"So get some rest, Lloyd."
Watching Lloyd's departing figure, Merlin called out once more.
"This experiment was originally designed for an ordinary subject. Every parameter was calibrated around the limits of a normal human body. But now that you're involved…" A faint smile crossed his face. "We'll have to rebuild the entire system from the ground up if we want to maximize the results."
"How long?"
Lloyd stopped in his tracks. The last place he wanted to linger was this subterranean labyrinth.
"At the very least? Not anytime soon. We still have to reroute the entire power grid."
As Merlin spoke, an attendant approached and gestured for Lloyd to follow.
"Go with him. You can use the break to write your will."
"…You're serious?"
For reasons Lloyd couldn't understand, Merlin simply refused to let the subject of wills go.
"Of course. Life is astonishingly fragile. Who knows? Perhaps this will finally be the day the invincible Lloyd Holmes falls."
Merlin chuckled before dismissing him entirely. His gaze lingered on Lloyd's retreating back for only a moment before shifting toward the engineers. Fresh cables were connected one after another, torrents of electricity surged overhead, and brilliant arcs of lightning burst across the cavern ceiling.
He was the man in charge here.
Though Arthur remained his superior in theory, Arthur was currently occupied dealing with Anthony. That left this dangerously ambitious experiment entirely under Merlin's authority.
Everyone pursued something.
Arthur sought order.
Knights pursued victory.
But Merlin pursued truth.
And at this very moment, truth stood only a single step beyond his reach.
Arthur's approval no longer mattered.
Yet almost as soon as the thought crossed his mind, someone hurried toward him.
"Director Merlin. Sir Arthur requests an immediate call."
"…Now?"
The timing was almost too perfect.
After a brief hesitation, Merlin nodded and entered the control room.
The telephone clicked alive.
"Merlin?"
Arthur's voice came through the receiver, strangely cautious, almost uncertain of who stood on the other end. It was an odd suspicion. According to protocol, only Merlin possessed clearance to answer this line.
"It's me. What's happened?"
The precision of Arthur's timing unsettled him.
For an instant, Merlin wondered whether news of his unauthorized experiment had already reached Arthur. Even if it had, it changed nothing. Lloyd had finally agreed to participate in an experiment whose risks bordered on insanity.
There was no force in the world capable of stopping an alchemist who had caught sight of the truth.
That was precisely what made their kind so infuriating.
Strip away their pathological obsession with knowledge, and alchemists were among the most dependable people alive.
"I've confirmed Anthony's intelligence."
Arthur paused.
"At least... part of it."
Thanks to Shermans' testimony, one thing had become undeniable.
Lloyd had deceived everyone regarding his identity.
The rest—the counterfeit Holy Grail—remained impossible to verify.
Almost everyone who had ever witnessed that monstrous relic had perished during the Night of Holy Descent.
Shermans had survived only because he had never been present.
Ironically, that survival left him incapable of confirming whether Anthony's story was true.
"…What do you intend to do?" Merlin asked without hesitation.
"I don't know."
Arthur's answer carried a rare heaviness.
"Only now have I realized that we possess no reliable means of restraining Lloyd. If he ever chose to... he could become another Lawrence."
Concern seeped into every word.
A Demon Hunter's individual combat ability bordered on the absurd.
Even deploying Old Era Divine Armors against Lloyd offered no guarantee of victory. The armors required fuel, maintenance, and logistical support.
Lloyd required none of them.
The Gospel Church had forged the perfect weapon.
Even in an age dominated by modern firearms, that creation remained terrifying beyond measure.
"But he isn't Lawrence."
Merlin answered without hesitation.
"Arthur... you're letting caution consume you."
"Have you forgotten the very first principle upon which the Purification Bureau was founded?"
"The past is something meant to be discarded."
"If our histories alone became the standard by which we judged ourselves... then half the Bureau would already belong behind prison bars."
"But Lloyd—"
"I know exactly what you're afraid of."
Merlin cut him off.
"You're talking about contingency planning."
Arthur remained silent for a moment before answering quietly.
"Yes."
"Lloyd is someone worthy of trust."
"But contingency plans aren't built around trust."
"They're built around possibility."
"Just as we've prepared for the fall of Inlvig... for an uncontrollable demonic outbreak... for the deaths of you, me, and every administrator within the Bureau..."
"We prepare for every catastrophe we can imagine."
"Lloyd is no exception."
No one truly knew how many contingency plans the Purification Bureau possessed.
The only certainty was that those preparations had carried the organization safely through countless disasters.
Monsters required chains.
Even those who fought monsters.
Even Arthur himself.
"I understand."
Merlin finally nodded.
"So far Lloyd has shown no sign of hostility. A preliminary framework already exists. Once it's refined, I'll present it to the Cleaners."
The line went dead.
Comfort had a way of erasing memories.
People forgot the years when survival itself had been a miracle.
Back when the Purification Bureau was first established, every battle had been soaked in blood.
Knights fought demons with steel in their hands, yet the monsters were never their only enemies.
At any moment, the comrade beside them might succumb to corruption.
Or they themselves.
There was no such thing as an absolutely incorruptible mind.
Only absolutely comprehensive contingency plans.
...
Several hours later, the Black Angel was finally ready.
Lloyd wandered back into the laboratory, looking as though he had barely slept.
"How was your rest?" Merlin asked.
"Terrible."
"I felt like a mole."
"No sunlight. Nothing but digging... machinery... electricity."
His day had already been exhausting. He had genuinely hoped to sleep.
Unfortunately, this underground fortress offered nothing remotely resembling comfort.
Old Dunling had never been pleasant either.
Its skies were forever buried beneath gray clouds, and soot drifted endlessly through the air.
Yet when Lloyd lay alone inside his apartment, he could still hear the faint breathing of his neighbor through the wall.
Mrs. Vanlud's familiar snoring downstairs.
The endless stream of carriages beyond the window.
Lloyd did not belong to that peaceful world.
Yet simply seeing it had always brought him an inexplicable sense of calm.
Here...
He couldn't shake the feeling that the ceiling might collapse at any second after one of Merlin's experiments exploded, burying everyone alive beneath hundreds of tons of earth.
"How do people actually live in this place?"
Without the sky—or even his pocket watch—he had completely lost track of time.
It might already be midnight.
Or perhaps dawn had broken hours ago.
"Of course people can."
Merlin answered matter-of-factly.
"In several of our contingency scenarios, should the surface of Old Dunling ever be annihilated... this facility becomes humanity's final refuge."
"We have food, manufacturing lines, independent infrastructure."
"We could survive underground for years."
"So you've turned this place into a fortress."
Lloyd looked around once more.
It really was a miracle.
He couldn't begin to imagine how they had excavated such impossible depths.
Even the Sanctuary of Stasis beneath the Cathedral of Saint Nalo had merely expanded a naturally existing cavern.
"This," Merlin said with quiet admiration, "is the triumph of industry."
Instead of elaborating further, he simply praised the cold brilliance of machinery.
"You'll need to stay awake."
He handed Lloyd several additional vials of Florende Serum.
The stimulant already coursed through Lloyd's bloodstream.
Sleep had become utterly impossible.
"Trying to kill me with an overdose?"
"For ordinary people?"
Merlin shrugged.
"Probably."
"But you're a Demon Hunter."
"If anything, increasing the dosage is the safer choice."
He paused before continuing.
"Honestly... your arrival has been a pleasant surprise."
"I've wanted you involved in this project for quite some time."
"But given Old Dunling's current situation, researchers like us are practically confined underground."
"If we step outside... there's every chance we'll be assassinated."
"Or kidnapped."
Scientists, after all, were often more valuable than generals.
Fortunately, over the years Merlin had systematically restructured every critical technology.
Gone were the days when an alchemist's death meant centuries of knowledge vanished with him.
A command echoed through the underground chamber.
Massive machinery roared to life.
Towering steel assemblies rose into the air before locking together into an enormous suspended platform.
Countless beams of white light descended from above.
Every researcher instinctively took position.
The experiment was about to begin.
"...No security measures?"
Lloyd pulled on a suit woven with countless electrodes.
Thin cables spread across the fabric before connecting to nearby machines, crude devices meant to monitor his vital signs.
"If I lose control," he said calmly, "none of you will survive."
Merlin sighed.
"Then let me ask you something."
"If you do lose control..."
"What exactly do you think could stop you?"
Arthur had been right.
The Purification Bureau possessed no practical means of restraining Lloyd.
Only the Old Era Divine Armors could rival him—and even that came at an unbearable cost.
"So if you'd prefer not to kill all of us..."
Merlin smiled weakly.
"You'd better keep yourself under control."
"I will."
Lloyd answered without hesitation.
"…Truth be told..."
"You don't know what's going to happen either."
Despite his relaxed tone, the same pressure weighed heavily upon him.
Both he and the Black Angel carried flesh born of the Holy Grail.
No one could predict what would happen once the two met again.
"It is unknown."
Merlin's voice softened.
"And our purpose..."
"...is to make the unknown known."
He looked at Lloyd almost encouragingly.
"Think of it as an honor."
"When the Gospel Church first created the Demon Hunters..."
"No one knew what would happen after mankind seized forbidden power."
"Progress belongs to those willing to take the first step."
"Without that step..."
"The world remains nothing more than stagnant water."
The machinery began to move.
Suspended high above, the Black Angel emitted an eerie cry.
Electricity flooded into its body.
Its muscles convulsed instinctively.
Iron feathers scraped against one another with shrill metallic screams.
The experiment had begun.
Every warning light shifted to crimson.
The underground chamber drowned beneath suffocating tension.
The pitch-black, profane cocoon slowly began to deform.
Mechanical arms forced apart the armored shell.
The tightly folded wings unfolded inch by inch, exposing the horrifying core hidden within.
Thick crimson fluid seeped from every widening seam.
Like blood.
Lloyd stared upward at the abomination that had once saved his life.
Then he noticed something impossible.
The black scales covering its body...
Were rising.
And falling.
"…It's breathing?"
His voice barely escaped his throat.
"Yes."
Merlin remained remarkably calm.
"From another perspective, an Old Era Divine Armor is simply a demon fused with machinery."
"It still possesses biological instincts."
"And after the Holy Grail's flesh was incorporated... those instincts became dramatically stronger."
"In the earliest experiments..."
"The Black Angel even displayed rudimentary self-awareness."
Steam engines thundered to life.
Brilliant scarlet flames ignited beneath layers of steel.
Pressurized vapor burst from exhaust vents.
Indicator lights illuminated one after another across the armor's body.
Its flesh writhed beneath the crimson glow.
But this time something was different.
As the wings fully opened, crimson restraints emerged beneath them.
Massive iron spikes pierced straight through the Divine Armor like nails driven into a living god.
"Those are the restraints."
Merlin explained.
"They suppress the Black Angel's biological activity."
"They're also connected to power cables and injection conduits."
"Electricity."
"Inhibitors."
"Cryogenic suppressants."
"They're our insurance policy."
As he spoke, the enormous spikes embedded within living flesh slowly rotated.
Their internal mechanisms unfolded.
Heavy cables locked into place.
Freezing suppressant gases surged through waiting pipes.
Beneath the Black Angel, the floor itself split apart.
A bottomless darkness yawned below.
Lloyd needed no explanation.
If he lost control...
That abyss would become his prison.
"Ready?"
Merlin turned toward him, secretly hoping to see even the slightest trace of fear.
Instead—
Lloyd was smiling.
Not the smile of a brave man.
Not even the smile of a madman.
It was the smile of someone finally returning home.
"As ready as I'll ever be."
If everything proceeded according to plan...
The Black Angel would carry him into the Gap.
He had no idea how such a thing was even possible.
But just as Merlin had said—
This was the journey that transformed the unknown into knowledge.
Someone had to become the first explorer.
"Oh."
Lloyd suddenly stopped just as he grasped the suspension cable.
"One more thing."
He looked back at Merlin.
"About that will."
"If you were writing yours... what would you leave behind?"
"Knowledge?"
"Research?"
"The things that still needed to be passed on?"
He smiled faintly.
"Maybe that's what wills really are."
"They're written by people whose stories aren't finished."
"People who know someone else will continue walking after they're gone."
"People who were never truly alone."
"…What are you trying to say?"
Merlin asked quietly.
Lloyd opened his mouth.
Then closed it again.
In the end, he simply raised a thumbs-up.
Without another word, he tightened his grip on the cable.
The winch roared.
Slowly, steadily, he ascended toward the waiting Black Angel.
Its monstrous form loomed before him.
Silent.
Motionless.
Almost...
Expectant.
As Lloyd drew near, the black scales across its body peeled apart one after another under the pull of living flesh.
Like an enormous mouth opening wide.
And in the next instant—
The Black Angel swallowed him whole.