Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic

Chapter 1928: Seaview Window

The shattered Astral Meteorite, most of its main body vanished directly, with a small portion falling into the city. Although Miss Aphrola didn’t intentionally collect them because she had to bring the unconscious Miss Galina back, Miss Sylvia on the third floor still managed to obtain some.

Those ores were sent to the first floor, the irregular stones indeed possessed the magnificent colors akin to a starry sky, very similar to the effects when Shard used the Arcane Technique "Moon Library".

This was considered the first spoils of war for tonight, but for this spoil, the Green Lake Region indeed made a great sacrifice.

The Astral Meteorite didn’t appear just once. A mere ten minutes later, due to violent spatial fluctuations, a second wave of Astral Meteorites emerged again from the rainy night. This time there were only seven, and because the Church was already prepared, they successfully intercepted all the meteorites attempting to fall.

Even the remnants of these falling meteorites were detected in advance by the traces of Starlight Hues and were directly vaporized in the air by a large-scale Divine Ritual released by the Church. Fortunately, there was heavy rain tonight, or else the strange phenomenon in the sky would have troubled the newspapers for a complicated explanation.

The rumbling sound was incessant, the exploding meteorites in the air instantly bloomed with a ghostly blue light and then completely disappeared.

The rain outside the window grew more violent, as if the sky and the sea were connected. In such a dark deep night, even the normal sound of rain truly terrified one’s heart.

The echoes of the second wave of Astral Meteorite explosions seemed not to have faded, yet a new situation arose in the inn. Miss Sylvia hurriedly sent a message, urging Shard to quickly go upstairs to help:

"There’s a problem on the third floor!"

"Luviya, you and Miss Aphrola stay here!"

With that, Shard picked up the longsword at hand, stepped forward, and directly disappeared, then reappeared on the third floor.

He didn’t need anyone else to remind him to immediately realize what the problem was.

The inn’s rooms were distributed on both sides of the corridor, so there were only windows at the ends of the corridor. And now, the window at the easternmost end of the third floor was gushing a massive amount of liquid into the corridor like a fountain.

The liquid, whether it was lake water or seawater, had already spread over more than half of the corridor’s floor. In the rushing sound, the soaked Miss Sylvia stood at the very front of the window, with a large group of girls behind her, all resisting the impact of the water flow together.

They were trying to seal the window completely with a wooden board, but it wasn’t going smoothly.

"Shard!"

Even without turning around, Miss Sylvia sensed Shard’s appearance. The witch shouted, as the cold water seeped into her clothes through the collar and sleeves, swiftly carrying away the warmth, yet she still pressed her hands firmly on the wooden board at the front of the window, allowing other girls to nail it in place.

Shard hurried over, and after the other girls made way, he replaced Miss Sylvia, reaching out to press the wooden board even as the water poured directly over him. He immediately understood why only Miss Sylvia reached out, why such a flood needed so many people to block here.

Once this wooden board contacted the window, abnormal spatial power tried to disintegrate it. Without using something like a "Spatial Stabilization Aura", no physical entity could block this place.

"Only the wooden board can seal this window, it’s a Scribe Level Relic!"

The witch yelled in the rushing water sound, then picked up another wooden board, blocking it below the wooden board Shard was pressing. The girls immediately took the nails and hammered them, the thudding sound easily drowned out by the sound of water.

"A Scribe Level Relic ’Seaview Window’, it’s also a location-type relic.

A certain window randomly connects with the sea, then large amounts of water pour into the building’s interior. Currently, there’s no way to actively dispel such an abnormal space connection, you can only seal it, waiting for the connection to disappear. Moreover, when sealing, only wooden boards and nails can be used, other methods will be eliminated by spatial power."

Her face hid behind Shard, speaking as succinctly as possible, while leaning against Shard to resist the impact of the water flow. This seawater wasn’t normal either, as soon as it stuck on, stamina and spirit rapidly drained unnaturally. Before Shard came over, Miss Sylvia was already close to being unable to hold on here.

Among the Council’s witches, she wasn’t one renowned for physical strength. Although the raising of the Ring Mage Level provides a comprehensive enhancement effect on physical qualities, unfortunately, she still belonged to the more traditional spellcaster type, rather than a physically astonishing witch like Miss Benanis, the Witch of the Earth.

"Is this just our bad luck, or did that Diviner make a move?"

Shard shouted, then spat several times to get the water out of his mouth. He slowly moved forward until all the women using their bodies to shield the window stepped aside, allowing him to stand completely in front of the window and blocking the now glassless frame. The massive, icy cold flow of water almost knocked him off balance, and it sapped his stamina. Fortunately, Shard still had the Night Watchman.

After going through the incident with The Chosen One of Knowledge and Wisdom, the Night Watchman had acquired a series of special blessings. One of those was that when Shard held it, his stamina would become inexhaustible. Of course, there was a limit, and Shard didn’t become a perpetual motion machine, but it was enough to handle the current situation.

"I don’t know what’s going on, but if we don’t block this, the hotel will be finished!"

There were many people available in the hotel, followers of the Grand Witches, those young or mature women taking turns holding hammers and nails, struggling to fix the wooden boards to the wall. With Shard taking the lead, Miss Sylvia and the others felt less pressured. She was tightly pressed against Shard’s back, spreading her arms out just like him. Feeling his slight tremble and the warmth from his body, she inexplicably felt a sense of reassurance.

"Oh, Emma, this is not the time..."

She warned herself internally but her eyes still drifted towards Shard’s skin wrapped in the soaked shirt, and her body temperature unexpectedly rose slightly.

The women worked quickly, and in an instant, half of the window that would supposedly require thirteen wooden boards to fully block was already sealed. Miraculously, the gaps between the wooden boards, which should have leaked water when facing such a relic, showed no signs of leakage.

Shard’s burden also lightened considerably, yet Miss Sylvia’s soft body remained leaning against his back. Shard assumed the young Grand Witch was still exhausted and did not pay much attention. With the water no longer pouring into his mouth, he voiced his doubt:

"If it’s just about backflowing seawater into indoor buildings, how is this relic rated as Scribe Level?"

"Because..."

Miss Sylvia did not need to answer further, as an unexpected booming roar followed, and the enormous, suction-cup-covered, slimy tentacle shattered those pitiable wooden boards from the deep sea outside, then it wrapped around the waists of the closely pressed Shard and Miss Sylvia. With tremendous force, it almost dragged Shard and the Witch out of the window.

Luckily, he had "Lagre’s Leap" prepared, and at the last moment before being pulled out of the window, he vanished from the window along with Miss Sylvia. The tentacle also withdrew, taking away the last hanging half-piece of wood on the window.

The roaring sound of water echoed throughout the third floor again, and everyone who initially refrained from looking at the external deep-sea scene found themselves irresistibly glancing towards that window.

Inconceivable darkness, outlined by more viscous darkness, gradually revealed itself. The instinct of intelligent life resisted trying to comprehend the enormous silhouette and its represented exact form, contradicting geometric laws, with strange patterns and textures gradually forming a densely packed appearance in the unlit deep sea, illuminated by the light coming through the window inside the hotel.

Ancient, murky, yet trembling with vitality. The indistinguishable behemoth beneath the dark sea edges closer and closer to the window. Circle Sorcerers seldom suffer from Megalophobia, yet at this moment, Shard could hardly hear anyone breathing.

Even he found it hard to avoid imagining the gigantic creature in the abyss, silently approaching the sole point of light. The speck of light was, without a doubt, the window where the hotel was located.

Having encountered countless monsters, the divine and the light of Primal Fire shined out from his soul, allowing the Outlander to return to normal in a matter of seconds. He took a deep breath, reached for a wooden board to block the window, to prevent the glimmer from attracting the increasingly close presence outside the window.

But suddenly, the silhouette in the deep sea trembled. In the instant that held Shard captive, the outline of an eyelid opened, and it was nothing like any monstrous shape. The outline represented an enormous black eye, streaked with dark red veins, an eye of wisdom and reason, capable of absorbing rationality and soul, slowly opened, staring into the room from outside the window.

The eye was circular, with... blood... insects... black...

Primal fear and indefinable trembling surged forth in the face of that mountain-like wise gigantic eye.

Shard felt unable to think, his heartbeat and breath ceased completely in that instant. Rationality quickly declined with their mutual gaze that could not be diverted, a scene even more terrifying than his past nightmares, never imagined before.

The colossal pupil drew nearer and nearer. Until a sharp reprimand from behind pulled everyone present back from the reality more dreadful than nightmares—

"Praise the Chaos Witch! May the Witch’s Radiance endure forever!"