Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic

Shard held the scattered earth in his hands, softly speaking as he wielded sorcery:

"May the earth be with you and me."

His hands parted, and the soil scattered from his palms, yet it did not fall into the snow layers in the cold wind.

Instead, it gathered spontaneously in the air, forming a small earthen cup. The base was round, supported by four standing figures reaching up towards the center, while the belly of the cup had a diameter almost equal to its base. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

This type of cup is generally used in mysticism for rituals and ceremonies, and most so-called "Holy Grails" also have this design.

The earthen "Holy Grail" faced upwards, and as Shard continued his spellcasting, the cup gradually descended until it dipped into the snow and entered the soil. Only Circle Sorcerers with high perception could observe the fountain-like flood of earth-yellow spiritual energy erupting from where the cup had sunk, covering the whole estate’s ground within a few breaths.

"Oh!"

During this time, Shard maintained his spellcasting. As the information he received when gaining the sorcery last night explained, the consumption rate of the spirit was quite rapid. Besides Maze Lock, most of Shard’s sorceries and arcane techniques had never consumed so much spirit in one go. Fortunately, his spirit recovery rate was extremely fast, and the upper limit of his spirit seemed unlike that of a normal Five-Ring Sorcerer.

He even suspected that if it weren’t for himself, any other Circle Sorcerer would need multiple attempts, using this sorcery several times to completely purify this estate, a process that could take a long time. Thus, the man in the "Emerald Dream" was right in saying that Shard was well-suited to this power.

In any case, as the earth-yellow spiritual energy, invisible to the naked eye, dissipated, the abnormal sensation of the land gradually dissipated. Even Shard and Miss Grande standing on this land felt a sense of lightness in their bodies.

The previously silent courtyard now gained a touch of vitality. Even the Evil Spirit locked by Miss Grande had its dark color gradually fade, indicating the dissolution of resentment.

"Gate of Death!"

Seeing that the situation was about right, Shard waved his hand again, drawing a pitch-black rift in the air. This time, Shard didn’t need to intervene. The spirit, gradually returning to normal, bowed slightly to Shard of its own accord upon Miss Grande releasing its restraints, and then walked towards the dark rift.

"Please wait a moment, what exactly happened here?"

Miss Grande asked inquiringly; the soul did not turn back, continuing towards the rift, but the voice appeared in both of their ears:

"This land has gone mad."

The soul disappeared on that shallows, and the rift closed in the daylight.

"Gone mad?"

Miss Grande didn’t quite understand, and Shard was reminded of Miss Norma’s situation again. Although the manifestations were different on both occasions, the root cause seemed to be the same incident.

[Watch your step.]

"What?"

He looked down with a slight frown, clearly feeling that although the sorcery "Power of the Earth: Healing Aura" was nearing its end, the consumption of spirit remained astonishing. After a moment of waiting, as the strange sensations almost entirely dissipated, the earthen Holy Grail, crafted through spellcasting, astonishingly rose again from the soil.

Shard initially thought this was just part of the spellcasting process, but he didn’t expect the cup to actually remain.

He attempted to reach out and lift the cup; it was still empty, but the cup itself had absorbed the Miracle Element.

This was a truly unimaginable event; even if it had absorbed the land’s pollution and thus ingested Desecration or Whisper Element, Shard wouldn’t have been surprised at all. Yet this matter didn’t seem to involve any Deity from start to finish.

"I knew it. The man in the dream wasn’t speaking the truth; the pollution of Randall Valley’s land is definitely not a trivial matter..."

In his thoughts, he played with the delicate earthen Holy Grail, discovering tiny runes on its surface, meaning "Pure Water."

"Mr. Watson, do you know what exactly is going on here?"

Miss Grande had also noticed the earthen Holy Grail but assumed it was a characteristic of Shard’s spellcasting, thus didn’t pay much attention. She confirmed that everything here had returned to normal but wasn’t certain what had actually happened here.

"I don’t quite know either."

Shard frowningly put the small cup into his pocket. Although it contained the Miracle Element, it could only be considered a somewhat special Divine Item, thus could become a toy, albeit consuming more spirit.

Hesitating a bit, he took out a small pink bottle before Miss Grande and took a sip of oddly fragrant essence, then looked around:

"The land of Randall Valley City seems different from elsewhere. Miss Grande, I’m just an outlander who has recently arrived here; you should know more about this place than I do... Has such a thing happened before?"

The Female Sorcerer felt inexplicably flushed and shook her head slightly:

"Since the Sixth Era when records of this location began, the Randall Valley Region has repeatedly experienced land ’anomalies.’ Sometimes, like here, a concentration of the undead occurs, while at other times, entire stretches of land become petrified, or indispersible black mist emerges... Similar events happen every few decades, although with different manifestations, they’re classified as the same kind."

In this light, the incident in Tobesk does indeed seem to be of the same kind, all related to the "Crazy Earth."

"The Divine Rituals of the Sun Church are highly effective against this phenomenon. Usually, the Church handles it, but I didn’t want the Church at this estate."

"Does such a thing only happen in the Randall Valley Region?"

Shard confirmed once more.

"At least I’ve never heard of such events elsewhere."

Miss Grande nodded, looked around to ensure there was nothing else left to tend to:

"Alright, Mr. Watson, you’ve done an excellent job on this commission. The commission fee is 5 Krone, and I can give it to you now. However, those Echo Grass still need preparation. I wonder when you might have time this afternoon?"

"I’m available anytime."

The two of them walked towards the gate of the courtyard together:

"Shall we meet at the tavern again this afternoon?"

Shard asked, pondering that after going home today, he still needed to visit the abandoned manor in the Tobesk Eastern Suburbs to see if his sorcery would be effective there.

"If you’re available at any time..."

Miss Grande took out her pocket watch for a glance; it was already eleven in the morning:

"At three this afternoon, go to the Wilder Opera House, take this ticket to the second box on the left on the third floor. I do some small business at the Wilder Opera House, and I usually handle my transactions there."

"The Wilder Opera House" is the largest opera house in Randall Valley City. Unless something unexpected happens, Margaret would likely watch the opera there after arriving in the city.

"No problem."

Shard took the ticket and walked out of the courtyard with Miss Grande, watching as she relocked the gate.

"Miss Grande, do you know anyone from the Golden Dawn Opera Group?"

Shard suddenly asked behind the young Female Sorcerer, who nodded and turned to look at him:

"What, interested in my true identity?"

"No, no, no."

Shard slightly shook his head:

"Since you know someone from the opera group, could you get me a dagger? The kind commonly used in operas, the type that retracts when you stab someone. I need it urgently, preferably as soon as possible."

"No problem, that’s a very common prop."

Miss Grande slightly nodded. She appreciated Shard’s abilities and thought it would be good to associate a bit with this outlander Circle Sorcerer, so she didn’t mind revealing a bit of her identity. However, she was only the deputy leader of the Golden Dawn. The true leader did not like men very much.

The carriage took them back to the city, and Shard got off at the street corner near the Prophet’s Society and City Hall. After waiting for a while, another carriage arrived and delivered him the "retractable dagger."

Shard was very satisfied with his test and then went to the Prophet’s Society to wait for Luviya to finish work.

Lunch was eaten at a nearby restaurant. Shard briefly told Luviya about his dream last night and the commission he handled this morning and explained his suspicion that this matter might be related to The Chosen One.

Luviya frowned slightly as she listened to his story and nodded only after Shard had finished:

"It indeed doesn’t sound like a simple matter. Although there’s no evidence to prove this is related to The Chosen One, it’s good to investigate a bit since we’ve encountered it. I’ll also investigate the local archives from the Prophet’s Society; the society should have records of similar incidents in the past."

"That’s good, oh, and one more thing."

Shard glanced around to see that no one was paying attention to them, then took out the prop "retractable dagger" and handed it to Luviya:

"Please stab me, once in the chest and once in the abdomen."

Shard pointed to the specific spots, and the purple-eyed girl asked with a smile:

"What’s gotten into you? Is it related to that dream you were vague about earlier? Worried it’s a prophetic dream? It seems you didn’t just ride on that ’Thirteen Rings’ Mia in your dream."

"The ’Thirteen Rings’ cat? That’s a good joke. But I’m not afraid of prophetic dreams..."

He slightly stood up, allowing Luviya to stab him twice with the dagger, which finally brought a satisfied expression to his face:

"Though I respect fate, the future is to be created by oneself."

Luviya handed back the dagger to him:

"Alright, alright, let’s get back to business. What exactly is that Soil Holy Grail? Sorcery that creates water, food, or even buildings isn’t uncommon, but the ’Soil Holy Grail’ you made shouldn’t be simple, right? Does it have some special effect?"

"Perhaps we can test it."

Shard said softly, glancing around again. The waiter wasn’t heading their way, and the elderly gentleman at a distant table was focused on the newspaper in his hand.

After restoring the Soil Holy Grail, he placed it on the table, then poured a spoonful of hot fish soup into the cup:

"How is it?"

Luviya asked.

"Just as I thought, it turned into pure water."

Shard said, passing the Soil Holy Grail to her. Luviya experimented with red wine, and sure enough, found that even the red wine turned into pure water when poured into the cup.