Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic

Chapter 1942: Symbolic Ceremony

"A series of errors..."

Shard felt this phrase was somewhat familiar, and then realized it was the second time he used the "Summer of 1576 in the Fifth Era: Black Mist Camp" Time Key, disguising himself as the shadowy God of Wealth, and with the Unclassified Level Relic "Fate’s Pedestal" divined an answer to his question, "Why did I come to this world?"

The complete answer at that time was, "You appeared because of an impossible accident, you appeared due to the confusion from the collapse of time and space, you appeared because of someone’s desperate pray, you appeared due to a series of errors." As for whether the phrase spoken by the Diviner now was a coincidence, Shard did not know either.

Having promised Maria Edwards to protect her grandchildren, he wouldn’t go back on his word. Although circumventing this place could avoid trouble, that was definitely not Shard’s way. So he took a step forward, and the humanoid roots retreated aside, allowing him to approach the cross:

"This is a choice you made yourself."

Shard looked up at the unconscious siblings, even though at this moment the townspeople did not speak again, Shard could guess that the Diviner was expecting whether he was truly willing to sacrifice his blood for the Green Siblings.

But of course, he wouldn’t do such a thing. Cutting his own hand was a minor issue, but rashly handing blood to the enemy was the most foolish behavior.

"Containing a vast amount of spirit liquid, right?"

He reached into his pocket and took out that pink perfume bottle.

Glancing at the faintly pink luminous liquid amidst the fog, Shard uncorked the bottle and slowly poured the liquid onto the roots at the base of the cross.

Because the adventure in the Green Lake Region didn’t require frequent use of Arcane Technique like "Power of the Earth: Healing Aura", which consumed a great amount of energy, Shard, in the past two months, actually hadn’t used much of the liquid in the perfume vial. Now the pink liquid inside the perfume vial could even glow, which was the best evidence.

This item was the best restoration potion Shard had prepared for his final adventure in the Green Lake Region, he originally thought he might have to consume it at the very end. But unfortunately, these perfumes couldn’t be saved for the end.

The pink perfume touched the air, turning into a pink stream of light constantly flowing downward in the rainy night. The tree roots that were merely trembling slightly before immediately moved like real animals upon contact with the liquid.

The earthquake occurred again, the slightly vibrating ground however still didn’t provoke any reaction from the houses nor the kneeling townspeople at the road junction.

The entwining roots tore at each other, trying to make more contact with the essence. The strength with which the roots sucked the liquid increased, and the roots entangled around the Green Siblings thus gradually retreated.

It seemed that the essence’s ability to incite desire worked even on these absolutely soulless roots. They entangled and tore at each other, becoming increasingly disgusting like a mating snake swarm.

The greedy roots eventually absorbed all the liquid from the small perfume bottle, leaving not a single drop for Shard. Only when the perfume vial, after two months, saw not a hint of perfume did the coiled and intertwined roots wriggle together and retreat underground.

The Green Siblings fell from the cross, Shard reached out to catch them but saw dense fog surge and they, like the Green Siblings too, vanished into thin air.

The cross collapsed, blood-red trees like those in cemeteries emerged from beneath the ground. In the blink of an eye, a lush blood-red tree stood at the center of the junction. This reaffirmed Shard’s suspicion that the Diviner intended for him to complete the final part of the ritual.

Upon looking around again, though the townspeople in black raincoats were still there, the diviner’s incarnation made of roots had unbeknownst disappeared without a trace.

Just like earlier in the cemetery, Shard once again perceived that kind of power he couldn’t observe with any senses. And as he reached out again to touch the trunk of the blood-red tree, the "she" beside his ear once more gave a hint:

[Outlander, you have sensed the miracles, desecration, enlightenment, and whisper.]

[Outlander, you have encountered "Edwards’ Ascension Technique", you have extracted the power symbolizing "Devout Soul".]

[Your vision on the island has further expanded; you face less suppression from the island’s power; you experience a reduced likelihood of attacks by island creatures.]

Shard slightly frowned, looked around, and used his sword to pick up a small root tendril writhing on the ground. Then once more took out a Return Charm, folded it, and vanished into the fog.

Opening his eyes, the flame of the campfire illuminated the first-floor hall of the Green Lake Hotel. Upon seeing Shard returning again, and looking much less bedraggled this time, Dorothy and Lecia standing by the campfire immediately walked over.

"I’m fine."

Shard said. This time he had been away for over ten minutes, and the number of girls on the hotel’s first floor who could move had increased. However, a small portion were in post-battle recovery, indicating that during Shard’s absence, the hotel’s girls must have encountered battle again.

"An unusual earthquake occurred just now, and the hotel’s ritual was ineffective for half a minute."

Tifa walked over and said, while Miss Haley Aflora dried Shard’s clothes again.

A larger empty glass test tube was brought over for Shard to place the still shivering bit of root tendril into it. However, before he could explain the reason for his return, Tifa informed him of a piece of good news:

"A few minutes ago, Miss Aphrola contacted us through the Council. She has already met up with Granny Cassandra and Miss Benanis on the shore."

She handed Shard a small box placed on the table by the bonfire, inside which was a gray stone. The stone was irregular in shape, but three larger sides were exceptionally smooth.

"We still can’t access the Council from here, but with this, we can establish contact once more with the Grand Witch on the shore. Miss Aphrola wants us to leave this with you."

"How do I use this?"

Since they went to the trouble to send this, there must be new developments.

"Hold this in one hand, and in the other hold any Witch’s Jewelry, then praise the First Witch."

Tifa said, so Shard also took out Megan’s earrings. After the surrounding girls temporarily retreated to the side, he grasped both hands tightly and softly said:

"Praise Chaos Witch, may the Witch’s glory last forever."

The earring in his right hand glowed faintly, while the stone in his left hand turned directly into stone powder. The powder drifted out from Shard’s fingers, subsequently forming the vague silhouette of Miss Aphrola before him:

"Shard! It’s truly good to see you’re safe~"

Her image flickered continuously just like the "Mirror Keeper" earlier, and the sound was rather unclear. Miss Aphrola herself knew this connection was unstable, so she didn’t give Shard a chance to speak, reaching forward as if to grasp Shard’s hand, but their hands passed through each other. The Witch shook her head regretfully and quickly explained what she needed to inform Shard:

"Firstly, His Excellency the Speaker in the Council has crafted a special Alchemical Item. We’ll contact you again in twenty minutes, and we’ll figure out a way to send that item to you; secondly, the divination by the Prophet’s Society has achieved major progress, remember to investigate the waters outside the island, there’s significant clues on a ship stranded on the rocks; thirdly, for now, no one can enter the island you’re on within an hour, but the Church has thought of another method, projection, the Church plans to proje..."

Her image appeared misaligned and twisted, then the dust-formed silhouette completely vanished.

"Projection?"

Shard recalled hearing about this plan from Sister Delphine’s note when he returned last time, and Miss Dector beside him said:

"Yes, since they can’t use spatial transfer to appear physically on the island, they can let their illusory silhouette appear here."

"But how is this done?"

Lecia asked, and Tifa, who was good at sealing and summoning, had an idea:

"Though the Church and Academy can’t come here, they should still be able to enter the real island."

Even Miss Writer understood now:

"Holding a ceremony at the same location, if successful, could indeed project part of oneself onto the island we are on. But this requires us to respond on this end, and the projection may also be unstable."

Just now, Miss Aphrola simply wanted to speak with Shard, and both voice and image were already quite unstable.

"But it’s a method nonetheless."

Shard said, handing the test tube containing the tree roots to Tifa:

"There are several giant tree roots under this island, and this is part of them. If the witches can contact us here later, we’ll try to send this outside the island and see if we can analyze what it truly is."

Miss Maid stored the test tube and asked worriedly:

"You came back this time because..."

Shard then described his recent encounter, and Dororthy provided Shard with new ideas about why the Diviner wanted to build and maintain a town that had already entered the Steam Age:

"Shard, according to your description, the ultimate goal of the Diviner is to emulate the ceremony of the thirteen Chosen Ones in the ’Whispering Verses’. Since the thirteen keys correspond to the Chosen Ones, does the town symbolize civilization?"

She deserved to be a writer, her thinking was exceptionally active:

"The ceremony is mimicking an epic involving the Sixth Era. An epic can’t only have heroes; it needs a background. Moreover, for the Circle Sorcerer System, miracles, desecration, and whisper elements can be represented by Divine Items and powerful Relics, but ’Enlightenment’ requires the power of civilization. This ceremony is the most complex I’ve encountered so far, maybe the town truly symbolizes civilization, represents the soil of the family roots you mentioned."