Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic-Chapter 713 - Diviner and Diviner

Chapter 713 -713 Diviner and Diviner

At seven in the evening, Shard left his home and, after reaching Midshire Fort, descended the mountain to find Sister Delphine awaiting him. Two other nuns from the Spiritual Practice Order were with her, but ultimately, only the leader of the Order followed Shard into the mountains.

The pair retraced Shard’s route down the mountain, during which he also explained that there were other people in his home in Tobesk, but they were absolutely trustworthy, so the nun did not mind.

Whether by bad luck or not, they encountered an evil spirit on their way up the mountain. This evil spirit manifested as a headless man wielding a firewood knife, his body carved with terrifying cryptic texts. As an inexplicable fog emerged, it charged toward the two figures navigating through the dense forest with its knife raised.

Since they were entering the mountains at night, it was Shard, with his Night Watchman at hand, who first spotted the evil spirit. The strength of the mountain’s spirits had grown to a terrifying level following two earthquakes. He prepared to respond, but before he could act, Sister Delphine cast a ball of fire in the direction of the evil spirit.

The evil spirit didn’t even have the chance to leave a last word before it was burnt to nothing.

“The Fire of the Primordial has an unusual effect on souls,”

said the nun of the Eleven Rings calmly, then signaled Shard to continue leading the way.

By seven forty, the two arrived in front of the ruined tower in the mountains and jumped into the basement under Shard’s guidance.

Moonlight streamed through the door without panels and illuminated the Traveler’s Gate in the cellar through the trapdoor.

“Sister, this is it,”

Shard introduced.

The gate was extremely heavy; it was Dr. Schneider who helped get it to the second floor on Saint Delan Square. When Shard moved it out of the hidden wall, he almost ran out of breath and was mocked by a voice in his head for “overexerting himself in the afternoon.”

Sister Delphine reached out and caressed the wooden panel of the door:

“No problem, I will wait here for you to open the door.”

“Alright.”

Shard nodded, pulled the key from the door, and hesitated before walking toward the wall at the end of the basement. The process of opening the door by illuminating the wall with Spiritual Light was bound to be seen by the nun. Although it exposed his secret, he had to do it for the safety of his family.

A corner of the Ring of Fate was revealed, and beneath the brass aura of Space-Time, the hidden wall disappeared.

“Observing” the scene, the nun uttered a light gasp:

“So it is, a Spatial Labyrinth left by an Ancient God.”

“Sister, you know of this?”

Shard turned, somewhat surprised.

“The history of the Order is very long, and we have recorded some stories from the Ancient Era. Before the Thirteen Ancient Gods departed, each left behind a space. The Spatial Labyrinth, the Relic left by the Ancient God of Space, the Primordial Rift—I did not expect I would be able to see it.”

Since the nun was already aware of this, Shard nodded:

“Yes, I do travel between two places using this. Sister, please keep this a secret.”

“No problem.”

He then remembered Luviya mentioning that the Spiritual Practice Order was actually a branch of the ancient Church of Death, so he curiously asked:

“Sister Delphine, do you know what space was left by the Ancient God of Death?”

The nun clasped her hands together in front of her, lowering her head slightly. Beneath the silver eye mask, her fair complexion further accentuated the color of her lips. The corners of her mouth curved, as if she was attempting to smile:

“The Soul Graveyard.”

After touching the Ancient God Statue to return to Saint Delan Square, they then went from the cellar back to the second floor, picked up Mia, and joined Luviya on the third-floor corridor.

Shard rarely used the third floor himself, but Luviya had been using it for astrology for over a month, and Mia also liked to walk there, so it was not too desolate.

Because the Traveler’s Gate could cause great trouble if used in areas with spatial anomalies, Shard turned the key in room one on the completely safe third floor, temporarily occupied by Luviya as her Astrology Room, as confirmed by her.

With a click, Shard stepped back two paces and, together with Luviya and the cat she was holding, saw the key suspended in mid-air extending outward to form the contours of a door.

After the engraved metal base had fully taken shape, Sister Delphine pushed the door open and walked out.

Traveling a thousand miles to Tobesk City hadn’t elicited any particular expression from the nun. On the contrary, her first notice went to Luviya, who was also curiously observing the fellow diviner.

In an instant, both women stood frozen. To be more precise, it was Luviya who was petrified, while Sister Delphine just stood there motionless. Shard did not know what she was thinking; she had always been like that.

The countdown had begun for the use of the “Traveler’s Gate,” but under the moonlight outside the window, the two ladies stood without moving an inch.

Shard hesitated to speak, but felt it wasn’t the right moment for conversation. He frowned slightly, guessing this might be a unique form of communication between diviners.

[It’s probably not.]

“Why?”

[Pay attention to her shadow.]

The shadow of Sister Delphine, who wore a black-gray silk nun’s robe, showed nothing unusual, but there were bizarrely two shadows under Luviya’s feet, both exactly the same. This wasn’t a result of any optical effect but rather a supernatural phenomenon.

“What’s going on… eh?”

As Shard noticed the shadow, they merged back into one. At the same moment, under the moonlight from the window, a vague figure materialized behind Luviya. It was so blurry that Shard thought he didn’t see it with his eyes, but rather captured it with his intuition.

Shard had seen this figure before—it was an apparition of Luviya, looking slightly more mature. It was truly very vague, and even though Shard and Luviya were standing so close, he could barely see the slightly incomplete figure or what expression it bore.

“What’s this all about now?”

As the figure appeared and then slowly faded behind Luviya, she seemed to snap back to reality and greeted Sister Delphine in a soft voice:

“Good evening, Sister, my name is Luviya Annette, a friend of Shard’s… my apologies for earlier, I’ve just never seen a diviner with such a unique aura as yours. I work at the Prophet’s Society and know a bit about divination myself.”

“Good evening, Miss Annette.”

As if nothing had happened, Sister Delphine walked out the front door under Shard’s guidance and made her way to the third-floor corridor.

The gas lamps in the corridor were on, and the design resembled a cat carrying a lantern, which Tifa had specifically chosen for Shard.

The nun asked Shard to wait for a moment and then took off her silver eyepatch to look at the empty corridor ahead. Luviya, holding Mia, leaned against the doorframe watching them. Learning that there was an entrance to a parallel space in his familiar home, Shard found the hallway to have taken on an eerie quality.

It took a full minute before the nun gathered her hair back and put on her eyepatch:

“There indeed exists a boundary entrance here. But it’s very small, covering only half the corridor. I’ve seen the boundaries between life and death in many places, but this one is the tiniest.”

Compared to the Interstice that encompassed the entire Sicarl Mountain and its surrounding areas, the issue at No. 6, Saint Delan Square was minor.

“Is there a way to seal it? I’ve already had two evil spirits come into the house through this entrance, which terrified my cat.”

Shard inquired, and after thinking it over, the nun nodded:

“The range is small, so it’s easy to seal. However, sealing isn’t a permanent solution; you’ll need to reinforce the seal every couple of years.”

“That’s no issue at all.”

Shard agreed at once, thinking that in two or three years, he might have already left for Saint Byrons in the Far North. But before leaving, he could inform the church about the house’s issues.

As the nun couldn’t stay long, Shard asked Sister Delphine to observe as much as she could within the limits permitted by the door, especially on the third floor.

The “Spiritual Practice Order” had divination methods distinct from ordinary diviners. Believing in Animism, they could perceive the world through different angles. Therefore, before Sister Delphine left, she offered Shard a piece of advice:

“If this were my house, I would sell it immediately.”

“Why?”

That was the one thing Shard definitely wouldn’t do.

“There’s too much misery and misfortune here. The problems with this house definitely aren’t limited to the third floor. I’ve been commissioned and visited the infamous haunted house in Carsonrick, but it’s nowhere near as dangerous as this place. No. 6, Saint Delan Square, right? I had only heard of its reputation but never imagined the issues to be so severe.”

But even with serious problems, Shard was not inclined to move. He believed he had uncovered all the secrets of the house. Now that the issues with the basement and the third floor were resolved and all safety hazards had been eliminated, Shard was confident that living here would be quite safe.

3 minutes and 12 seconds passed in the blink of an eye, and Sister Delphine returned to the basement of the ruined tower on Sicarl Mountain through the “Traveler’s Gate,” while Shard and Luviya said their goodbyes, then left the basement to return to the tower, planning to escort the nun down the mountain before heading home.

Sister Delphine was of course much stronger than Shard, but since it was Shard who had invited her down the mountain, he felt obliged to escort her back, also considering it a matter of gentlemanly courtesy.

The night on Sicarl Mountain was tranquil and quiet; entering deep autumn, even the forest at night seemed to have entirely entered slumber.

On the way down the mountain, the nun orally described to Shard the ritual to seal the small entrance to the life-death boundary. The ritual was not complicated, but some of the materials were hard to come by. However, for Shard, who could travel between Coldwater Port and Tobesk City, this was not a problem.

“There’s something wrong with that diviner friend of yours.”

After discussing the ritual, they had only reached the halfway point of the descent. It seemed awkward to remain silent, so Shard tried to broach a new topic when Sister Delphine abruptly spoke out.

“Oh, I know.”

Shard looked up at the starry sky above and said softly,

“I’ve known for a long time.”

The nun fell silent for a moment:

“Her ‘other self’ is not normal, ‘she’ is afflicted by a very terrible curse. This curse is not man-made; it is more like a natural phenomenon, as if the world itself loathes her.”

Only the Spiritual Practice Order, which advocates animism, could easily discern this.

“Yes, it’s the curse of time.”

Shard spoke softly again, feeling somewhat melancholic for some reason.

“Then she must have committed a serious violation of the normal rules of time… I can’t imagine what one would have to do to attract such a terrible curse. The world is never so malicious towards an individual entity.”

The nun finished speaking and fell silent, while Shard, pondering over Luviya’s problem, did not try to think of a new topic. After quite some time, he broke the monotonous sound of lady’s boots and gentleman’s leather shoes trampling fallen leaves. The howling of wolves could be heard in the distance, and the city at the foot of the mountain was lit by gas lights:

“Sister, regarding Luviya’s problem, can you do a deeper perception?”

“I need her to stay still in front of me so that I can remove my blindfold and look directly at her. And that kind of dreadful curse is not something that mortals can resolve; you at least need to find out what she has done to know how to lift the curse.”

“I understand.”

Shard nodded, escorted the nun all the way down the mountain, then turned around to walk back into the woods bathed in moonlight.

After leaving the basement, he found Luviya holding an unwilling Mia, looking somewhat sorrowful, on the second floor.

“Luviya, what’s the matter with you? Why do you seem to be in a bad mood?”

The purple-eyed girl stood by the window, gazing outside at the square. The room was so brightly lit that the glass in front of her reflected her and Mia’s expressions like a mirror.

The clever cat also noticed Shard in the reflection from the window glass and immediately struggled to escape from Luviya’s embrace.

“It’s nothing, just that I saw some strange visions when I saw that nun just now…”

She turned around, her lips moved slightly, and her purple eyes stared at Shard:

“I saw Sister Delphine dying in flames. Her body was covered with fiery red rifts, and in the end, even her body was burned to ashes. She handed me a faint flame, entrusting me to inherit her duty and take care of that primordial fire.”

“The fire of the primordial?”

Shard slightly frowned and stopped in his tracks.

He indeed had told Luviya about “Person of Reverse Life” Joey Barton’s death prophecies for him and the nun, which were to die at the collapse of a tall tower at the beginning of the year and to turn to ashes in a fire more than a decade later. But out of a promise to keep secrets, he had not told Luviya that the fire in Sister Delphine’s hands was the Angel-Level (Level 1) Relic “Fire of the Primordial.”

“Is this a true prophecy made during a sudden burst of inspiration?”

Shard asked, knowing that diviners could indeed sometimes see fragments of the future in an instant. But even Shard himself did not believe the guess he made; after the evening’s exchange with the nun, he already had a vague idea about Luviya’s situation but was still not certain:

“It’s okay, not everything in the future has to follow your prophecy.”

He walked over and embraced Luviya, and only then Mia finally found the chance to “escape” from the embrace:

“Just like how you’ve always thought our group would only ever have four people, right? But then I showed up this summer. Oh, I still remember the look on your face when you first saw me at Lakeside Manor.”

“Yes.”

The girl with purple eyes nodded lightly.

“What you saw was merely one possibility, and besides, you don’t even know Sister Delphine. Even if the nun truly wished to entrust the Angel-Level Relic to someone, it wouldn’t be to you.”

“But the future…”

“The year 1853 in the Common Calendar of the Sixth Era, late autumn…”

Shard imitated “her” tone and then glanced outside:

“…the day the Red Moon faintly glows. Luviya Fiocchi Annette, you witnessed once more that unfathomable future, but standing beside you at this moment, besides yourself, is the Outlander with secrets hidden deep within their fate.”

He held Luviya close, looking into her beautiful purple eyes at close range:

“Time has cursed you, yet fate blesses you. The grand epic has begun, and with the curtain raised, why still lost in confusion? You are not walking alone. The one who has awakened from Blind Foolishness is by your side. When two hands clasp together on a midsummer’s night, you ought to understand—this is the beginning of the epic, the story of you and him.”

Luviya finally revealed a smile:

“What’s this? A poem chapter of fate written for me?”

“No, no, I’m merely stating the facts,”

said Shard.

“Well then, Shard, perhaps you’re better at winning a girl’s favor than I thought—may fate bless us both.”

With that, she wrapped her arms around Shard’s neck and kissed him passionately, but as that tender sensation flooded his mind, Shard, for some reason, felt as though he was kissing two people.

“What is this odd sensation… Wait a minute.”

He pushed Luviya away, very unromantically:

“You still haven’t told me, is Sister Delphine really the first candidate for the ‘Death’s Chosen One’?”

“She isn’t, but she has other issues. The first candidate for Death should be between Person of Reverse Life Joey Barton and our friend Lat August the Cleric… Shard, is this really the right time to ask such a question?”

She asked, somewhat annoyed, then hugged Shard again.

“Meow!”

The cat sitting on the back of the couch cried out discontentedly, feeling ignored by Shard once again.

Then, under the glow of the gas lamp, this cat saw a blurred shadow overlapping with the human woman’s body, their arms folding around Shard in unison, and the lips sealing Shard’s belonged to two identical faces.

“Meow?”

The amber eyes full of curiosity, the cat could not comprehend this weird phenomenon.

“Shard…”

In those purple eyes, it seemed as if the secrets of the entire world were hidden. Shard, though considering the witches incomparably beautiful, still found Luviya’s eyes to be the prettiest.

“What is it?”

Under the living room’s gas lamp, with a gentle smile shared between them, their shadows intertwined like fates already entangled:

“May I ask for a small favor?”

“Of course, what favor?”

“I’ll probably need to have an ‘Ever-Youth Leaf’ with me… Tonight, I want to be the knight.”