was an iron bar in the middle, and they were panicked at first, then their negative emotions were amplified, and finally in order to be able to get out of this environment, they began to self-harm and so on. ”

Another voice sounded beside him, it was a woman.

Dean Abigail didn't know where to come out and followed Merlin's group, adding Lorenzo as he went.

"Dean Abigail, I thought you wouldn't be here. ”

Lorenzo looked a little surprised to see Abigail, and he vaguely remembered that the Perpetual Pump and the Black Mountain Hospital rarely cooperated.

"The Red News incident has dealt a great blow to the scientific research of the Purification Agency, and in order to find out the truth, I am willing to come to this place for the time being and cooperate with these people," Abigail explained to Lorenzo, "We controlled the self-harm of the death row inmates, tied them up, and then, as we knew, they began to alienate after a long period of erosion. ”

"First there was a physical abnormality, followed by mental madness, at this time we terminated the experiment, rescued the death row prisoner, controlled him, and tested him, he was eroded to the middle of the second stage, and the erosion of this stage has begun to be irreversible, although there is theoretically hope of salvation, but the hope is too slim. ”

"And then?"

"After escaping from the corrosive environment, the alienation in his body began to cease and showed signs of recovery, but his sanity could not be restored, and the whole person was in a state of madness...... This is the case with most of the patients in our Black Mountain Hospital, who have been eroded in the face of demons, and although they have survived, their sanity has been completely shattered. ”

Abigail flipped through the experiment log in his hand.

"We're wondering why they're crazy, I know it sounds a little dizzy, but Lorenzo, you've probably experienced it, in fact, before you are completely alienated into a demon, when you are eroded and suppressed, your will will fall into a kind of 'entanglement'. ”

"Entanglement?"

"Yes, it's like sleeping lazily in the morning, a voice says to get up, a voice says to continue sleeping, we are almost like this when we face the erosion of demons, the will will be tested, is it surrender, or fight?"

Abigail shrugged.

"However, in the face of the erosion of demons, our final outcome is only surrender, and the struggle is only to delay the time for us to become monsters. ”

"We have done many tests, although there is no clear conclusion, but it can be roughly inferred that madness is a kind of self-protection, instinctively blocking the input of external 'information', just like the frontal lobotomy, but this way cannot stop the spread of erosion, it is just self-deception, in order to reproduce the scene at that time, after the madness, we put the death row prisoners again in an erosive environment, and under the oppression of erosion, their will is reconsidered. ”

"And then they sobered up?" asked Lorenzo.

"Yes, briefly sober to be exact.

Confronting the erosion again is nothing more than re-marching their interrupted 'alienation', breaking the self-protection mechanism, and like a charming dream, he wakes up and returns to hell again. ”

Abigail continued.

"As cruel as it is, it does give us a better understanding of the relationship between erosion and sanity, and provides clues for us to get to the bottom of the Red Message. ”

Merlin stopped, pausing in front of a steel gate.

Lorenzo looked up, he remembered the door.

As the chains tightened, the steel door was mechanically pushed open, opening little by little, and a bright light could be seen through the narrow cracks that had been cracked, and the old dust danced like moths in the light of the light.

The core experimental area of the perpetual motion pump, the workshop.

As he remembers, the soldiers were ready to build several large lifts on the surrounding iron wall, the thermite rifles were ignited, and above the higher dome, there were pitch-black silhouettes against the light, and from the monstrous silhouettes, Lorenzo knew exactly what they were.

"Welcome to the Workshop!"

Percival's voice echoed through the massive columnar space over the radio, and the silhouette above the dome stood up, tall and waving downward.

After experiencing the death in the storm, Percival was also traumatized and eroded, according to the estimation of the Perpetual Pump, she is no longer suitable for driving a generation of armor with a high proportion of demons, and for the sake of her mental state, Percival's car is now the latest factory three generations of armor.

The proportion of the demon component is only in the key part of the structure, the rest of the part is supplemented by advanced mechanical technology, and the power has also been replaced by new energy paint antimony.

These are not the key, the most important thing is that the three generations of armor can be mass-produced to a certain extent, Lorenzo saw in the elevator that the black skeleton is the central frame of the three generations of armor, and the three generations of armor have little mental burden on the driver, and can be replaced by different equipment, adapt to different battlefields, and now the three generations of armor is the primary project of the perpetual motion pump.

"This experiment will be escorted by the Knight Captain Percival. ”

Merlin said to Lorenzo.

"Why, don't you believe I can do a dozen tens?"

Lorenzo said jokingly as Winchester under his coat appeared.

"I believe it, but didn't you warn me, we might wake up something terrible, and Lorenzo you are only one man, no matter how strong you are. Merlin said solemnly.

Iron roared from above, steam engines roared, and Percival drove the third generation of armor, codenamed "Lancer", to the edge of the platform.

Like the previous three generations of armor, because most of the mechanical structure is used, the body shape is like a steel behemoth, the key parts are protected by external armor, and there are also a certain number of fuel canisters on the back as propulsion, but the most striking thing is the armament on its back.

It is called a lancer because of the custom-made equipment it carries. The gears slowly turned, and a large, intricately constructed gun was lifted from the shoulder, and then fell in front of the lancer, holding the large gun in both hands, it was so large that it was like a knight's spear.

The shells were loaded from the upper part of the rifle, which used a large nest due to technical limitations, like a revolver, but due to the volume of the ammunition, this was a four-round capacity.

"The lancers are in place. ”

Percival's voice rang out over the radio, and Lorenzo looked at the strangely shaped riding spear, which seemed to be the new weapon of the Perpetual Pump, but it was not clear what the actual combat effect would be.

"The rest is up to you, Lorenzo. ”

The shrike who had been following behind him said suddenly, patted Lorenzo on the shoulder, and ran to the edge of the workshop.

The iron cable fell from above, and the shrike grabbed it, and his feet stepped on the bulge at the end of the iron cable, and with the turn of the winch, the whole person was dragged above.

"The sword dancer is in place. ”

Another third-generation armor appeared on the dome, and after the storm in the Black Mountain Hospital, at the strong request of the shrike, his car was replaced with a safer third-generation armor, but because some of the armor was customized for the driver, the shrike was still in the furnace for the time being, so he could only be wronged to use this mass-produced sword dancer.

Two sharp blades radiated a chill, and the security forces were all ready.

"The 'pursuit' begins. ”

Merlin said into the communicator.

The lights around them turned alarm yellow, flickering and flickering, and the steel gates behind them slowly closed together, like interlaced canine teeth, biting each other to death, and then a drizzle of rain fell from the dome, baptizing the filthy workshop with neutralizing liquid.

"So who is the target of this final experiment?"

The drizzle cooled down the sweltering underground facility a lot, and Lorenzo remembered the feeling of coolness.

"William, the last chief technical officer of the perpetual motion pump, the main personnel of the Red News incident. ”

Merlin stepped forward as he spoke, the paramedics were already on standby, and as the experiment began, they moved out of the way, revealing the equipment in the middle of the workshop.

It was an electric chair-like device, and Lorenzo remembered sitting on this kind of thing when he was examined at the Black Mountain Hospital, and the doctors called the place where Lorenzo was sitting a birdcage.

"He didn't declare it, he started a secret experiment privately, and then the experiment got out of control, and the terrifying erosion erupted from inside the perpetual motion pump, and afterwards we investigated the defense, and there was no trace of the demon invasion, which means that the erosion appeared out of thin air, and then the detailed information about the experiment also disappeared in the outbreak of erosion, and the main participants either became demons or, like him, became madmen. ”

Merlin came to the electric chair, and at the moment there was an old man with a cloudy consciousness tied to him, his appearance had been specially modified, and he didn't look so unbearable.

"What a pitiful soul, once incomparably wise, is now imprisoned in such a pitiful shell......

Merlin sighed.

"So you're going to get him back to the erosion, to carry out the unfinished alienation, and thus to get information related to the Red Message? You should know what that means, William's life will only be a few minutes after the experiment begins, and he is destined to be killed by the alienation. ”

Lorenzo asked, he had thought about using Gabriel for a moment, but he hesitated at the memory of Watson's warning.

"What we need is a sage who can lead us back to the source of the demon, not a psychopath who spends his days insane. In fact, William died long ago at the time of the Red News Incident, and now he is nothing more than a poor walking corpse. ”

Merlin did not waver in the slightest, he was resolute, he made up his mind when he knew this, and now he was extremely sensible.

"What we have to do now is to bring William back to life, to bring back to life the William who was once pinned on hope. ”

"What about demons?"

Lorenzo said no more, Merlin was so resolute that all that was needed now was to execute it all. He looked around, but there was no trace of the demon, and the workshop had been sealed off from the beginning.

"Demons?"

Merlin listened to Lorenzo's words and turned around, and in absolute sanity, he was as cold as a machine.

"Isn't there one here?"

Merlin said, his hollow gaze falling on Lorenzo's.