Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic

"This is bad."

After having added Sorcery for the priest as well, Shard struggled to take out the little book. Using it required a price to pay, so Shard didn't dare to write anything too extreme. Instead, he dipped his finger in the blood he had spat out and wrote on the blank page:

"Even if primitive and evil forces cause me to fall into slumber, I will be able to awake at the appropriate time."

This was to prevent himself from also passing out, ensuring that there would still be someone to lead the others in escape. Using such a precious Relic in this way was certainly wasteful, but it was the safest phrase he dared write with the Keeper of Secrets Level Relic.

He could have written "Shard defeats the Evil God," but the cost of that might have sent him straight to Detective Sparrow.

Dr. Schneider, who was currently battling Lady Lassoya, also retreated to the doorway of the banquet hall as Shard struggled to rise again. His boots stepped on the shattered red carpet from the explosion.

Behind the doctor, a brass pentagonal metal ring was spinning at an unprecedented rate, with four-colored Spirit Runes fluttering above the Ring of Fate, but the doctor kept retreating. He too was close to not being able to hold on any longer.

"How are you here?"

Shocked by Shard's appearance, and seeing that his comrades had all fallen, the doctor gritted his teeth and used his body to block Shard's line of sight:

"Shard, I have never mentioned to you the Circle Sorcerer's strongest power; by rights, you shouldn't have known about it now. But there's no other way, please witness my power. I might fall unconscious after using this power. If I win, remember to take all of us..."

A silver flash appeared from inside the banquet hall, and the doctor staggered backward. Astonishingly, a crack appeared on the Ring of Fate behind him.

"Pay attention, Detective! This is not a power that can be lightly wielded. The Circle Sorcerer's phase sublimation isn't so simple!"

Dr. Schneider suddenly shouted loudly and with the eruption of the repressed power, a new figure appeared through the scorching Steam Mist behind him.

Shard's eyes widened:

"This is..."

[...his 'other self.']

"What is the doctor doing? Wait!"

Shard, by the wall, suddenly sniffed vigorously, and amid the scent of blood mist, he smelled a very distinct sulfur odor. He thought he heard laughter, he thought he heard low sobs, but then he heard nothing:

"Sulfur? Wait, Professor Sanchez said there might be something inside the doctor's heart..."

Shard hadn't expected to encounter the truth for the first time in such a moment.

The figure that emerged behind the doctor was indistinct due to the Steam Mist, standing behind the doctor nearly symmetrical across the Ring of Fate.

Then, the blurred tall figure in the mist raised its right hand in unison with Dr. Schneider. Their voices overlapped, but whether it was the doctor's Draleonian or the tall figure's strange and evil tongue, Shard understood it all.

Roaring wind burst into the corridor, and the light seemed to dim at this moment. A brand-new power surged within the doctor, altering the space because of this force.

Both cried out loudly:

"Hound of light..."

Shard's eyes widened.

Behind Dr. Schneider, the golden Miracle Soul Rune [Brightness] and the brass Enlightenment Spirit Rune [Hound] detached from the ring, drifting towards the center of the spinning brass hoop.

The voice grew deeper, and the last half of the sentence sounded like the final whisper of a life:

"...running through a dreamscape of malice."

The black iron color of "Whisper," the silver of "Desecration," and Dr. Schneider's core Spirit Rune "Dream," gathered in the center of the Ring of Fate, connecting the five Spirit Runes into a whole before emitting the same silver glimmer.

In the midst of this sound, all brightness around disappeared. Darkness descended completely.

Shard lost all sight as if someone had pulled him from a brightly lit corridor into an abyss. Chilling winds blew all around, and countless whispers and murmurs emerged by his ears, which was even more terrifying than when the Box of Darkness spiraled out of control.

He felt like he was stuck in a quagmire of darkness, feeling as if countless hands were pulling at him. But then, a sudden burst of white light appeared, and he saw what seemed to be Dr. Schneider standing in the midst of the black tar. The figure grew blurry, his eyes saw the doctor, but reflected in his pupils was a hound radiating with pure Holy Light.

"Is this the Sublimation Incantation?"

The hound in the Holy Light charged down the dark path, lunging at the enemy in this malice-filled muddy dreamscape.

The power of this moment can't be described by the inexperienced Outlander, but he actually felt a sense of decay incredibly similar to that of the Old God, the Creator of Innocence, who was on the verge of collapse.

The aura was majestic, yet it signified termination; it was not the power of mortals.

"What exactly is the Circle Sorcerer's Sublimation Incantation?"

The racing hound of light seemed to draw power from the earth beneath and the heavens above. It cut through the darkness, charging forward, and there in the midst of the malicious dark dreamscape, Lady Lassoya appeared, struck head-on by the glowing Holy Light hound:

"Damn it, it's the Sublimation Incantation! Where the hell did you come from, you madman?!"

The woman with smeared makeup cursed loudly, but as she came into contact with the light of the hound, her whole being exploded with light from within and vanished into the Holy Light.

The darkness around vanished in the next moment, and the chilling wind along with the whispers and murmurs also departed. Shard once again smelled the air, rich as if dripping with blood, and saw the blood mist rising like curtains in the corridor.

Looking ahead, the hound had disappeared, and Dr. Schneider, who had lost consciousness, lay motionless on his back before Shard. Shard had never seen the respectable psychologist in such disarray. His eyes were tightly closed, his face ashen like that of Detective Sparrow Hamilton a week prior to his impending death, but at least he was still alive for now.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

So Shard reached out and touched the doctor, not expecting that his greatest contribution to the battle would turn out to be this.

"Where's Miss Annette? Should I touch her too when she gets back?"

If it wasn't for the fact that Sorcery effects didn't work on non-critically injured people, Shard would have touched himself first.

Struggling to his feet, he tried to move the doctor, the Priest, and the female writer together, to wait for Miss Annette to come back and take them away. But at that moment, the devastated banquet hall entrance, now descending with ashes and flaking wall paint, once again echoed with a voice.

Shard looked up to see Lady Lassoya, head drenched in blood and looking as though she was on her last breath, crawl through the rubble of the grand entrance:

"Your friend really is a madman."

She appeared to be at her limit, but still looked at Shard with crazy eyes through her mask, her tone exceptionally frightening.

Only then did Shard notice that the woman, her left hand charred and covered in scars, was holding her severed right hand.

She pressed the severed hand with her chin, took the pebble ring from the severed hand with her left, and gently kissed it.

"Oh no!"