Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic-Chapter 1539: The Ritual of the Spiritual Practice Order
The cat watching pigeons from the second-floor windowsill immediately spotted Shard. So when Shard opened the door from downstairs, he was met with a warm welcome from his cat.
They would be dining at home tonight. Before the maids left yesterday, they had stocked the kitchen with plenty of food. Naturally, the cooking was done by the visiting twin maidens.
Throughout their long lives, they learned many useful life skills. Compared to the Outlander, who could only cook simple dishes, Helen and Grace’s culinary skills were much better.
"I’ve long since thought about cooking in the kitchen with my sister, without having to worry about one of us strangling the other to death, and then waiting alone for another 21 years."
Grace was preparing the final soup in the kitchen, while Helen had taken off her apron and was already sitting beside Shard.
The gaslight illuminated the simply decorated yet homely dining room, with an oil painting by Haila Osenfort hanging on the wall behind Shard. The young girl in a black dress sat beside Shard, resting her chin on her hand, turning to look at her sister in the kitchen.
Shard held Mia, who was eagerly looking forward to dinner:
"From now on, you two have all the time in the world to live together; just don’t get tired of it."
Helen turned to look at him:
"How could we get tired? My sister is me, and I am my sister. Sometimes I feel that when God created us, he divided a whole into two parts. We are destined to be together, and we will never, ever part."
"Helen, you’ll make me blush saying things like that."
Grace, in a white dress, came over with an apron on. To be honest, seeing two fifteen-or-sixteen-year-old girls preparing dinner for himself, Shard felt a bit strange. Especially since they looked alike and inexplicably seemed very mature.
"Sit down and eat. After dinner, we still need to go see Sister Delphine. The Nun said I should bring you, as I need your help to learn the Arcane Technique."
"Of course, that’s no problem."
Grace said, pulling up her sister and sitting opposite Shard. Meanwhile, Shard got up to take out Mia’s special little bowl from the cupboard, preparing her dinner.
"Actually, I’m a bit afraid of that Nun."
Helen sat relaxed in her chair. She genuinely enjoyed nights like this.
"Why? Sister Delphine shouldn’t even be able to match up to you, right?"
Shard inquired curiously, picking up the ladle to serve soup for everyone.
"Most relics are difficult to destroy, not to mention humanoid relics like us. But that blind Nun’s Fire of the Primordial..."
Helen pursed her lips and took the soup bowl:
"We can be used as firewood."
Shard looked at them in surprise:
"Don’t say things like that. How could Sister Delphine do such a thing?"
However, this also gave Shard a hint that, besides Exotic Species and Ancient Evil Spirits, humanoid relics were also within the burnable range.
"Overall, it’s just that the Nun feels terrifying."
Helen swayed her legs under the table as Grace tied a napkin around her:
"Before Zina, we knew almost every Dark Great Witch, so we’ve known about the Spiritual Practice Order for a long time. Those Fire-Bearing Nuns are all great, even greater than the Guardians. Even among all the past Fire-Bearing Nuns, Sister Delphine is quite special."
Grace finished tying her sister’s napkin and went to take care of her own:
"She’s practically a born Firekeeper, seemingly born for that flame. But correspondingly, the Fire of the Primordial seems to have absorbed all her warmth. Sir, don’t be fooled by her gentleness towards you; in truth, that Nun is as cold as..."
"Charred wood."
Helen added, then explained:
"This isn’t talking behind someone’s back; she really looks quite intimidating."
[Desire] also once commented by the edge of the Pantanal Great Swamp Heart Island that Sister Delphine resembled "charred wood."
"What exactly is the Fire of the Primordial? Is it just the first flame in the world?"
Shard asked curiously, as the Red Butterfly Twins exchanged a glance:
"Strictly speaking, it’s not. The Sun is the first fire, the first light, the first thunder."
"Meow~"
Mia called out while eating dinner.
"The Fire of the Primordial, from before all, from the very beginning. It is an existence even older than this world, and therefore it represents our world."
Helen spoke very cautiously:
"The mystery of that flame is definitely no less than any special item in your hand. Even the Old God...."
"Helen!"
Grace said very seriously, and the girl who realized she had misspoken covered her mouth, making an apologetic face to Shard:
"Some things are just our speculation. You only need to know that the [Fire of the Primordial] and the Fire Holding Nuns are very important to this world."
Grace fastened her napkin and gave an example:
"The Fire Holding Nuns have never been the main characters in epoch epics like ’The Chosen One.’ They are the guardians of all. When everything comes to an end, that fire will still illuminate this world. Therefore, the inheritance of each Fire Holding Nun is very cautious. We heard from Zina that the current Sister Delphine has not yet found a suitable candidate."
But Shard knew the right candidate, which was Luviya. However, the scene he once saw in a dream, where the nun turned to ashes before passing that fire to Luviya, he vowed never to let it happen again.
After having dinner at home, Mia was unwilling to follow as usual. So, Shard went with Helen and Grace to Midshire Fort.
Since it was already late, they went straight to the Serpent Heart Hospital in town and then to the sacrificial ground at the summit of the mountains.
Shard rarely came here at night, so when he and the Red Butterfly Twins stepped out of the frame, he was immediately captivated by the endless sea of stars above.
"This is really..."
The Star River seemed to hang upside down above, as if reachable just by stretching out a hand. All the stars were so bright that even those rarely observed on usual nights could shine with their own splendor.
"Very beautiful, isn’t it?"
Grace softly asked from the side, and Shard nodded, realizing that after the long years they had lived, they must have seen similar sights countless times before.
"But only this time, there are people accompanying us."
Helen suddenly said, startling Shard:
"Have you learned mind reading?"
"Oh, Mister, you’re practically writing your thoughts directly on your face."
Though earlier during dinner, the Red Butterflies mentioned being somewhat afraid of Sister Delphine, they acted very naturally when greeting her upon meeting the nun.
Tonight, the weather near the mountaintop was extremely good—no clouds in the sky, making it the perfect time to study the [Dream of the Moon]. Sister Delphine had already been waiting for them, but the learning location was not within the sacrificial ground, but at the Firekeeper Cemetery Shard had once visited, connected by steps to the Summit Sacrificial Ground, slightly down the mountain.
Although it’s called a cemetery, in fact, it’s just a spacious and open outdoor place, because the corpses of the Fire Keepers would turn into firewood after death, leaving no remains to bury. The spacious cemetery has stone walls and stone gates on two sides, with the opposite sides being cliffs and nearly vertical thousand-foot precipices.
The nuns of the [Spiritual Practice Order] had already prepared for the ceremony here this afternoon. Specifically, they replicated the "Sun, Moon, and Stars" pattern from the open space at the [Night Shrine] in Randall Valley onto the ground covered with white ash.
After the preparations were complete, the blind nuns gradually left, leaving only Sister Delphine and the Red Butterfly Maidens.
Shard, following the nun’s instructions, took off his coat and shirt, and then Sister Delphine used a unique pigment made from the tail fur of an exotic species called the "Moon-Faced Rabbit" to paint onto Shard’s body. Starting from the center of his chest, the pigment, mixed with traces of mithril fragments, emitting a glimmer, extended to his throat and the center of his back.
The "Moon-Faced Rabbit" is a particularly ugly rabbit with a face shaped like a crescent moon. Shard had only ever seen them in books before; these rabbits are considered the ugliest rabbit species to have ever appeared in the material world.
Once everything was ready, Shard sat cross-legged in the middle of the gigantic ritual base formation on the ground, bare-chested, while the nun and the Red Butterfly Maidens stepped out of the arena.
Gazing up at the constellation, and vaguely memorizing the shape of the Star River, Shard then closed his eyes and gradually entered a meditative state—something very simple for him. In this world, since the "Spirits" of the Circle Sorcerers are not purely energy, meditation alone cannot quickly restore the spirit. This makes meditation, which seems very useful to Transcendents, actually just a means to assist in rituals, enhance spiritual power, and correspond to certain Arcane Techniques.
Correspondence students were not guided through meditation by professional instructors, but the mastery that high-level Circle Sorcerers have over their own spirits and bodies allows them to quickly learn the techniques of meditation even without frequent practice.
Shard is someone with a talent for "meditation." After relaxing his spirit, he slowly made the sensations of his body disappear, then forced his spiritual body to gradually sink into the dark vision of the "Starry Sky" illusion he just remembered.
Deep meditation closely resembles a sleep state. When Shard realized he could already vaguely see the endless wilderness around him, he knew he had succeeded.
In the real world, the silver patterns on Shard’s body began to emit a glow akin to true moonlight as his spirit entered a deep meditation state. This glow "ignited" the ground’s ritual base formation, and the pattern of the Sun, Moon, and Stars simultaneously emitted the glimmers of Silvermoon.
The light rippled across the ground like waves, shimmering as it adhered to the surface, until it seemed as if the Star River were projected onto the ground of the Firekeeper Cemetery.
