Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic

"Lecia, what's wrong? If you can't handle it, let Dorothy take over for a while."

Supporting the princess, Shard hurriedly made the suggestion in the rain.

"No, our souls are connected. Even if I go to Tobesk, the curse will still..."

She was clearly grasping Shard's arm to stabilize herself, yet she unexpectedly took a step forward. Shard immediately tightened the fishing line and then felt a powerful force pulling him forward as well.

This power didn't seem to come from Lecia as she walked slowly forward; instead, it appeared that the fishing line was connected not just to Lecia but also to something invisible.

"What's going on?"

Shard braced his foot against the soft sand with his right hand extended, pressing it on the wet strands of the princess's hair:

"Silvermoon!"

The silver light sprinkled from the palm wasn't dazzling. But when the holy silver light shone on Lecia's face, the swollen merman tattoo actually emitted black smoke:

"Lecia, quick, the Disenchantment Stone!"

People swayed past them, bumping into Shard before deliberately detouring.

Shard urgently reminded her, and the slightly more alert princess raised her hand to touch the ruby at her right ear. As she pulled out the thin red ribbon, the ugly merman tattoo on her skin began to move.

"Oh!"

Lecia felt the pain but just grunted, bearing it. She led the red ribbon with her fingertips, trying to wrap it around the moving merman tattoo on her skin. However, the tattoo was very agile, trying to move across her skin towards her heart through her neck.

Shard was terrified, if the tattoo moved from her face to the front of her heart, he couldn't touch it.

"What am I thinking?"

Scolding himself inwardly, Shard actively unwound the fishing line from Lecia's wrist:

"Lecia, I'm sorry."

The hand glowing with the light of the Silvermoon clutched Lecia's neck, preventing the tattoo from moving past it. His left hand held a metal fish hook, stabbing it into the right side of Lecia's cheek, piercing the merman tattoo.

"Oh!"

The red-haired girl forcefully gripped Shard's arm, and Shard bit his teeth as he grasped the fishing rod with both hands:

"Lecia, hold on."

"It's okay, be quick with your movem—Oh!"

Before she finished speaking, Shard had already raised the fishing rod, and the fishing line pulled the hook, stripping it from Lecia's face. Peeling off not just blood and flesh, but also the blood-red merman tattoo.

It wasn't flat; having absorbed the blood from Lecia's face, it had gained some thickness.

Once "fished" out, the small blood-red merman lay struggling on the sand, continuously heaving but unable to trigger the trait of this rod because it hadn't actively taken the bait.

Lecia flung the red ribbon from her fingertips, firmly tying the tattoo to the fish hook, then finally couldn't help but start to sob.

"It's alright, it's alright."

Reaching into his pocket, Shard took out a test tube filled with water, imbued it with the power of Gluttony, and gently dropped the water on Lecia's face.

No sooner had Lecia's face begun to heal than Shard felt the tug on the fishing rod again. Looking up, he saw the merman tattoo, which had been struggling on the ground, soar into the air and head directly toward the coast, where the giant mermaid corpse was battling with church and Academy Ring Sorcerers.

"Is there even such good luck?"

Since Shard had already planned to return to the sea to approach the corpse, now with a guiding object, even providing the force to pull him forward, he might even save some energy.

"Lecia, how do you feel now?"

Shard held the fishing rod with both hands, his body slightly leaning backward to resist the pulling force of the tattoo on the hook.

"I..."

The red-haired girl covered her right cheek, gently touching it a few times:

"My face really..."

"...really doesn't have any marks, it is still so pretty. I swear on Mia. I mean, do you still feel the curse?"

"No."

She immediately shook her head, albeit still standing in the cursed rain, but the rain spreading the curse hardly affected the Ring Sorcerers.

"Okay, you head back to the mansion first."

"Okay, where are you going?"

She looked at Shard in the rain, although surrounded by many people who were passing by and heading towards the sea, at this moment, her eyes saw only Shard.

"I still have things to do."

Shard looked toward the distant shoreline, his face showing an excitement that Lecia couldn't comprehend, what he longed for was very likely right there:

"I never venture into risky endeavors, rest assured. Wait for my return with peace of mind, I'm going to put an end to the Mermaid's Curse once and for all so you don't have to worry anymore. Once the matter at Coldwater Port is resolved, I think we could finally meet in Tobesk, perhaps we could spend an afternoon discussing political matters, or after you put on your makeup disguise, join me for a cat-stroll on the shaded lanes of the University District, where the evening sunset is beautiful."

The red rain made the clothes and faces look bizarre, but Shard still spoke with a smile, controlling the struggling force of the tattoo with his fishing line tightening and loosening:

"How could I say such things before achieving something big?"

He joked about himself.

"Shard, you... please be careful."

In the end, she couldn't bring herself to say the words to stop Shard, who pulled the fishing rod assertively and smiled at the Princess for the last time:

"You should go back now."

"You must be careful."

"Of course... if I don't come back, let Dorothy take care of Mia and write a letter to Miss Gawder. The Ruby Ring that your mother gave me will belong to you, and all my remaining assets shall be divided equally among our group's four members and Mia."

Though he still held a trace of Divinity within him, Shard was prepared for the worst outcome.

He didn't feel this was pessimism, but rather found joy in this moment.

Both being Outlanders with no family, the young student, Sack Har, died alone in his rented apartment. If not for Shard, no one would have inherited his legacy; but Shard, whose homeland was far away and unreachable forever, was able to find friends to inherit his legacy.

"Shard, you..."

Lecia's words were not yet finished when the Merman tattoo dragged Shard forward. He staggered in a somewhat comical manner, following the tattoo, and after surpassing those swaying towards the sea, he cried out as though tripped, plunging headfirst into the sea. After bobbing up a few times, he was no longer seen.

It didn't seem like Shard was following the tattoo forward, rather it seemed like he was dragged forcefully into the sea.

The blood rain stained the Princess's clothes, at this moment she wanted to laugh, but felt somewhat sad: Discover stories at My Virtual Library Empire

"Shard Suren Hamilton."

She turned to pick up the umbrella, quietly calling out Shard's name. With her back to that blood-red sea, she walked towards Aphrola Manor, her expression unseen by anyone:

"What secrets do you still hold?"

In the sea, Shard was unaware of what Lecia was thinking; in fact, he wasn't swimming but being dragged forward in the water.

The flesh of "Desire" allowed Shard to maintain clear visibility underwater, and soon after submerging, he saw those people who had entered the sea for Sea Return.

They floated in the water in a bizarre posture, eyes wide open, in a prayer-like pose. The sea water flowed through the bodies, causing them to emit a humming sound, yet their mouths were clearly not opened. This was the Ritual Circle of the large-scale ritual "Sea Return" in the sea, where each individual willingly returning themselves to the sea was part of the Base Formation.

As Shard passed them, they also tried to capture him. Hence, Shard saw most of the bodies bore similar Merman marks, leading him to more speculations:

"The Mermaid's Curse is more prevalent than I imagined, not only because the rain can also spread the curse, but because, in reality, most of the city's original residents have Merman bloodline... Sea Return, returning to the ocean where ancestors lived."

Grasping the fishing rod, he sped forward underwater. Five minutes later, when Shard vaguely saw the sea water ahead suddenly deepening, he realized the huge Mermaid corpse was right in front of him.

"How large can this thing possibly be?"

The lower half of the Mermaid that Shard could see underwater occupied a seabed space much larger than the largest sea creature he could imagine.

He always thought he didn't have a fear of giants or thalassophobia, but as he watched himself getting closer to that colossal being entrenched in the ocean, still wriggling, Shard couldn't help feeling an uncontrollable terror rising within him.

Initially, he could mitigate the increasingly terrifying feeling by closing his eyes and imagining the cute cat at home. But as he got closer to the giant Mermaid corpse summoned from the deep abyss by the Crimson Cult, even with his eyes closed, Shard felt he could clearly "see" the more specific features of that thing.

The corpse was decaying, parts of it underwater flowed with green and black dreadful pus with the current, forming thin streams mingling into the sea water. In the lightless seabed, the patterns on the body's surface were faintly visible. The rotten scales lifted, yet the patterns were strikingly clear.

With the faint light, what could be seen were spirals, interconnected spirals. Small spirals making up large spirals, and large spirals forming even larger ones.

Accompanied by the strange sounds of the seabed, these spirals in the lightless depths emitted a crimson light, like open eyes, possessing a bizarre power to attract souls. Shard, with his eyes closed, merely sensed these patterns psychically, yet even this gave him an illusion of being unable to control his own body.

"Just the patterns on a corpse carry such power?"

Fortunately, Shard didn't have to endure it for too long; he wasn't drawn closer to the Deep Sea Giant Corpse underwater, instead, the blood-red tattoo hooked by the fish hook brought him, rushing directly toward the water surface.