Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic-Chapter 1401: Fallen Elemental Giant Spirit
"This thing somewhat resembles a ’Earth Elemental Titan,’ something seldom seen in this era... Wait, the color doesn’t match what’s described in the books. A normal earth elemental aggregate should be yellow, and it doesn’t have such intense malice."
Miss Benanis said, as the three prepared for battle.
The creature emerging from the forest noticed them as well. It halted its steps and let out a roar, then used its massive and sturdy right arm to shield itself. With a speed far exceeding its previous sluggish pace, it charged sideways towards them, trailing a flow of muddy-colored light.
"Get out of the way quickly!"
The experienced witch shouted in warning, hurriedly dodging to the side. Since the monster’s target was actually Shard, Luviya easily dodged as well.
However, Shard stood still, intending to test the creature’s strength:
"Heaton Seal!"
The Moonlight Greatsword pierced the ground as his left hand formed the Dharma Seal. A spherical shield, glowing with golden light, immediately blossomed around Shard. But in the next moment, as the massive rock creature, which towered half a height above Shard, crashed forward, the heavy earth elemental force shattered the shield—breaking the golden shield like fragile glass—and the impact’s shockwave sent Shard flying, rolling twice on the snow before struggling to his feet, sensing internal injuries:
"I can’t withstand it head-on, this isn’t simple physical damage."
"I said it’s just a psuedo-elemental aggregate!"
Miss Benanis shouted loudly:
"Don’t try to engage it in close combat, use long-ranged arcane attacks!"
"Understood!"
Luviya, who had been prepared on the side, threw a fireball the size of a human head from her hand. It struck the elemental giant’s right shoulder, and after a booming explosion, only managed to take away a quarter of the stone on its shoulder.
Stone at the missing section writhed and regrew, healing itself, and as the enraged elemental giant turned towards Luviya, Shard completed his charging:
"Moonlight Wheel!"
The spinning light wheel struck the target from behind, the piercing sound of stone cutting into stone was sharp enough to hurt the ears. Yet even with this, the light wheel dissipated after penetrating nearly halfway into the elemental giant’s body.
"Such high defense?"
"These pseudo-elemental creatures don’t have so-called weak points. You need to destroy a large portion of its body at once to eliminate it."
The witch reminded:
"Shard, prepare the Light of the Witch."
Saying this, she took three small stone statues from her pocket and threw them ahead:
"Power of the Earth: Call of the Statue!"
The stone statues emitted light in the snow, unfolding into three pentagram ritual circles. As stone hands reached out from the snow, three human-sized stone statues were summoned.
They charged together towards the elemental giant, which was preparing to attack Shard again, and held it firmly in place. Meanwhile, Shard and Miss Benanis raised their right hands together:
"Feliana’s Witch Light!"
Dark golden light slowly dissolved the elemental giant’s body. It roared, trying to escape the light’s range, but being embraced by the "Power of the Earth"-summoned stone figures, it eventually melted its entire upper body in the light.
After reaching the threshold of its damage tolerance, the remaining body of the elemental giant shattered into rubble with a cracking sound, leaving only a small pile of black, coal-like stones on the snowy ground.
"To deal with a Fallen Elemental Giant, you need an attack that can destroy more parts at once. Alchemical bombs are very effective, but I didn’t bring any because I didn’t expect to encounter such an enemy."
Miss Benanis said to Shard and Luviya, while Luviya inquired about Shard’s injuries.
"Just need to catch my breath."
He said, crouching to pick up the black stones:
"I sense the twisted power of the earth, but it’s quickly fading."
"Is this a monster born from the Crazy Earth?"
Luviya asked worriedly.
"Highly unlikely. I still haven’t sensed any signs of earth twisting. This means that even if this area does contain Crazy Earth, it’s very far away. Generally, the evil spirits or other monsters born in such regions cannot leave at will."
Shard stood up:
"I fear it’s similar to the ’Petrified Plague’ in the city. Such monsters randomly appear in the Randall Valley region, like the evil spirits that randomly appeared in the city during the late-stage Milestone event. It’s just that the imminent severe issues the Guardians warned about in our current location have caused the earth’s power to gather, making such monsters appear more frequently."
The witch lightly took a deep breath:
"If they truly appear randomly across the entire region, it would be bigger trouble."
The three continued along the church’s footprints they had followed, and probably because the church had already cleared out the nearby area, they didn’t encounter a second Fallen Earth Elemental Giant.
Mr. Lathis, the Guardian, had given Shard a whole area as the location. When they arrived nearby, they found that nothing had happened yet. The not-so-high hill was quite peaceful, and Shard even saw a wolf stealthily following a rabbit.
The church camp had already been set up. They did not surround the hill but camped separately at the foothill and the strategic high point on the hillside not far away.
They did not hide their whereabouts either, as the smoke from the campfires drifted from the forest toward the clear evening sky outside the city. The sky gradually darkened, and night was about to fall.
Since nothing had happened yet, the three of them also camped a bit farther from the church camp, after carefully finding a hiding spot.
Even though the three were not very afraid of the current cold due to their physical qualities, sitting by the campfire still gave a feeling of reassurance. Shard decided to wait patiently, as he couldn’t predict what situation would happen next.
While Shard was chatting softly with Miss Benanis, Luviya wanted to try divination again. She used the relatively rare tortoise shell divination, where bones or tortoise shells are thrown into the fire to burn and then interpreted based on the cracks to read fate.
However, just as Luviya threw the tortoise shell into the fire, it cracked entirely.
"Did you buy defective divination tools?"
Shard asked in surprise.
"What kind of joke is this? I always procure these non-banned items from the association."
The Female Diviner frowned and took out the cards, employing her most skilled cartomancy. Shard didn’t see what the three cards she drew were, but Luviya’s complexion didn’t improve due to the result:
"Someone nearby is interfering with fate."
"What do you mean?"
The Witch asked, looking around.
"It’s hard to say what it means. Someone is preventing things from happening in the vicinity that were supposed to happen. And the method used by the opponent looks very familiar."
Luviya said, handing her cards to Shard:
"Pick any one?"
"Me?"
He drew the first card:
"[Marionette]. I remember this represents being secretly manipulated by others, without their knowledge. Of course, it also means the querent might be deeply involved in a huge conspiracy without realizing it."
"No, no, that’s just a general interpretation. I am not divining your fate. The meaning of this card now should be [Puppeteer’s Notes]."
Luviya corrected, and for some reason, the "her" near Shard’s ear let out a laugh.
The Blonde Witch asked:
"Those notes, are they the Relic controlled by the [Blood Spirit School] that you mentioned?"
"Yes, we’ve encountered this Relic many times, and last summer, Shard even got a blank page of the notes and gave it to me, so I’m familiar with this Relic’s power."
"Is there something involving the Blood Spirit School tonight too?"
Shard asked suspiciously, because this time the effect of the [Puppeteer’s Notes] was not directly acting on him, so he couldn’t use the [The Twenty-Sided Die of Destiny] to retaliate.
"Can we know what the other side changed?"
Miss Benanis asked, but this time Luviya could only shake her head:
"After all, it is a Relic."
The sun, growing dim, finally fell completely below the western horizon. After the warm sunshine disappeared, the late winter woodland remained exceptionally cold.
Time passed bit by bit, and Shard had thought that after the sun went down, the thing the Guardians spoke of would occur. But until eight o’clock that night, they were still waiting in the tranquil forestland.
If Mr. Lathis hadn’t personally mentioned the matter, and if "she" wasn’t there to prove Shard hadn’t remembered the place or time wrongly, Shard would have doubted if he had come to the wrong location.
The time reached eight-thirty, and Shard was telling Miss Benanis, who looked suspicious, about his cat-raising insights. Just before the Witch could challenge Shard’s seemingly off cat-raising methods, the three of them suddenly heard a "whoosh~" sound.
Standing up to look at the western sky, a white light dot with a flaming tail shakily ascended into the night sky, then exploded into fireworks in the night.
And after the fireworks exploded, the ground immediately began to shake. This sudden earthquake was very intense, and Shard only felt that the whole world was shaking for the first few seconds:
"The Guardian said that each violent earthquake indicates a more severe twist in the earth’s distortion! Third Stage! Wait, this feeling is..."
Just as Shard was supporting Luviya, the intense malice unique to the "Crazy Earth" suddenly appeared on the hill not far away.
At this moment, the raging wind was like the world itself howling. The dark clouds obscured the starry sky and moon, and Shard could only vaguely see that the originally empty hilltop seemed to have a few more people. Meanwhile, first, tiny streams appeared at the top of the hill, and then a fountain shot into the night sky and fell across the entire area.
In the pitch-black night and intense earthquake, this scene was truly bizarre.
