Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic

[Retreat.]

It seemed the victory was decided, but upon hearing "her" voice, Shard didn’t hesitate to abandon the chase and retreated ten meters back.

The cracks on the trembling evil object multiplied, yet from those cracks, countless worms continued to gush forth, as if its body was propped up by these insects.

Finally, as Professor Drake’s body exploded into pieces, a fountain-like swarm of insects burst from its body, spreading in all directions. The volume of those insects combined far exceeded that of Professor Draco’s body.

"I knew it, every evil object here has a second stage."

Shard was forced to retreat once more, watching as the swarming insects burrowed into the soil. Almost in the next instant, accompanied by a rumbling sound from below, the ground began to shake violently. The buildings surrounding the sand-buried square began to shed bricks and stones, and while maintaining his balance, Shard quickly scanned the surroundings.

[Be careful, there’s a big one underground.]

"Her" voice had barely fallen when Shard saw a massive shadow moving from deeper underground beneath the square. Even when coiled, that thing was large enough to cover the entire Saint Delan Square.

Thus, Shard had no space to evade, and with a loud noise, a huge earth-yellow worm covered with tendrils burst from directly below him. As it flung Shard into the air with nowhere to hide, the worm’s head, resembling the deformed head of Professor Drake, opened its mouth, revealing tens of thousands of yellowed human teeth inside.

It opened its mouth to swallow Shard in mid-air, but Shard stomped fiercely on its head. The worm’s head drooped from the force, and Shard used the momentum to leap higher. Still bound by the earth and unable to turn into the Red Butterfly, he swung his long staff and released moonlight, though it only left a faint white mark on its shell.

The square’s bricks turned into yellow sand upon contact with the worm-Drake, and the swirling dust nearly transformed into a sandstorm, sweeping the entire square center.

The worm raised its body again, opened its mouth, and devoured a Thunder Spear blow head-on. The screeching friction against the moonlight wheel scraping its shell echoed, and amidst the sizzling sparks, it finally swallowed the descending Shard whole.

On the square’s edge, Miss Isabella squinted at the storm’s center, frowned, and was about to step forward for rescue, but retreated.

At that moment, inside the giant worm coiled in the square’s center, a faint silver moonlight ring appeared. As it grew brighter inside the body, the worm rolled on the ground, causing another earthquake, and emitted shrill cries, shattering yet-to-convert bricks.

Finally, with the explosion of thick, earth-yellow body fluid, the expanding "Moonlight Wheel: Second Form" within the worm forcibly sliced its body into two segments.

The ground-shaking fall of the worm’s body nearly collapsed all buildings around the square except for number six. As the shaking subsided and dust still filled the air, the coughing Shard finally crawled out of the worm’s ’stomach’:

"Cough, cough, cough, cough."

His upper body’s clothes were completely corroded, but astonishingly, his pants remained intact. His exposed body was covered with bite marks and scratches oozing fresh blood, which the worm’s corrosive body fluid prevented from healing immediately. Shard would need to soak in water, relying on "Satiety Food" and "Blessing of the Drowned" to recover. However, there was no water here, so he’d have to wait to automatically recover after leaving this space-time.

His walk was a limp, but luckily he could use the [Yggdrasil’s Staff] as a cane.

However, the giant worm hadn’t died; this type of evil object’s life force was particularly tenacious. Shard wanted to find its head for a final blow but was stopped by the approaching Miss Isabella—the worm’s body was too large to navigate:

"Don’t finish it just yet. You’ve already won; let it recover, and I’ll demonstrate an Arcane Technique for you."

The Blonde Witch said, and Shard nodded, taking out a perfume bottle for a sip, limping to the square’s edge to rest. Miss Isabella, seeing his pitiful state, placed her hand on his shoulder to heal him but found her healing technique ineffective:

"I can’t heal you?"

Shard didn’t know why either; Witches of the Fifth Era could heal him. Seeing Miss Isabella looking lost at her hand, Shard speculated casually:

"Maybe the Tree Father wants me to confront enemies on my own; it’s okay, I’ll be healed after I go back."

The Blonde Witch pursed her lips, possibly recalling her own non-existence.

"Leave the next part to me."

She said this, glancing at Shard as he took another sip from the small perfume bottle. She sniffed lightly, and a blush immediately spread across her face. She instinctively touched her face, and the long-absent emotion made her feel as though, in this apocalyptic time, she had come alive again from a fossil-like state.

"An Unclassified Level Relic—[Desire] gives me this item, transforming desire into perfume, which can restore spirit."

Seeing her curiosity, Shard explained, while also wondering if the "Mermaid" still existed in the Age of Apocalypse. Miss Isabella nodded, not objecting to Shard consorting with such evil objects:

"For those of you facing the apocalypse, any power is just power... may I taste it?"

"Hmm?"

Shard looked at her in surprise, then wiped the bottle mouth with his hand before handing it to her.

The blonde lady with a tear mole at the corner of her eye didn’t mind that Shard had just drunk, took a small sip from the bottle, and then held her forehead with her left hand as if she were drunk:

"This feeling, this vivid sensation of still being alive... it’s been a long time."

Shard looked at her with compassion.

The body of the insect writhed, the torso that was severed by the "Moonlight Ring: Second Form" was repairing and reconnecting. After Miss Isabella returned the perfume vial to Shard, she helped him up, and finally even lifted him, flying towards the edge of the square.

Seeing Shard unsure of where to place his hands, with a faint blush on his face, the blonde lady laughed and asked:

"The witches you know, haven’t taken you flying?"

"They have, but rarely while holding me like this."

She smiled tenderly with her lips pursed, thinking that the man Luviya Annette chose was indeed interesting.

When they returned to the edge of the square, she carefully allowed Shard to sit and rest against the outer wall of building number six, then stood beside him watching the worm rebirth:

"Actually, you defeated that thing using the wrong method. Filthy Earth Worm — this is the name I’ve given to this Age of Apocalypse creature. They have two stages, first a humanoid form, and after being defeated, they turn into a worm form. The best way to deal with them is to lure the humanoid or worm-shaped evil object away from the ground. Once they leave the earth, even for just a second, it’s their weakest moment, giving you a chance to strike them down."

"Humanoid form is one thing, but as for such a large worm, I can’t make it leave the earth."

Shard leaned against the wall, watching the worm, he rummaged through the waistband of his pants for the remnants of his shirt, took advantage of this month’s lifespan waiver for spellcasting to take a deep breath and reverse time to restore his shirt and the toys inside it, otherwise, the loss would have been tremendous this time.

The witch also saw his method of reversing time and felt increasingly satisfied with him, continuing to introduce:

"If they cannot leave the ground, water is also the nemesis of these worms. They can be roughly divided into three types: Gravel Worms, Stone Worms, and Mud Worms. This time, it’s the gravel type."

She hesitated again and said:

"But your approach wasn’t wrong either. You have ground affinity not inferior to theirs, otherwise, after being swallowed, you would instantly be transformed into stone and digested. Gravel Worms feed on sand, and they can transform any entity into gravel. When the apocalypse began, it was them... oh."

She moaned a little, holding her forehead; she couldn’t mention anything about her own space-time.

"Let’s not talk about that, my goal is to prevent this scene from reoccurring."

Shard had put on his clothes, breathing heavily to recover his stamina, and after confirming the witch was fine, he continued:

"In the Battle of Randall Valley, I devoured the Filthy Earth Origin to gain this power. Last time, when I told you about my side, it just reached this part when I couldn’t hold on and had to leave."

Miss Isabella’s expression faltered for a moment:

"In your Sixth Era, it’s actually like this... I remember you mentioning Ciris Lathis didn’t sacrifice... was it Luviya Annette who had you do this? What kind of plan is this of hers?"

"No, Luviya didn’t say anything; I chose this path myself. I’m quite certain this isn’t part of her plan."

Leaning against his own outer wall, Shard coughed a few times; his current condition wasn’t very good:

"I just don’t like those sad stories. If I can help and save those I encounter, although I can’t devote everything, as long as I can do something, I probably will... The filthy twisted Earth Origin gave me the power to draw strength just by standing on the earth. But this isn’t without cost; to digest that filthy twisted power, I lay listlessly on the bed for half a month, even my cat thought I wasn’t going to make it."

As he said this, his left leg was bent on the ground, right leg propped up, right arm resting on his knee, eyes gazing at the ground, hence unnoticed the tall witch standing nearby.

Suddenly, everything went dark, and Shard raised his head to see she had knelt on one knee in front of him at some unknown moment. Her beautiful golden eyes carried a certain "pity" as she gazed at him, then she reached out and placed a hand on his forehead:

"Shard, you’ve really been through a lot."

The golden eyes made Shard shiver violently:

"This kind of conversation is too strange. Please don’t say that; this isn’t something to be considered difficult. I’m willing to do it, and besides, Ciris..."

His gaze wandered off for a moment:

"We have a mutual affection, of course, I wouldn’t sacrifice her."