Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic-Chapter 767 - : The Moth to the Flame

Chapter 767 -767: The Moth to the Flame

There was only one enemy on the second floor, but the third floor had three Corpse Hounds. They were not ethereal undead but rather immortal creatures similar to ghouls. Their bodies were covered in a dreadful pale flesh resembling rotting meat, with wrinkles and signs of decay all over. They looked almost identical and moved very rapidly, and they even possessed some intelligence, coordinating their attacks.

Shard had encountered them as soon as he ascended the stairs, and his hasty counterattack nearly cost him dearly. Fortunately, he managed to retreat to the staircase, where the narrow space allowed him to face the enemies one at a time.

To be honest, the trio of hounds was far more fearsome than a powerful, single humanoid undead.

The third floor’s ground was covered with a layer of inexplicable dust, resembling ashes. Besides the footprints the Corpse Hounds left in the dust, there were also additional, disordered footprints.

These footprints had been manipulated, but their traces were not completely erased. Shard observed them and concluded that at least three different people had been here recently:

“I hope these traces are from within the last 36 hours.”

Thinking this, he used the Arcane Technique “Echo of the Past.”

This arcane technique allowed him to hear past sounds, especially biased towards those made by humans. Given that in the Interstice, sound didn’t travel far and there were hardly any living people, Shard succeeded in his first attempt:

“Professor, you actually managed to escape?”

This was the voice of Joey Barton, his tone affected by his damaged lungs, making it quite distinctive.

“We escaped, but our operatives deployed to the Milestone Area by the Truth Society have almost all been wiped out… This time, the Church acted with precision and ruthlessness.”

Shard raised his eyebrows. Both the witches and Iluna had mentioned that, on the night of the Battle at the Ice Lake, the majority of the local members of the Truth Society were either killed or captured, with only a few slipping through the net. He hadn’t expected that they hadn’t left Midshire Fort but had instead found Joey Barton in the Interstice—or perhaps it was Barton who had found them.

“Fortunately, we learned from the lessons of the Blood Spirit School. Although many were sent, only one of the Academy’s Twelve-Ring Sorcerers came, so it wasn’t a painful lesson. I heard that Weeper Helmons of the Blood Spirit School barely managed to escape.”

People always seem to mock those who are worse off when they themselves face misfortune.

“Mr. Barton, though I don’t know how you found us in the Interstice, the Academy has already informed us; we are no longer involved in the affairs of Midshire Fort. What we are doing here now, is to retrieve some materials left in the Interstice. After such losses, we must at least collect those alchemical items worth thousands of pounds.”

The speaker continuously spoke in Carsonrick language, while Mr. Barton spoke with a heavy Draleon accent from Milestone.

“Do you know that I am ‘The Chosen One’?”

Mr. Barton asked calmly, and after a few seconds of pause, the Carsonrick language replied:

“We dare not show our faces in town, but we did hear some tidbits. It’s quite surprising, isn’t it? To think that the person we’ve been looking for is one of our own. Mr. Barton, I’ve heard about your circumstances in the Academy, but now…”

As Shard expected, he heard him sigh:

“‘The Chosen One’ facing death, you have to struggle on your own now. The Academy has decided not to involve itself in this matter anymore. The losses are too substantial already; although helping you might bring us greater benefits, we need to cut our losses now, we can’t be too greedy.”

If the sorcerers of the Truth Society could abandon their mad ideas, most of them indeed qualify to be considered sages.

“I don’t need your material help; I want some knowledge,”

Mr. Barton said.

“What knowledge?”

“I know the knowledge of fusing relics hasn’t been fully successful, but at least there is a preliminary experimental plan.”

Shard furrowed his brow as he looked at the empty room in front of him. He believed that the other person involved in the conversation had the same expression not long ago.

“Fusing relics, you mean… Joey Barton, do you intend to confront the True God Church alone?”

“I know I am weak alone, so I need to think of other means. Trapped in the Interstice, I can feel the Interstice’s goodwill towards me. It does not want to be sealed, and I want to break the boundaries between life and death. Thus, the Interstice is willing to let me use some of its power. Professor, which do you think is more powerful, a level 0 relic controlling countless Evil Spirits or a Thirteen-Ring Sorcerer?”

“Madman.”

Carsonrick uttered a very filthy swear word, which Shard took to mean “madman.”

“Being called a madman by professors of the Truth Society is an honor. All I want to do is enter True Death through one of three passages and then bring her back. So, are you willing to make a deal? I know knowledge has its price, thus if I indeed become The Chosen One in Midshire Fort, I am willing to join you.”

As expected, the “escapee” from the Truth Society provided Joey Barton with the information he wanted, even giving him all the Truth Society’s research material on subjects like “Interstice of Life and Death” and “Gate of Death.”

In the words of that professor:

“There are backups of these materials, giving them to you isn’t a loss, it’s a hugely profitable investment. But if you get caught by the church, don’t say it was us who gave them to you—you found them on your own.”

At the end of this conversation, the professor speaking in Carsonrick gave Joey Barton an object. Shard could only hear the voice and thus didn’t know what it was:

“Professor, what is this?”

Mr. Barton also had the same question.

“We originally planned to try and channel the power of Death in the Interstice and wanted to repeat the undead alchemy from the Witch Alchemy of the Fifth Era to create something interesting, so we prepared quite a few ritual items. The item in your hand is an ancient artifact dug up in the New World by the Academy. Research suggests it might be a ritual item from the Ancient Death Church, giving it to you might be useful.”

Thus, Joey Barton acquired an item related to the power of the Ancient God.

After the conversation ended, both parties left, and Shard followed the sounds of footsteps to the window. At this moment, the last Red Butterfly finally detached from his skin and appeared in the Interstice. It fluttered leisurely towards the house across the rear window and landed on the exterior wall of the window, ensuring it wasn’t seen by anyone inside.

Behind the stores on Oak Street was a muddy alley, and the opposite side housed rental apartments. Due to the fog and the Interstice’s suppression of the viewing range, Shard could only see the Red Butterfly moving shadowily and couldn’t make out anything inside the window. But judging by the Red Butterfly’s behavior, the Jester was likely inside:

“Hiding so close, huh?”

The window in front of him had long lost its glass, and Shard, resting his hand on the slightly sharp window sill, looked down to see quite a number of lingering spirits in the alley.

“If I take a detour, even with the Witch’s blessing to avoid enemies, I still fear I would have to defeat a slew of Evil Spirits, which would be too time-consuming.”

Carefully climbing onto the windowsill, he cast the spell “Frog’s Leap” and leapt forcefully, his body hurdling towards the direction-indicating Red Butterfly. However, Shard chose not to crash through the window but, while approaching the opposite window in mid-air, focused his mind and continued using Arcane Technique:

“Lagre’s Leap!”

In mid-air, Shard disappeared, then reappeared smoothly inside the window.

Steadying his stance, he turned and extended his right hand, and the fluttering Red Butterfly landed on his fingertip, then affectionately flew onto his shoulder.

Scanning the room, he saw no sign of anyone. Shard snapped his fingers, and a silvery mist emerged, surrounding him with an Illusion.

He pushed the door open and continued walking, as the decrepit, dim hallway resembled a haunted house straight from the stories. The Red Butterfly guided Shard to the room at the end of the corridor, which by the layout, was likely the guest room.

No sound came from inside, but there was no doubt the target was here. Shard hesitated for a moment, dissolved the Illusion Technique, and then knocked on the door with his fingers.

Knock, knock, knock~

He stood at the door, patiently waiting. 2 minutes and 37 seconds after the last knock ended, the door opened to reveal a middle-aged man who looked like a misshapen child.

At the end of last week’s ice-fight, he was pierced from behind by Iluna’s “Sunlight Gun,” but now there were no signs of injury. He just looked considerably more weathered, and even younger than the week before.

Joey Barton looked up at the man at the door and hesitated:

“Mr. Watson?”

“It’s me.”

Mr. Barton sighed,

“Why bother to look for me? Do you really think you can persuade me?”

Shard glanced into the room behind him, but Mr. Barton immediately stepped back and then slammed the door shut.

[He’s run away.]

“What?”

[Key of the Door] opened the locked door, but there was no sign of Joey Barton or the Jester in the empty room.

The Red Butterfly on his shoulder immediately flew towards the window, and Shard quickly moved to the window, just in time to see the misshapen “child” carrying a suitcase, disappearing around the corner of his field of vision.

The Undead wandering the street had no intention of attacking him. He moved freely on the street, without having to dodge any attacks.

“Illusion of the Moon Shadow.”

The silver mist surged again, and Shard leapt from the third-floor window to the ground, landing and following the Red Butterfly in the direction of Joey Barton.

“How are things?”

The distant voice of Miss Aphrola sounded in his ears again.

“I’ve found him, he ran as soon as he saw me. Oh, I encountered some trouble; although I had the help of an illusion, the evil spirits are blocking me from catching up, the enemies are too dense.”

“Hold on a moment, I and grandma will help you… you must catch up…”

Her voice faded until it disappeared completely, and the spirits roaming the streets eventually noticed Shard due to his getting too close. But the next moment, an intensely cold chill appeared overhead and quickly spread through his body, while an ambiguously gray, circular ritual base formation appeared beneath Shard’s feet.

The appearance of this base formation caused the ready-to-attack evil spirits to ignore Shard again. Shard tried to move closer to it, and the other side showed no reaction at all.

“Witches really do have means.”

He continued his pursuit.

Shard did not know what Joey Barton had done in the Interstice. He clearly only had First Ring, but he ran faster than Shard. Even though Shard used [Lagre’s Leap] for spatial movement every ten seconds, the chase around the center of Midshire Fort in the Interstice still took almost half a loop before Shard finally caught up with Joey Barton at Green Shade Square, one block from Oak Street.

In the real world, Green Shade Square was a semi-park square in the center of Midshire Fort City, whereas in the Interstice, it resembled a desolate graveyard shrouded in fog.

Shard and Mr. Barton faced each other in the fog, the evil spirits flickering in and out of visibility around them.

“Where’s the Jester?”

Shard still hadn’t seen the second nail, but the Red Butterfly restlessly pointed in the direction of the man before him.

“I’ve swallowed him.”

Mr. Barton pointed at himself:

“I was heavily wounded, I needed to recover. Don’t worry, once I completely digest its power, this nail will be considered removed.”

His voice was still so raspy.

“Since you know about the Interstice and the nails, you should also know, at such a fragile moment for the balance of life and death, if you bring back a deceased from death, the disrupted balance will directly lead to the collapse of the Interstice.”

“Yes, but if I don’t do this soon, once the Church re-seals the Interstice, I will have no chance to retrieve her again.”

Mr. Barton looked at Shard, his face expressionless:

“Mr. Watson, you’ve heard my story before, let me ask you again, do you really think you can persuade me?”

“To resurrect the dead, are you willing to let a city’s people die?”

Shard countered, and Mr. Barton nodded:

“I know it’s wrong, but I still have to say, yes. She is the most important person in the world to me, even if it’s a great mistake, I cannot give up this only chance. I am like a moth to the flames, and I am willing to do this.”

Although Shard had figured he might say something like this, hearing Joey Barton say it still made him want to sigh:

“Don’t think of yourself as too noble. Think about it carefully, if you do this, you’ll be the enemy of the True God Church, the Three Great Magics Academies, and most of the Circle Sorcerer groups. Even if you are The Chosen One, even if you successfully perform the ritual, there will be no place for you in the material world.”

“I’ve made up my mind.”

Mr. Barton gestured to the ground below him, indicating he had thought it all through:

“After I bring Marilyn back, we will live here, in a Midshire Fort fully merged with the Interstice, turned into a realm forbidden to ordinary folks. With the talent of The Chosen One, undead won’t harm me; they are my best allies. The True God Church trying to catch me among thousands of undead is impossible.”

“Mr. Barton, I ask you one last time. Are you sure, even at the cost of the lives of millions, you want to bring your beloved back from the peaceful sleep of death?”

Shard asked sternly:

“This is really, the last inquiry.”

Joey Barton looked at John Watson through the dense fog, faintly understanding that this question could decide many things in the future.