Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic-Chapter 665 - Sword Slaying the Demon
Chapter 665: Chapter 665: Sword Slaying the Demon
Chapter 665: Chapter 665: Sword Slaying the Demon
“Indeed, these are the Spell Words. Do you also know of this ring?”
Sister Delphine nodded, as the autumn wind on the cliff’s edge blew, fluttering the hems of the blind nuns’ robes. In the wind, they maintained the same posture, their eye masks reflecting the moonlight’s glimmer, creating an indeed eerie sight.
“This Relic isn’t well-known; I heard about it from Granny Cassandra. Even the Spell Words were spoken to me by her. It’s said to be knowledge from her teacher. This Sage-Level Relic was originally under the control of the local Vampire Clan of Midshire Fort. According to Granny Cassandra’s teacher, the Relic first appeared in the Fifth Era, when The Great One of the Vampire kind bestowed it upon a human male. After that mortal died in the Sicarl Mountain Region, the Relic returned to the Vampire Clan.”
“I see… Died in the Sicarl Mountain Region.”
Shard nodded somewhat dejectedly. The Sage-Level Relic’s ring should be the one given by the Saint to the gray-haired Armored Elder at the conclusion of the God’s Banquet. And now, an Era later, Shard heard of that ring once again. The ring had transformed from a powerful Divine Item into a Relic, whereas the old man had long since vanished.
“The Vampire Ring, changing race, and unlike the Transmutation Ring, this one seems to be activated by others reciting the Spell Words… If I gave it to Mia, it would be like her changing from a cat to a Vampire Kind. In that case, she might be able to use the ‘Fish Training Ring,’ and even speak using the ‘Transmutation Ring’… What am I thinking? The wearer of the ‘Vampire Ring’ will contract Bloodlust Syndrome; I can’t allow that cat to fall prey to such a troublesome disease.”
The nuns of the Spiritual Practice Order had to continue to the mountain peak, so after ensuring Shard was fine, they parted ways with him. Shard watched the nuns leave the cliff and disappear back into the dense forest, while he turned and approached the edge of the cliff, then looked down.
Even without acrophobia, the view from such an angle down into the dark night forest below the cliff still made his head spin slightly. And the Silvermoon Demon Hunter’s sword lay in a secret cave beneath the cliff. The cave’s entrance was invisible to ordinary methods; only those with the Parchment could see it.
“Finally found it…”
It was very late, and Shard was also worried about the cat at home. Although Luviya on the third floor, Stargazing, would help Shard feed the cat, he was still a bit anxious.
“Let’s make it quick. I should hurry back.”
He glanced up at the moon in the sky, then took out some fine thread from his pocket. After covering it with a white cloth, he restored it into a thick hemp rope, tied one end to the tree closest to the cliff, and the other around his waist. After a few tugs confirmed it was very secure, he slowly slid down the cliff face.
“That’s why I say, searching for things in the mountains is such a hassle.”
Fortunately, he had found the right location. Holding the Parchment, Shard soon saw the distortion of the Vibration traces on the cliff wall. Pressing the Parchment against it, the dark cave mouth immediately appeared.
Shard swung into the cave, using Feliana’s Witch Light to melt handholds into the cave mouth’s wall, then untie the rope and secure it on the “stone handle” for later climbing.
“Moonlight.”
At the flick of his fingertips, Moonlight blossomed, illuminating the pitch-dark cave. It did not resemble a burrow dug by animals but rather a natural fault line that seemed to have been widened into its current form.
The cave was very deep and went downward without any perception of wind, suggesting no additional exits. Since the Parchment outlined the traps’ locations and how to disarm them, Shard encountered no danger. But he was certain that all the traps showed no signs of being triggered; the protective rituals had decayed over time, not destroyed by human action.
“This is good news; the sword is indeed still here. It seems my luck isn’t too bad.”
The deeper he went, the narrower the passage became, resembling an ant’s nest; its end was utterly invisible.
Around nine o’clock, a whisper informed him of the approaching Whisper Element, indicating the presence of the Relic—Shard was nearing his goal.
“How exactly did that High Ring Sorcerer, the eye doctor and ancestor of Dr. Jacob Alfred, find this cliffside cave?”
He pondered as he continued forward, steadying himself on the uneven stone wall. The ground here was far from smooth, making the journey quite exhausting.
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“Also, is it getting hotter?”
This was definitely not an Illusion caused by delving too deep into a closed space, nor the natural temperature rise in a year-round unventilated cave. The heat wasn’t noticeable upon first entering, but after encountering the Whisper Element, the temperature rise became distinctingly apparent.
“Could it be the power of the sword is related to flame? A sword associated with fire… could it be sensing something?”
“There is indeed an abnormal rise in temperature, but it’s not due to the influence of the Whisper Element.”
“No? Could this passage lead directly to an underground Magma Lake?”
Surprised by the thought, Shard continued to advance, feeling even the cave’s rocks were scorching hot, making his breathing grow increasingly loud:
“What’s going on here? This is definitely not normal.”
He continued forward, and the increasingly narrow passageway finally came to an end. A faint red light flickered ahead, while a wave of heat rushed towards him. The moonlight on his fingertip revealed that beyond the passageway was a vast space, and by Shard’s estimation, he should now be within the belly of Sicarl Mountain.
He stepped out cautiously, doing his best to lift his right hand high to illuminate his surroundings. Outside the passageway was a not-so-large stone platform, and beyond the platform was a huge void inside the mountain. In the oppressively quiet, hollow, dark, and profound environment, the weak flames flickered uncertainly, adding to the eeriness of the moment.
The top of the great void was not very high, roughly the height of a three-story building, while the bottom…
Shard bent down to pick up a pebble, then tossed it below the platform; it took quite a while before he heard the sound of it hitting the bottom.
“Sicarl Mountain really does have everything.”
Across from the void within the mountain, there was another stone platform, which connected to another cave. Between the two platforms, there was a thick stone pillar that seemed to extend up from the bottom. The two platforms and the central pillar were perfectly aligned in a straight line, and as Shard approached the edge of the platform, he indeed found traces of a bridge column and a broken bridge.
This meant that a long time ago, there used to be a surprisingly long rope bridge here, connecting from this platform to another platform through the central stone platform in the big void. But now, though remnants of the bridge’s pillars remained on the stone platform, along with a small portion of the rope bridge hanging downwards, the main body of the bridge was gone.
“What exactly happened here?”
Fortunately, Shard wasn’t planning to continue exploring this place. The sword he was looking for was on the stone platform where he was standing now. More precisely, it was embedded in front of the damaged rope bridge.
The silver hilt of the sword shone in the darkness, thanks to the moonlight at Shard’s fingertips. He could clearly see the inscriptions on the blade, those ancient characters from an even more distant age, from an era when Evil Spirit Demons roamed the material world:
“My heart is clear, my sword slays demons.”
Finally seeing the sword, Shard’s brows furrowed instead of lighting up with joy because the sword wasn’t embedded in the ground, but in a cluster of a campfire emitting sparks.
Though the campfire had already been extinguished, only shooting out a few scattered dark red sparks, the dim red glow indeed came from those sparks. The temperature of the campfire was extremely high; as soon as he stepped out of the narrow passageway behind him, he felt a huge wave of heat hit him, and the temperature rise he had felt after sensing the Whisper Element was due to this campfire’s influence.
“What is this now?”
As Shard squinted at the campfire, the sparks suddenly ignited the long-extinguished embers, and dark red flames burst forth with a thunderous roar, forcing Shard to retreat several steps.
The flames shot up almost to the top of the mountain’s great void in an instant, completely illuminating the stone platform. The flames splattered everywhere, and the firelight cast Shard’s giant shadow on the cliff behind him.
The sword inserted in the campfire hummed and vibrated, the originally black inscriptions on the silver blade lit up from bottom to top with bright yellow light, suppressing the rising flames. The campfire was gradually suppressed until it became normal-sized. Amid the cracking sounds, the flames licked at the silver sword, tilted in the fire, as if the two were grappling with each other.
Shard watched this scene in amazement while a chorus of whispering voices now rose in the great void within the mountain, one voice tempting Shard to immediately pull the sword out.
“Oh, damn, this couldn’t be…”
He took a ring from his pocket and put it on his right hand; with his still-covered right hand behind his back, he stepped forward as if truly bewitched.
The heat wave assaulted his skin, and the blinding firelight forced his eyes to squint. In the flames of the campfire, forcibly suppressed by the silver sword, there seemed to be a terrifying face made of fire looking at Shard, with eyes long and slender and a mouth so wide it nearly extended back to its ears.
It was whispering, murmuring, watching him—the first mortal to step into this place after eight hundred years.
Lights and shadows intermingled on Shard, the swaying campfire caused his shadow to flicker constantly, the ground’s firelight had a layered effect, and as Shard finally reached the campfire, with another eruption of the campfire, a hand larger than Shard’s body, composed of broken obsidian with seams glimmering like magma, suddenly extended from the campfire and grasped at him.
“Moonlight Greatsword!”
The right hand wearing the “Demon Hunting Seal” suddenly swung the silver greatsword at the giant hand. When the two-handed greatsword collided with the demonic hand, the greatsword burst into a shower of light, and Shard staggered backward several steps to stabilize himself. The giant arm was split into a cluster of flames and was forced back into the campfire.
The silver sword skewed in the campfire completely suppressed the flames, and the crackling campfire returned to emitting only specks of light, though still crackling, showing no sign of the thing that had just emerged.
“So that’s it. That’s why Dr. Alfred’s ancestor didn’t keep the ‘Demon Hunting Seal’ with this sword in the house where his descendants lived, because of this reason.”
Shard, clutching his right arm, watched the campfire and stepped back step by step. The firelight illuminated his face:
“That High Ring Sorcerer from eight hundred years ago actually used this sword to seal a demon here! Mr. Sean Asmon, the Demonologist, was right after all!”
