Chapter 315: Chapter 312: Breaking the First Seal

The Power of the Lord of Order, combined with the most powerful Analytical Engine ever built by the Istani, produced a strange effect.

In essence, it was merely a machine, but it acted as a fulcrum. It allowed the Power of the Lord of Order to latch onto it, achieving an effect even more outrageous than the graphics card from Rorschach’s past life—sustaining the illusion of an entire Burning Lion Knight Squad.

No, they had at least been real at some point.

Caroline and Benedict couldn’t comprehend what Rorschach was doing, but they watched as the people and objects in the camp disintegrated. With a CLATTER, only a suit of mangled, rusted plate armor remained where the Knight Commander had stood. James, the knight who had led them into the camp, reappeared. He materialized from the machine, his movements like a film playing in reverse as he walked backward to the entrance.

Then he too disintegrated. His helmet rolled away, and his sword snapped, its blade long since rusted through.

The barracks began to waver. Caroline tried to control the falling stones with her magic but discovered they had no physical form. The real sea breeze came roaring in, carrying a briny scent and a biting chill.

The sea. They were on a coastline, nestled between steep cliffs. Moonlight spilled across the land and the ocean’s surface, illuminating the real world.

Countless motes of light converged on Rorschach. The machine faded, revealing its true form: a teetering frame eroded by sea and wind, its protective paint long since peeled away.

Rorschach landed. Benedict, overjoyed to find he could speak again, hurried forward. He was much more subdued now, however, and simply asked, "Where are we?"

Rorschach pulled out his map. The information it displayed had changed completely. "For now, we’ve escaped the Shadow Land. We were teleported through a fissure to the western coast of the main island’s northern end. The nearest city is called Lankeshire."

"The entire camp and the Knight Squad were an Illusion?" Caroline asked, a wave of fear washing over her. She hadn’t realized it at first. It wasn’t until that moment of lag just before she entered the barracks that she’d sensed something was wrong.

’But even then, I only sensed a problem. It’s as if Rorschach knew everything from the start.’

"A squad like this must have actually existed in history. The tattered banner and the remains we first discovered were real. The Analytical Engine extracted people from a moment in history and simulated them."

"So were those vile spawn also just a fabrication from this piece of junk to slander us Elves?" Benedict was furious. ’I’m a Racial Knight!’

"Heh. Unfortunately, they’re quite real. They’re all the ’Fallen Race of Is,’ tainted and degenerated by Is’s power. Before their transformation, or rather, their ancestors, were genuine Elves." After speaking, Rorschach cupped his hands around his mouth like a megaphone. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

But he wasn’t actually shouting. Instead, he used his Magic Power to make the air vibrate, perfectly simulating the piercing shriek of the vile spawn. In Caroline’s Arcane Vision, the Magic Power rippled, an effect similar to the trembling of the tentacles on the creatures’ backs.

In response to Rorschach’s mimicry, black monsters swarmed out from caves in the cliff face, from between the seaside reefs, and from the sea itself. There were about a hundred of them. They clambered up the rock face with incredible agility, screeching as they charged toward the Analytical Engine and the trio’s position.

"Thanks to the power of Is, these Fallen Race can naturally invade the Shadow Land. The Lord of Order’s seal, combined with the Analytical Engine, simulated a Knight Squad that has been constantly resisting their incursions. The Shadow City has no day or night, but in reality, they become active every evening and try to break through the fissure."

Rorschach spoke, but his hands never stopped moving. He transformed the ocean spray into sharp, high-speed ice crystals. Countless shards flew out in sheets, reaping the lives of the vile spawn.

"Why are these... Fallen Ones so obsessed with the Shadow City?" Benedict asked, confused. ’Is it because the surface cities won’t have them? Do they need to apply for residency in the Shadow Land?’

As he spoke, he joined the fight. Donning his mask, he wielded a dagger in each hand and danced gracefully among the monsters. With every elegant spin and difficult maneuver, another vile spawn’s head would hit the ground.

"Because after Is escaped, the Shadow Land was the only place left that contained the strongest of its power. They want to evolve, to regain the favor of their divine master, so naturally, they are drawn to it. These fallen beings probably exist all over Istani, though many may have been wiped out. This is likely one of the larger remaining populations." This was the sad tale of the Fallen Race "trying too hard to improve," only for the Lord of Order to study the matter and forbid their progress.

Rorschach guessed they survived by fishing and hunting, but they had clearly lost their minds. For centuries, they had lived like beasts, without clothing or tools.

Caroline continued to attack with blades of spatial energy, occasionally teleporting to safer positions. ’She desperately wanted to ask Rorschach how he knew all this, but her intuition told her that the way he was now, he would just brush her off with some flimsy excuse.’

’Was this boy, so effortlessly annihilating the vile spawn, really Rorschach? She wavered. Sometimes, it felt like him. But at other times, something was wrong. Terribly wrong.’

The battle ended. Benedict retracted his mask and bowed toward the sea as if taking a final curtain call. "What an exhilarating battle!" He finally had a moment to wipe the sweat from his brow, and the sea breeze felt wonderfully refreshing on his drenched skin.

But when he took a closer look, he saw Rorschach and Caroline standing elegantly at the cliff’s edge, perfectly composed and without a single bead of sweat to be seen.

"We have to get back to the Shadow Land! Before we become ’Wanderers’," Benedict said, annoyed. He had no choice but to remind the Mage and the Healer, standing so proudly at the sea’s edge, to get back to business.

"No rush. The seal here is broken, so we can cross back through the fissure whenever we want. After all, we have Teacher Caroline with us." Rorschach gave his teacher a warm smile, revealing his stunning profile in the moonlight.

Caroline nodded. "I can already sense the gap in space. I can widen it for us to pass through at any time." But she was still thinking, ’This boy isn’t right. He never would have smiled like that before!’

Before returning to the Ancient Ruins Area in the Shadow Land, Rorschach had one more thing to do. The Analytical Engine had thoroughly piqued his interest.

This precise, yet surprisingly open-air, machine was tall enough to rival the highest building in Storm City. What they had seen from the camp hadn’t been its full extent. It was built alongside the cliff, with a power room at its base, likely driven by a Steam Engine. Beside the power room was a control room, filled with crates of paper tape, broken light fixtures, and dust-covered tabletops.

’It seems that in the real world, this machine was never completed. It never ran, not even once.’ Rorschach found the blueprints. The architectural diagrams revealed its intended final form, complete with a canopy to shield it from the elements, at a scale even larger than its current size. If Rorschach were to inspect the Steam Engine’s furnace, he would find it perfectly clean, without a speck of coal ash inside.

The blueprints and other technical documents were piled in a room that served as both a control room and an archive. Fortunately, it hadn’t been destroyed by the Fallen Race. Rorschach rummaged through boxes and cabinets, shrinking all the documents. Full-sized and folio blueprints were reduced to roughly B5 paper size, and he stored them all in his ring.

Caroline realized he was using an incredibly advanced spatial technique. It wasn’t a simple shrinking spell. Instead, he enveloped all the materials in Magic Power, isolating them from the surrounding space, then compressed the isolated space and matter within an "Ethereal Membrane." This way, when the magic was released, the shrunken materials would be restored without any damage.

"Did Master Kano teach you that trick, too?" Caroline asked, ready to praise her student and fellow apprentice.

"I taught myself. Does Chief Kano even know this spell? I never saw him use it at the Tower of Stars." Rorschach’s reply made Caroline breathe a sigh of relief.

She widened the fissure, and the three of them stepped back into the Shadow Land, greeted by the familiar, dusky yellow sky.

"How many more seals do we have to break? The situation is tense and changing by the second!" Benedict said with some concern. ’The Shadow City is massive; how long are we going to be running around?’

"We don’t have to. The Lord of Order’s seal is a single, interconnected system. We just need to release the key nodes, and the seals on the other fissures will collapse on their own. I estimate... we just need to reclaim the Power of Order from two more nodes."