Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic-Chapter 780 - The 4th Candidate for Death

Chapter 780 -780 The 4th Candidate for Death

The witches at mid-mountain received the news of the Seal Ritual starting early, just as the summit did.

“The powerful Circle Sorcerer wielding a sword?”

Instead of choosing to enter the depths of the mountain to guard the seal, the witches waited on the cliff where the entrance to the passage was. Miss Aphrola, holding the parchment, looked at Granny Cassandra in surprise:

“Could this be…”

“It should be.”

The Old Witch sat by the fire, with Sister Delphine on the other side. The burning flame was the Fire of the Primordial; as long as this bonfire existed, the anomalies from the Interstice couldn’t affect them.

The followers of the witches and the nuns from the Spiritual Practice Order were presently scattered around, preparing to face the next wave of undead assault. Sister Delphine suddenly looked up at the sky, and the two Grand Witches also frowned as they gazed above.

Through the thick fog, a massive black shadow became increasingly visible; only afterward did they see it was a skeleton skull as large as a Titan Giant, composed of densely packed lost souls, staring down at them.

The myriad moaning spirits vibrated irregularly, and as the skeleton became clearer, their frightful expressions were ever more distinctly reflected in everyone’s eyes. Even the bravest of souls couldn’t bear to look directly at this dreadful scene, but the two witches didn’t care at all.

Faintly visible on the brow of the skeleton was an actual human being embedded. Miss Aphrola squinted as she observed, then hummed through her pretty nose:

“Joey Barton. How cliché, to think that accumulation of numbers can overcome quality.”

She raised her hands and clapped twice: freewёbnoνel.com

“Ladies, get ready to make your move.”

With a snap of her fingers from her raised right hand, twelve golden orbs circled above her head; Granny Cassandra picked up her cane from the ground and stood up, her huge and eerie shadow quivering beneath her feet; Sister Delphine reached into the bonfire in front of her and pulled out the Lime Sword.

Standing up, with cold silver fragments floating in the air, she seized the delicate scythe. Upon closer inspection, the scythe resembled the silhouette of the weapon swung by the Giant shadow behind Joey Barton when he used the “Scythe of the Grim Reaper.”

The nun flicked her right hand through the air, and the lime casing of the Angel-Level Relic “Ashes” fell off. As cracks appeared on her body and clothes, the residual glow of the Primal Fire twinkled on the two weapons.

The battle on the mountainside erupted earlier than the skirmishes at the peak and the foot of the mountain. Perhaps in Joey Barton’s eyes, the witches seemed easier to cope with than the True God Church. Being only a First Ring Sorcerer and not even a core member of the Truth Society, he naturally had no idea what the Witch Council truly represented, nor did he understand what it truly meant when a Twelfth Rank Witch, who was also a Twelve-Ring Magician, fought without any reservations.

Inside the Nature Chapel at the foot of Interstice Mountain, Shard was still cautiously exchanging information with Iluna; on the cliffs midway up Interstice Mountain, witches bearing the power of the Fifth Era were joining forces with the nuns guarding the Primal Fire to confront Joey Barton, who had revealed himself; around the great chasm atop Interstice Mountain, the ancient spirits hidden within the mountain were being summoned by the call of the Interstice and awakening with a rumbling sound.

A dense fog swirled, like a phantasmal curtain that was about to be drawn. Shard, sitting by the campfire, gazed at the flames in front of him and, in a trance-like state, thought about the fourth Death Candidate mentioned by Luviya.

He had initially thought that this still unidentified candidate was a Vampire Kind, and that Armand Bernhardt had come to Midshire Fort City to assist them in securing the status of The Chosen One. But now, it seemed that the grand plan of the Vampire Kind might truly have nothing to do with The Chosen One or the Interstice. Yet, even so, the yet-to-appear fourth candidate might also emerge in this final battle.

“The fourth-ranked candidate has almost nothing in common with the description in the Poem Chapter, which is why the inherited power of the Ancient God is almost imperceptible. But one thing is certain, he or she must also share some traits with the first-ranked candidate, Joey Barton… could it be those eyes that see through death?”

Had Luviya appeared in Midshire Fort, Shard might even have believed she was the fourth-ranked candidate. Those purple eyes certainly possessed the power to see through death. But given the current circumstances, it was clear that Luviya was not…

“So, who could it be? Has this person already been drawn into this matter, and do they know the content of the ceremony, as well as the need to kill someone who has been resurrected before the start of the ceremony…”

Turning his head subconsciously toward Iluna, the seventeen-year-old girl also turned towards Shard. She even playfully winked at him.

In the light of the campfire, Shard caught a momentary glimpse of her left eye shining in bright gold. This wasn’t Iluna’s original eye; her true left eye was sacrificed during the ritual to balance The Chosen One. The eye she had now was a gift granted by the divine power of Shard during the first and only instance he “burned his divinity and ascended to godhood.”

This eye was very beautiful and since it was created by Divinity, it possessed many complex functions. Because the original eye was supposed to be sacrificed to an Ancient God, the replacement eye astonishingly performed the power of “balance” better than Iluna’s own right eye. Sometimes Shard even felt that one day, without using Sorcery or Arcane Technique, Iluna might directly see the traces that he could only perceive with the “Echo of Blood.”

Thinking this, Shard frowned:

“Luviya’s divination with the coin indicated that as of Iluna’s arrival in Midshire Fort City, there were at least four candidates for The Chosen One… as of… hmm… could such a thing be possible…”

He looked at Iluna, the seventeen-year-old girl who, although not as beautiful as the witches, was quite attractive among those who were not witches. And because of her youth, she carried a certain freshness that Miss Galina and Miss Aphrola did not possess.

The Outlander still remembered the first time he met Iluna one morning, when he had only been in this world for a few days and was on his way to “Good Man Peter’s Pet Shop” in Purple Iris Alley, a stone’s throw from Saint Delan Square, to pick up Mia. He bumped into Iluna at the store’s entrance.

In that moment, it felt as though all the light around him dimmed, except for a single beam that shone upon Iluna. Yet after that, when he met the first Death Candidate, whether it was Daknis or Joey Barton, he never had that peculiar feeling.

“Is there something strange on my face?”

Seeing Shard staring at her, Iluna asked somewhat embarrassedly. Shard shook his head, continuing to gaze at the flames before him:

“I was just thinking about some strange things, mere speculation… Anyway, it’s right to sort out Joey Barton’s problem first.”

The twenty minutes of rest were enough for Shard to recover his strength and spirit by the campfire. When he stood up again, he felt as if he had inexhaustible energy throughout his body.

He had wanted to take advantage of the time available and have a look around the church. He was considering how to persuade the High Ring Sorcerers inside the church to let him down into the basement when, at that moment, he heard the distant but clear sound of a bell from the depths of the fog outside the church.

Everyone put down what they were doing to listen carefully; it was the sound of the bell ringing nine times. Following the bell’s chime, all the ritual items and signs prepared inside the church for the sealing ceremony started to glitter with a golden radiance. The Holy Emblem of the God of Nature—two overlapping leaves, hanging on the wall at the end of the Main Chapel—scattered Miracle Elements throughout the church, while outside, the fog grew restless.

“It’s starting…”

Iluna whispered softly.

Shard frowned and looked toward the church entrance, his keen senses allowing him to perceive further changes in the Interstice. The Whisper Element was almost overwhelming the Miracle Element, even inside the church. And further away, he heard a sound reminiscent of an Ancient Beast’s roar, and the rumbling vibrations of the earth, indicating that something was coming.

In the reality of the Midshire Fort Area, the earthquake previously announced in the newspapers arrived as expected. Accompanied by the rumble as if Sicarl Mountain itself were about to split open, the fog-enshrouded Midshire Fort suffered the ravages of a natural mighty force. Boulders tumbled from the peak of Sicarl Mountain in reality, and billowing black smoke emerged from the crater lake, whose water boiled over as the Dead Volcano was reactivated.

Ruff Lane, House of the Blind.

Sister Michelle stood in front of the second-floor window, leaning on the frame and feeling the building itself vibrate. Many people stood behind her; after Shard’s departure, there had been no shortage of Magicians seeking help. Sister Michelle knew everyone’s concerns, and she was worried too. Sister Delphine had prophesied what was about to happen, and she knew better than anyone how terrible the upcoming night would be:

“This Dead Volcano is finally going to erupt.”

Saint Kara Avenue, Cassandra Auction House.

The young apprentice of the Old Witch, Miss Rita Swift, was in the lobby on the first floor, calming the staff members who had not left the auction house and organizing Magicians left by the witches to face the Undead that might appear. The violent earthquake had everyone looking pale, and just then, three strange figures appeared outside the auction house—three middle-aged men with pale faces, one holding a thorned scepter inset with a ruby, one wearing six gemstone rings of different colors, and one carrying a black and white pair of pistols, all of whom looked like nobles:

“Excuse me, is Miss Grace White or Miss Helen Black here… Here is their invitation.”

Spider Tail Alley, slums in the southern part of the city.

The flower girl who had had all her flowers bought out by Shard at once, and her family were huddled together in their rickety, drafty house, trembling with their eyes closed during the earthquake. The howling wind was outside, and something vast was slowly moving in the deep fog, casting a huge shadow on the windows.

This was the Midshire Fort slums, where the penniless poor who lived in this city found shelter. Tonight, no one could help them except for themselves. A sudden knock on the door came from outside the drafty front door, and the middle-aged man with a disheveled beard and not tall of stature stood in front of his family with the only kitchen knife in their house:

“Don’t be afraid; I will protect you—Mary, Jenny, Dennis, and little Harry.”

Foot of Sicarl Mountain, dense forest.

The Draleon Royal Army stationed in the Sicarl Mountain Region had already found each squad’s position to guard in the forest. Captain Lades and his team of fifty were building defensive fortifications, responsible for protecting a silver stake erected in the woods. That stake, like a nail driven into the soil, with intricate and fine patterns on its surface, made the young Sergeants wonder about its value.

Wrapped in a cold-resistant cloak, Captain Lades stood in his leather boots, looking into the misty night forest before lowering his gaze to the decayed corpse with its head blown open at his feet.

He pinched the amulet that Shard had sent him in his hand; even the sudden earthquake could not disturb this middle-aged man’s thoughts:

“I have the feeling that something incredible is going to happen tonight… The dead coming back to life, huh? Turns out the stories weren’t just lies; there really is such a thing as magic from legends.”

Cathedral of the Five Gods.

The earthquake did not interfere with the ceremony that had been planned for a year. The Magician squads remaining in the real world all mobilized, entering the city district to clear out the once-again strengthened Undead. In the interior of the cathedral, with the Old Clerics summoned from various parts of the Old Continent and the local Magicians, they participated in the prayers dressed in unified white robes in the resplendently golden cathedral’s nave. Five golden Light Pillars shot up from the church, breaking through the fog and reaching toward the sky overhead, representing the Holy Emblems of the Five Gods, which now appeared under the starry sky amidst the dense fog.

The golden radiance enveloped the entire city and even made the real Sicarl Mountain seem as if it was illuminated by the city below it. The sealing ceremony “Holy Tree Scar” had officially begun.

Meanwhile, in the Nature Chapel of the Interstice, protected and brought into the Interstice, the regular Clergy Members were now huddled around the central campfire in the Main Chapel, whispering their prayers. The busy Magicians holding Spellcasting Materials and their Relics guarded the entrances and windows, watching the continuously swirling fog.

Hundreds of Brass Life Rings appeared simultaneously, but the Steam Mist did not obscure the vision too much. Wordlessly, everyone just quietly waited.

The main part of the sealing ceremony was taking place in reality, and the church in the Interstice did not need to perform too many additional ritual steps. What they had to do was to fend off the assault of the Undead on the Gate of Death until the ceremony was officially completed.

The final battle was about to begin.