The smoke carried a faint herbal sweetness, but Barlow had no desire to breathe in too much of it. After the operation in Ender Town, Lloyd had revealed many useful things — among them, the uses of windshade herb. Out of idle curiosity, Barlow had tried it once himself afterward. There had been no horrific visions, nothing grotesque or terrifying… but his spirits had remained drained for a long time after.
Lloyd stood where he was like a statue, head lowered, as if sunk in deep thought. Tobacco burned between his fingers, and the rising smoke gathered into shifting, fleeting shapes.
It felt unbearably heavy. Stifling. Lloyd felt as though he had been locked inside an oven, each step forward demanding the full measure of his strength. In his ears rang the shrill whine of gears spinning at high speed, and it seemed as though he were marching beneath the weight of a mountain.
Yet strangely, there was no pressure.
None of the pressure that came from demons.
Lloyd had never worn an Old Century God-Armor, but as a demon hunter he knew exactly what it felt like to come into contact with weapons forged from demon flesh. After all, he himself was one such weapon — power known as Secret Blood coursed through his veins, and a skeleton of holy silver both protected and imprisoned his body.
His mind remained untouched — and then, in the very next instant, she appeared before him.
Countless faces flickered across her form before settling into the one Lloyd knew best. She smiled lightly. Through the windshade herb, her link to the darkness had deepened, allowing her to stand before him once more. She raised her hand, shaping her fingers like a pistol… and gave a slight tremble.
It was as if a blazing sun pierced through Lloyd.
Flesh charred and carbonized in an instant, crumbling into drifting ash. The God-Armor glowed red-hot, then split and twisted apart. The flames did not stop. Like a spear of light, they shattered that fragile body completely.
Large drops of sweat fell from the tip of Lloyd's nose. Clutching his chest, he staggered downward, one hand braced against the ground to keep himself from collapsing.
Barlow was clearly shaken by Lloyd's sudden change. His expression turned grave.
"What did you see?"
Lloyd did not answer. After a long while, when he finally seemed to recover, he lifted his head, his expression complicated.
"Barlow… have you ever thought about something?"
His breathing gradually steadied. Through his spirit-sight, he had glimpsed a possibility — and sensed how very possible that possibility might be.
"Would a God-Armor fused with demons really be shattered that easily?"
One of the most defining traits of demons was their tenacious vitality. Even Ed, whose body had been completely permeated with holy silver, could linger on for a long time with the support of Secret Blood — let alone the original prototypes of Old Century God-Armor.
Barlow fell silent. It seemed this possibility had not occurred to him either. He had encountered Old Century God-Armor twice — once during Galahad's loss of control, and once during the Ender Town operation, when he himself had piloted a second-generation suit.
Even the impact of demons, extreme heat, even a direct smoothbore cannon strike during Galahad's rampage — none of these had completely destroyed the armor. Yet the wreckage before them had been killed in a single blow.
By design, demons were not merely a power source for Old Century God-Armor. That strange flesh could function as a connective medium between metals — incredibly resilient, elastic, heat-resistant, and tough beyond reason. In some sense, that living tissue could be considered a kind of mechanical material.
When iron plating shattered, the rampant flesh would bind it tighter — not fail in a single strike.
"You're talking about the weapon that killed it?" Barlow asked, astonished. If that were true, what kind of force could destroy a God-Armor like this? But the thought also made sense. God-Armor technology originated in the Far Eastern Nine Xia. Just as the Demon Hunter Order had developed silver binding bolts to control their hunters, surely Nine Xia would possess weapons capable of destroying God-Armor if it went out of control.
If it could destroy this one, it could likely destroy Old Century God-Armor as well.
Barlow pondered deeply, already deciding to report this theory. Though Inlwig and Nine Xia were partners, caution was still necessary.
Lloyd shook his head.
"You've fallen into a blind spot. Dealing with demons for so long has made you instinctively attribute everything to them."
"What do you mean?"
Barlow frowned, confused. Lloyd's expression was solemn.
"Look closely. For a God-Armor supposedly powered by demons, isn't it far too clumsy? The joints between the plates are mechanical structures, not biological tissue. And that massive wound in the back… think about it from another angle. What if something pierced straight through the armor — and the damage in the back was a secondary explosion?"
His thinking had reversed direction. Lloyd pointed at the enormous cavity in the back. Countless mechanical linkages had been severed there, fractures spiderwebbing outward.
"Barlow… don't you think that space is just about the right size to house a steam engine?"
Barlow's pupils shrank. Shock was written plainly across his face as he stared at Lloyd.
"You're saying… this thing is purely mechanical?"
Lloyd nodded firmly.
"That would explain why there's no contamination. And with a body this massive, filled with complex machinery…"
"You know what that means, don't you?"
Lloyd was beginning to understand Arthur's words in the church. The world was advancing at a mad pace — not only in technology, but in warfare. A mechanical God-Armor like this had no natural advantage against demons… but against humans, it would be a weapon of terrifying effectiveness.
This was a military God-Armor. After years of research, Nine Xia had finally taken a crucial step toward mass-producing such machines.
And they had possessed steam technology for barely more than a decade. The speed of their progress was frightening.
"Looks like you've got your work cut out for you."
It was explosive news. Whether Lloyd's deduction proved correct or not, it would be submitted as a dangerous possibility.
Fear flickered across Barlow's face. After a long pause, he spoke slowly.
"Sometimes I can't tell whether you're the source of trouble… or just someone who spots it before everyone else."
"You should be thanking me for giving you an early warning," Lloyd said with a hint of teasing. "You do know my bank account number, right?"
But there was no real humor in his heart. Arthur's predictions were becoming reality, step by step. The outbreak of war seemed less like a possibility and more like an inevitability.
Barlow had no mood left for the exhibition. Halfway through, guards surrounded the venue. With apologetic words but firm hands, they escorted everyone outside.
Selius found Lloyd in the crowd. Though he hid it well, the perceptive girl saw through him at once.
"Did you do something in there?"
"What do you mean?"
"The exhibition ended not long after you went in. You must've done something."
Lloyd covered his head in mock distress.
"Why would you think that? Do I really seem that unreliable to you?"
"I just think you have a talent for attracting strange situations," Selius replied evenly.
"…Well. Since the exhibition's over, should I walk you home? Or take you to buy some ridiculous candy?"
"Mr. Holmes, even if the exhibition ended early, my 'exhibition' still has more than half its time left. Don't think you're getting out of it that easily."
Her clear eyes locked onto him, leaving him nowhere to hide.
"You're turning into a boring adult too, Selius. It breaks my heart."
To Lloyd, growing older simply meant the rising cost of dealing with problems.
Selius nodded with earnest seriousness.
"That's true. I'll be an adult in a month."