Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic-Chapter 1711 - 1710: The Beginning of the Journey

"No, no, maybe you’re stronger than her. But destiny chose her."

The shadow of dust interrupted the unicorn’s words, but the unicorn and the hound were unwilling to give up like this. They truly wanted to sacrifice themselves to bring back the petrified girl, a feeling that was not feigned.

"Wait a moment."

The silver cat on Shard’s shoulder spoke:

"Why don’t you ask for her own opinion?"

Its paw pointed towards the stone statue:

"Her soul is trapped inside, but since her physical body has decayed, necromancy should work for her. Although it’s uncertain how long the soul can manifest, at least you can temporarily see her. Maybe you can figure out what really happened here. Compared to us, she understands the rules here better."

Chloe’s words made sense, because the unicorn couldn’t use the powers of the undead class in its state, and Shard’s arcane technique of necromancy only summoned incomplete echoes, so it was Chloe who did it.

The spellcasting process went smoothly, the cat’s tail swayed a few times, and then Chloe jumped onto the shoulder of the stone statue. As the cat’s paw emitted a faint gray glimmer, a transparent spiritual body with a face identical to the statue’s slowly floated out.

The beautiful girl opened her eyes, looking around in shock. She first looked toward Shard and the animals in confusion, then somehow recognized her teacher and sister:

"Teacher, Clara, you..."

Her spiritual body was extremely unstable, about to return to the statue, clearly indicating that using necromancy to temporarily grant her freedom was not an allowed method:

"Don’t worry about me!"

She raised a hand as if to touch the teary unicorn:

"As long as you are happy, I am happy."

The transparent hand touched the smooth white fur and then disappeared. Chloe jumped back onto Shard’s shoulder, and she too had no solution this time.

The parrot hovered in the air, watching the scene unfold, the bard’s soul within its shell sighing. A tear fell from the corner of the unicorn’s eye as she turned her head to chide her maid:

"Don’t cry, your sister is right here. Are you going to cry in front of her?"

Then she looked at Shard:

"Sir, surely you have a way, right? Please help us, no matter what the cost, please help us."

"Shard, do you have another way?"

Chloe also asked, and Shard truly nodded, as he was very familiar with such situations. The dust figure on the other side of the table hadn’t disappeared, and the God of the Journey guiding the story here indicated there was still a way to remedy this. The God of the Journey is not the ’God of Tragedy,’ who would not let travelers face only an unchangeable tragedy after an adventure:

"You asked incorrectly earlier; it shouldn’t be about exchanging yourself for someone else. The correct question is—how can we save the petrified girl?"

Shard asked aloud, and the dust figure responded:

"Destiny’s choice requires destiny for redemption. Present valuable destinies, place them on this table, and if the destiny is sufficient, I will give you an opportunity."

"How do we present destiny?"

The maid in the black dress, turned hound, asked eagerly, but this time, there was no answer.

So she looked to her master, and the unicorn then turned to the silver cat on Shard’s shoulder, hoping the Demigod Witch could come up with a solution.

"Shard."

The silver cat asked Shard again, Chloe believing Shard surely had a way. She fully trusted this magical man.

Shard nodded:

"A traveler’s story should end with the meaning of the journey. It is already the afternoon of the seventh day, beyond tonight, this is the last stop."

With that, he took out the card representing the ’Traveler under the Moon’:

"Our journey led us here, probably for this."

He placed the card inside the rectangular mark on the table, and they discovered its area was exactly the same as the card.

"So that’s it."

The unicorn looked at the positions where everyone was seated, and then all of their cards flew over.

"Are you willing to help me?" 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

She asked her companions, and the parrot responded first:

"We’ve reached the final step; I want to see if destiny can truly be defeated."

Thus, the parrot’s card was placed parallel to Shard’s card.

"Let’s give it a try; I originally came here to investigate."

The silver cat also spoke, her card then placed on the table.

"I must rescue my sister."

The black Hound proactively stretched out its paw, pressing its own card, which had yet to fall, onto the table.

"It must be..."

And so the Unicorn’s card also fell, the five cards arranged in a line. Streams of golden and silver light flowed from the surface of the cards, following the fine grooves connected to the rectangular prism on the table, slowly illuminating the entire surface.

"Not enough."

The dusty figure said slowly, its body illuminated by the light from the table.

"Shard."

Chloe said again, wanting to jump into Shard’s arms, but was pushed back up again by Mia.

Shard then asked the Deity who still sat in their original position, not looking at the table by the bonfire:

"May I ask, can our journey be considered as Fate? You have guided us through seven days; does the meaning lie here?"

"The meaning of the journey needs to be sought by yourself, but those experiences are indeed Fate; it is the Fate you chose."

The God said with their back to him, and then those old cards that were turned over and seemed to have disappeared flew back to the group in a line from within the bonfire. The twenty cards representing various events of the Seven-day Trip, such as the [Candy House Witch], [Ferry], [Snow Mountain Chill]... were displayed in five rows and four columns above the five Identity Cards, and the light flowing from the cards made the table’s illumination even stronger.

"Is this enough then?"

Shard asked the dusty figure on the other end of the table, which paused slightly as it looked at the light from the table and the total of twenty-five cards, then said:

"Equivalent Fate, a seven-day journey, so that’s it; you are travelers from afar. Your Fate fully equals hers now, but nothing can change it; a price must be paid."

He pointed at the group, and unbeknownst to them, everyone returned to human form. Maybe it was because they sacrificed their Identity Cards, or maybe it was because of the choices they were about to face:

"Use her to bring back her sister."

Whom he pointed to was, of course, the black-dressed Maid Clara, who was not surprised at all, but felt a sense of relief instead.

The Maid nodded and turned to the brown-haired Witch:

"Miss, please allow me to do this. My sister became like this because of my jealousy and greed. Now it’s my turn to pay the price and bring my sister back. This is my redemption; it’s what I deserve. Five start from the beginning of the journey, five reach the end point, only then does the journey have meaning."

"If you stay here, what meaning does this journey have for me?"

The Witch shook her head solemnly:

"Do you remember what the Angel said? Ruby and Sapphire, I could only choose one. I understood what it meant back then. Clara, don’t you understand me?"

She raised her right hand into a fist:

"I want it all. If I have to leave you here to bring back your sister, I’d rather not make the choice. Now that I understand this place, as long as I don’t die, I still have decades, even centuries to come back here and try again. Both of you are equally important to me, and I’m sorry for not saying this before, but now I must tell you, I will not give up one for the other, no matter what."

Chloe held Shard’s hand, somewhat entranced by this scene. The Bard, at a distance from the Witches, took out pen and paper to continue writing, appearing to want to record every detail of this story.

The petite Witch Empress with silver hair quietly asked Shard:

"Do you know what the farthest distance in the world is?"

A fortnight ago Dorothy had also asked Shard, but it was clear the answer needed to change this time:

"You are right in front of me, but I cannot take you away."

"No, you are right in front of me, and yet I know you always must depart."

She said to Shard, and Shard watched her, yet the Demigod Witch smiled again:

"So I admire Andriana over there; she has enough determination, so I do too. We will meet again."

Having said that, she turned to the witch and her maid and said:

"One must stay here; this is a Fate already decided, unchangeable. Andriana, no matter what methods you think of, unless you can break Fate, these methods, just like Shard’s spellcasting and my Necromancy just now, are effective, but only for an instant."

"Your Majesty, are you saying I must find a power above Fate?"

The brown-haired Witch asked.

"The power above Fate, you already possess."

Shard reminded:

"Without guidance, how could you have entered the Lostwoods, met the Deity, and come here with us? Think carefully, think about the journey’s starting point. Not the Seven-day Trip’s starting point, but the journey you and Miss Clara took to find Miss Lax. What has been guiding you all along? What has repeatedly pointed the way, leading us all to stand here?"

The answer was simple, and even Shard’s presence was due to the initial guidance received by the Witch:

"But you must think it through. The outcome of using that power may not be as beautiful as you imagine."

"Guide me..."

[Impermanence: Space] was taken out by her, and everyone’s eyes focused on this seemingly ordinary card.