Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic-Chapter 773 - : Tears, Correspondence, and the Owl

Chapter 773 -773: Tears, Correspondence, and the Owl

Signaling the nun not to act, Shard handed the water treated with “Satiety Food” to the hand. The turquoise hand grasped the bowl and then withdrew from the doorway. Shard immediately shut the door again, leaving only a crack.

With his left hand on the inside doorknob and his right hand holding “Night Watchman,” Shard didn’t get the chance to strike as he and the nun heard the sound of gulping water from outside. The bowl was very large, so the evil spirit outside was the one that had drunk the most “Satiety Food” so far.

It finished everything in one breath and then belched loudly. Shard squinted with sword in hand, while Sister Michelle clenched a shiny stone, ready to cast a spell. But the evil spirit didn’t charge in; instead, they heard the sound of the bowl being placed on the doorstep, followed by a relieved sigh.

The voice was still ancient but no longer hoarse:

“If I had encountered you while I was alive…”

The voice vanished, and the “Night Watchman” in his hand returned to normal, the glimmer fading from the saffron rune on the sword’s surface.

“Is it… gone?”

Shard asked tentatively.

“It has left, moving on. The undead, trapped in the Interstice, cannot enter the True Death, but returning to the real world, they can continue their journey after fulfilling their wishes.”

Sister Michelle explained.

This was also why the Witch Empress Violetta’s method required guiding the undead that had lingered across several eras in the Interstice into the real world and then through a stable spatial crack linked to the True Death that was opened from the real world. It was to help them move on.

The evil spirit just now must have been very powerful; otherwise, the Night Watchman’s reaction wouldn’t have been so intense. Since they managed to let it leave without a fight, that was a good thing, naturally. frёewebnoѵēl.com

Of course, Shard didn’t forget to reopen the door to retrieve the bowl from the doorstep. But to his surprise, he found a small white stone inside the empty bowl. It was irregular in shape but very smooth to the touch.

Mia seemed to like it, reaching out with her paw to touch it, but Shard refused her.

“What is this?”

Sister Michelle couldn’t see things directly without using her eyes like Sister Delphine could, so after Shard described it, she gave her answer:

“This is a very rare item, Soul Tears, a unique material that can only be produced by lingering undead who have fulfilled their desires and are extremely powerful. Even if all these conditions are met, the appearance of this material still relies on chance. I’ve only heard about it in the records of the Order; this is the first time I’ve actually seen it.”

Hearing the name of this material, Shard flipped through the knowledge of Witch Echo he possessed and indeed found a description matching what Sister Michelle had said. It was an exceedingly precious semi-physical substance. As an ingredient for potions, it could be used to create potions that directly heal the soul; as an alchemical material, the alchemical items produced could achieve a variety of effects on the soul; even, if absorbed directly through special means, it could enhance the spirit strength of Circle Sorcerers without side effects.

Sister Michelle even believed that aside from the legendary Sage-Level Relic “Philosopher’s Stone,” Soul Tears could be considered one of the most versatile basic materials.

Since Shard was the one who dealt with the evil spirit, the piece of Soul Tears naturally belonged to him. This was a rather good gain before the final battle had erupted.

Not long after the evil spirit that knocked on the door left, another knocking sound came from outside. This time the knocking was much more urgent, and before Shard had the chance to ask who it was, the person outside began to call for help:

“Sister Michelle, please open the door quickly. I am Grey Squirrel, our friend Spiky Deer is injured!”

This time “Night Watchman” didn’t issue a warning, and when Shard looked out through the peephole, he saw a young man in his twenties, carrying an unconscious middle-aged man, with a short-haired, anxious-looking lady behind him.

The self-proclaimed “Grey Squirrel” was this lady who looked to be in her thirties.

Sister Michelle was still on the first floor and came over when she heard the noise. After Shard described the situation, she knew who had come:

“They are the Correspondence Circle Mages from the local Sekses Medical Academy. They live in the nearby neighborhood and are friends with the House of the Blind. We have a good relationship.”

Naturally, she didn’t open the door right away. Instead, she asked a few questions, then had Shard move to a room on the first floor before she opened the door to let the three people from the foggy outdoors in. They started talking in the vestibule, and from there, Shard learned that the Three Great Magics Academies and the Church had predicted the conditions of that day and had informed local Correspondence Circle Mages not to go out arbitrarily the day before.

The three from Sekses Medical Academy had gathered together planning to spend the day, which they couldn’t go out, together. But an evil spirit invaded their house from an attic they had forgotten to seal off. About half an hour earlier, they had a big fight with that powerful evil spirit. Although they were victorious in the end, one of their companions unfortunately succumbed to a “spiritual scream” from the evil spirit before it collapsed and fell into a coma.

Because it wasn’t clear whether a prolonged coma would affect life, they braved the white fog to seek help, and Sister Michelle was not stingy in extending a helping hand.

Shard, because of identity reasons, did not appear, but outside the room prepared for the party of three, he heard the correspondence Circle Mages from Sekses describe the thick fog.

Since it was still daytime, but the outside was gloomy and terrifying, coupled with the influence of the dense fog, the maximum distance one’s arm could stretch was basically the limit of one’s sight. Because of the horn sound earlier, the weaker spirits had been scattered by Divine Arts power, so the evil spirits on the streets were not particularly numerous at the moment. But once encountered, they were definitely not something ordinary people, or even ordinary Low Ring Sorcerers, could handle.

Compared to Tobesk’s Night of the Godfall and Coldwater Port’s great flood, the disaster that struck Midshire Fort seemed even more thorny, as it wasn’t a man-made disaster and couldn’t be ended by defeating a specific target.

The Circle Mages from Sekses did not plan to leave today; their coming here also meant seeking refuge at the House of the Blind. No one knew what would happen next, so the more people gathered together, the better they could resolve issues should something arise.

It was now late autumn, and in Midshire Fort, the time of sunset, which was also the time the ritual was to begin, was around 6:42 p.m. The anxious Shard waited until five in the afternoon of that day before finally receiving the reply that the “door opening” ritual was ready.

A folded paper crane flew through the fog to the window of Sister Michelle’s office on the second floor of the House of the Blind, tapping on the glass a few times before being noticed.

On it was a message from Miss Ronald, a High Ring Nun of the Spiritual Practice Order, indicating that they had found the appropriate location for the door opening, but due to the current strange weather, they were unable to send a carriage for Shard. Therefore, they hoped Shard could make his way to the ritual site as soon as possible.

“Where?”

The long-waiting Shard asked.

“At the Midshire Fort Mechanical Academy.”

“Okay.”

Transforming Mia back into a toy and stowing it away, Shard looked out at the white fog outside the window:

“It’s finally going to start.”

Carrying a fishing rod, picking up his sword, taking his kerosene lamp, donning his coat, and solemnly bidding farewell to Sister Michelle in the entrance hall on the first floor, Shard stepped into the great fog outside.

The damp and cold mist almost made Shard think he had arrived at the Interstice of Life and Death, and the silent city seemed to have died in this great fog.

He had to enter the Interstice before the Church’s ritual began; after all, Joey Barton would not wait until after the ritual to make a move. Therefore, Shard could not waste too much time on the way. Luckily, compared to the Interstice, there weren’t too many evil spirits in reality, and the lamp burning with Primal Fire in his hand could illuminate a larger range for him.

Apart from evil spirits, he also had to avoid the squads of Church Ring Sorcerers searching for evil spirits in the fog and the unfamiliar Circle Sorcerers whose origins were unknown. After the agents that the Truth Society had sent to Milestone were almost completely caught, not all foreign powers had left the city.

And on a day like today, the conspirators had once again become active.

Of course, all of this had nothing to do with Shard. He only wanted to reach the Midshire Fort Mechanical Academy as quickly as possible. Naturally, there was no finding a carriage on the streets, and it was even hard to find a horse.

He could only rely on his own legs, traveling from the House of the Blind, located in the city center, to the Academy at the southern end of the city. Along the way, he avoided all confrontation, even helping two ordinary police officers who were attacked by headless evil spirits.

Having left the House of the Blind, Shard had an increasingly clear understanding of what was happening in Milestone and on Sicarl Mountain. Standing on the rooftop of someone else’s home with an unobstructed view outdoors, he could see five golden light pillars shooting straight into the sky amidst the creepy fog. Judging by the direction, those were the five True God Church parishes of Midshire Fort.

At the same time, a large number of unidentified Flying Birds circled in the sky as if monitoring the city.

Shard riskily stuck an Ever-Youth Leaf to the hook and hid in an alleyway, managing to lure an owl that descended from the sky. After catching the silly creature, he used the Fish Training Ring to grant it the ability to speak and then learned that they were sent by the “good people” of the Church of Nature to monitor the city and search for evil spirits within it.

The owl, which seemed sillier than Mia, spoke with a heavy Carsonrick accent. It talked in dialect about how it and its companions were from a “very southern” warm area, complaining about how the fog was truly bothering the birds, but how the light of the kerosene lamp in Shard’s hand was comforting to them.

“Very south” was probably the Papacy of the Church of Nature.

Even though captured by Shard, the owl was not panicked—it even pleaded with Shard for some food after he finished asking his questions. The Church had ordered these birds to monitor the city and pass on messages since the morning, but they had only fed them some food at noon.

The owl, cursing in not-so-foul language, ultimately received some of Mia’s cat food from Shard’s hand.