Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic-Chapter 689 - The Stolen Sword

“Does the Academy know who the Chosen One is now?”

“They probably don’t know yet, at least His Excellency the Speaker thinks so.”

Miss Aphrola said, and she glanced out at the bonfire outside the window, then suddenly suggested:

“Shard, the atmosphere tonight is quite delightful. Would you like to dance later?”

“Hmm? What? Oh, yes, of course.”

Shard was not quite sure how the topic had jumped to this.

“Also, it seems the Vampire Kind in this city are also planning something.”

Shard took out the Blood Brew he had just bought, but the witches didn’t care about it as much as Shard did. Granny Cassandra had been living in this city for years, and the Vampire Kind selling contraband Blood Brew was not a new occurrence here, so this matter was not important.

The witches had business to discuss, so Shard did not stay with them too long. He left the lounge, calculating that it was almost time for the auction to start. Remembering the card with special rules, Shard thought about joining the excitement.

But as he looked out from the corridor to the courtyard, planning to take a breath of fresh air while waiting for the auction to begin, he unexpectedly saw Iluna’s figure.

Although she had only arrived this afternoon, the travel by Steam Hover Zeppelin was not tiring, so it was indeed possible for her to appear at this evening’s banquet. However, she did not pause; instead, she headed towards the edge of the bonfire’s light, in the direction of the forest behind the Academy.

“What is Iluna going to do?”

Confirming he had not seen wrong, Shard quickly left the castle and returned to the courtyard to follow her.

No matter what Iluna intended to do, Shard wanted to see for himself.

The castle of Midshire Fort Mechanical Academy was originally the main base of the Sicarl Mountain garrison several hundred years ago, so the castle adjoined the woodland, and the forest behind the castle was the Academy’s private property, which the young students also liked to frequent for secret meetings at night.

When Shard reached the edge of the woods, where the courtyard bonfire’s light did not reach, Iluna’s figure had already disappeared. However, he had only walked a few hundred steps into the forest when he saw a faint light ahead. Moving forward, he saw two people confronting each other in the dark woodland.

One was Iluna, and the other was a man she had never seen before, wearing round-frame glasses with brown skin and a long snake tattoo on his hand. The two were clearly hostile, and it looked like they were about to start a fight at any second.

Pulling out a mask to put on his face, once the Four-Ring and Five-Ring Life Rings appeared behind the confronters, Shard took out the prepared Spellcasting Materials.

“Sunlight Gun!”

Golden Thunder appeared in Iluna’s hand, and the Enlightenment Spirit Rune “Hound” on the back of the Five-Ring Sorcerer’s Life Ring suddenly lit up. With the Glimmer flashing, a ferocious three-headed hunting dog, actually leapt out from his Life Ring.

The hunting dog was shrouded in black smoke, and its body was covered in bone spurs and pustules.

“Similar to Dorothy and Lecia, this is a sorcerer proficient in story and fairy tale power!”

Shard immediately made his judgment.

The massive hunting dog intercepted the Sunlight Gun thrown by Iluna in mid-air, and then was grievously harmed by it, with half its body evaporated. The Five-Ring magician was quite startled, not expecting that the young lady opposite him—who was a lower ring than himself—could execute such a powerful attack:

“What quarrel do you have with me?”

As he spoke, he summoned another hunting dog, his hand reaching into his pocket, clearly searching for something.

“You’re a member of the Truth Society, that’s enough.”

Iluna said sternly, and Shard then remembered that Iluna had said before that she not only had a grudge against “Blood of Mercury” but also against “Truth Society.”

“However, I’ve been in Midshire Fort for so long without encountering the Truth Society. Iluna, having encountered them on her first day, could this be the destiny of the Chosen?”

The sound of thunderous crackling once again appeared in Iluna’s hand, forming a Golden Spear she grasped. It was the first time Shard had seen the “Sunlight Gun” take shape without being immediately thrown, leading him to speculate whether the Sunlight Gun could be considered a Spiritual Weapon similar to the Moonlight Greatsword and the Scythe of the Messenger of Death.

The summoned Three-headed Dog, with its three mouths open simultaneously, spat out poison mist, flames, and chill towards Iluna. However, their build-up of power and speed of expulsion were too slow. Iluna leaped high, avoiding the fan-shaped range of the attack, and then hurled the Sunlight Gun at the summoner of the Three-headed Dog while in midair.

To avoid drawing too much attention, she clearly did not use her full strength. Despite that, had the strike hit, without unique defense techniques, the opponent would surely have been doomed.

But the man’s hand, which had been in his pocket, now reached for the sky. In his hand appeared a handheld makeup mirror, similar in appearance to the Corpse-Hiding Mirror Shard once owned, though this mirror had a smaller frame and a shorter handle.

The mirror swatted at Iluna’s Sunlight Gun like a racket, colliding head-on, and, surprisingly, the golden thunderous spear was directly absorbed by the mirror.

The soaring Iluna remained unruffled, stabilizing her landing. She then rolled to dodge the Three-headed Dog’s Claw Strike and countered with a punch glowing with a fiery golden light upon another incoming swipe from the dog’s paw:

“Sun Fist!”

The man with the bronze ring twirled on his finger and began to chant with one hand holding the mirror. The Enlightenment Spirit Rune “Ghoul” on the Ring of Fate behind him began to flicker, but he turned abruptly mid-chant.

Cling!

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The Relic Mirror in his hand parried Shard’s Moonlight Greatsword, its moonlit blade illuminating the mask on Shard’s face:

“Who are you? I came just to attend the auction, what exactly do you people want? This is too much!”

The man loudly complained, forcefully parrying the greatsword in Shard’s hands. As Shard silently swung at him again, the man’s right eye widened dramatically.

Originally both eyes were the same shade of brown, but now a blue halo rapidly spread in his left eye. Shard, swinging the Moonlight Greatsword, suddenly felt as though the sword in his hand was frozen in space, completely immovable, and even the effects of the “Sword of Chaotic Time” were erased.

“Demon Eye!”

Feeling alarmed, he abruptly retreated, and though he had released it, the frozen Moonlight Greatsword in space did not disappear, which was against the rules of this Arcane Technique.

The Five-Ring Sorcerer still held the makeup mirror that had absorbed the Sunlight Gun in his right hand, then with his empty left hand, he “plucked” the Moonlight Greatsword from space and held it in his own hand. Shard, surprised, attempted to summon another sword, but discovered that the Arcane Technique of the Moonlight Greatsword was no longer functioning:

“What kind of Demon Eye is this?”

Again, the mirror swung like a racket, and as its surface brightened with a golden glow, the absorbed Sunlight Gun was projected out from the mirror.

“Lagre’s Leap!”

Shard’s figure vanished into the darkness of the dense forest, while at the same time Iluna had once again killed the Three-headed Dog. She had seen the brief skirmish between the masked Shard and the Sorcerer of the Truth Society, therefore, she did not approach but instead formed two Golden Spears with both hands:

“Sunlight Gun!”

Two Sunlight Guns shot out simultaneously, the Five-Ring Sorcerer holding the sword and mirror high. The mirror absorbed one of the guns, while the right-hand greatsword shattered the other.

“You fell for it!”

A black vortex abruptly appeared in front of him, and Iluna’s hand stretched out from it, grasping directly at the mirror.

Meanwhile, a dazzling cross of moonlight shot out from behind the man, and Shard in the dark forest kicked out the strongest form of the “Moonlight Slash” frozen in the air.

The right-hand greatsword slashed towards Iluna’s hand, forcing her to retract her hand that had not yet firmly grasped the mirror. As Shard’s Moonlight Slash was about to hit his back, the “Ghoul” Spirit Rune on the Ring of Fate released a terrifying Ghoul, which was swiftly split into four parts while the man, lying on the ground, dodged the Moonlight Slash:

“Let me think, are you a survivor from the Singady massacre? Or perhaps a distant relative of the family turned into half-men, half-dogs in the Kiston Canine Incident?”

No one answered him, and seeing the cross of moonlight flying towards her, Iluna quickly dodged to the side. The cross of moonlight hit the large tree behind her and stopped.

“Where are the others from the Church?”

Shard asked with a strained voice.

“I attended this banquet in a personal capacity, I don’t know if the other Sorcerers from the Church also came… What is the weakness of the Moonlight Greatsword?”

Shard and Iluna, from front and back, surrounded him, as the man also stood up, his expression grim as he looked at the two.

Shard confidently replied:

“Apart from not being able to leave the hand, it has no weaknesses. But don’t worry, although his Demon Eye snatched away my Arcane Technique’s effects, the power of the sword in his hands has also decreased.”

It was unfortunate that the new Night Watchman’s Longsword was not brought because it was inconvenient, else Shard would have dared to continue engaging in close combat.

“However…”

Shard looked up through the branches at the three moons in the sky, a bold idea forming in his mind:

“May the moon be with me.”