The armored Iron Serpent lay across the middle of the road. On one side of it stood the demon hunters, nail-swords in hand; on the other, hidden beneath the curtain of rain, stood the Divine Armors of the Old Century.
Lloyd stood between the two sides, his gaze sweeping back and forth before finally settling on Arthur.
"An order from the Queen?"
Lloyd had anticipated something like this, but he had never expected it to come so soon—to receive an order from that Queen at this particular moment.
"So you've reached an agreement with the New Order? You've come to divide up whatever I have left?"
Lloyd's voice was calm, but anyone could hear the fury buried beneath it. His grip tightened around the folding knife until his knuckles turned white.
"That's why I hope we can have a proper conversation," Arthur said. "After all, our cooperation was quite pleasant before, wasn't it? The Purification Bureau hasn't abandoned you. It's just…"
"Just that an order from above has put you in a difficult position?"
"Yes. After all, the Purification Bureau is, in truth, under Queen Victoria's control. She simply hasn't interfered with our operations for a very long time."
Arthur's meaning was simple enough. The mysterious Queen Victoria had reclaimed her authority. She had decided to take matters into her own hands. Lloyd had no idea what the New Order had offered her, or what price they had paid to move that exalted being to issue such an order.
Lloyd drew a deep breath, allowing the frigid air to fill his lungs and cool the body burning beneath his skin.
"And if I refuse? Will you kill me?"
"No. We'll simply restrain you. If possible, I'd rather not see things end that way either… You may have done more than enough evil in your life, but at least… at least there is still a trace of a good man in you. Lloyd, you still possess a human heart. You're not simply a monster. That's why I chose to talk to you instead of capturing you outright."
Although Arthur despised this detective, after spending so much time together, he had to admit that he rather liked Lloyd. Lloyd believed himself to be a monster, yet somewhere within him still beat a human heart. For reasons Arthur could scarcely understand, he continued to fight those loathsome demons.
Lloyd lowered his voice. Only he and Arthur stood nearby. Perhaps Anthony and the demon hunters were wary of the Divine Armors hidden beyond the curtain of rain. They simply remained where they were, waiting for the outcome.
"The New Order…"
Lloyd was just about to tell Arthur everything he knew about the New Order when he suddenly fell silent.
He looked at Arthur and, in that instant, understood.
"So their actions just now were carried out with your tacit approval as well? If they could subdue me, you wouldn't have appeared. And if they failed, you would step in and mediate."
This was Old Dunling, the home ground of the Purification Bureau. There was no way the New Order's every move could escape the Bureau's eyes, let alone the use of Secret Blood right in the middle of the street.
"You don't trust me anymore, do you, Arthur?"
"I still trust you, Lloyd. But right now, I don't represent myself. I represent the entire Purification Bureau."
Arthur spoke slowly.
"The New Order obtained reliable information. Based on the surviving records, they inferred the general nature of the False Holy Grail. You've already been corrupted, and you're extremely dangerous. Even if they had not intervened, I would still have wanted to speak with you about how we should contain the False Holy Grail within you."
"They can't be trusted."
After reading Shermans's notes, Lloyd had reason to believe that the Gospel Church was still concealing some secret—and that secret was connected to the truth of the world. Lloyd desperately wanted to take Shermans's notes out and show them to Arthur. He believed the strange knowledge contained within them would be enough to prove everything.
But he couldn't.
Lloyd could feel it. If he revealed those secrets, something terrible would happen. Those phantoms were still watching him. They had never abandoned their pursuit of the man who had touched the forbidden. The peace he enjoyed now was nothing more than a brief respite.
"Then can you be trusted, Lloyd? Or should I call you 047?"
Arthur's face remained expressionless, devoid of all personal emotion. At this moment, he was nothing more than a cold machine executing an order, ensuring that this enormous organization continued to function without the slightest error.
"You've never revealed your true identity, nor have you ever mentioned the existence of the False Holy Grail. According to the New Order, it was an unknown creation developed by the War Faction during the Night of Descent, based upon the [Holy Grail]. You should know exactly what the [Holy Grail] is, shouldn't you?"
Arthur wanted to trust Lloyd. He truly did.
But he couldn't.
No matter how much they had experienced together, Lloyd was still an outsider. No one could ever guarantee that they had truly seen through another person's heart. Arthur was no exception. He could not completely trust Lloyd, just as he could not determine whether Lloyd was truly good or evil.
No one could guarantee any of it.
No one could be certain that Lloyd still possessed his sanity, or that everything he had done before was merely an elaborate attempt to earn the Purification Bureau's trust. Perhaps his true intentions had been buried deep within his consciousness, waiting only for the right moment to erupt.
The two men stared at one another.
Arthur understood Lloyd's thoughts, and Lloyd understood Arthur's meaning.
And that was precisely what made it so tragic.
They both understood.
Yet neither could truly believe that the other had revealed everything.
All they could do was remain wary of each other.
"You killed people just now, Lloyd. A lot of people."
After a long silence, Arthur spoke again.
So it really had been Moriarty's trap. The entire purpose had been to set everything in motion for what came next.
"Do you really think I'm the kind of person who would do something like that?" Lloyd asked. "It was Moriarty. A demon hunter from the New Order. His Authority is Raphael. He deceived me."
"As the Duke of Phoenix, I'm willing to believe you. You're not someone who would casually slaughter innocent people," Arthur said. "But right now, I'm not acting as the Duke of Phoenix. Right now, I'm Arthur…"
Arthur's voice remained emotionless, but something shifted faintly in his eyes.
The situation was terrible.
Everyone had already tightened their grip on their blades. The demon hunters and the Divine Armors of the Old Century had all come here for Lloyd. One wrong decision, one miscalculation, and this place would descend into the worst possible ending.
For now, Arthur seemed to be the only person capable of preventing it.
He knew exactly what kind of man Lloyd was. All he could do was try to persuade him, though even Arthur himself felt that hope was exceedingly slim.
The rain continued to fall, washing over the steel city.
No one knew how much time passed.
At last, Lloyd slowly lowered the nail-sword in his hand.
The iron armor covering his body peeled away piece by piece, and finally, the flames burning upon him went out.
If he chose to openly fight the Purification Bureau here, Lloyd had no chance of escaping.
Not only would the Divine Armors of the Old Century pursue him—the demon hunters would join the hunt without hesitation.
In truth, the moment Arthur appeared, Lloyd had already lost any hope of escape.
He could also draw his blade and take Arthur hostage.
But Lloyd knew Arthur too well.
Arthur simply wouldn't care.
"Then let's have a proper talk."
...
The Iron Serpent raced through the silent streets.
Perhaps to demonstrate his sincerity, Anthony dismissed the demon hunters. Only he and Lloyd boarded the Iron Serpent together, while their destination remained unknown.
Even through the torrential rain, several enormous figures followed closely behind the Iron Serpent.
The Divine Armors of the Old Century surged through the rain, their forms obscured by the white veil of vapor. Their exact appearance could not be seen, but Lloyd could sense them.
Judging from the faint degree of Corruption radiating from them, they were all Third-Generation Divine Armors.
Perhaps this was the power of industrialization.
Not long ago, Lloyd had only just smashed one experimental model to pieces, yet now the Perpetual Motion Pump was already capable of producing them on a small scale.
Then again, perhaps they had been manufactured long ago.
Perhaps Merlin had been lying to him in the workshop, deliberately putting him off his guard and making him believe that the Purification Bureau possessed only a handful of surviving Divine Armors of the Old Century.
But none of that mattered now.
Lloyd sat in his seat and looked at the two men sitting opposite him.
The three of them were strangely alike at that moment.
None of them wore an expression.
They looked almost like corpses.
The atmosphere was grim and murderous.
"Lloyd Holmes… I remember being told that you prefer to be called by that name."
Anthony was the first to break the silence.
He carried no weapon, sitting alone across from Lloyd.
"Do you know what the False Holy Grail is?"
Lloyd remained silent.
His face was cold, his expression as hard as though his body had been forged from steel. Although he had temporarily abandoned his resistance, he had not disarmed himself. The folding knife remained at his waist, while inside his pocket were the lacquer-antimony throwing knives capable of turning everything around them into an inferno.
If Lloyd wished, he could launch an almost overwhelming decapitation strike right here, killing the leaders of both the New Order and the Purification Bureau.
But he knew it would be pointless.
They were puppets too, controlled by beings standing one level above them.
Those beings simply bore different names.
The New Pope.
Queen Victoria.
Or perhaps, the God worshipped by the faithful.
Killing them would change nothing.
"After the examinations conducted by the Gospel Church, we've roughly determined the nature of the False Holy Grail. Of course, that is also why our attitude suddenly became so uncompromising."
Anthony continued.
"The False Holy Grail is an unknown creation developed from the [Holy Grail]. The records concerning its exact form have been destroyed, so we don't know what it originally looked like. But from what we've managed to learn, the False Holy Grail possesses properties similar to those of the [Holy Grail]. The 'concept' of demons."
Anthony paused.
"I imagine that concept is rather difficult to understand. So allow me to use another word."
"Corruption."
Lloyd said nothing.
It was not yet time for him to strike back.
And regardless of whether Anthony's words were true, Lloyd was genuinely curious about what the False Holy Grail actually was.
"Corruption is a phenomenon. An influence originating from demons. In that sense, there is no real difference between the [Holy Grail] and ordinary demons. But in truth, this is a form of Corruption that exists beyond our current understanding—a form of Corruption that cannot be perceived.
"One of the reasons humanity is capable of fighting demons is because the human consciousness can sense that unsettling Corruption.
"But the [Holy Grail] is different.
"Its Corruption occurs in silence.
"Its influence is unquestionably real, slowly twisting the world and transforming human beings into the very demons they have spent so long despising.
"We believe that this inability to perceive its influence was precisely why our wars against the demons continued for so many years without ever eliminating them completely…
"Until we captured the [Holy Grail]."
Anthony did not continue.
The Night of Descent had caused an enormous rupture in the history of the Gospel Church. Much of its knowledge had been lost forever, including everything concerning the capture of the [Holy Grail].
"All right. Everything I've said so far is merely a hypothesis. The [Holy Grail] has been lost, while the False Holy Grail is currently inside you. All we can do is use the clues we have to reconstruct what happened."
Anthony spoke frankly.
Throughout humanity's long war against the demons, knowledge had always been the most precious thing of all.
It was also the hardest thing to pass down.
"So?"
Lloyd asked.
He was curious to know exactly what kind of justification the New Order had used to convince everyone.
"So we have reason to suspect that the False Holy Grail possesses properties similar to those of the [Holy Grail]. That silent, imperceptible Corruption.
"And precisely because of that power, even though you once… once were Metatron, you were unable to perceive what was happening to you.
"For all these years, it has been silently influencing you, Lloyd.
"Then the arrival of the New Order made the False Holy Grail feel threatened. It wanted to escape us.
"So it compelled you to do those things."
Anthony's expression grew solemn.
"Lloyd, you've been controlled by a demon. That invisible Corruption has been influencing you all this time, even causing your memories to become distorted."
"Isn't that simply the desire of your New Order?" Lloyd immediately retorted. "You need to reclaim this power so that you can continue maintaining your position in the world after losing the Book of Revelation."
"Then how do you explain what you did earlier?" Anthony demanded. "You killed innocent people."
"Moriarty. He's a demon hunter from your New Order. He used his Authority to deceive me!"
Lloyd spoke sharply.
But when Anthony heard his words, a strange expression appeared on his face.
Confusion.
Blankness.
As though he knew nothing at all.
A chill spread through Lloyd's heart.
The sensation was familiar.
Then he remembered.
It was exactly like the performance he had witnessed at the Royal Academy of Arts.
The curtain had risen.
And now the actors were simply following the script.
"Moriarty? There is no demon hunter by that name in the New Order."
Anthony's words confirmed Lloyd's suspicion.
He forced himself to remain calm.
This was Moriarty's game.
If he struck blindly without understanding what was happening, he would only end up trapped in another deadlock like the one just now.
Arthur understood Lloyd's suspicion.
He spoke at that moment as well.
"There is no such person on the demon hunter registry."
"He infiltrated the organization in secret…"
Lloyd stopped halfway through his sentence.
He knew his words were meaningless.
There was no evidence whatsoever to prove what he was saying.
After a brief silence, Lloyd began reorganizing his thoughts.
For a long time, he had hated this kind of battle of schemes.
It was troublesome to an almost unbearable degree.
That was why the great detective always carried a shotgun with him—to shatter every conspiracy and stratagem with a single blast.
But the situation before him was not something a shotgun could simply tear apart.
And the shotgun called Winchester had long since disappeared as well.
"Lloyd."
Suddenly, Arthur called his name.
He had remained silent until now, but his gaze was complicated as he looked at Lloyd.
After hesitating for a long while, Arthur finally asked a question that seemed completely unrelated to their conversation.
"Do you think human beings truly possess free will?"