Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic

Although the professor spoke in a veiled manner, Shard still understood that Daknis had also attended the banquet. He had handed the anonymous letter over to the Church of Nature, and naturally, with the church searching throughout the city, they would indeed have a better chance of locating Daknis than Bizard.

However, from what the professors implied, the Church of Nature had not even shared the information provided by the "God Summoner" with the other churches.

Professor Sanchez snorted:

"It's very likely, but that means the second 'The Chosen One' isn't a Circle Sorcerer from the church faction."

"It certainly won't be someone from the church. After all, according to the message shared from Zaras Academy of Sorcery, the 'Whispering Verses' state that the second 'The Chosen One' is marked by a demon."

Professor Maphal said.

When demons were mentioned, the first person that came to Shard's mind was Dr. Schneider. But since the doctor had always been in Tobesk, the mouth he saw under the red glove he saw last time might also be some kind of demon.

"Yes, a symbiotic form, an extremely rare demon, studied by the Three Major Academies. This is a terrifying remnant from the Third Era."

Professor Maphal clicked his tongue, and Shard could almost picture his expression of a furrowed brow and distressed look as he spoke.

The present Sixth Era belongs to the steam civilization and the Circle Sorcerers, the Fifth Era belonged to the witches, and the Fourth Era was an era of darkness and turmoil.

The Third Era was even further in the past, with Saint Byrons entirely restricting access to that period's records for the Low Ring Sorcerers. Meanwhile, Miss Feliana's notebook, once mentioning anything about the Fourth Era or further back, would turn into blank pages. These blanks took up three-quarters of all the blank space in the notebook.

Shard had only heard about the Third Era from Miss Galina, who had described the witches at that time as "The Third Era's peculiar races coexisted with humans, but at that time, fearsome and bizarre humanoid creatures dominated most of the material world; they were evil spirits born of Whispers. Humans and other normal life forms lived on the fringes, protecting each other."

With this in mind, the "demon" mentioned by the Demonologist he encountered not long ago and the demon within Dr. Schneider could also be the terrifying evil spirits remaining from the Third Era, not merely simple creatures of a demon race.

"The Academy and the churches have always been cautious about the Third Era matters. Let's wait outside; once the blockade of the manor is lifted, I do want to see what 'The Chosen One' is really like... Hopefully, the church won't make another mistake like they did in Tobesk. If they can't stop the Sea Return ritual, the whole of Coldwater Port will become history,"

Then, the sounds of both professors rising and leaving followed, but Shard sat there motionless, frowning at the drink in front of him:

"Aphrola Manor... Now there are people from the Church, people from the Crimson Cult, Daknis is there, the Grand Witch is there, and Lecia is there too..."

After thinking for a moment, Shard pressed a one-penny tip under the cup and hurriedly plunged into the stormy night as well.

Aphrola Manor was located at the end of Coastal Street. Although there was a fence and wall outside the manor, there were no walls to stop anyone on the beach at the back of the manor.

The Church of the Five Gods, specifically the Church of Nature, was responsible for this area. The Circle Sorcerers of the church and the professors alike were waiting outside the manor for news. The local police of Coldwater Port were in charge of stopping people from approaching the manor.

Shard didn't try to break through the front in the blurred vision caused by the stormy night; instead, he first jumped into the sea and then swam from the seabed to the coast behind Aphrola Manor.

When the waves slapped the shore and then receded, what was left on the beach was not only shells and seaweed but also an Outlander sprawled on the sand.

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It was not yet dawn, and visibility was low. He lay there still, quietly listening to the sound of rain and the rumbling of the tide, only crawling forward once certain there was no one nearby. However, after crawling for a while and finding no one around, he stood up and started to jog with a bent back.

Latter to find out, with the rain coming down so hard, even a hurried jog wasn't visible to anyone, and so he began to run full stride.

He ran while cautiously observing his surroundings. Despite the rain's wash, the beach wasn't clean. Shard's eyes caught large patches of dark traces, and after glancing with "Echo of Blood," red halos lit up where the dark marks lay, signifying fresh blood traces.

Who knows what had happened here earlier in the night.

Past the beach and approaching the manor's back garden with its tiled floors, he finally saw teams of policemen draped in black waterproof cloaks, patrolling with oil lamps.

Their blockade was very strict, but to Shard, who possessed Spatial Leap abilities, such strictness was insufficient. He moved through the garden's bushes and finally, as he crossed some invisible boundary near the mansion, a strange feeling surged within him.

He was startled and found that although he was supposed to appear in front of his field of vision, in reality, he hadn't moved at all.

The rain fell normally in front and behind him; the strange sensation wasn't like Spatial Movement, but purely as if Shard had stepped forward and then ended up behind himself.

"A spatial displacement phenomenon?"

Shard, who now had more knowledge about spatial matters, furrowed his brows as he thought. His current predicament was likely the power of the Relic [No Entry Sign] mentioned by Professor Sanchez at work.

Considering that this could also be seen as a kind of "lock," Shard quietly recited Spell Words in the rain and then reached forward with his fingertips glowing faintly.

This time the motion of his fingers didn't change. Instead, Shard felt his fingertip touch something cold that emitted a chill. He squinted subconsciously and then saw the ethereal shadow of a rectangular wooden board in front of his finger, inscribed with Ancient Script in handwritten style:

[Entry is forbidden here.]

The place where a signature should be seemed to have been scratched off with a sharp knife.

He tried to press against the shadow of the wooden board and twist his finger. With the consumption of Spirit, his finger rotated slowly, and the board became more and more transparent, the feeling of "unlocking" gradually accumulating.

However, he could predict that, at the current pace, even if he exhausted all the Spirit in his body, he wouldn't be able to completely open it.

"If that's the case... Spatial Stabilization Aura!"

Spatial displacement was an anomaly in space, and as the unseen ripples spread out from under Shard's feet, his finger began to twist again.

After reaching a certain limit, the state of unlocking was infinitely close to being "opened," but the conceptual lock had not fully been unlocked.

Shard didn't panic but focused on the area ahead which he couldn't physically reach. Then, his body vanished from a distance and appeared about twenty paces ahead.

He had successfully entered an area he supposedly couldn't.

"It really worked!"

He showed a smile amidst the rainy night; an improper analogy for Shard's action just now would be like Mia Cat at home. Although he couldn't push the door open completely, he could find a way to create a gap. As long as the gap was large enough, he could forcibly "squeeze" through.

But while little Mia relied on a soft body, Shard depended on the power of space.

He could come in this way, and he could also get out. But this meant it would be impossible for him to take Lecia with him.

"Find her first," he thought as Shard reached the walls of Aphrola Manor in the night rain. He walked halfway around the wall, estimating he had reached the servants' quarters, and then carefully pushed open the window to climb through cautiously.

There was no one in the room. Shard restored the doll in his pocket to its normal size, dried off the water on his body a bit, changed into clean clothes, and then carefully opened the door to step out.

The corridor was eerily quiet, and though the gas lamps cast a faint yellow light, it felt oddly chilling. Using [Echo of Blood], he observed traces of fresh blood on the floor that had been wiped afterwards. There wasn't much, but it still made Shard worried.

He hoped to encounter some of the manor's servants and act as a lost guest, asking about the situation here. But not until he left the corridor and came to the great hall on the first floor of the manor did he see anyone.

Red carpet lay on the floor, a crystal chandelier above made the place look splendid, and the metal stair railings, as well as the picture frames on the walls, seemed to shimmer. In the center of the staircase, facing the manor's grand golden doors, hung a massive oil painting. It was not an ancestor of the Aphrola family, but a lady with naturally curly brown hair.

In the Draleon language, brown and brunette are not the same color. The former is deeper, while the latter is closer to yellow - for instance, the hair color of Luviya and Iluna would be considered brunette.

The lady in the oil painting sat behind a desk, looking seriously off-canvas, and the background depicted a blurry bookshelf in dark tones. She wore a sapphire hair ornament shaped like an anchor in her hair, her facial features were very pronounced, eyebrows especially long and thin, making her eyes look extraordinarily spirited.

She was not wearing a one-piece gown, but a white lady's blouse and a black skirt.

This was Hevy Aurora, the Grand Witch of the Witch Council. Although Miss Galina had said she was almost thirty years old, she looked only about twenty-five or twenty-six, not unlike Miss Galina herself.

The oil painting alone did not reveal the unique aura of a witch, but Shard could already sense that extraordinary beauty that transcended ordinary people. If Miss Galina was a mature and steady noblewoman of high society, then Hevy Aurora was a lady of outstanding demeanor, even somewhat intimidating.

Shard stopped walking, reaching for the badge inside his shirt at his chest. He felt the badge hanging there warming slightly, undoubtedly the witch was upstairs.