Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic-Chapter 757 - Shard’s Anxiety
Chapter 757 -757 Shard’s Anxiety
The setting sun draped Midshire Fort City in a thickening fog that had enveloped it for three whole days. Shard, in a foul mood, left Earl Dalark’s mansion with Priest Augustus, leaving only the grieving butler to clean up the aftermath.
After the nails were removed, those blurred memories would gradually be restored. The church would likely deduce the disappearance of the third nail based on the next anomalies in Sicarl Mountain. As for Shard and Priest Augustus, nobody would know they had ever been there.
Walking through the dense fog along the street toward the distance, Shard looked down at the Roder Card “Ancient Fairy Tale: Sleeping Princess” in his hand:
“Priest, isn’t the matter of life and death always saddening? I had no relation to the Earl, yet I still feel sorrow for his departure.”
“That is normal, young man. I have witnessed countless separations and deaths in my lifetime. Despite what many have said, I still emphasize that since we are alive, we must cherish the present and leave no regrets for ourselves.”
The priest fondled his pipe while Shard nodded solemnly, adding the card to his deck and using the Arcane Technique “Treasured Item” to assimilate it into part of the deck:
“Speaking of which, Priest, back in the Earl’s study, I signaled you with my eyes that I wanted to play Roder Cards with the Earl. How did you interpret my look?”
Shard still remembered this, and the Old Cleric smiled:
“Your intention was too easy to understand—I had to obtain the Roder Card from him before his departure to satisfy my collecting obsession. See, wasn’t my guess accurate?”
He had actually completely misunderstood.
Priest Augustus returned to Dawn Chapel, while Shard risked the heavy fog to head up the mountain, preparing to return home. The journey was not easy; the road into the mountain had been temporarily blocked by local police from Milestone, citing a notice from City Hall about recent dense fog in the mountains. For public safety, starting today, the 17th day of the Month of Withered Leaves, and for the next two weeks from 6 PM to 7 AM, ordinary citizens without a special pass were barred from entering the mountain area.
This simple blockade, of course, couldn’t stop Shard, but it also meant that the church had realized the urgency of the situation, and the night on Sicarl Mountain was indeed very dangerous.
Up the mountain trail, the dense fog almost made Shard lose his direction. The undead lingering in the fog also caused him considerable trouble.
Even though the “Night Watchman” longsword in his hand could detect the locations of powerful spiritual bodies through the fog, and the blessings from the Witch Empress reduced the malice of the undead, Shard sometimes had to face the enemies head-on.
To combat the undead of Milestone, he had actually prepared some measures. For instance, special alchemical items bought from Old John, the “Spiritual Body Exorcism Amulet,” and the simple “Exorcism Dust” he tried to make himself which, when sprinkled around the tent, also served as a guard.
But these conventional methods were of no use against the powerful individuals among Milestone’s evil spirits. As soon as Shard entered their reconnaissance range, the evil spirits would immediately pounce on him.
After two earthquakes, the powers of those top-tier evil spirits from the Interstice rivalled those of Inner Ring Sorcerers, and even Shard had to deal with them cautiously.
Handling one enemy might not be so challenging, but the dense fog in the mountains hid countless souls that should have departed. Thus, in battle, if he was not careful and the battlefield shifted too far, Shard had to face attacks from two, or even three, enemies at once.
Guide to Death, Psychic Shockwave, Sunlight Ray, Light Spell, Silvermoon Slash… Arcane Techniques were deployed in turn, and the “Night Watchman” left countless streaks of light and shadow in the fog in coordination with the “Moonlight Greatsword” and the “Blade of Chaotic Time.”
Even though he could use the “Illusion of the Moon Shadow” to hide at night, when Shard approached the ruined tower in the mountain, three undead wrapped in thick fog still followed him. One was a headless woodsman, another a knight with a longsword, and the last was a two-headed tiger.
Shard didn’t know what that tiger had experienced in its life.
He practically fled into the ruined tower and then found that the fog inside was much thinner. Turning back to look outside, the three undead just circled around, seemingly afraid of something, and dared not come in.
Shard then felt relieved; he had worried that one day he might suddenly be attacked by the undead when stepping out from behind the hidden walls.
“Since you dare not come in…”
He set his longsword aside, crossed his arms in front of his chest, aimed at the direction of the tower’s door, and drew overlapping arcs of light in the air before thrusting forward:
“I will not be polite.”
These evil spirits had chased Shard all this way; he was determined to retaliate.
(Mia running…)
After dealing with the third nail, Shard suddenly realized that he no longer had any goals left in Midshire Fort.
When he first entered the city in early autumn, it was to rescue Priest Augustus, during which he encountered many people. But now, if he were to check his notebook, aside from meeting Grace and Helen next week, all his business in Milestone was concluded.
Of course, The Chosen and the Interstice issues were still unresolved, but those were the church’s problems. As to who exactly this time’s Chosen would be and in what manner the ceremony would be conducted, those remained unknowns.
For this reason, Shard revisited the Prophet’s Society on Friday morning. When he met Vice President Mark, the middle-aged man in a suit still teased Shard, saying:
“You come here nearly eight times a week, always using your cat as an excuse. Next time, you don’t need to bring the cat, everyone here knows you’re here to see Luviya Annette,”
The lobby on the first floor was bustling with people, but as they were near the reception, the young ladies in uniforms all laughed.
“It’s your working hours now, I can’t just call her out alone, that wouldn’t be proper,”
Shard didn’t feel embarrassed, he still paid for the divination and then met Luviya in a private divination room on the second floor.
The good news of the third nail being successfully removed was naturally something that needed to be told to Luviya. However, after hearing Shard’s account, Luviya became somewhat worried:
“The ‘Interstice of Life and Death’ is an Unclassified Level Relic. Although it can’t develop consciousness, it also won’t remain indifferent. Once you remove all four nails that anchor the interstice to the material world, the interstice might erupt prematurely.”
“That’s why the church is conducting the removal of the nails and the preparatory ceremony simultaneously. According to Iluna, as soon as all the nails are dealt with, the ceremony must begin immediately,”
“The problem is, what about the jester who was taken away by Joey Barton?”
Luviya asked, furrowing her pretty brows in thought:
“Anything involving The Chosen One must not be taken lightly. Anything could happen around them. The headquarters of the Prophet’s Society plans to dispatch two High Ring Prophets, probably arriving at Milestone by the weekend, specifically to divine Joey Barton’s location. But I doubt it’s going to be that simple.”
“The real issue now is, what exactly is this Chosen One Ceremony?”
Shard placed the soft Mia Cat on the table, where it lay unwilling to move:
“Items related to the Ancient God of Death, an understanding of death itself, these two are essentials. Besides, the fragment mentions that the ritual site is in the interstice of life and death, and also that the candidate must personally have killed a resurrected one,”
He counted these requirements on his fingers, familiarly:
“But this still isn’t the complete ceremony, I am curious if Joey Barton knows what the ceremony actually is.”
“He definitely will know it, it’s the fate of The Chosen One,”
Luviya said, hesitating for a moment:
“I recently heard from a foreign friend about the whereabouts of a Poet-Level Relic, the ‘Dandelion Coin’. If we’re lucky, I could get it by this weekend, and we can use it for divination. Otherwise, the ‘Diviner’s Silver Coin’ can also be used.”
“Should I inform Sister Delphine that she is the second candidate, to allow her to prepare in advance?”
Shard asked, as the girl with purple eyes slightly narrowed them:
“Shard, what kind of person do you think that Fire Bearer nun is?”
“Reliable, calm, kind, and she doesn’t like to talk much.”
Luviya pondered for a moment:
“Well, in that case, tell her about the candidacy as long as you ensure she won’t leak any information. Since her Spiritual Practice Order leads a modern branch of the Ancient God Sect, they shouldn’t find it hard to locate items connected with the Ancient God Power. We need to be ready. I actually hope Joey Barton dies before the ceremony commences… that way, Sister Delphine becoming The Chosen One would be the best possible outcome we could hope for right now.”
The reason they didn’t want Priest Augustus to be the third candidate was that both Shard and Luviya didn’t want to involve him in this life-threatening affair.
“No problem.”
Shard nodded, but still felt vaguely uneasy. He wasn’t most wary of the interstice issue, but rather the problem with the Vampire Kind. Armand Bernhardt, who had come from the Southern Realm with his nephew during the autumn to Midshire Fort City, still only had a preliminary guess at his intentions.
And if his guess was correct, given his current state, Shard couldn’t guarantee that he could control all the situations. After all, for the Three Rings, only the last Spirit Rune was lacking, and the Four Rings were almost within reach. Yet his last bit of divinity was dwindling.
“Outlander, what do you plan to do with this power?”
A whisper echoed in his ear.
“Me, owning a drop of divinity, the united church, and academy, clueless Vampire Kind, missing Joey Barton, coming Circle Sorcerer Organization from other places—the table now doesn’t lack players. I concede that I see the situation the clearest, but I also understand the most, the things that follow could be extremely perilous… Perhaps, Joey Barton isn’t the biggest trouble,”
