Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic-Chapter 361 Inside and Outside the Painting

Just like before, Shard placed the puppet pistol on the painting, where it indeed melted into the scene, then appeared at the model house’s doorway.

The puppet associated with Shard walked up to the pistol but did not bend down to pick it up. Mr. Freeman’s puppet also looked at the pistol but did not pick it up either.

"Licenses."

Priest thought for a moment then suddenly said. Shard suddenly realized and turned both the MI6 ID and the firearm license into puppets and sent them into the painting. The puppet corresponding to Shard first picked up the licenses and then finally bent down to pick up the toy pistol, its fingers even making a very clear motion of checking the bullets.

The puppet in the painting and the real person were not replicas or soul-linked; they could only transfer damage. The puppet could not use the Circle Sorcerer abilities like Shard could, but at least the puppet would shoot.

However, by this method of transferring weapons, the puppets made by Shard could only be used by himself and not by Freeman.

But this was enough, letting Mrs. Freeman and the boy stay in the hall while Shard and Priest carried the painting upstairs.

The armed puppet in the painting also moved towards the model’s second floor and encountered the Bandage Puppet in the second-floor living room.

Since the painting made no sound, the two outsiders could only see the puppet’s motion of raising the gun.

Unfortunately, even with a revolver, the armed puppet still could not defeat the Bandage Puppet. The opponent was not only taller but also had excellent evasive skills, and could perform short-distance Spatial Movement within the model when in the same room as the victim puppet. Even getting shot did not affect its mobility and it even managed to slash Shard’s puppet again.

So, after the pistol’s bullets were used up, the injured Shard could only temporarily retreat to the first-floor hall for cover.

Due to the fight, the Bandage Puppet had reached the staircase and would probably enter the hall in about half an hour.

The armed puppet threw the licenses and revolver out of the model house, and they immediately appeared on the surface of the painting. Shard reloaded the pistol but did not send it back into the painting.

"The intelligence level of ordinary puppets is too low, no match for the Bandage Puppet. I think your puppet needs other helpers,"

Priest suddenly said.

"Are you suggesting Mr. Freeman and the little boy? To have them fight alongside my puppet?"

Shard pointed towards the two puppets huddled together in the painting, shaking his head to indicate:

"The boy is too weak, and while Freeman’s puppet has normal intelligence, its strength is too feeble."

"I mean myself."

Priest said calmly:

"I know you can’t turn me into a puppet, but I can voluntarily touch that painting and let a corresponding puppet of mine appear in the scene."

Shard immediately shook his head:

"Priest Augustus, having more people might not necessarily help, but it will definitely put you in danger, let me think..."

He looked at the pistol he was holding and then at the painting.

Using a handkerchief, he again covered the revolver, but the toy that appeared next was almost exactly the same size as the original, not thumb-sized.

Shard threw the one-to-one scale wooden toy back at the painting, but this time the pistol did not appear in the model house but on the table beside the model, and the pistol in the painting actually turned back into a real pistol. It was too big to fit into the model house.

Shard’s bold experiment taught him another rule: puppets small enough to enter the model house would maintain their puppet form inside the model. Puppets too large to enter the model would appear on the tabletop and transform into their real object form.

"Can this gun still be taken out?"

Seeing what had happened, Priest Augustus curiously asked.

Shard shook his head to indicate he didn’t know, inspecting the painting more closely, then on the curtain in the painting, which served as a backdrop, he saw very faint text.

The curtain was itself in the sunlight, and the color of this line of text was extremely similar to that of the curtain, hence it wasn’t discovered immediately:

[Inside and outside the painting, within and beyond the painter.]

When Shard read this line of text, he hesitated momentarily, then quietly read out the words. Next, Shard touched the painting and his hand actually reached into the interior of the scene.

"Oh?"

Priest Augustus curiously watched this scene as Shard furrowed his brow.

He first reached out to touch his own pistol, then successfully retrieved it from the scene.

"Does this mean..."

The Priest whispered, and Shard nodded before reaching into the painting again, but the Priest stopped him:

"This time, let me do it."

He didn’t ask how Shard knew those strange characters; after all, Shard had previously demonstrated his ability to know the script through "Space-Time" during study sessions.

Shard instructed Priest Augustus on the exact pronunciation of those ancient letters, and after two attempts, the Priest successfully reached his hand into the painting as well.

His hand extended towards the model of the house, and unsurprisingly, he could not touch it, as if there was a glass cover preventing the Priest’s hand from reaching the model.

Subsequently, the Priest reached for other items on the table within the painting, and though his hand still couldn’t touch the house model, he was able to take those items out.

But whether it was a vase, a rotten apple, a statue resembling the "Primordial Rift" of an Ancient God, or a delicate pendant, they were all ordinary items. Thus, the two speculated that these were experimental items thrown into the painting by a previous owner in an attempt to interact with the house model.

For now, it was still unknown, apart from Shard’s "Toy Making," what other conditions were required to throw puppets into the painting. In a sense, this painting actually had the function of turning puppets into real entities.

"My hand can’t touch the model, should we think of another way?"

The Priest fell into thought again, but Shard had already found a solution, a relaxed expression appearing on his face:

"Priest, could you step out once more and go to my house to bring Mia?"

Remembering the cat at home, Shard added: Explore stories at novelbuddy

"Oh, she might not let you hold her. You can tell her like last time that I’m in trouble, then lure her into the carriage with a piece of clothing."

Shard handed over his house keys and a blood-stained coat. Seeing that the Priest was still puzzled, he reminded him:

"Priest, although we can reach into the painting, we are still technically outside of it, so we can’t touch the house model within. When holding an item from the painting, it’s possible that it and our bodies are considered as one object."

"Inside the painting? Outside the painting? Can your cat possibly..."

Old Cleric smiled knowingly, nodded silently, instructed Shard to be careful, and then left with Shard’s keys and coat.

While Priest Augustus was gone, Shard also instructed Mrs. Freeman, who was waiting nearby, to keep this matter a secret once it was over.

Mrs. Freeman obviously understood, as a paranormal experience was not something desirable to disclose, and it could potentially impact her children’s future marriages. She immediately swore with her son that they would tell no one about the matter.

However, Shard still thought about having Dr. Schneider pay a visit when time permitted, to have the psychologist use his abilities to help the Freemans forget everything.

The doctor couldn’t erase memories completely as that would cause permanent damage to the brain. But he could make their memories of the event vague, leading them to doubt over the years that it had just been a dream.

For ordinary people, forgetting any contact with the mystical and the transcendent was for the best.

Counting the time it took to travel by carriage and lure the timid, alert cat at Saint Delan Square, the Priest spent over an hour in total.

During this period, the Bandage Puppet in the model house had moved from the staircase to the foyer. To avoid it, Shard used Arcane Technique to open the door of the landlord’s house on the ground floor and temporarily hid inside.

Though it felt somewhat wrong to do this, they wouldn’t disturb others’ belongings, so it was a necessary action.

It was unclear whether the Priest’s earlier attempt to touch the house model caused the Relic to sense a greater threat, but the Bandage Puppet’s movement speed had increased again. Before the Priest returned, it had already trapped three dolls in the master bedroom on the ground floor.

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Shard once again sent a pistol into the painting, forcing the three dolls to engage with the Bandage Puppet. The smaller doll ran first, while the two larger ones teamed up to restrain the Bandage Puppet, then left the room in sequence, mirroring reality.

But even with three puppets against one, the Bandage Puppet was still dominating the fight. Although no harm came to Shard this time, the puppet possessing Mr. Freeman’s spirit got severely injured as it protected the smaller puppet without regard to its own safety.

Luckily, Mr. Freeman was already dead, so the injured puppet inside the painting was just that—injured.

"Is father back?"

For safety, Shard had kept the young boy away from touching or watching the painting. But led by his mother, the boy vaguely sensed Mr. Freeman protecting him.

When the group moved back to the second floor, the boy still looked around as if he expected his father to suddenly come out of a room with a smile. But that painter was never coming back, and if he did, that would only add to Shard’s troubles.

Apparently, the painting sensed that the people outside could counter it, so it endowed the Bandage Puppet inside with more power.

As the Bandage Puppet moved faster, the threat to the boy and Shard, also influenced by the Relic, increased. The Whisper Element of the Relic was already affecting the boy, and despite Shard’s vigilance, if the situation didn’t resolve soon, the best outcome might be the boy turning into a madman.

Fortunately, Priest Augustus successfully returned with Mia.

The cautious orange cat, true to form, wouldn’t let Priest Augustus hold her but followed him upstairs. Seeing Shard seated in the living room, the cat excitedly pounced on him.

The constantly anxious Shard finally smiled upon seeing the familiar cat. Holding Mia, he incessantly stroked her head. The orange cat meowed, shaking its fluffy little head with each stroke, allowing him better contact.