"Hu… hunters of demons?"
Joey stared at Lloyd, shock plain on his face. For a moment he felt as if a wind had risen in the freezing room, cold as drawn steel, piercing through his body and spreading into muscle and vein.
"Yes. Demon hunters. If you don't know, it's probably because your clearance isn't high enough. In essence, we demon hunters are simply demons who still possess reason."
As he spoke, Lloyd extended his hand. Bluish veins lay faintly visible beneath his skin.
"The Order's Secret Blood technology, stripped of all mysticism, is nothing more than transplanting the power of demons into human beings. But whether the brain or the organs are altered, rejection always follows. If the subject is lucky, they die in agony. If they're unlucky, they become nourishment for demonic flesh and warp into something even more horrific."
"In the end, the Order discovered a method in the Revelation—a way to refine the blood. By transplanting demon blood alone into the human body, the process became far more stable than previous experiments. From that, Secret Blood technology was born."
Lloyd narrated it all with unsettling simplicity.
"Fundamentally, a demon hunter is a demon that hasn't lost control. We're called the 'Qualified.' We can tolerate the presence of Secret Blood to a certain degree, maintaining a fragile balance with it—neither clashing with the host body nor being consumed by the corruption."
That was the reason behind the warning of the Silver Binding Bolt. Under Secret Blood technology, the blood within a hunter remained dormant for long stretches, awakening only when deliberately triggered. Yet the intensity of that awakening determined everything—it granted power, but also brought severe erosion.
Thirty percent awakening was a critical threshold. Once surpassed, the balance between human will and demonic corruption shattered. Ed's awakening had exceeded sixty percent. Crossing that line meant the hunter had already stepped into the abyss.
At that moment, the Silver Binding Bolt would begin to melt away completely, and the Secret Blood would drag the human will down into full demonization. Like a falling star—its brightest blaze also the moment of its destruction.
Joey struggled to remain calm, forcing himself to memorize every word Lloyd spoke.
"And those 'rational demons' we mentioned earlier," Lloyd continued, "are degraded versions of hunters. Whether through erosion or some other cause, they've become demons—but they can no longer maintain balance with… that part of themselves."
"The balance between humanity and the demon."
"They might still retain their sanity and act within a demon's body, but the corruption continues regardless. Becoming a completely insane monster is only a matter of time."
"Dress it up in all the rambling myths you want—biologically speaking, it makes a certain kind of sense."
Lloyd had only begun to understand these things after sneaking into a few university lectures in Old Dunling. All demon hunters were orphans, taken in by the Gospel Church as children, trained, and eventually absorbed into the Order. Before becoming hunters, every child faced a single threshold: the Divine Favor Baptism, a series of grueling special trainings, and finally the implantation of Secret Blood.
Lloyd remembered little about the mysterious Baptism of Divine Favor. He only knew that afterward, his memories had inexplicably multiplied—filled with fragments and scenes that did not belong to him. Others who underwent the ritual reported the same.
The implantation of Secret Blood marked their coming-of-age at seventeen. From childhood, they were steeped in the Church's theology. Priests attributed every unexplainable phenomenon to faith. Even dying during implantation was framed the same way—if you perished, it was because your faith in God was insufficient, your loyalty to the Church lacking.
Lloyd had survived his implantation and had once taken pride in it, believing his devotion must surely be evident to heaven and earth alike. But after the Night of Holy Descent, the thought seemed laughable.
"Incredible," Joey said at last, long after Lloyd had finished. He looked exhausted, like a student force-fed too much knowledge in a single sitting, his mind unable to keep pace.
Joey had once believed the Old Era Divine Armors were already a forbidden power—binding demonic strength in steel and bending it to human will. But after truly understanding demon hunters, those relics seemed almost trivial.
These madmen had seized a power that never belonged to them. A truly forbidden power.
"There's far more that's unbelievable," Lloyd added. "The Demon Hunter Order is far more complicated than you think. And Arthur told me the new Pope has already begun rebuilding it."
Even Lloyd felt a trace of pressure at that thought. The reconstruction was real—the Silent Sanctuary, dormant for six years, had come back online. That alone was proof enough.
"But back to the present. Rational demons are extremely dangerous. Still, your Purge Bureau's surveillance and response speed are impressive. You shouldn't have too much to worry about."
Thinking of Lancelot arriving alongside the Iron Serpent, Lloyd finally grasped the might of this industrial nation—systems layered upon systems, each interlocking with the next, all serving a single ultimate purpose.
And this wasn't even the city at full capacity. Lloyd could scarcely imagine the sight of machinery roaring so loud it tore at the eardrums.
"Usually true," Joey replied, "but our monitoring has run into problems. We can only detect that demon when it's already taking action. Sometimes we can't detect it at all."
"That's impossible. That large-scale Geiger counter array is leagues beyond the Order's mystical guesswork."
After yesterday's investigation, Joey had explained the Watcher System's principles to Lloyd. Lloyd had been astonished. The Order's approach relied on hunters themselves—those with heightened perception serving as scouts, like the Shandafon branch hunters who possessed limited precognitive abilities.
"That's exactly the issue," Joey said. "Before it acts, the demon barely affects the Geiger readings. That's why we can't track it. Otherwise we'd have killed it already. It's just that…"
He paused, then suddenly realized how to explain.
"It's like you. Before you activate your Secret Blood, the Geiger counter can't detect any anomaly from you either."
Lloyd nodded, reaching for the bottle to take another drink and warm himself—then his hand froze midair, his expression turning grave.
"Wait. You said… like me."
"Yes. Before it acts, the readings don't change at all—"
Joey trailed off, realization dawning at the same time. Their eyes met, and in each other's cold gaze, they found the same conclusion.
Lloyd said nothing. He stood, put on his coat, and slid a fully loaded Winchester beneath it. Then he took the cane by the door—a custom piece he'd recently commissioned, its hidden blade now plated in holy silver.
"I assume your Purge Bureau operates twenty-four hours a day?"
He pushed the door open and gestured for Joey to follow.
This case was far from over.