Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic-Chapter 1722 - 1721: The Reunited Demon

The Female Sorcerer raised her hand to block the splashing water with a transparent force field, confirming the Whisper Element was still as thin as ever before returning to her previous position.

Even though such a violent explosion occurred underwater, the bottle remained motionless at the bottom, as if it were merely a phantom.

"Interesting."

The two brothers then framed the bottle with their hands, and after waiting a moment, concluded:

"It can be locked onto; this is solid, not a phantom."

With that, they lifted their hands, attempting to use Sorcery to pull the bottle up from the water’s bottom. With the power of Eight Rings Sorcerers, the Basic Sorcery "Object Movement" shouldn’t just be able to move this little bottle; it could even move a stack of Mias. Yet, strangely, Shard and Megan both felt their spellcasting had succeeded, but the bottle didn’t budge.

"Let me try."

Megan said as a water column surged from the surface at her feet, then condensed into a slender ice pillar in her hand. The ice pillar grew longer and longer until it could reach the glass bottle at the bottom, and Megan extended it underwater.

All three people and the cat watched as the other end of the ice pillar touched the bottle, causing the bottle to roll slightly underwater. But when Megan tried to extend the ice pillar to freeze it with the bottle, the ice pillar in her hand suddenly shattered completely.

"I’m very sure, this simple Ice Conjuring, I couldn’t possibly cast it wrong."

The brown-haired Female Sorcerer said gravely:

"It seems like this is one of the Relic Properties; unless the correct method is used, it cannot be removed from the water surface in any way."

Because even the bottle remained at the bottom, not even the Great Witch of Knowledge and Wisdom could yet recognize what it was.

"What is the correct method? Get in the water and touch it with hands?"

One of the brothers asked, to which Shard Cat reminded:

"Of course not. The method is very simple. Didn’t the journals we found and the memoirs you guys obtained already record the method? Earl Gaiman never set off alone on a boat from the dock empty-handed."

"A fishing rod?"

Asked one of the brothers, and Megan also understood;

"I see, but in this way, this relic...fished up with a rod, wish..."

Even without being a Circle Sorcerer, anyone with a little exposure to fairy tales would know what that means.

"Don’t think too much about it, first get that thing up."

Said Shard Cat, then plucked out a cat hair—after transformation, personal items, except relics, would become part of the appearance, so numerous toys turned into cat hair. The cat hair rubbed against Megan’s clothes and turned back into a fishing rod.

Megan tossed the rod to the two brothers, who although had opinions about it, but the man with a disabled left eye still cast the fishing line into the water. It was evident that his casting motion was very standard, and the hook without bait just happened to drop beside the bottle.

Then, as though the glass bottle was a magnet, the hook was "pulled" towards it. As the reel spun, retracting the line, the glass bottle, which couldn’t be lifted in any way before, was unexpectedly pulled out of the water so simply.

After freezing a small patch of the water’s surface with spellcasting, the bottle was placed steadily on the ice. The weather around Green Lake was quite nice, the time was approaching noon, and the glaring spring sunlight shone on the glass bottle, reflecting dazzling and strange seven-colored light. On closer inspection, it was clearly the Seven-Color Smoke inside the glass bottle that was glowing.

A Silver Band firmly secured the stopper on the bottle’s mouth, and facing the light, everyone could see the inscription on it—

[I will fulfill all wishes.]

The three of them stepped back together, all with very grave expressions. Clearly, when it was underwater, the Whisper Element was too low to notice without looking at the bottle, but as the bottle left the water surface, the Whisper Element’s density rapidly increased and quickly exceeded the limit of a typical "Keeper of Secrets Level" relic.

"Sage-Level Relic?"

"Yes, Sage-Level Relic."

The question was asked by Megan, and the affirmative statement was made by Shard. He finally confirmed, the thing before him, was indeed the one he had seen before:

"Sage-Level Relic—[Reward of Avarice]. Demon!"

As the words fell, without anyone touching the bottle, the stopper automatically popped open with a "pop~". The Seven-Color Smoke that was slowly rotating inside the bottle surged out instantly from the mouth.

And accompanied by the surge of dreamy Seven-Color Smoke, a translucent blue Giant Spirit appeared, laughing heartily in the sunlight, over the waters near the shore of Green Lake.

Its upper body wore a sleeveless vest with unbuttoned buttons, but it was only an upper body, with the lower body in a cloud form connected to the glass bottle. With "Demon Vision" perspective, the blue cloud was clearly composed of countless screaming tiny souls forming black mist, and what seemed to be an empty glass bottle contained an unknown number of souls.

This was precisely the bottle fished up by a bard on the River of Death during the second adventure of the "Seven-day Trip". Compared to last time when encountering this relic, now the bottle contained more souls. Shard really didn’t expect that after five or six thousand years, he would encounter it once more.

"Finally, someone has saved me from the water!"

The light blue "Giant Spirit", or the sealed ’Wish Demon - Zatanna’, laughed and said to the three people around:

"Very well, since you have saved me, I shall grant you three wishes. Speak, mortals, what do you wish for?"

The two brothers and Megan, who was holding a cat, continued to retreat, only to find that an invisible barrier prevented them from moving too far from the bottle. In this situation, no one dared to speak, and after realizing everyone was cautious, the blue "Giant Spirit" crossed its arms and looked around at them curiously:

"So that’s how it is, a wonderful soul, a similar soul, and this one!"

The two brothers, each blind in one eye, were gazed upon, and the immense pressure fully confirmed for them that this was a Sage-Level Relic. The various souls screaming and begging that flooded into their minds in an instant almost caused them to lose their footing on the water surface.

Yet the demon merely glanced over them and then looked at Megan:

"Look at what I found? Such an exquisite soul!"

The cat Shard, held by Megan, could clearly feel the female sorcerer’s arms start to tremble slightly and involuntarily tighten.

The blue Giant Spirit, making a tutting sound while bending its massive upper body to look at Megan, came closer and closer to the cold-faced female sorcerer, the corners of its mouth curving wider and wider:

"A truly marvelous soul, the unique kind only the power of Fate could create, isn’t it? Double...

At that moment, Megan seemed to see a giant mouth opening, ready to absorb her soul. Her soul, which had been mostly stable, now once again experienced unpredictable changes. Megan’s complexion immediately turned pale, followed by a tumultuous spirit. She feared more than anyone else the polluting power that could directly interfere with the soul.

Shard sensed Megan’s change and agilely climbed up her arm to her shoulder. In the demon’s puzzled expression, he did what Mia had done before. Of course, unlike the cat that had made a "meow" sound, Shard certainly wouldn’t utter such an embarrassing onomatopoeia:

"Stay back."

The cat said to the Giant Spirit that was getting ever closer. He wasn’t afraid of any demon, particularly one that had turned into a relic. The Doctor had spoken of the demon, which was something even the Doctor wouldn’t want to consume.

Since intimidation was necessary, Shard’s tone inevitably carried some weight. The blind brothers looked on in horror as the cat provoked this Sage-Level Relic, and Megan hurriedly tried to grab Shard Cat from her shoulder, but Shard swatted her hand away:

"Seal."

He reminded her, and Megan paused before reaching into her satchel to pull out Shard’s [Demon Hunting Seal]. Knowing there was a demon near Green Lake, Shard had specially brought this relic along. In Randall Valley, he feared his identity would be prematurely exposed to the Stone Mirror Demon - Goethe, but now he was anxious for the demon to appear so he could find out who it really was.

The blue Giant Spirit instinctively straightened up and moved away from Megan as the [Demon Hunting Seal] appeared:

"Demon Hunter?"

It murmured, then looked at the "little thing" on the woman’s shoulder. After a moment of hesitation, it resumed its pose with its arms crossed, saying in sudden realization:

"Oh, so it’s you."

The demon observed humans mostly by their souls, and since Shard had been in cat form after consuming a magic potion on the previous encounter on the ship, it remembered this unique soul completely.

Megan and the two brothers were stunned, but Shard Cat was not surprised:

"You still recognize me?"

"Of course, you and the cat that kept rubbing against you made quite an impression on me."

The Giant Spirit nodded, saying with interest:

"Speaking of which, how did you escape from that river leading to true death?"

Shard was not particularly eager to recall that event:

"Old Ma chose to follow the souls."

"Self-sacrifice? I see, but it’s truly a pity, such a noble soul, so enriched by suffering, just let go like that."

The blue Giant Spirit shook its head, then glanced at the three who were listening to the conversation in shock:

"These three are your companions this time? Just like thousands of years ago? I must admit, you have a great sense for picking souls."

Shard Cat, standing on Megan’s shoulder, didn’t pay attention to the increasingly suspicious looks from Edwards and others:

"Demon, my actions have nothing to do with you. Do you want to fight us, or would you prefer to answer a question as before, and then we part ways?"

The "Giant Spirit" looked at him with a smile:

"After I saw you last time, it took me a while to realize that we hadn’t actually met; it was some great power that constructed you and your group. So this time, what makes you so confident? Just that ring?"