Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic

Ignoring the terrible scene conjured by "The Caller of Tobesk" behind her, the witch's brown hair was tossed about by the sea breeze. Miss Aurora, who was chasing after the enemy on the sea surface, even had the mind to recall the unfamiliar man in the temple who refused to catch up.

She faintly guessed that he was The Caller of Tobesk, and reflecting on it now, his sudden appearance in the temple seemed not because of the merman, not because of The Chosen One, but because of the temple itself.

The Thirteen-Ring Sorcerer, who should have been seriously injured from the God Summoning in Tobesk and wouldn't recover for decades, stayed alone in the temple for less than five minutes, yet he managed to regain such terrifying power. This implied many things:

"Is there something else in the temple of the merman? He was actually trying to get us all to leave just now... How despicable."

But before she could fully comprehend it, Daknis suddenly looked back, and a dark curtain formed from shadows appeared out of thin air between them on the sea surface. The witch, mid-chase, aimed a finger, and the light struggled to pierce through the darkness.

She didn't expect that behind the darkness, Daknis actually abandoned the small boat, using the transportation within the Dark Vortex, to leap into the air above the witch's head.

It's hard to say whether this inspiration came from Shard's earlier actions.

Daknis's right hand swiftly expanded, masterfully utilizing the newfound power he had grasped in the temple at the moment of life and death. Black pus oozed from his palm, turning half of his body heavy and eerie.

That tremendous right hand, swirling with pus, came crashing down with Daknis from above, aiming for Miss Aurora's head. Caught off guard that her opponent would still dare to fight back, the witch could only raise her hand to block in a rush.

The eerie right hand, carrying enough force to easily dismantle a temple, forcefully pushed the witch from the sea surface into the water. The surrounding mermaids cried out and scattered in all directions. Daknis wanted to continue attacking the witch but suddenly saw a figure, swift as a Wandering Fish coming from the direction of the fallen temple.

"What is this now?"

Without thinking, the middle-aged man, who had experienced too much that day and hadn't even confirmed who was coming, jumped into the nearby Dark Vortex. Then he emerged from the vortex above his small boat and steered it towards the distant coast. The brown-haired witch, pressed forcefully into the sea by the immense power, sank continuously underwater.

Though she had been in contact with Daknis for not even three seconds, the disgusting black pus from his right hand had brushed onto her arm and spread across her body like a spiderweb.

She could feel how horrifying this materialized thick darkness was, as it absorbed her negative emotions, growing stronger bit by bit, attempting to use this to kill her.

"A demon that absorbs negative emotions, coupled with the power of darkness, is such a hassle. The "pus" of human nature, to think that such a terrible thing still exists in the Sixth Era, so not killing him rashly was indeed right."

Choking on several gulps of water, the witch tried to struggle against the mass of pus underwater. Unexpectedly, as sounds transmitted through the water, her somewhat cold right hand was suddenly held by a strange and warm hand. Miss Aurora let out a stream of bubbles from her mouth, signifying her desire to say something.

Gazing through the disheveled brown hair floating in the water, her golden eyes spotted Shard's blurry figure in the sea. Thanks to "Underwater Breathing," Shard's voice could normally reach the witch's ears:

"Please close your eyes."

Following Shard's instruction, she closed her eyes, then heard a soft sigh in the water:

"Silvermoon."

The light, refracted through murky seawater, didn't harm her eyes too much. When Hevy Aurora opened her eyes again, the black eerie pus had vanished.

Shard, holding her hand, led her towards the sea surface in front of them.

Having never experienced something like this before, the witch didn't know what to say for a moment.

One after another, their heads emerged from the rain-drenched sea surface. The witch was soaked to the bone, her hair clinging to her face, her clothes to her skin. Only then did she notice Shard, who looked as if he was on his last legs, barely able to keep his eyes open.

He had changed his clothes in the sea to hide the traces of the temple battle and then stuck the fishing rod into the seabed to avoid the witch's detection. Consequently, as the ten minutes of the Divinity Overflow drew to a close and the vast power receded back into his soul, he could pass out any moment.

"Hamilton? What are you doing here?"

Noticing that something was off with Shard's mental state, the witch's concern was evident. Struggling to keep awake, Shard shook his head:

"Good morning, Miss Aurora. I found the pearl I was looking for from the merman, and then the waves accidentally swept me over here. Oh, did you see what just happened? It was really something... Look, Daknis is running away."

Together, they watched Daknis's retreating figure. The witch fired a beam of light casually in that direction, but it was immediately consumed by the darkness:

"The Chosen One is such a hassle."

She complained discontentedly and then looked at her right hand, which Shard was firmly holding.

"Ha~"

Yawning, his eyes involuntarily closing, he longed for the warmth of his bed, his body swaying as if no longer under control:

"Let me try... Miss Aphrola, I'm seriously injured, and I might pass out any moment, please take me to Her Highness Lecia. Tell her I should wake up after sleeping for a dozen hours or so."

Unlike the first time, this time he had learned to control his power and knew how to use the glimmer of Divinity Overflow, so he didn't completely exhaust himself.

"What are you going to do?"

The witch asked and then saw Shard actually "climb" onto the surface of the water from beneath, in a comical motion. Carefully standing on the receding, frothy tide, under the gaze of the beautiful mermaid girls who had circled back and looked on curiously, the Outlander faced the eastern sun and raised his arms high, eyes suddenly widening as he shouted:

"Praise the Sun! Praise the Lantern Bearer!"

Having said that, the sleepy Shard yawned again and took out the pin adorned with the Sun Sacred Emblem from his pocket.

Boots tapping on the surface of the sea, his body slightly leaning back to the right as he squatted, and his right hand gripping the Holy Emblem, golden lightning began to dance upon its surface.

Shard rose sharply and made a throwing motion forward. At that moment, streaks of lightning in his hand converged into a golden long spear in the palm of his hand, then left his grasp to cleave through the air, leaving behind a striking Light Trace above the sea surface and ripples of golden arcs on the water.

In that moment, his eyes opened wide as if regaining light, and Shard finally uttered the sentence he had longed to say after witnessing this scene:

"Sunlight Gun!"

The intense heat made the mermaids shrink back below the surface of the sea, making them seem even more timid than Mia.

And the golden lightning effortlessly tore through the triple layer of darkness that had appeared far out at sea, directly behind Ivan Daknis, striking the middle-aged man's back.

"Ah!"

Ivan Daknis trembled and screamed in agony, falling off the small boat with a splash, leaving one of his boots behind on the vessel due to the scrape. He had already suffered quite a bit in the chase with the witch, but the damage from this strike seemed especially severe.

After all, he hadn't screamed like this just before.

The Chosen One, Iluna Beath, had said that only the chosen could better oppose the chosen. This Holy Emblem, containing Iluna's strongest power, might not kill Ivan Daknis, the prime candidate for "Darkness," but an injury of this caliber likely couldn't be healed by his strange Dark Gift.

"Hamilton, are you a believer of the Lantern Bearer?" Continue reading stories on My Virtual Library Empire

Hevy Aurora curiously asked, looking at Shard's silhouette, and then, to her surprise, saw the young detective fall backward, crash onto the water's surface, and then sink down.

The witch quickly dived underwater, grabbed his hand, and pulled him up, preventing the Outlander from drowning here. She then looked at Shard's face; his breathing was even, his eyes were tightly shut. He seemed more asleep than unconscious.

Hevy Aurora found the scene inadvertently comical.

The sea breeze blew, gradually dissipating the fishy odor on the sea surface. The dazzling sunlight streamed down from above onto the rippling waves, making it impossible to see that just minutes before, the scene had resembled an apocalypse.

That sunlight also fell on Shard's handsome face, and the witch looked down at the man's face, and somehow, she felt her cheeks grow warm, her heartbeat suddenly quickening:

"Although the difference is vast, you're much more charming than that God Summoner."

Laughing at herself, she lifted her head, and instructed the curious mermaid girls who had gathered and were discussing Shard, to retrieve the small boat and the boot on it, and to look for Daknis who had fallen into the sea.

She held no hope for this and didn't bother joining the search, instead, she took it upon herself to carry Shard towards the shore before the church discovered the situation here, muttering softly to herself:

"You dared to dive into the sea to rescue me, provided effective information about The Chosen, and managed to deal effective damage with some alchemical item from who knows where... Galina, where on Earth did you find this man... hmm..."

She suddenly stopped swimming, looking around with alertness. After scolding the young mermaid girls lounging nearby and making sure no one was watching, she lowered the hand holding Shard, reaching into the water.

Soon, a blush rose on the witch's face, but it might as well have been a trace left by the morning sun on her cheeks.

She squinted slightly, facing the sunlight looking towards Coldwater Port at sunrise, the city awakening, a typical morning in the Steam Age for those unaware of the truth. And further away, in that direction, lay Tobesk.

Behind her, mermaids and the church were clearing out the remaining merman, and on shore, the church and police were likely finishing their last sweep.

The sun had risen, and today seemed to be good weather.

"Galina, where on Earth did you find this man?"