Lorenzo also saw a lot of monsters and monsters along the way, but now facing the pioneer, he actually had an unexplainable feeling, as if there was a hole of blood clogged in his chest and he couldn't spit it out.
The other people felt similar to Lorenzo. In this dark moment, this pioneer who had followed several people all the way and helped from time to time actually jumped out. Judging from his expression and words, he seemed to
He is the secret keeper that several people have been searching for.
"this……"
Lorenzo almost wanted to speak, but he held back the last words as he tried hard to calm down.
This guy who holds the truth about the world just walked over casually and sat by the campfire, waiting for questions from several people.
"You...are the secret keeper?"
"Well, to be precise, it was," the pioneer replied.
"Once? What do you mean?"
Lorenzo continued to ask. Judging from the attitude of the pioneer, he was not prepared to hide anything and seemed to be able to answer all Lorenzo's questions.
"Our ideals differed. They chose to stay in the shelter, hiding from the world and being forgotten, while I chose to leave here and have been wandering in the world."
The pioneer didn't make any extra moves. After he sat down, he did nothing but make a reply. The bonfire reflected the silver armor into a golden color, but it was unable to illuminate the darkness under the helmet.
The pioneer was silent. He rarely spoke actively. He basically answered whatever Lorenzo asked, and remained silent for the rest of the time.
This is a somewhat strange guy. He is controlling everything as if he is planning a plan. He makes Lorenzo and the plague doctor meet and fight, but he also saves them in distress and prevents Leviathan's attack. Until now
, and explains all the problems here.
Pioneer's series of operations make it unclear what his purpose is, and it is difficult for Lorenzo to judge what his position is. However, judging from the information Lorenzo knows, the ultimate leader of the Final Society is also a living person.
He has been living with the old monster for who knows how long, and his behavior is quite predictable.
After all, after living for such a long time, it is normal to have some mental problems.
The conversation came to a standstill for a while. Lorenzo had too many questions in his mind. Now they were all crowded together, and he didn't know where to start.
"Is the Keeper still alive?"
Lorenzo asked. Although the Herald "used to" be the Keeper of Secrets, Lorenzo was still wary of the identity of the Final Society.
Because of differences in ideas, they single-handedly created the Doomsday Society? The society that pursues absolute death? This is in serious contradiction with the essence of the existence of the Keepers. The Keepers are for continuation, while the Pioneers are for the end.
"Probably, I haven't been back for a long time."
Pioneer thought, his memory was too big, and the memories of the past became bloated.
"I remember that people from the Victoria family came here before. It was probably a few decades ago. The situation of the secret keepers was not very good at that time... They are probably all dead, and there may be a few alive."
Strange yet familiar memories emerged before my eyes. The pioneer had not been back for a long time, and everything seemed like a lifetime ago.
"Who knows? I've been gone too long."
"So are they all dead..."
Hearing this, Lorenzo felt a little disappointed and looked at these silent monuments.
The Herald noticed Lorenzo's gaze and continued.
"They are not here. These things are just monuments to commemorate those who died in the war, and as arrays to strengthen the scope of the antimeme's influence, and even to wrap the entire field."
Listening to the pioneer's words, Lorenzo was a little dazed, and then exclaimed.
"They're not here!"
Looking around, this is the end, where can the secret keepers be?
"Do you think that as a shelter to preserve the fire of human civilization, it would be easily built on an explosion crater?"
The pioneer seemed to be smiling, or he might not be smiling, it might be an illusion, and Lorenzo was a little unsure.
Listening to the pioneer's words, Lorenzo couldn't help but look at the ground, under the layers of ice, in the darkness that was beyond the reach of his eyes.
"It was a huge man-made creation made entirely of Forbidden Alloy... which is what you call Holy Silver. It had multiple layers of protection. At that time, the enemies started a war here. On the surface of the earth, the war continued.
After several months, we finally ended the war relying on [Final Echo].
People within the range of [Final Echo] had their information wiped out directly, and the terrain was drastically changed by subsequent explosions, but this did not affect the shelter buried deep underground. It is even said that we later used this [Final Echo]
The aftermath of the incident established today’s antimemetic protection circle.”
The pioneer picked up his spear and tapped the solid ice gently.
"They are right below. According to the usual iteration of reincarnation, they should come out to greet you, but now it seems that they are all dead."
The pioneer sighed and continued.
"But there is nothing we can do about it. The Keepers are different from us. We have embarked on the road of sublimation, so we will enjoy a short eternity, while those guys still adhere to the 'purity' of human beings, and their lifespan is only an instant.
A moment."
The pioneer hadn't told anyone this for many years, and Lorenzo didn't need to ask anything. He continued to tell the story.
"This was part of the reason for our differences at the time. The Keepers believed that the road to sublimation was a sharp double-edged sword. Sooner or later, those of us would cause disaster. Just like the root cause of all this, we cannot continue to stay.
In the shelter.
But human lifespan is limited. If they don’t do this, the Keepers cannot continue the story. For this reason, they choose to combine their bodies with steel to become monsters that are neither human nor ghosts, and replace one organ after another with complex machinery.
Until it's beyond recognition.
Compared to me, they were the real monsters, but they thought they were pure. I couldn't convince them, and I couldn't be convinced by them, so I left with a person who arrived at the shelter."
The pioneer was puzzled and kept talking to himself.
"So it's strange, isn't it? Everyone has become a monster, but they are extremely strict on the 'how' to become a monster."
"No, they are right. The machine only changes the body, but does not distort the soul... Sublimation makes us greater, and also tends to be inhuman. In the mortal body, a soul that does not belong to human grows."
Watson knows far more about sublimation than Lorenzo does, and she tells it based on her own thoughts.
"Probably...I will also struggle with these later, but gradually, these are not so important. Anyway, all those guys are dead. This fire that has lasted for countless reincarnations has finally been extinguished."
The pioneer noticed something and pointed to the bag beside him.
"Is that wine?"
"Well, we originally wanted to celebrate these at the gate of truth."
The epidemic doctor picked up the bag. Anyway, the Black Angel can carry a huge amount of goods, so he took the drinks with him.
"Oh, it feels pretty good. The last time we drank here was at the celebration banquet, because the supplies were almost destroyed, we just mixed alcohol with water to make do."
The pioneer picked up the wine bottle and poured it under his dark helmet. After a while, he said with some disappointment.
"Those guys may be right. I used to like drinking, but now I can't taste the taste of these wines... They are unnecessary things to maintain life. Unnecessary things do not consume energy.
Reason for acquisition.”
As he spoke, he poured the remaining wine into the bonfire, and the fireworks became more brilliant.
"Is there anything else you want to ask?"
The pioneer slowed down and asked again. Lorenzo could feel the stiffness in his tone, as if a guy who hadn't spoken to each other for hundreds of years spoke again, his voice dry and stalemate.
"What is the significance of your creation of the Final Society?" Lorenzo asked again.
He is not eager to find out the answer to the mystery, just like peeling off threads from a cocoon, he wants to construct a complete history from the broken words of the pioneers.
Why did the pioneers give rise to such a group and intentionally perpetuate it?
"It doesn't make any sense. I left the shelter and wandered around in this world with nothing to do. Some people happened to like to deify me, so I just went along with it... Actually, it was quite interesting. It was like watching ants worshiping another person.
Like more great creatures, the long life is too boring, so I use this kind of thing to pass the time."
The Herald spoke very casually, as if these deaths and endings that lasted for centuries were really just games to pass the time to him.
Lorenzo observed. Although he couldn't see the pioneer's face, he could feel the rolling emotions in it. Lorenzo had briefly experienced this familiar feeling in someone's body.
Watson...
Gazing at the dark armor from the corner of his eye, Lorenzo had felt it in Watson before, this detached attitude from ordinary people, the... divinity that abandoned all emotions and distracting thoughts.
"Then... why is the end of all things?"
Why does the Herald still spread this concept of silent death? And because of his concept, endless death and strife have arisen. No matter how many times the Demon Hunting Order goes out to hunt, they will come back under the guidance of the Herald.
The Herald laughed, this time his laughter was clear and had a metallic tone.
"Holmes, why do you think a person believes?"
"Is it because he must be believing in something?"
The Herald turned his head, staring at Lorenzo in the darkness under his helmet.
His eyes couldn't help being drawn to the darkness, and Lorenzo felt as if he was facing an abyss.
What is underneath the armor? A human being, or a ghost that has wandered for centuries.
The Herald continued.
"But, believing is not enough. What really matters is the actions you take after believing."
"They believed you and then died? Does death mean anything?"
Lorenzo's hand couldn't help but reach for the sword bag, which was filled with sharp nail swords.
The pioneer noticed Lorenzo's small movements, but he didn't care. He carried that kind of transcendent divinity. Whether it was Lorenzo or the epidemic doctor, they were just ants to him. You would care about an ant?
Do you show off your power?
As Watson said at that time, king against king, against general.
The Herald is an entity that can repel Leviathan. Neither Lorenzo nor the Plague Doctor can confront him head-on.
"Do you think I bewitched those people? Like a cult leader, tricking them into dying?"
The pioneer smiled even more happily.
"Actually, the reason why the Club of the End resembles a cult is because I did it deliberately. After all, Edlon has a demon hunting sect under him. I think I should have something to fight against this old friend.
Let this long life not be too boring."
He suppressed his smile and asked calmly.
"Holmes, would you lie to a child?"
"Won't."
"Why?"
"Childish and boring."
"Then why do you think I would deceive mortals?"
The scene was silent for a few seconds, and Lorenzo could feel that a ferocious smile was revealed under the darkness of the helmet.
That was a mockery from divinity, which was aloof and looked down on all living beings.
"I didn't deceive them, I just let these children see the 'real world', and then they chose death. That's it, it's simple."
"Impossible, how could someone be willing to die?"
Lorenzo refused to believe it, but his firm tone gradually became looser. He thought of something. The Herald seemed to know the changes in Lorenzo's mind. He watched Lorenzo's expression, trying to see something in it.
Same.
"Yes, even if the evangelical church promises that wonderful kingdom of heaven, few people are willing to devote themselves to it, right?
In the final analysis, the beautiful kingdom of heaven is just an inducement. This method will not work. The most primitive and strongest human emotion is fear, and ‘coercion’ is the primary force that forces people to take action.”
The pioneer said and stretched out his hand. The metal-covered fingertips were only a few dozen centimeters away from Lorenzo. As long as Lorenzo stretched out his hand, he could touch it.
"It's like a simple multiple choice question.
You can live timidly, but then you will have to face endless torture, just like being in... hell, yes! Hell, but as long as you die now, you can escape the torture of hell.
Of course, many people don't care about this. After all, hell is too illusory, so I let them see the "real world" and step into "hell" personally.
You know what happens after that, basically everyone is willing to die to escape the torture of hell."
The Herald spoke almost crazy words. Lorenzo had thought that he might be the keeper of hope, but now it seemed that the Herald was an unpredictable monster.
"Do you want to try it? Holmes, do you want to see these with your own eyes? In fact, I am quite curious whether you will do the same thing as them after entering hell, such as raising a nail sword and cutting yourself
Cut off his head."
"You crazy person."
Lorenzo couldn't understand the pioneer's words, but he could feel the madness and darkness in them.
"How could it be? I just let them see it. I never interfered in their decision-making." Pioneer said.
The epidemic doctor and Watson on the side fell completely silent. They didn't know how to join the conversation, and they might also be frightened by the words of the pioneer. They thought that what was coming was hope, but now it seems that it is a darker existence.
"So why is this happening? Why is there such an existence as 'hell' that makes people so frightened that they commit suicide?"
Lorenzo resisted and continued to ask questions to the pioneer.
The pioneer is unknown to his enemies and friends, and he seems to be a madman who has lived too long and has some mental problems. The most important thing is that Lorenzo does not have the strength to fight against him. Faced with such a madman, Lorenzo can only endure him.
Uncover more information before the conversation completely collapses.
"Well... it's a long story. Your question involves the origin of all stories."
The pioneer seemed to be very leisurely and not in a hurry. His helmet turned towards the epidemic doctor, and he seemed to be signaling to the epidemic doctor.
"What is the end of sublimation!"
The epidemic doctor asked urgently, the flesh and blood under the mask was squirming violently, and countless scarlet eyes were staring closely at the pioneer.
If the pioneer was not too mysterious and the knowledge in his mind was still useful, the epidemic doctor might have been swallowed by the ecstasy in his heart, and started to dissect the pioneer with his sharp claws... Well, this is just a thought.
The Plague Doctor doesn't care about any damn conspiracies, and he has no interest in those terminal societies. He just wants to know what is at the end of this road.
Facing the anxious epidemic doctors, the pioneer replied like this.
"What do you think is the end of sublimation?"
The doctor paused for a moment, then revealed all his experiments and conjectures.
"Evolution! Evolution! Endless evolution!"
From bacteria to animals, from holding sticks to wielding swords.
"Life is driven."
The epidemic doctor said.
"Predators prey on their prey, and the prey tries to become stronger in order not to be preyed on... Mortals mastered steel and fire. They defeated all creatures and dominated the world. Then internal disputes arose until one
The most powerful king unites them all."
"But this is not the end.
Life is driven. It is like an upward spiral. From the beginning, it can no longer stop. It will keep rising and rising. In the end, it only has two states, either it is completely extinct or it never stops.
On the rise!”
The plague doctor's body began to squirm, as if he would be unable to maintain his human form and would collapse into a ball of raging flesh and blood.
"Then what?" Pioneer encouraged.
"Then……"
The epidemic doctor thought as he looked at Lorenzo and then at the Black Angel.
"Get rid of the cowardly flesh and blood and sublimate into a greater existence, a completely empty spirit body, no longer bound by the body and time.
This is the end of sublimation.”
This is the end of sublimation, an answer that everyone has already guessed, but what the epidemic doctor told was only the first half of the answer. His words were spoken uncontrollably, telling the other half of the answer that only existed in his mind.
"But just like the difference between tadpoles and frogs, larvae and butterflies, are we still us at that time?
We are no longer bound by flesh and blood, just as butterflies are no longer bound by the earth. Human ethics and morality are meaningless to us, and glory and interests have become wasteland."
This is the divinity of the Pioneer, no... rather than divinity, it is better to say that this is the reason why he lost all humanity.
He is no longer human and can no longer empathize with humans.
The pioneer laughed and clapped, he said.
"Look, don't you already know the answer?"
"But... but how are all these connected?"
The epidemic doctors can't understand, demons, erosion, spirits, nothingness... there are too many questions. Even if they know these, the world is still full of doubts.
"Let's imagine such a being."
The pioneer tried to guide them in describing what it would look like.
"It is an existence of nothingness. All human cognition, whether it is rules, ethics, morality, honor, joy, sorrow... love, all of these are meaningless to it, just nothingness, just like
…It’s like you’re telling a beast the History of the World.
It's meaningless, right? What it cares about is whether it can have enough for the next meal. Understanding things like "World History" has no meaning on whether it can have enough for the next meal. It has no need to understand such things.
"
The pioneer was like a child having fun. He kept watching the expressions of several people, expecting their reactions to satisfy him.
"Don't think that beasts are inferior. Don't you think that compared to humans, monsters are more perfect beings?
Powerful strength, tough bodies, terrible pollution and spread, they can rapidly increase in value and expand, but humans need to be pregnant for ten months, during which there are still a lot of risks..."
"How can they compare with humans?" Lorenzo interrupted the pioneer.
"Why not? Why do you think humans are better?" the pioneer asked, "Because you can think and have wisdom?
Is this kind of thing important?”
Faced with the pioneer's words, Lorenzo, who had a sharp tongue, didn't know where to start for a moment.
"What do you think is the essence of life? Love and peace, Holmes? Or glory and merit? This is nothing. Under the dust of the years, it is all nothingness."
The pioneer leaned back comfortably and his voice became slower and slower.
“The essence of life is continuation, reproduction, and reproduction of individuals.
The one who survives to the end is the winner.”
The pioneer placed the spear flat in front of him, and his tone became a little sad.
"So, that's pretty much it. It will probably take a few centuries, maybe a few years, who knows? I might lose all my humanity and turn into that void beast.
There is nothing we can do about it. Maybe things like ‘self’ and ‘humanity’ are the shackles that limit us?”
Listening to the pioneer's words, Lorenzo felt his hands and feet getting cold.
Self, wisdom, love, humanity...these things that are regarded as treasures by human beings may be the truly vicious poisons. Only by abandoning them can we enter a greater existence.
It became a beast of nothingness.
"Yes, this is the answer. This is what happened here. A noble existence launched a war against a lowly existence."
The pioneer looked around and said with nostalgia.
"I didn't understand why at the time. We are all human beings...but now it makes sense. Do beasts need any reason to eat?"
Lorenzo could vaguely see those ethereal beasts running across the sky, leaving behind traces of erosion and alienated monsters.
Maybe there really are gods or demons in this world, maybe they are disguised by demons, maybe they are those nihilistic beasts, in short, all of these are humans themselves.
In other words...human beings in the past.
Lorenzo stared blankly at the stars and muttered to himself.
"This has never been a war between humans and demons.