Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic

Chapter 1937: Blood, Roots, and Flame

The glimmers melted the skin and bones of the townspeople wearing raincoats, but beneath the melting bodies, their twisted souls transformed into large patches of shadows and pounced on the Edwards Brothers:

"Stop!"

Their intact eyes flickered with light, and the power to fix space forcibly held those shadows in place. But this forced spatial fixation, on this highly unstable island, could only last for a very short time.

Soon the shadows broke free from their constraints and rushed toward the brothers. The Edwards Brothers, blinded in both left and right eyes, wanted to continue spellcasting, but all their attacks were not very effective against these shadows.

Ultimately, even Shard didn’t have time to intervene and save them before the shadows, formed from the souls of the townspeople, devoured the two.

In just an instant, the ground seemed to tremble, the flames flickered, and everything before their eyes shifted with the changes in the light of that massive bonfire. The townspeople, who had turned into shadows, reverted back to living beings, standing before the bonfire in raincoats, while the brothers, who had clearly died moments before, stood again before the bonfire with grim expressions.

This wasn’t time reversal; Shard did not sense the power of time. Everything that had happened was real, but after the short battle, some power saved the dying Edwards Brothers, then restored the townspeople to "normal."

What Shard cared about the most, having witnessed all of this, was not the scene of cyclical recurrence. He looked at the ground, where the blood of the townspeople and that of the Edwards Brothers did not disappear after everyone was restored to normal.

The blood deeply seeped into the land, and with Shard’s enhanced perception ability, he could feel that as the blood permeated, the island itself was changing.

[There’s something beneath the soil.]

"She" gently reminded, answering before Shard asked:

[Huge roots. The roots of a giant tree, absorbing that blood.]

"Tree roots? How large is the tree’s main body?"

[If the roots penetrate beneath the entire island, the tree’s main body would be larger than you could imagine.]

As Shard conversed with "her", the scene he witnessed earlier replayed amidst the rain and the firelight. The blind Edwards Brothers did not seem unaware that everything was starting anew; Shard observed closely this time, noting that while they could control their limbs, they seemed unable to control their mouths.

After an almost identical conversation, the brothers didn’t attempt again to use light to melt the townspeople. Instead, they resumed joint spellcasting, and upon clasping hands, on their nearly identical Rings of Fate, the Desecration - [Shark] Spirit Rune radiated a silver glimmer.

"This is quite a rare Spirit Rune..."

The two Brass Life Rings overlapped one after the other before the rain-soaked bonfire. Controlled by unseen forces, the rain, beginning from behind their Rings of Fate, passed through the center and formed a giant, rain-constituted shark’s front half high above them.

Their spellcasting speed was remarkably quick, and the water shark’s form was equally massive. The shark, with its mouth wide open, descended from the sky just before those dangerous townspeople reached the brothers and bit all of them into pieces.

Blood splattered everywhere, mixing with the rain, staining the ground a deeper, dusky red. The shark then, carrying most of the bodily flesh and souls, vanished into a suddenly appearing black hole on the ground.

"Summoning-type Arcane Technique requires a large amount of water to cast. After a successful attack, it takes away limbs and souls."

Shard reflected on the arcane technique’s traits, realizing that the brothers were attempting to prevent the souls of the deceased townspeople from becoming shadowy abominations.

Initially, he also believed their attempt had succeeded. However, the truth was that when the water shark fully disappeared, the souls it had taken abruptly reappeared in that puddle of blood, transforming into shadows again and pouncing on the helpless brothers.

Amidst the screams, all returned to how it was, and the conversation began anew about death and whether to trust the Unifier.

More and more blood continued to seep slowly into the ground, while the bonfire behind the brothers, which couldn’t illuminate the mist, grew increasingly vigorous.

In a vague sense, the two brothers, whose bloodline had myriad connections with this island, even heard a great buzzing from beneath, as if something was celebrating, greedy, and craving more.

"Damn it!"

The two, understanding each other’s hearts, spoke simultaneously. As the Mayor led the townspeople closer again, the brothers resolved, raising their hands to remove the blindfolds covering their blinded eyes.

But before they could cast a spell, a whoosh~ of the sound of something slicing through the air came from the rainy darkness.

Two dark yet slender chains snapped through the rain, striking at the gathered townspeople from left and right. Contrary to the brothers’ expectations, the chains did not cut through the townspeople’s bodies like sharp blades; they simply touched and swiftly retreated.

Relying on a high-level mastery of the Animated Rope Trick, the two Great Sin Chains, controlled by Shard, precisely touched each townsperson’s body. Because these things had a compulsive restoration ability, not understanding its principles, Shard didn’t even add the soul crystal effect of the Love God’s Sting to the chains.

He employed a more direct method:

"Black Moon Insignia!"

The Black Moon symbols lit up on the bodies of the townspeople touched by the chains, appearing deeper than the night itself.

As Shard retrieved the rotating chains in the air, the sound of a snapping finger echoed, unheard in the rain. Astonished, the townspeople maintained their turned positions, looking at him, each transforming into gray sand sculptures, swiftly washed away by the rain. The gray sand mixed with the rainwater formed a mud pool on the ground, covering the layer of dark blood.

The Arcane Technique "Black Moon Insignia" annihilates a certain object conceptually, providing the best countermeasure against the enigmatic Resurrection Spell.

The brothers hadn’t expected anyone to suddenly appear to assist them at this moment, yet they didn’t cover their blind eyes again but nervously looked around.

Not long after, they saw Shard, panting heavily, holding the iconic "Night Watchman" as he walked out of the rain mist. The impact of the "Black Moon Insignia" was astonishing, yet the spellcasting greatly depleted the Spirit, even releasing a single insignia mentally and physically exhausted an ordinary Circle Sorcerer immensely. It’s classified as High Ring Sorcery not just due to the difficulty of learning but also for this reason.

Even though Shard’s Spirit far exceeded that of an ordinary Circle Sorcerer, releasing thirteen consecutive Black Moon Insignias nearly caused him to black out. Fortunately, these townspeople weren’t Circle Sorcerers, their souls surprisingly thin, and their bodies frail, akin to Phantoms, even weaker than actual ordinary humans. Otherwise, even releasing the insignias, Shard couldn’t have detonated them all at once.

"God Summoner?"

The Edwards Brothers recognized Shard, panting heavily for Spirit recovery, and then questioned:

"Aren’t you a member of the Edwards Family too, why now..."

For once, they didn’t sense the Edwards lineage connection from Shard.

"That was to trick you."

"What?"

"It’s not important anymore. What’s happening now? Why are you here?"

Shard asked, his pale face was indeed not feigned. In fact, he could simply consume potion to recover himself, refraining from doing so purely to see if there would be new assailants.

"The Mirror Keeper was originally protecting us, but at seven-thirty exactly, we found ourselves on the island."

Wood Edwards replied simply in Casenric Language, simultaneously watching around cautiously, aware that the danger hadn’t ended:

"We didn’t appear at the manor but directly came here, forced to repeatedly confront these townspeople."

He looked at the corpse beneath him:

"This indeed is Father’s body; Glass and I won’t mistake this. This seems like some bizarre ritual, manifesting in Green Lake Town’s cemetery by slaughtering townspeople; then, the townspeople drain our blood. We can clearly feel the repeated cycles strengthening our connection with this mysterious island, as well as enhancing our Spatial Talent."

Shard frowned slightly, gazing at the brothers, drenched thoroughly:

"Directly appeared here? Seems like Edwards’ Ascension doesn’t merely drag you to open the gates and participate in a feast. The ritual also requires your flesh; this is evidently a bizarre offering..."

Shard abruptly stopped talking, looking at the ground covered by the murky water. The blood was wriggling; concurrently, he astonishingly saw the spirits he annihilated walking out from the fire one after another, reappearing here.

Though the spirits returned, unlike the flesh restoration moments ago, the townspeople took longer to recover this time.

The Edwards Brothers realized it too, the three almost simultaneously concluding:

"There’s something wrong with this fire!"

The silvery Thunder Spear and the water sharks summoned once more simultaneously struck at the increasingly intense flames. Yet, the bonfire, impervious to rain extinguishing, seemingly devoured the full-force attack from the three Circle Sorcerers.

However, not all was uneventful: post-attack disappearance, as the ground vibrated again, after "She" informed Shard the massive tree roots beneath were wriggling, the bonfire flames explosively flared, shooting higher into the night sky. The flames shook, changing shapes until transforming into the upper half of Laplace Klein Howard.

The giant flame Diviner gazed at the vigilant trio, with a wave scattering a fire spread. The fiery sea engulfed the cemetery’s ground, following which a sword glimmer opened the fiery sea, the trio leapt forth, reigniting the battle once more.