Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic-Chapter 748 - : The Witch Empress’s Gift

Chapter 748 -748: The Witch Empress’s Gift

“Is this some kind of proverb? The path ahead connects to the passage of death, indeed a road to death.”

Shard reached out and touched the stele, confirming that it was just an ordinary object. However, given Shard’s understanding of the Witch Council, it was likely that after this matter ended, the Grand Witches would take the stele away for collection.

“How interesting.”

He circled to the back of the stele and discovered that there was also text on the reverse side. However, the letters on the back were unlike the neatly inscribed letters on the front, resembling the careless scrawls that an unkempt mathematician might leave in the margins of a piece of paper during calculations.

Indeed, the text on the front and back were not even in the same language:

“This is…”

He squinted and leaned in to read, realizing it was a fragmented sentence:

“… delve into the boundary land, slay the resurrected ones. Before death…”

He read these words out loud, and after a moment of thought, furrowed his brow:

“A Fragment of a Poem Chapter?”

Although the text was very short, its grammatical structure was very similar to what Shard had seen on the stone figurine that accompanied Mr. Pasolo’s burial.

“This doesn’t seem like a sentence to judge the identity of the Chosen One, but rather like a requirement of the Chosen One Ceremony… The location of the ceremony needs to be at the edge of life and death, and the person holding the ceremony must have killed a resurrected one. Then, before real death comes, they must do something else…”

He recorded these words; they might be useful.

Continuing on, after leaving the platform, there was another narrow hallway. The howling wind filled with the power of death was now nearly on par with the wind in the depths of the Nature Chapel’s interstice.

Clearly, a fierce battle had occurred here, with the ground covered in a layer of black bones, scattered with silver powder and holy water for exorcism, apparently left behind just half an hour earlier. Although Miss Aphrola and her party had entered earlier, it seemed they had taken a long time to deal with the troubles Shard had not encountered.

At first, the hallway was extremely narrow, but after a few dozen steps, it opened up. Unlike the outer hallway, the walls here were even and made of stone slabs, faintly marked with unrecognizable traces.

Shard had to extend his right hand in front of him to block the deathly wind, and he could faintly see a light up ahead.

Quickening his pace, he soon saw the followers of the witches stopping in the hallway. Two-thirds of them were casting spells to resist the howling black wind, with the Nine Rings-level lady even holding a bead emanating a misty green glow, using the power of nature to fend off death.

Mia Cat would probably like this kind of round bead.

The remaining third were using specially prepared black ink with the scent of cinnamon and roses to restore the ritual marks on the walls.

The rich scent was not dispersed by the black wind, at least not in the immediate vicinity.

After more than two thousand years, the ancient runes and murals that once existed on the walls had become very vague. These were the outermost ritual base formations of the seal, akin to the silver lines and the talismans and bells that Shard had seen in the Nature Chapel.

“Miss Swift! Where are Miss Aphrola and Granny Cassandra?”

Shard asked, and the crowd made way for him to reach the wall.

Granny Cassandra’s young apprentice, Miss Rita Swift, was directing the female sorcerers to restore the ritual marks on the wall, as recorded by the Council. She answered:

“Mr. Hamilton, how did you get in here? The teacher and Miss Aphrola have gone ahead, and the core of the ceremony is up front.”

“I want to take a look inside, do you have any message I should carry?”

Seeing Shard intent on proceeding forward, the young girl with flaxen hair hurriedly tried to stop him:

“Please don’t go any further. The teacher said the area ahead is not for us to approach, there is truly only a thin line between it and death.”

“It’s okay.”

Shard shook his head:

“Granny Cassandra has shown me the seal at the summit, I can withstand it.”

His motivation for wanting to move further inside wasn’t a mere act of curiosity; considering that he had already encountered paths at the foot and peak of the mountain during the rescue of Priest Augustus and reunion with Helen Grace, he thought that if he could also inspect the mid-mountain passageway, his stay at Midshire Fort wouldn’t be considered a waste of most of the autumn.

“Then, please be very careful.”

Seeing how persistent Shard was, the young girl handed him an oval, smooth, grey rune stone.

On either side of the rune stone were luminous, large runes; the one on the front resembled a spiraling tree pattern, while the one on the back resembled the veins of a leaf.

These were Elf runes with the respective meanings of “Life” and “Health.” The rune stone could help protect against the wind of death, and considering the Elven knowledge Shard had acquired, he believed that if the materials were complete, he could make similar alchemical products himself.

“Please be careful!”

“Don’t worry.”

Shard waved his hand and continued forward, bracing against the wild wind.

The area where Miss Swift and her companions were was the widest part of the passageway. Moving forward, the path narrowed once again, and the force of death grew increasingly intense.

When the harsh wind left the first cut on Shard’s face and the specks of golden brilliance within the wound trailed a glow behind him, he knew he was nearing the end.

The appearance of the Divine Afterglow made Shard even more powerful at that moment. Therefore, when the rustling sound emerged, and a heap of bones that had obviously been scattered not long ago reassembled into a pitch-black skeleton, Shard didn’t feel panicked:

“An undead that can resurrect?”

Any monster that could exist in such extreme proximity to the land of death had to be taken seriously. With furrowed brows, Shard held the Night Watchman in his right hand, eyeing the black bone sword held by the black skeleton.

The two charged at one another almost simultaneously, and the moment their swords touched, a crisp sound followed, the Night Watchman and the black bone sword were both repelled.

The black skeleton sprayed a stream of black mist at Shard, but before it could touch him, it was dispersed by the glow of the Divine Afterglow.

With a one-handed thrust forward, he struck precisely at the skeleton’s right hand bone. After flicking away the black bone sword, Shard stepped back, drew his right sword arm slightly in front of his left chest, inhaled deeply, and then exploded with all his power, thrusting his sword rapidly forward.

Leaning on his strong physical condition and the power that surged at that instant, the three sword thrusts almost became afterimages in the black wind. The golden markings on his arm formed a thick golden light pillar in the air at that instant.

With the Blade of Chaotic Space-Time, six thrusts seemed to occur simultaneously in one second. The Night Watchman performed excellently in demonstrating its power against evil, and as Shard sheathed his sword and held his wrist, six fractured spots appeared on the surface of the skeleton, which then once again scattered into a pile of dry bones.

Walking briskly against the wind to the side of the black bone sword, Shard discovered that the bone sword had also disintegrated into bone fragments, which greatly disappointed him, who had hoped to pick up a bargain. He then continued onward, with the golden markings on his body shining brighter, to the point where sparks like residual flames dragged behind him:

“Miss Aphrola and Granny Cassandra, how exactly did you manage to get here?”

Even he found it very hard to advance.

After taking more than twenty steps, the temperature on the Witch Detector badge hanging on his chest finally overcame the black wind’s chill, allowing Shard to feel its presence. Continuing forward, the passage kept narrowing until it ended at a stone door that only allowed one person to pass through.

The stone door had a seal on it, but it had already been broken by the witches. The door was now open, and there was a symbol on it that looked like a Holy Emblem, resembling an upside-down question mark. Shard suddenly had the feeling that this symbol was in fact the Holy Emblem of the Ancient God “Chaos Witch”.

Stepping through the stone door, he found himself in a circular space about the same size as the “Witch Council” meeting area.

The pitch-black wind prowled within, and Shard could only glimpse the well at the center of the space with squinted eyes. Situated right in the middle of the circle, it was this violent high wind that burst forth from the well, which was the passageway situated on the mountainside.

The place was very spacious. Apart from the well and the opened stone door, there was nothing but ritual traces on the mottled walls, garbage along the walls, and a bronze skeleton opposite the stone door’s wall.

Miss Aphrola and Granny Cassandra were standing right in front of that metallic skeleton. Due to the wind noise and the thick Death Power, they actually hadn’t noticed Shard’s arrival until he approached them. Then they were surprised to see the dense golden cracks on his body.

“Delphine had the same manifestation once, but hers was a fiery red. Did she share her flame with you?”

Granny Cassandra asked, and Shard shook his head.

Only then did he notice that both witches were wearing jewelry that could directly open the Council passage. Miss Aphrola’s was the “Ancient Witch’s Golden Ring – Right One,” while Granny Cassandra’s was the golden button on her chest, presumably the “Ancient Witch’s Golden Button” from among the thirteen pieces of Witch’s Jewelry.

It was these two pieces of jewelry that helped them successfully reach this place.

“Shard, why are you here? No, how did you get in?”

“Miss Galina sees something in me; naturally, I have exceptional qualities.”

He stretched out his finger, the silver light on the tip looking as if it could be blown away by the wind. The rusty bronze skeleton before him seemed very familiar.

“Shard, this is…”

Granny Cassandra wanted to provide an introduction, but Shard had already recognized what lay before him:

“This is a Soul-Casting Skeleton, a forbidden alchemical weapon made by people of the Second Era using ancient knowledge, similar to the ‘Giant Divine Soldier’ found in the Tobesk Underground Ruins. They were the servants of ancient Transcendents. Oh, a Witch Empress from the Late Fifth Era could actually bring out such a thing?”

Even though there were some differences in detail, the thing before him was of the same kind as the skeleton Shard had seen in the Silent Valley of the Fifth Era guarding the “Jaeger Scroll.” The only difference was that this time the skeleton was clasping a stone box instead of a tablet.

“You know about this, too? Then there’s no need for an explanation. Granny and I believe this is a gift left by the Witch Empress Violetta Marshall for those who come after,” said Miss Aphrola, looking somewhat pale. Having been in such a place for so long, she was barely holding on:

“But we’re all living people, and taking the box would undoubtedly lead to a fight with this skeleton. In a place like this, none of us wants to unleash battle.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll handle it,” Shard replied, reaching out his hand.

In the Fifth Era, Miss Orland had used the argument “You weren’t born yet; you’re not considered living” to let Shard touch a skeleton once. At that time, Shard understood that this thing meant no harm to him, definitely not due to the passage of time, but because he had once entered the Land of Death.

As expected, after reaching out his hand, he was only blocked by the skeleton, not attacked:

“Answer me, what existed in the void before the world was born, besides those Ancient Gods?”

The Witch Empress had probably reconfigured this skeleton’s language, for it spoke in the ancient tongue of the Fifth Era. This question was different from the one Shard had heard last time, but he too had an answer:

“The Primordial flame.”

Mr. Edmund of the Guiding Light Hermitage had said that the Fire of the Primordial was used by the Ancient Gods to illuminate the world before its birth.

The skeleton withdrew its arm from blocking Shard, the bronze hand bones cradling a stone box, elevating it towards Shard.

“See, it’s quite simple.”

He said to Miss Aphrola with a smile, and then the three of them watched as the stone box turned to dust in the black wind.

Only three items remained in the skeleton’s hand bones. A comb emanating a rainbow luster, seemingly made of ivory; a wooden key, which was very familiar to Shard; and a roll of parchment, which appeared to be longer than the hand-copied Book of Pink that Desire had given to Shard.

None of the three items had rotted in the black wind, but only the wooden key was a Relic.

“A Time Key?”

Shard was slightly surprised, judging from the sparse grain on its surface, the key was still a Time Key to the Fifth Era.

“Since it’s the Time Key, then it belongs to you.”

Miss Aphrola reminded him, taking the comb in her hand:

“What is this? It doesn’t seem like a Relic, but it’s… very pretty.”

“It’s a substitute for the Ritual Core left by the Guardian of Wydon.”

Granny Cassandra, who picked up and unfolded the parchment, said as she stood beside Shard. The Old Witch stood in the wind, squinting her eyes as she read the contents on the parchment:

“This is a letter from the Empress to those who come after, containing some historical information, some knowledge, and… yes, at the end, the complete content of the seal. To facilitate future repairs of the ritual, she condensed the Ritual Core into this comb. Drop the comb down the well and use the power of a witch to guide it, and the ritual can be mostly repaired. But to fully repair it, I think we are still underprepared.”

“What other materials does the ritual need then… Are you planning to repair such a large ritual empty-handed, just with this comb?”

Shard asked.

“Of course not, we prepared some things in advance, and besides, we have this for the Ritual Materials.”

Miss Aphrola flicked her long hair:

“The hair of a Grand Witch is more than sufficient as Spellcasting Materials, especially in rituals within the Witch System, where hair is commonly used as ceremonial material. Though the Circle Sorcerers of the Sixth Era may not be aware, this was common knowledge in the Fifth Era.”

Seeing Shard hesitate, the lady with curly brown hair added:

“I know what you’re thinking, oh, young Knight. The skill to control the growth of hair is one of the most frequently used secret techniques by witches. Aside from the malicious ‘Baldness Curse,’ nothing can stop us from having beautiful hair.”

Seeing that Shard was indeed alright in such a place, the witches handed over the blue lizard blood ink and the distinctive Nym Silver Alloy Line from the Ritual Materials to Shard, asking for his help in restoring the damaged ritual site. And the partial knowledge from the Witch Echo: Feliana also helped Shard to better understand the task at hand.