Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic-Chapter 362: The Power of Cats

"The plan is like this."

After greeting the happy cat, Shard invited Priest and himself to sit down, while Mrs. Freeman sat with the boy on a single sofa farther away.

"Don’t move around."

Keeping the cat still on her lap, Mia stared with wide eyes as Shard covered it with a handkerchief. Seconds later, the handkerchief slightly sagged as if Mia had shrunk into thin air. When the handkerchief was removed, a wooden toy version of Mia, reduced by about a third in size, appeared on Shard’s lap.

The painting was placed on the coffee table, and Shard put the Mia wooden toy on the painting:

"We can’t interfere with the inside of the painting from outside, but things inside the painting can affect the inside."

He said, releasing his hand, and the spitting image of Mia as a lovely wooden puppet immediately melded into the painting. Because the puppet was too large, it didn’t enter the house model but landed on the tabletop and transformed back into its normal form.

Suddenly appearing in a strange environment, the cat again showed signs of fear. But before it could puff up its fur, Shard’s hand reached into the painting and gently patted the little cat’s head.

"Meow~"

With that, the orange cat wasn’t scared anymore; it squinted its eyes, lowering its head to lick its paws, trusting Shard’s presence to mean safety.

"This, touch this."

After patting the cat a few times, Shard’s hand pointed toward the house toy model on the table. Since he didn’t know if sounds from the outside could be heard inside, he also gestured with his hand a few times.

The increasingly clever cat immediately looked toward the direction of the finger, which was the house model. But because the pet cat was always well-behaved, it didn’t have the habit of randomly destroying items. It crouched there, stretching its head to nudge Shard’s hand, staring with its wide amber eyes but didn’t move.

"Since that’s the case..."

Shard thought for a moment, then stretched out his hand again to touch the house model. After his hand was stopped by an unseen barrier, he shook his hand inside the painting, making it look like he was hurt. After emitting a feeble wail from outside the painting, he let his hand fall to the tabletop, twitching it as if it had died and then it lay motionless.

Priest Augustus stifled a laugh on the side.

"Meow!"

Mia immediately showed a frightened expression in the painting, stretched her head to rub the "dead" hand, and when it indeed didn’t move, she immediately positioned herself in front of Shard’s hand and made threatening gestures towards the house model.

Seeing that the other party didn’t move or roar at her, the cat’s courage promptly grew. With its head low, the orange cat charged, directly moving the house model two inches toward the edge of the table (about 5.08 cm).

Seeing that the opponent still didn’t move, the cat’s courage grew even bigger. With its head, it pushed the model slowly toward the edge of the table. As the model’s base hung over more than half, it finally fell to the ground outside the plane of the painting, disappearing from the view of Shard and Priest Augustus.

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For the first time, a sound came from inside the painting—the crashing noise of the house model.

Shard then scooped the cat out of the painting, and the cat excitedly meowed, rubbing against Shard’s right hand, its tail wagging as if it was proud of its big accomplishment.

"Is it over?"

Priest asked with a frown, as the assumption that destroying the house in the painting would lift the effect was just their guess.

But at least when the house hit the ground, neither Shard nor the boy was hurt, which indicated that at least their passive relationship of receiving damage with the puppet had been severed. Read the latest on novelbuddy

"Wait. Hurry, Mrs. Freeman, quickly move back with the child against the wall!"

Black smoke suddenly drifted out from the painting, and both the Priest and Shard immediately stood up, while the middle-aged woman reacted a step slow.

The black smoke had already fallen to the floor, forming a figure over two and a half meters tall, its body wrapped in bandages with only one eye visible and a black tattered hat on its head, it had actually appeared in the real world.

It seemed to have no sense of reason; upon arriving in the real world, it first looked up and roared, then with its right hand enveloped in black smoke, it thrust a knife toward the boy in Mrs. Freeman’s arms, who was the closest to it.

Shard raised his hand and released Moonlight, but the Priest was faster, sending a gray sphere of light flying out. However, even if neither of them had acted, the boy wouldn’t have been harmed because another stream of black smoke had flown out from the painting and the Undead state of Mr. Freeman used his soul to block the tall monster’s weapon.

This was a true Undead, and it seemed that as the model of the house was destroyed, not only the Bandage Puppet but also the souls not yet consumed within the painting were able to escape. However, the soul appeared to be very weak, becoming even weaker after the Bandage Monster had slashed it in the real world.

He turned around sorrowfully, Mrs. Freeman and the boy couldn’t see him in his state as a soul.

By now, Shard’s Moonlight and the Priest’s gray sphere of light had reached the monster’s back, Moonlight severed its head, and the gray sphere of light blew open its chest.

This thing was painfully weak; after suffering such injuries, it slowly turned to ash and disappeared.

Looking back at the painting, the Bandage Puppet stood alone where the house model had been, motionless as if it indeed was a real puppet. Perhaps, it would regain its Trait once the painting was brought into a new building and touched by someone again.

After waiting a while, ensuring that the matter was completely resolved, Shard and Priest Augustus finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"It’s over, Mrs. Freeman. No need to worry; this matter is over,"

Old Cleric comforted.

"In the future, could there possibly be...?"

The middle-aged woman was truly frightened.

"Rest assured, this matter is completely over, but we will take this painting with us. If you are still concerned, you can go to the church to pray... oh, I remember that your faith is not in our Lord ’Mr. Dawn’. Madam, would you like to hear the teachings of our Lord, may the light of dawn forever shine upon us!"

Priest Augustus said cheerily, drawing the Holy Emblem over his chest, while Mrs. Freeman gave an embarrassed smile and then said to Shard:

"I really appreciate both of you, please take this painting, we dare not keep it."

She held the boy’s hand, wanting to bow to thank them, but the boy looked around, and no matter how much he looked, he could not see Mr. Freeman standing helplessly on the side watching them.

He was already dead, his soul not yet completely absorbed by the Relic, allowing it to be rescued temporarily. But dead was dead, a frail soul could not be seen by ordinary people.

Shard held the cat, and Priest Augustus simply explained the whole situation to Mrs. Freeman, making her understand that the matter was completely resolved.

Then, the Priest gave Shard a meaningful glance, leaving him to take Mrs. Freeman and the boy to Dr. Schneider’s clinic to pick up the little girl, while Shard was responsible for dealing with the painting.

They separated at the bottom of the apartment building; Mrs. Freeman still held Shard’s hand, endlessly thanking him. After they left, Shard held Mia in one hand and carried the portfolio with the painting in the other, then looked toward the soul standing next to him in the shadow of the building.

Dealing with this Relic still required a visit to the doctor. Priest Augustus didn’t accompany Shard for the purpose of leaving Shard to handle this soul, to persuade it to move on, rather than staying here.