Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic-Chapter 527: Not Alone

"Ivan Daknis, you can't escape no matter what. The Sunlight Greatsword will be back soon, and on the periphery of the Dark Realm, there are even more High Ring Sorcerers called from other districts,"

Mr. Pirot stated the facts as he looked directly into Daknis's eyes:

"Just as I mentioned in Yordle Palace, surrender, and I can guarantee you'll live at least 20 more years."

"Power is at my fingertips, and you want me to stop?"

Daknis laughed, his condition far from good compared to his fervent tone:

"Once I become the Chosen One, what will you all amount to?"

"The lady behind me is the Chosen One. Although she can suppress you, do you think she is strong?"

Mr. Pirot stated another fact.

"I'm not like her; she's alone, but I have this."

Daknis waved his right hand at Mr. Pirot, and leaned back fully against a pillar. The pillar, thicker than any great tree Shard had seen in the Forest of Thousand Trees, tapered as it rose. It was itself the largest black crystal, and even Shard didn't dare look directly at it from his current position.

Daknis's mouth was trembling, and his face pale, not as if he was absorbing power, but rather as if he was swallowing flames. His right hand absorbed the terrifying darkness that continuously surged toward him, and the shadows lurking in the air were also slowly being absorbed into the Demon Mouth, marking Daknis's body with horrifying rune tattoos.

"Once the ritual is successful, I, I— I, Ivan, Fr—Fris–Dak—Daknis, hereby declare!"

As he spoke, his body trembled, nothing like Iluna when she was conducting her own ritual.

"May the Ancient God 'Crawling Darkness' bear witness, I will devour the darkness, witnessed over..."

Behind him, and between the Golden Ring of Destiny faintly emerging, the phantom of a tattered black robe slowly appeared, the symbol of the Ancient God of Darkness.

"Witch, what are you waiting for?"

Mr. Pirot suddenly said, leaning on a crystal stone as the Red-Haired Witch opened her eyes, her Eleven-Ring Life Ring overlaying with the golden stairs. She made a complex gesture with her right hand, while grabbing her Golden Necklace with her left:

"Edict - Halt!"

The flow of darkness abruptly stopped, freezing Daknis in place, but as a consequence of stopping the entire Dark Realm's flow of darkness, dark crystal rapidly spread across Miss Galina's body.

She tore the necklace from her neck and flung it behind her.

"In the name of brass, steam is with me!"

Mr. Pirot leaped high.

Behind him, the flowing darkness exploded into a brass-colored brilliance, instantly illuminating the entire clearing of the Crystal Forest. Within that orb of light, a city's phantom slowly emerged. Huge steam machinery floated in the sky, steam pipes connecting the entire skyline, the metallic sheen enveloping the entire city.

This was the real Steam City in his heart, and within this massive city's phantom, a huge light orb formed from the gathered brass-colored light, carrying steam, and falling toward Daknis like a plummeting iron cannonball.

This force even twisted the space of the Dark Realm, creating expanding ripples in the still darkness. Shard, particularly sensitive to space, even sensed terrifying cracks appearing in the space the light and steam passed through.

The intense wind pressure prevented Shard from even lifting his head, but just witnessing this scene allowed him to feel its terror. If this strike worked, Shard even doubted whether the pillar of darkness formed from the body of the Ancient Demon would collapse as well.

A Dark Vortex appeared around Daknis, but his body, pinned by the intense pressure from above, couldn't move. He tried to call upon the demon's power but was blocked by Miss Galina in some unknown way from connecting with the Demon Mouth.

Under this potentially annihilating strike, the right hand wearing the Fish Training Ring moved on its own.

The muscles writhed as they transformed, first into the form of a Half-body Demon, then morphing into Human Pus.

But since Ivan Daknis himself was severely injured, the Human Pus Demon hadn't absorbed enough power to return to the peak of the Ancient Demon. Even in the form of Human Pus, Shard did not believe it could rival a Thirteen-Ring Sorcerer.

"It's going to end now; the True God Church has won!"

Shard thought excitedly, but just as he believed everything was finally ending, a gargantuan black hand, like a great tree, suddenly flung upwards into the sky.

A large mass of black pus detached from the body of the Human Pus and transformed into a gigantic black spider in the air.

The spider collided with that cluster of light, and the explosive flash forced Shard to squint his eyes, while the loud noise made him suspect that even the Angel-Level Relic was about to collapse.

In the fiery light, the black giant spider seemed to absorb all the explosive force, swelling rapidly, but just before it exploded, it fell into a dark vortex below.

The next second, a booming explosion came from the far southeast. It seemed a mountain had collapsed there, its noise piercing through the dense darkness.

The landscape within the Dark Realm was more resistant to destruction due to the dark influence than the outside world. This meant that Mr. Pirot's previous strike could easily erase all of Tobesk and the surrounding areas under normal circumstances.

His attack having failed, Mr. Pirot attempted to change direction in midair. But Ivan Daknis, spitting blood profusely, suddenly pointed a steel needle directly into the sky with his left hand while sweeping his right hand through the air.

Under the influence of the Relic known as the Murderer's Steel Needle, the motions of the Thirteen-Ring Sorcerer froze for half a second. But just in that half-second, vortexes appeared on all six sides around him—top, bottom, left, right, front, and back. The vortexes closed in, and Mr. Pirot plummeted into the darkness, his fate unknown.

"Can't defeat you? Do you think I don't have other ways to deal with you? Only the last step remains, as long as I conduct the ritual, only the ritual..."

"The spider demon just now was not Human Pus, nor was it a Crystal Demon. Can you call upon other demons that once appeared here?"

Miss Galina, half her face now encased in crystal, furrowed her brows and asked:

"Another gift of darkness, really troublesome, you've acquired 'history'?"

"Yes, Witch, I've come to understand more within the Dark Realm. Fate is favoring me; this is the proof, I gained new power during my most critical moment."

Ivan Daknis spat out a mouthful of black blood, which smoked upon the crystalline ground, and as he raised his head again, the Witch was fully encased in black crystal:

"Now only you remain, Miss Chosen One. Are you sure you want to interfere with my plans?"

He then smiled at Iluna, whose expression remained unchanged:

"Do you believe in fate?"

The light in her left eye flickered like flames.

"If there were no fate, even Weeper Helmons sacrificing so many people couldn't have brought me here."

Ivan Daknis breathed heavily, saying that even though he had forcibly taken Mr. Pirot's hit using the power of other demons, it did not mean he was unharmed.

"You believe in fate, the Church also believes in the fate of the Chosen. Everything is still according to plan. The Church anticipated the worst-case scenario. There are still 12 minutes before the Sunlight Greatsword can return here, and I don't know how much longer until Iron Right Hand returns but it shouldn't be more than fifteen minutes. And here I am, a Chosen against another Chosen, the Church has foreseen this."

Her left hand slowly reached into the darkness beside her, and then she drew out a gold greatsword crackling with thunder. Shard's eyes widened, but then he realized that this was not Iluna's own Arcane Technique.

Ivan Daknis was also surprised:

"Sunlight Greatsword? That Thirteen-Ring Sorcerer, he actually brought this sword... Chosen against Chosen..."

Shard's Moonlight Greatsword could not be transferred for others to use, but the Church's Thirteen-Ring Sorcerer could.

Ivan Daknis steadied his breath and took a deep inhale, his crimson eyes fixating on Iluna:

"I, Ivan Friss Daknis, hereby declare!"

He breathed deeply, and pale golden specks emanated from his body, prayers overlapping with thousands of voices, coming from nowhere. Dense darkness surged crazily into the Demon Mouth, and the frenzied wind also came from nowhere.

The ritual had begun.

"You wish! Sunlight Gun!"

Iluna acted swiftly, leaving golden electric arcs in the air as her lightning spear shot toward Daknis, who was absorbing dark power, but he casually swatted it away with his huge right hand, and the golden lightning disappeared.

The girl with brown hair ran forward, while Shard poured all the "Weak Angel Potion" into his mouth, dropped the frog legs, and then ran after her.

Tifa holding the "Box of Darkness" did not stop him.

"Witness, Ancient God 'Crawling Darkness,' I will..."

"Balance!"

Golden ripples spread, swallowing the incessant streams of darkness. Daknis suddenly looked up at Iluna. The girl, holding the Sunlight Greatsword in both hands, leaped high, with not the Ring of Fate but the Golden Scales emerging behind her. At this moment, "Balance" confronted "Darkness," and she seemed like the legendary hero destined to guide the light and eliminate evil:

"Sunlight Gun!"

The golden lightning clung to the greatsword, and the Divine Arts "Sunlight Gun" were unexpectedly wielded with the sword in her hands.

This strike was far more powerful than before. Now holding the greatsword as she leaped down from a high point, she constrained the violent lightning within the blade, as if it could pierce the earth in the next second.

"The Chosen One!"

This was the language of demons, spoken by Daknis's right hand.

That right hand almost instantly transformed from the form of Human Pus into a Half-body Demon. It was unclear whether Daknis controlled it or the demon had taken over part of his body. The Half-body Demon looked up at Iluna, with crimson eyes shooting black lightning, all of which were deflected by the golden light surrounding her body.

The golden light made Iluna seem like the sun in the sky, and Daknis obviously shrank back.

But the demon did not. It opened wide, still swallowing darkness, and with the extension of its right hand, the Demon Mouth expanded instantly to a size sufficient to swallow the descending Iluna and her greatsword.

Feeling the strong suction, Iluna had to shoot the Sunlight Gun prematurely with her greatsword. The golden lightning struck into the Demon Mouth; it roared and trembled, and the huge mouth immediately retracted. Although it swallowed the strike, it was definitely not unharmed.

Iluna gritted her teeth and slashed down with both hands on the greatsword—

Boom!

The Half-body Demon once again willingly transformed into Human Pus, the massive right hand dripping with pus, barely blocking the Sunlight Greatsword in an almost severed fashion. With a fierce shake, Iluna was thrown out, and her greatsword was even more obliquely stuck into the ground at a distance.

"Truly... truly formidable."

Daknis's voice trembled as he spoke, and the Human Pus right hand, due to the injury, transformed back into a Half-body Demon, which laughed maniacally.

"This is the Thirteen Rings. If it were not you holding the sword just now but the sword's original owner, I would perhaps already be shattered. But... do you know why I was able to block it?"

This was Daknis speaking.

"Why?"

Iluna struggled to stand up, suddenly clutched her chest, and spat out blood onto the ground. Crystals crackled, spreading toward her legs, but with a fierce pound of her right hand, those crystals exploded.

"Because I am not—"

The crimson glow in his eyes burst forth.

"Alone!"

The Half-body Demon's words overlapped with Ivan Daknis's, as the demonic half stretched like mud to bite at Iluna's head.

Iluna smiled and said,

"Actually, I am not alone either."

"Who?"

The Half-body Demon immediately retracted, because the owner of this right hand, Ivan Daknis, had turned his body in another direction.

Clang!

The source of this c𝐨ntent is freeweɓnovēl.coɱ.

Moonlight fragments splattered everywhere.

"I knew it was you!"

In Daknis's left hand was the Dark Sword, reshaped by the power of Human Pus, and it clashed with Shard's Moonlight Greatsword. Both pressed forward, bringing the blades of their swords into close contact.

The dim light of the Moonlight Greatsword lit up Shard's face as he gritted his teeth and strained, and it also illuminated Ivan Daknis's pallid face. This was the first time Ivan had seen Shard's true appearance, and his eyes widened in a furious expression:

"Coldwater Port was you, Yordle Palace was you, now this again. I knew it, how could it be such a coincidence? It's impossible that wherever I go, I meet the same Circle Sorcerer skilled in both space and moonlight! You really came again, so it is, this face, you're Rejed's..."

He spoke venomously, his spit almost reaching Shard's face. With his left hand holding the sword single-handedly, even in his severely wounded state, he still pressed down on Shard's two-handed grip on the Great Sword, and his right hand's Demon Mouth was also snapping at Shard.

It had almost immediately crushed Iluna's head just a moment ago, but it still pulled back. It seemed that to Ivan Daknis and Human Pus, Shard, who was almost their archenemy, was an even tougher opponent than the Chosen of Balance.

"The reason you see my face is that today you absolutely can't leave here alive!"

Shard puffed his cheeks and barely opened his mouth to speak, struggling while his mouth was full of water, making it hard to talk.

As a Second Ring Sorcerer, even wearing Miss Galina's necklace, he couldn't fully withstand the strength of a Six Rings Warlock. Let alone pressing the sword towards the other side, he couldn't even draw the sword to leave right now.

But it didn't matter, because facing the Demon Mouth that was about to engulf his head, Shard puffed up his cheeks, and just as the Demon Mouth was about to cover his head—

Spurt!

The Weak Angel Potion in his mouth was sprayed out, dispersing into a mist mixed with Shard's saliva, not a single drop wasted, sucked into the Demon Mouth along with the dark torrent.

He didn't believe he could beat his opponent, and before the church's strongest forces returned, this was the plan he had in mind—to deliver the Weak Angel Potion into the opponent's body.

"Priest Augustus said that as long as I can pour the potion completely into the Demon's Mouth, the opponent would definitely be done for, even if not dead! This is even simpler than I thought."

Thinking this, Shard immediately stepped back, then crossed through the darkness and appeared ten meters away. He reached out to help Iluna up, and stuffed the leaf that originally belonged to Dorothy into Iluna's mouth.

The girl, who was severely wounded after a long battle, immediately chewed and swallowed the leaf. She leaned on Shard as she stood up, smiled, and affectionately kissed Shard's cheek:

"I knew you would come."

The Chosen of Balance, once again restored to her peak condition.