Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic

The violently trembling ground signaled that this altar was about to collapse as well.

Shard recited the spell in the merman's language once again. The Golden Pearl flew out from the pool of blood, its surface unstained by any blood, a slightly sticky crimson liquid gathering in a smooth arc under the pearl before falling into the blood-spattered altar as a large droplet.

"I need your help now."

Shard stared at the pearl glowing with a golden hue and thought:

"Just like at the Blood Feast at Lakeside Manor."

The entire floor of the temple collapsed; the blood-red waves roared tumultuously. Yet, the walls and the corridors outside the temple remained utterly intact. The only level surface inside the temple was the platform at its deepest end where the altar was placed.

The Golden Pearl above the blood water and Shard in front of the altar—two sources of golden light in this perilous scene—appeared so strange. Golden embers drifted around, and after reaching the dimly lit sky above, the beams of light seemed to envelop the platform.

She chuckled lightly:

[Outlander, seeking my help, do you know what you should say now?]

Shard gazed at the pearl before him, its reflection in his eyes:

"Of course I know."

[Then, please begin.]

The murmuring seemed like chanting.

"You, are my..."

With his palm facing upward, he reached under the pearl and then lifted it upward. He felt a distinct repulsion in his palm, and a black holy emblem representing the Evil God faintly appeared there.

[...I, am you.]

But between the narrow gap bridging Shard's palm and the pearl, a transparent woman's hand connecting to Shard's wrist slowly emerged. Her translucent silver hand supported the pearl, and Shard supported her hand.

"Oh~"

He moaned softly with his eyes closed, then took a deep breath, his chest heaving, making the golden glow on his body brighter.

He turned slowly, the pearl in his right hand radiating light as if it were the sun.

The mesmerizing hue held Shard's gaze for a moment, but then he looked up at the collapsing temple in front of him.

Seawater had already surged up from below, and the missing roof now allowed him to see the complete dimly-lit sky.

Although the temple had collapsed, the Sea Return ritual was not yet over. Feeling the powerful sun-like force in the palm of his hand, Shard believed he might still be able to do something.

[I thought you would choose to store this pearl in the Deity's gift box and use it when needed.]

Even though her silver transparent hand was pressed against Shard's palm, he felt no touch or warmth. When Shard first saw her arm at Lakeside Manor, he was semi-conscious. Seeing her hand truly now but still so unreal.

The voice still came from next to his ear.

Compared to the golden glow around him that seemed like leaping flames, the silver trace behind him was so faint. It was as if Shard had grown silver hair, or as if a silver figure was staying behind him.

"To grab it and not immediately absorb it, waiting to be stolen, right?"

Shard thought to himself, although the likelihood of it being stolen was very low, he would not take any risks at such a time:

"However, absorbing Divinity, the power from ten minutes of Divinity Overflow, should not be wasted. Although the Church has almost won, I believe I can still do other things."

With the Outlander's steady breathing, the golden luster on the pearl, clinging to his arm, spread like chains towards his entire body. The golden spots on his body grew more vigorous, turning the spontaneously emerging Ring of Fate behind him into a dazzling pure gold.

[So what do you intend to do?]

She chuckled in his ear.

"Having carried the fishing rod for so long, I ought to catch a fish, right?"

Shard laughed to himself, then sighed with his eyes closed:

"I feel the power."

The beating of his heart gradually synchronized with the vibration frequency of the pearl in his hand. Her voice was gentle, always beside Shard:

[The spiral of the fishtail symbolizes the original merman and the deepest secrets of the ocean floor. In the old Deep Sea Temple, the Crimson God once slumbered here.]

[You have heard the story of the Old God, the "Lord of the Crimson Spiral," and you have learned of one of the desecrations of the Old God "Lord of the Crimson Spiral."]

[You have gained the Sorcery — Water Walking.]

"The god of the Drowned Ones lets me breathe underwater; the god of aquatic creatures grants me the ability to walk on water. The Old Gods of this world are truly amusing~"

The golden color of the pearl in his hand gradually faded; Shard opened his eyes, and the dark golden light in his pupils slowly subsided.

(Mia is running...)

The battle around the Giant Mermaid Corpse and the ruins of the temple continued. Whether under the water or around the surrounding platform, the fight between the Church's Circle Sorcerers and the Crimson Cult had nearly reached its conclusion, with the Cultist Sorcerers being dominated by the Church from the start, and even though humans were not prevailing in the underwater fights, the appearance of some exotic marine creatures was turning the tide in favor of the Church.

First, the temple in front of the giant body's heart collapsed thunderously, followed by an oppressive golden light soaring into the sky.

"Spatial Stabilization Aura!"

The deep voice couldn't suppress the raging waves, but it still reached the ears of the High Ring Sorcerer, sensitive to sensations.

Shard stood before the heart on a faltering altar, and under the slight Divine Power overflowing from absorbing divinity, invisible ripples spread out from him in all directions. This area, manifested from the seabed due to spatial anomalies, began to collapse overall.

This signified that the ruins were being expelled back into the ancient merman ruins in the deep abyss of the sea.

Shrinking the pearl in his hand by a third of its size and turning it into a toy, Shard pocketed it and, shouldering his fishing rod, left the altar. He stepped on the seawater gushing from the collapsing floor and walked along the disappearing corridor.

As Shard walked, the speed of the ruins' collapse and disappearance increased. Crimson sea water surged from beneath the ground of the ruins, engulfing chunks of buildings. At this time, whether it was Ring Sorcerers from the True God Church or remnants of Crimson Cult, all were evacuating the ruins.

As the corridor walls shattered, Shard could see vague glimpses of mermen in the tide, attempting to attack the Ring Sorcerers of the True God Church who were gathering to leave. But as the ethereal conch sound arose, human-bodied mermaids with fish tails sprang from the deep sea, rescuing the human sorcerers who had fallen into the water and hunting the remaining grotesque mermen.

These were true mermaids, with genuine female torsos covered in shells and seaweed and beautiful fish tails, paddling in the crimson sea water to aid their movement.

"Mermaids and mermen are mortal enemies; their appearance now is not strange... Tifa said mermaids are a secret of the Witch Council, she could not talk too much about it... Local rumors have it that the Aphrola Family is related to the mermaids... so it is, Miss Aphrola can summon the exotic species of mermaids, which is why the Council sent her to Coldwater Port."

This was the witch's secret; Hevy Aphrola, third seat of the Council from an ancient Circle Sorcerer family, truly had the oldest covenant with the mermaid species.

As Shard pondered, he saw the Ring Sorcerers from the True God Church had already left the collapsing ruins, and the entire ruins had now collapsed into the water. Amid the churning waves, he discarded frog legs and then leaped sharply upwards.

Under the state of Divinity Overflow, the power unleashed by the sorcery made him seem to fly, shooting from the last stone slab of the ruins toward the giant mermaid corpse's head.

"Stop him!"

Gurgling strange language came from the distant shore, indicating that high-rank priests of the Crimson Cult were conversing. The voice traveled through the rain curtain into Shard's ears, and in the next moment, the giant mermaid corpse, previously driven by instinct towards Coldwater Port through the waves, unexpectedly extended its right hand from beneath the water and fiercely grabbed at Shard in mid-air.

Even without the bizarre power in the heart to support it, the raised giant hand, still appeared like a mountain falling from the sky, with bones showing eerily through the rotting flesh. From the sky, bodies of dead fish, seaweed, stones, and more marine debris pummeled Shard before anything else.

The Roder Card of The Sun 1 flew from Shard's hand, hovering in mid-air. Shard stepped on the Roder Card and pushed off sharply with a kick, the sorcery-enhanced leaping power allowing him to change direction in mid-air, avoiding the looming giant hand.

Although Shard dodged the hand, the Roder Card in the air was directly caught in the mermaid's palm. But this also meant that the fish hook, already pierced into The Sun 1, was caught by the mermaid too.

"Gotcha."

The fishing line automatically tightened, as if the fishing rod too was jubilant. Although this Scribe Level Relic "Soul Fishing Rod" couldn't get anything from a soulless corpse, it indeed caught something valuable.

Shard's body fell, but two black chains shot out from his sleeves simultaneously, intertwining and winding around the fishing line, quickly scaling upwards. As Shard expertly landed on the still surging crimson tidal waves, the chains of karmic sin had already wrapped tightly around the mermaid's palm, ensuring it could not release the fish hook.

Under the dim sky, the gloomy sun behind the clouds made the black chains appear as if connecting the sky with the blood-red sea.

In this apocalyptic scene, mermen, mermaids, and Ring Sorcerers in the sea all looked towards this spot, seeing Shard at the crest of the wave, appearing like a dark spot, holding the fishing rod in one hand and tightening the fishing line with the other.

The ruins appeared here because of the power of space and could be expelled using "Spatial Stabilization Aura." But the mermaid corpse, having truly swum from the deep sea to the offshore waters of Coldwater Port, could only be stopped by inflicting damage.

As for the original plan of the Church, Shard didn't care, he just didn't want to waste the overflowing divine power.

He was exerting force, transforming a fragment of the divine overflow into the purest form of physical strength:

"Hey!"

With Shard's low growl, he gritted his teeth and raised the fishing rod above his head. The rod extended, the line tightened, and the chains of karmic sin began to retract.

In the rolling thunder, amid the crimson waves and monstrous surf, the right arm of the mermaid stretched towards the sky, then the whole body moved forward, and slowly upwards, revealing everything below the shoulders.

He was actually pulled up from the seabed by Shard. The massive body below the shoulders rose completely, almost blocking out all the light from the entire ocean. Below the shoulders, the lower half of the giant corpse was covered in small, writhing, crimson tentacles.

The body finally broke free from the chains and the hook, absorbing the last power of the Sea Return ritual amid the prayers of the cultists onshore. It opened its eyes, aiming at Shard below, and its two rotting hands reached towards the ocean.

But it was already too late, Shard, looking up at the terrifying corpse in the sky, drew crosses of light above his head:

"Moonlight Slash!"

The giant cross of light streaked into the sky, piercing the body and leaving a cross-shaped hole in the bizarre yellow clouds.

The body seemed to freeze in the air, then, the split segments fell into the sea.

This was the first time Shard had used "Silvermoon Slash" in such a manner, perhaps this arcane technique had broader possibilities for development.

"The God Summoner from Tobesk has regained full power!"

People gaped at the scene, the dim sky now lit with bright yellow sunlight. Finally, the sun shone through the moonlight-created holes, casting light across the ocean. The light, shaped like a cross due to the clouds, illuminated the sea where Shard, still holding the fishing rod, stood at the cross's intersection.

Sounds of explosions came from beneath the sea, these were the base formations of the massive Sea Return ritual, now breaking down one by one since the ritual core was destroyed. As the ritual power waned, though towering waves continued to crash toward Coldwater Port, they grew weaker. Until the old lighthouse standing on the sea cliff lit up too, its light eventually calmed the tides and the ocean's fury.

The crimson color of the sea faded, slowly diluting. The bodies sacrificed to the sea also floated up. The tide carried away the redness, and with it, the giant corpse seemed to dissolve in the water.

It was now 8:50 AM, still early morning. The strangely colored clouds dispersed, revealing a clear sky again—today was a fine day.

Feeling that his eyes were somewhat hard to open, Shard dived back into the water with the receding tide. Clutching the emblem on his chest with his right hand, and under the sharp senses afforded by the divine overflow, he finally spotted the witch and the enemy's traces.

Above the surging red waves, Ivan Daknis, his body returned to normal form, sped towards the shore on a dilapidated wooden boat adorned with seaweed.

Behind him, Miss Hevy Aphrola was running atop the waves, her mermaid-human hybrid kin clustered beneath her in the water, bestowing her with the power to control the ocean.

Most mermaids were engaged in battle with the mermen in the sea. A few were following the witch, aiding her in catching up to Daknis, who was on the relic boat.

The faded crimson waves, though still turbulent, did not affect the two advancing toward the shore. They both had witnessed the astonishing scene just behind them, yet neither had any intention of stopping.