Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic

"Light does not melt light? Oh! I remember now!"

After the end of the [Dice Story Collection], the arrow he used with the [Stigmata of the Stars] to shoot at the top of the Belindel Big Bell, penetrated the light and killed the black-dressed woman performing sorcery.

"So, can light dispel light?"

Shard suddenly understood Miss Isabella’s meaning, the witch nodded:

"Yes, but it must be light of high mystique. Like your moonlight, that kind of light is very pure. In my..."

She pressed her lips together, because it involved stories from her time, and thus could not continue:

"I’ll teach you the method, using moonlight to harmonize and dispel exotic light. But this will leave some aftereffects, causing spellcasting to be less frequent for a long time. It’s fine for ordinary people, but not for Circle Sorcerers. To avoid aftereffects, besides using light to dispel light, you also need [Water of Moonlight], [Sunfire], [Light of the Polar Day], and other pure transcendent materials to assist in preparing magic potions, and bury a pure ’light’-related Keeper of Secrets Level relic in her most severely injured area."

"Right shoulder."

Shard said:

"[Water of Moonlight] is not a problem, I have it myself, but what relic is needed?"

"The relic requirements are very strict, and it cannot be too large. As far as I know, there are only three relics that meet these criteria: [Michael’s Light Magic Gloves] from Zaras Academy of Sorcery, wearing the gloves grants eligibility for casting hundreds of arcane techniques without materials; [Sunlight Crown] from the Sun Church, a blood-stained golden crown, wearing the crown transforms you into a Giant of Light; [Primal Light] from Light Worshipper Training Association, said to be light from the First Era."

Miss Isabella said, seeing Shard frown, she knew it would be difficult for him to conveniently obtain any of them:

"If you can’t obtain them, then not purely light-related relics are also possible, but they must be at least Sage Level, and those relics need to have definite connections to light, preferably the same nature as the auxiliary materials, to ensure they don’t harm the body... This method involves putting relics into the body, although researched by the Truth Society, it’s absolutely reliable."

It seems that in the time Miss Isabella experienced, the Truth Society also became a force against the apocalypse.

Shard then thought of a method:

"Although I can’t obtain those three Keeper of Secrets Level relics, I have the Sage-Level relic [Source of Chaos]. It just so happens that this relic is related to moonlight, it can be combined with ’Water of Moonlight’."

"This does indeed work, but do you have the Yellow Moon Orb with you? Well, this house is yours after all..."

She murmured to herself, then instructed Shard on the method to prepare magic potions and perform the "surgery":

"I’m not sure how severe the injuries are for the person you want to heal, so it’s uncertain how long the relic needs to remain in her body. If you really want to use the Yellow Moon Orb to save her, you must be prepared for the relic to be unretrievable for one or two months."

"It’s okay, saving someone is more important."

Shard said, if Miss Belindel had to rely on his relic to maintain normal body functions, he wouldn’t need to worry about her reporting him to the council:

"But is this really okay? After all, it involves embedding a relic into the body."

"According to my method, it should be fine, the potential negative impact is having strange dreams, but one’s self will suddenly have talents they didn’t have before due to the presence of relics."

She elaborated more on the entire healing process, and Shard noted it down carefully. Simultaneously, he asked about the source of this strange light, but this time Miss Isabella did not answer.

His injuries caused his mental state to deteriorate faster than last time, and after noting the precautions, Shard’s complexion was already as pale as a sheet.

Yet he still persevered in taking out the living goods he could bring this time and continued to tell the unfinished stories from the Sixth Era in the Present World. Even knowing Miss Isabella could not give him any advice, he still hoped the lady could learn about the "now," that at least in this isolated, apocalyptic era without the concept of space-time, there could still be hope for the future.

Miss Isabella probably saw through Shard’s thoughts, so she did not reject his storytelling. Thus, this time, he finally roughly finished telling all the stories that had happened so far, albeit there were still many details unfilled. He wanted to talk about the events in the Moon Bay Region, but his physical and mental state were no longer sufficient to continue.

"It’s alright, next time then, I’ll wait for your return, I’ll wait for you to continue the story."

Seeing Shard couldn’t even open his eyes, she held Shard’s hand, he barely nodded:

"See you next month, Miss Isabella."

He always felt she would be lonely here:

"Next time, should I bring you some books?"

He didn’t want to write down his experiences, so he would not write his own story to bring along.

"Anything will do, I’ve been waiting for you."

The Witch suppressed the subtle feelings in her heart, waiting for yet another farewell. Only then did Shard take out the card from his pocket; it was time to leave.

He glanced at the familiar back pattern of the card, then turned it to the front, where Delarion script in gilt letters read:

[Gravel Worm]

The card depicted a coffin half-buried in the dust of Saint Delan Square, tilting on the card. Without a lid, the coffin was filled with sand, amidst which lay the severely deformed corpse of Professor Drake, crawling with worms. Even beneath his eyelids, traces of worms could be seen, and Shard suspected that only worms remained inside the corpse on the card.

At the bottom of the front were three lines of text, which Shard read out in a hoarse voice:

[Buried in the Earth, the corpse rises again due to the Earth’s mutation.]

[A disaster of Earth Filth, originating from Randall Valley.]

[To merge with the Filthy Earth is the last grace received by life nourished by the Earth.]

After reading these lines, two unfamiliar memories appeared in Shard’s mind.

The first memory occurred in an unfamiliar cemetery.

Unknown people were weeping, as elders, young people, and children together bid farewell to those passing to another world. Professor Drake’s name was etched on the tombstone, and the coffin seen on the card was lowered into the grave by the pallbearers. Relatives each cast a handful of soil into the grave, and the coffin was sealed into the earth.

Then time passed rapidly, the surroundings constantly changing, figures swiftly flitting by, and the cemetery gradually fell into disrepair without upkeep, until the flow of time normalized. The soil that was once normal in color turned into filthy mire. As the earth quaked, a worm-ridden, rotting hand encased in mud extended from the soil behind the tombstone.

The memory stopped here, but its meaning was easy to grasp:

"So, that’s how it is, Professor Drake had passed before the apocalypse arrived, but the filthy earth caused his body to mutate, leading to his current state... but to have memories after death, could it be the professor had some obsession, preventing his soul from departing? That’s right, it was the Sixth Era without me, Professor Drake likely didn’t enter Lake Cherub again to meet the Cherub, nor did he regain his lost memories, much less understand the cause of his physical disability."

The second memory clearly took place in Spring City - Randall Valley.

Yet, unlike the winter and spring landscapes of Randall Valley City familiar to Shard, this memory’s scenes were dark and dreary, with gray-black snowflakes as large as ashes drifting down from the sky. The ruined city resembled the current Apocalypse City: Tobesk, with remnants and devastation everywhere.

The hunched "Professor Drake" wandered aimlessly through the city, and other entities visible in the memory, either resembled the professor or were those Fallen Earth Elemental Giants.

Where the "Church of the Forgotten" presumably stood in the city, a dark stone tree towered. As the professor’s vision gradually approached, Shard realized it was a "fountain" of filthy black mud spewing from the earth’s depths.

A blurry figure stood atop the "tree", facing the sun that was gradually turning black. When the sun fully transformed into what Shard saw in the City of the Apocalypse, the world plunged into darkness, and Professor Drake’s body collapsed to the ground, convulsing, then transformed into a massive gravel worm.

Every monster within the ruined city mutated with this moment’s arrival. The figure atop the tree turned away, against the black sun with fiery lines, revealing himself to Shard as indeed "Guardian of the Earth".

"That can’t be right, I distinctly remember at least in the previous Bygone Era: Sixth Era, Luviya sacrificed Ciris to protect the earth, I saw it during an illegal Space-Time journey at the Night Shrine, so why did the Guardian still become tainted?"

As the memory ended, confusion arose, but then immediately a realization came:

"Even if the Guardian performed the Chosen One Ceremony successfully due to Ciris’s sacrifice, the earth’s warp persisted with the apocalypse’s advent, they ultimately couldn’t escape being tainted."

The recollection officially ended, returning Shard’s vision back to his home in the ravaged Tobesk City. He lowered his gaze to the card in his hand, depicting Professor Drake’s corpse covered in worms, recalling Mr. Benhart’s ghost last time, realizing once more how everyone ever present in this world felt the impact of the world’s end, unspared by death.

White mist had already appeared beside Shard, signifying the adventure had reached its conclusion once again.