Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic

"An earthquake?"

At the first tremor underfoot, Shard thought of the terrible future that could await them should they encounter an earthquake underground. But he quickly realized that this was no earthquake; it was the maze itself that was shaking.

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Upon closer inspection, the walls around them were slowly moving. Some turned in place, while others drew closer to the middle, the sharp and piercing sound of stone scraping against the ground.

Miss Annette, who was walking in the front, changed her expression:

"Someone is controlling the Scribe Level Relic ’Maze Candle.’ We’re finally going to encounter a Circle Sorcerer. Quick, follow me, and don’t get separated."

Even as she said this, the rate at which the maze’s walls changed far exceeded the trio’s expectations.

Having only taken a few steps forward, the wall next to them suddenly swung viciously to the side, cutting off Miss Beyas, who was at the back, behind it.

Hearing the sound, Shard very rationally didn’t attempt to retrieve Miss Beyas from behind the wall but continued to run forward with Miss Annette.

Unexpectedly, just as they turned the corner at the upcoming intersection, a blood-red fog surged up:

"It’s an Arcane Technique!"

Miss Annette shouted, pinching a handful of powder from her pocket and throwing it forward. However, this action was futile. Instead, several bats with red eyes fluttered out of the blood fog:

"This is not the Arcane Technique of a Silver-Eyed One. Detective, fall back for now. I’ll handle this."

Shard therefore retreated back to the intersection he had passed, but the walls of the maze continued to change relentlessly. As Shard moved back, Miss Annette did not retreat, and the wall in front of them threatened to separate the two:

"Detective, don’t follow me. We’ll stick to our original plan."

She left those words behind and charged into the blood fog ahead.

Shard wanted to follow, but he stopped himself. Light from Silvermoon flew from his hand but failed to leave any mark on the rising wall in front. Trying to call out loudly a few times, he received no response from the other side of the wall.

Alone, Shard stood in place without moving, listening to the grating noise coming from all directions. It took a full two minutes before all the walls finally ceased moving. In the new maze, the three of them were separated, and there was an eerie silence all around. Shard’s left hand was tightly holding the Golden Necklace around his neck, but there was no panic on his face:

"Just as I thought we would encounter such a situation."

In the plan they had made before entering the ruins, there was the contemplation that the three of them could become separated for various reasons. Among those, getting lost in the illusions created by the Maze Candle was most likely.

In such a situation, Miss Annette and Miss Beyas’ instructions to Shard were to find a relatively safe place to hide and wait for the two ladies to resolve the trouble before coming out.

They seemed to assume that Shard, on his own, had limited strength; he would do well just to stay safe and should not try to do more. Shard’s reason for joining was only to help deal with the mirror that attacked "the other me." Now that the mirror’s issue had been dealt with, it would be a good thing, in the ladies’ view, for Shard not to have to face the final battle.

"But now..."

He looked at the passageway in front of him and took a few steps forward to the intersection:

"Where should I go now?"

He touched the pendant at his chest, but it wasn’t yet the right time to use it:

"Feel it out, see if you can locate that ’Maze Candle.’

"You can find it, but you won’t be able to touch it. This maze formed by the relic is not a true illusion; otherwise, those outside of the illusion could just shoot you, and you would have died long ago. The way out of this near-imperfect Maze Lock is for you to find the maze’s exit."

"An incomplete Maze Lock?"

Shard furrowed his brows and pondered:

"This complicates things... We clearly encountered an attack just now. Why has no one tried to ambush me?"

He stood still for a while, then confirmed that indeed, no enemies were coming for him.

"Could it be that deep within the maze, there really are only strangers from the Blood Spirit Sect and a Silver-Eyed One? Do they see me as too weak, so they don’t bother with me?"

Placing his hand on the wall of the maze, he still found no new clues. Of course, Shard wasn’t content to wait here, but using Divinity in the current situation was even more impossible.

"You have other methods."

"I notice you used an affirmative sentence."

"Your emotional fluctuations are too slight."

In an environment where one is alone, having a voice that one can trust to speak with is nice indeed. Although "the other me" is the price paid for gaining strength, it will entangle with the sorcerer’s soul throughout a Circle Sorcerer’s life. At the very least, this means Circle Sorcerers will never be lonely.

Taking a deep breath, the musty and stifling air entered his nostrils. Shard thought to himself:

"Since there’s no way to break the maze, let’s consider a different approach. The ruins belong to the Order of the Creator of Innocence. Would the Order leave any conveniences for a new Order in the future?"

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"You do not possess the Divine Arts of that Deity. Calling for a resonance of similar energies will likely not be easy," she whispered quietly as a reminder.

"Yes, I have no Divine Arts, but I have a last will."

Shard looked around and whispered softly,

"The maker of toys always yearns to create Innocence."

Nothing happened.

Shard thought for a moment, the image of Priest Augustus suddenly surfaced, the only thing missing from the Mysticism taught at the Three Great Magics Academies was content about prayer and Divine Arts:

"To invoke the power of a Deity, of course, you must rely on prayer." (Note)

With these words, he closed his eyes and with his fingertip drew the Holy Emblem of the Old God "Creator of Innocence" on his chest. Using the technique he’d learned from Priest Augustus, Shard prayed softly:

"The maker of toys always yearns to create Innocence."

The wind swept past his ears, and Shard heard a sigh. When he opened his eyes again, a pure golden butterfly took flight from his shoulder, flying off into the distance in front of his eyes.

"What element?"

He stared at the butterfly that seemed to entice him.

[Miracle.]

Shard knew his plan had succeeded.

The long-extinct Order surely couldn’t have guessed that someone would use a Relic within the Ruins, but the butterfly, which seemed to have the function of leading the way, indeed had the ability to guide the correct path.

Following the fluttering golden butterfly, Shard moved on through the Maze without stopping. Ten minutes later, he was faced with a stone wall, indicating he had entered a dead end. But the butterfly did not stop; it flew straight through the wall, vanishing from sight.

"Is this the exit?"

He thought doubtfully and touched the necklace around his neck, then once more lit the dwindling [Bordeaux Candle].

He reached out to touch the wall in front of him, his hand not passing through but feeling the real obstruction that existed.

Shard paused,

"So that’s it."

Pushing harder, and even though the wall showed no sign of movement, his hand indeed pushed open a stone door. When the door was wide enough, Shard stepped forward, passing through the wall and entering the next room.

The Maze ended. In this new room within the Ruins, there were no large stone bricks making up the walls, nor any other Relics obstructing the path.

The golden butterfly fluttered up and down in the darkness, eventually exploding into golden specks of light before Shard’s eyes, illuminating the narrow room with twinkling specks.

Unlike all other Ruins spaces he had passed through, this place had only the one door Shard had entered. The room was about the size of the initial space before the first stone door, with no inscriptions on the walls, but a stone sarcophagus stood still before him.

This didn’t seem like a place one could enter by normal means; the sarcophagus had not been disturbed, suggesting that the people from the Blood of Mercury hadn’t found it.

Shard hesitated, confirming there was nothing but the coffin in this room, and then approached the ancient sarcophagus. The sarcophagus bore only the name—Joel Ode Caris—it seemed to be the tomb of one of the three Guardians left behind to watch over the Ruins.

Normally, Shard would not casually disturb another’s coffin, but since the golden butterfly had led him here, he could only look inside the sarcophagus for answers.

"I’m sorry."

He apologized sincerely to the sarcophagus, then slid the lid open. It moved easily, despite no one having touched it for over a thousand years.

Inside was no corpse, only an exquisitely made stone box, a scroll of Parchment, and a silver ring.

"May your spirit find peace."

Shard said softly, feeling great respect for the three who had stayed behind to the end.

He then picked up the Parchment Roll, finding it to be a letter. The writing was in the same Ancient Script as on the walls.

The letter began by explaining that it was left by Gina Angela Serwell, the last to die of the three Guardians of the Ruins. She explained that the stone box was the urn of Joel Ode Caris’s ashes and hoped that future visitors would not disturb it, praying for her two already deceased companions within the letter.

In the end, on the yellowed Parchment Roll, she had drawn a map of the Ruins, marking the locations of the three coffins, secret passages, theft-preventing mechanisms, and certain Relic spots, hoping to aid those who would come after.

Of course, the most important was the dangerous Relic sealed in the Ruins, which the Parchment called the Keeper of Secrets Level Relic [Corpse Tree].

Although only Keeper of Secrets Level, it possessed traits like Spatial Movement, Mass Collective Hallucination, Necromancy, and Life Puppet Manipulation. If such a Relic were to malfunction, it could wipe out a city in a short time. But by keeping it from "feeding" for a lengthy period, its power would naturally decline, which is why the Order had repressed it inside the Ruins.

The letter didn’t delve too deeply into the specific traits of the [Corpse Tree], but it repeatedly emphasized that those entering the Ruins should not touch it. It also warned that if wounds on a companion’s body started growing unnatural wooden tendrils, that meant they were infected and had to be killed immediately.

As for the third object placed in the sarcophagus, the silver ring next to the urn was Caris’s personal item. It wasn’t a Relic with the [Whisper] trait; it was simply an ordinary ring.

Miss Seville, who left the letter, hoped that later visitors would not disturb the Guardians’ belongings, as this was their only wish.