The smell of disinfectant mixed with the smell of blood, and they hovered around Lorenzo, making him sneeze.

Rubbing his nose vigorously, Lorenzo leaned lazily behind him, his gaze falling on the scavengers around him.

These autistic creatures were busy at the scene, laboriously carrying the wounded away, and the surviving personnel had seen the appearance of the angels, judging by the regulations, these people were all contaminated at the moment and needed to be quarantined.

The entire purification mechanism was running at full speed, except for the clattering sound overhead, the rails dragging supplies through the rooms, and steam rising at the end of the corridor, and the original sin armor half-on its knees.

Although they are too large to move through rails within the Perpetual Pump, when the Armor of Original Sin is set up in the corridor, they can be used as a sturdy cannon to defend themselves.

"The workshop is temporarily locked down, and the residual erosion inside is so strong that it will probably not be able to be used for a while. ”

A voice rang out from Lorenzo's side, and Arthur walked over, who had been above the dome all the time, watching all the action in the workshop.

"What a terrible discovery, Mr. Holmes. ”

Arthur smoked a rare cigarette, his old hand trembling slightly, unsure if it was affected by the erosion or because of fear.

He frowned and looked at the mess inside the workshop.

The walls of the solid well were covered with the scars of the beast's claws, the charred armor of the original sin had fallen, and the black skeleton was still rising with puffs of white smoke and embers of fire, but they were dominished by the light rain falling from the dome, and gradually everything calmed down.

The angels did not leave nothing, their shells reduced to ashes and scattered all over the ground, and they were covered with dust over the dead bodies as if a long time had passed.

"You know, according to the scavengers' inspections, the intensity of the erosion inside has reached a terrifying value, and an ordinary person will become a demon after being exposed to it for a few minutes, and this power is only a remnant of the battle of those monsters...... Such remnants alone are enough to kill and injure us. ”

Arthur sighed, he thought that after so many years of hard work, although humans could not completely defeat the demons, they should at least have the capital to fight against them, but when this deeper darkness appeared, all he could feel was a deep sense of powerlessness.

Angels don't die, but humans do.

Arthur turned his head to look at Lorenzo, who was not overjoyed to know this, but tired.

For a moment, Arthur felt himself wavering, he didn't know if he really had the ability to overcome all of this if he persevered like this, or if he was maintaining the balance between humans and demons until the near future, when this balance was broken by some kind of force.

"What are you going to do with this?"

Lorenzo asked, the Silencer, like the Demons, the erosion is memetic contamination that spreads through different mediums, and the scavengers need to keep all participants in this experiment under strict control.

Not only Merlin and Arthur who were in the know, but even the scavengers themselves were part of the containment process.

"Regular staff will be amnesticized, and we don't know if this will protect them, but at least it will block the transmission of 'information'. ”

Arthur said slowly, before the experiment began, he and Merlin had simulated a lot of plans based on their conjectures.

"Anyone in the know, like me and Merlin, we're on the scavengers' watch list, and if there's an anomaly, they'll deal with us. ”

"Do those scavengers know this?" asked Lorenzo.

"No, the original intention of the scavengers was to take over our existence when the Purifier was corrupted out of control by demons, and after the arrival of the Nine Summer Fleet to bring innovative technology, they also evolved into a memetic force to deal with these events related to erosion and pollution. ”

Arthur continued.

"They won't know anything, they'll just do what they are told, and even if the target is Queen Victoria, they'll pull the trigger firmly. ”

"What about the rest? Now you have such valuable information...... Although this information itself is a vicious curse, will you guys give up easily?"

Lorenzo asked, curious to know what the decontamination agency would do with the information.

It can be said that the information of the Silencers completely subverts the previous perception of demons by the Purification Agency, that demons are only by-products of the epidemic, and that the real enemy is the strange erosion, and these Silent Ones, who are like shepherds, are the guardians of humanity.

So who exactly are their enemies?

"With so many people dead, will you back down? ”

Lorenzo asked, a little worried.

"How can you give up?"

Arthur said without hesitation.

"You also said that so many people have died, so many ancestors, and there are many more people who have been forgotten and we have never known, after so many years and so much pay, we have finally come to this point, do you think it is possible for us to give up?"

There was suppressed joy in his voice, no...... Lorenzo looked at Arthur and saw that he was not trembling with fear, he was happy, so happy that he would have jumped with excitement if it had not been for the sake of maintaining his image.

With hot flames rolling in his old eyes, Lorenzo saw himself in Arthur's figure, his former self.

More than a year ago, in the dark tunnels of the lower town, he and a girl named Eve operated, where he discovered the existence of demons for the first time in a long time.

Lorenzo still remembers his excitement, almost screaming with joy, and suddenly having a goal to vent his confused life.

Presumably, Arthur is in the same mindset now, and he and the knights of the Purification Mechanism have all been moving towards a near-nihilistic goal, until after so many years, Arthur finally sees the end of a road with no end.

He can't retreat, he will run wildly, even if he falls, he can no longer get up, he has to climb to the end, this is the closest time he is to all this, how can he be frightened away by such a thing as death.

"The scavengers and the perpetual pump have already had a preliminary plan, and we will renovate a laboratory dedicated to these studies, which will be completely independent of the system of purification mechanisms, with the assistance of multiple agencies. ”

Arthur had already prepared everything.

"The location of the entire lab is classified, they have ample reserves, after the experiment is launched, there will be no movement of people, a transportation of materials will be handled by mechanical rails, and the whole of it will be protected by a huge antimemetic system, I don't know if this will stop those guys from coming, but this is the highest defense we can do at the moment, and then it will be under the surveillance of the scavengers, with three generations of armor to protect.

All information about the interrogation experiment will be centralized, it will be placed in a secret room in the laboratory, the secret room is only for the most basic experimental research and recording, no more than three people enter at a time, everyone has the right to get the full picture of the information in it, but after knowing this, they will be cleared of their memory, that is to say, the secret of the interrogation experiment, except for our brain, it can only exist in that secret room. ”

He tapped his head as he spoke, and after meditating on it, this was the safest way to deal with information blockade.

"But someone has to know the whole picture to organize the experiment, and Merlin will be in charge of this, he is the only person in the entire laboratory who knows the whole picture, and he will not say this, all the experimenters will only carry out his research orders, and assist in the research as much as possible without knowing the information, like a humanoid tool. ”

"And after this?"

Lorenzo asked again.

This time Arthur fell silent, as if he was thinking about something, his expression became hideous, and finally slowly unfolded.

"I haven't thought about it yet. ”

"Didn't think about it?"

Lorenzo thought he had misheard.

"yes, I just didn't think about it, I didn't think about it at all, to be honest, Lorenzo, I didn't think that we would make so much progress on demons during my tenure, I couldn't think about the future after that. ”

Arthur said with a wry smile.

"yes, what will I do after that? No one has ever thought about it...... More than a decade ago, none of us dared to think that we could fight the demons in frontal firepower. ”

He looked at the remains of the armor, three generations of armor like this would turn into a flood of steel that would overturn everything as long as they waited for the factory to ramp up.

"In short, we are advancing, Lorenzo, whether it is hell or heaven ahead, we have to go to see it. ”

Arthur said and patted Lorenzo on the shoulder, he walked to the other side, the scene still needs Arthur's command, the new three generations of armor have been put into the workshop, but this time it is not a coordinated operation, but responsible for helping to clean up the battlefield.

Probably because the three generations of armor have been mass-produced, everyone has found that this big guy has more wonderful uses.

"By the way, Lorenzo, there's something else about the Victorian royal family. ”

Arthur stopped suddenly, and he turned to Lorenzo and said.

"Do you mean war?" Lorenzo said.

"Yes, this war is too weird, it started suddenly, even I don't know this, you must know that I am Arthur anyway, and the Phoenix family is also a meritorious family, the queen directly ignored everyone to do this, in the face of my questions, the queen did not reply to me, in fact, she has not seen anyone since a few days ago, but I remember that she said that she would like to see you and give you an answer, right?"

Arthur was suspicious of the Queen as early as the news of the war arrived.

"You think there's something wrong with her, too?"

"Well, according to the previous inspection, William has applied for experiments more than once, but they have been vetoed by the Victorian royal family, only the queen has this power, and William was also carried away by the desire for secrecy, and he conducted the experiment privately. Arthur said.

"But he paid the price, and his death was worth it...... Although many years late. ”

The scavengers turned something out of the monstrous mess, picked up the shattered, charred bones, and reluctantly put together a broken human form.

"Maybe it's not too late, Arthur, if William had survived by then, you without the armor of original sin would have caused even greater disaster. ”

Lorenzo didn't think it was that bad.

"Probably. ”

Arthur didn't bother to continue thinking about anything.

"So what do you need me to do, Arthur, kill the Queen, take all the power in your hands, and take down the demons in one fell swoop?"

Lorenzo said eagerly, feeling that it was not a big deal.

"How is it possible, who will replace her after killing the queen? In fact, she is the most suitable person to be the queen, the royal curse will always haunt the Victorian royal family, even if they have sinful desires, but that desire will be firmly locked in the Platinum Palace. ”

Arthur said terrible things.

"I need you to see her and see how she is doing. ”

Lorenzo heard the overtones.

"You think she might be corrupted?"

"It's possible, not without such a proposal in the disaster plan, the top command is all corrupted, the communications are silent, and there will be a scavenger to replace us at that time...... But you can't leave everything to the plan. ”

Arthur took a deep breath, walked quickly over to Lorenzo, and whispered to him.

"But have you ever thought about another possibility, such as that the queen is not corrupted, she has always been very clear about what she is doing, whether it is to veto William's experiments, or to start a war. So what is her purpose?"

Arthur's voice quickened.

"You're right, Lorenzo, if we got this information more than ten years ago, it wouldn't help us, but it would hurt us, is it possible, this information Victoria royal family has known for a long time, but since the existing forces can't deal with it at all, they can only keep it secret and clean up all those who try to get their hands on it. ”

Lorenzo felt that his mind was touched by something, but he didn't think of it for a moment, but asked.

"So now that the experiment is allowed, does the Victorian royal family feel that the existing forces can handle this?"

"No, the experiment was not allowed, and the queen tried to stop it before it began, but I ignored it...... So if this speculation is true, then she feels that the power we have now still can't handle it. ”

Arthur raised his voice, said and left.

"In short, if there is anything unusual about the Queen, please report it to me, now everything is crowded together, war, demons, angels, like a crazy storm, to swallow everyone. ”

Lorenzo looked at Arthur's back, and suddenly he thought of what he had been touched, and when Arthur uttered his conjecture, he felt that the image of the Victorian royal family was so similar to that of the Silencers.

They are all keeping a secret of some sin, a cursed secret, but the existing power is simply not enough to deal with this despair, and they can only purge the people involved and control the spread of the epidemic as much as possible.

Lorenzo shuddered.