Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic-Chapter 602 -

Chapter 602: 602

Chapter 602: 602

“If I were to state all my titles, I fear it would take some time, but I’m currently short on it.”

Shard did not answer the other’s question but instead asked,

“So, you appearing here is not because you were ‘sucked’ in, but voluntarily?”

The man nodded:

“Yes, this place needs a guardian. There is no core in this world, but there are some dangerous places. When the Church of Nature chose this location, it was to suppress what corresponds to this region of the world. But as the problems grew worse, every hundred years the church would allow a sufficiently powerful Circle Sorcerer to preserve their self-consciousness through a ritual before death, and then enter this world to guard the chapel.”

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He explained without any hint of concealment:

“So if you have no business here, leave this place. If an accident were to happen here, no one would survive.”

“Sorry, I have some business inside the chapel. But I promise I will definitely not damage the church’s seals.”

Shard said, trying to express the emotion of “apology” with his tone as genuinely as possible, admiring the spirit before him.

“Okay, then go ahead.”

The man shrugged.

“Hmm?”

The eyes behind the mask blinked, this was unexpected:

“You’re letting me in just like that; what about your duty?”

“Oh, I can feel a strong power in you. To be precise, even if I used the power of this chapel, I wouldn’t be able to defeat you. The Circle Sorcerer system is a synthesis of soul and flesh. Without a body, even if one was a High Ring in life, it’s useless. Rather than fighting and letting you damage the chapel’s seal, I’d rather let you in. Besides, after being here a long time, I can also discern the characteristics of a soul. Your soul is not bad; in fact, it’s quite noble. I can feel the powers of compassion and bravery in you.”

“Then… thank you?”

Shard said as he nodded and then asked,

“May I ask, has anyone else entered before me? Recently, that is.”

The man still leaned against the wall:

“Yes, a person with wings. He was terrifying, extremely so. I didn’t even dare show my face to see what he looked like.”

That was undoubtedly Priest Augustus; it seems his strength in the Interstice is formidable.

The soul of the Circle Sorcerer from the Church of Nature pointed towards the depths of the chapel:

“It seems he’s quite skilled at manipulating the power of death, and he doesn’t seem like a bad person. He entered the innermost part of the chapel, probably aiming to acquire Spirit Runes associated with ‘Death’ by drawing close to it.”

Things were going much smoother than Shard had anticipated.

“Do you know that strange, winged guy? Do you know what he’s up to? If possible, I would really like it if you could take him away with you. Nothing must go wrong here.”

The soul asked, and Shard shook his head:

“I don’t know what he’s intending to do. Didn’t you follow him?”

“We are forbidden from entering the interior; I can only move around in the central hall.”

The soul said with a sense of helplessness.

“Then can you tell me what exactly is in the depths of the chapel?”

Shard asked again, assuming the other might not reply or would give an evasive answer. Unexpectedly, the soul nodded readily once more. Shard felt he would certainly remember this person—he’d encountered too many who only spoke in halves in this world.

“Of course, I can tell you, inside lies a door.”

Shard hesitated for a moment:

“You’re not going to tell me that inside the chapel lies that door, from the Interstice of Life and Death, the very Gate of Death?”

“Yes.”

The soul looked at Shard, its transparent eyes lively:

“The agitated Power of Death is invading this place and, consequently, affecting the real Sicarl Mountain Region. If the church does not intervene, sooner or later, the overflowing death will devour the eastern part of the continent, turning the entire Rommel Mountains into something like the Ghost Town of Bordeaux. Besides the church, other powerful beings are helping suppress this abnormal world. The church only seals and suppresses this particular door. It is this place that gives death a chance to invade reality, and it’s becoming increasingly powerful.”

His avoidance of the term “Old Continent” suggested that in the era he lived, perhaps the New World had not been discovered yet.

“This place being so important, you actually allowed that winged person to pass by?”

Shard asked again, and the latter shook his head:

“Even the strongest cannot influence one side from the other. It can only be the Power of Death from the other side affecting our Interstice, and hence the real world. That’s the rule of the Interstice. So, I didn’t stop him.”

Shard nodded slightly and, expressing his thanks, walked down the aisle between rows of chairs filled with candles, toward the innermost part of the chapel.

“I should remind you one thing.”

Behind him, the soul leaning against the wall continued to speak:

“No matter what the person you’re looking for did, you absolutely should not cross that gate. Once you pass through, you truly die. All mortals must die, and all things must come to Ultimate Death. Beyond that gate lies Ultimate Death itself.”

Shard stopped his steps:

“Of course.”

He continued walking deeper into the church.

Compared to the state outside the church where “a spirit appeared every three steps and a ghost every five,” the number of ghosts and spirits inside the Nature Chapel was notably fewer. Among the candles that seemingly never burned down no matter how much they were lit and the talismans hanging on silver threads, only the ghosts dressed as clergy members of the Church of Nature floated aimlessly, showing no reaction to Shard’s presence.

Shard could at least be certain that there were no evil spirits here, so there was no need for combat on the way forward.

The church itself was a building with a very complex internal layout, but this chapel in the interstice of life and death had almost only one path. All of the forked paths were tightly blocked by tables, chairs, benches, or other clutter, leaving only the path forward, which was crowded with dense traces of rituals, almost illuminating the interior of the chapel in gold.

Whether it was because of the presence of the door at the depths of the church, which represented the concept of “death” and twisted the space, Shard felt the corridors inside the chapel were skewed.

This skewness wasn’t just in the direction of the horizontal stretch, but also included the left, right, and up and down. Coupled with the golden ritual traces scattered about, the silver wires interconnecting the steam pipes on both sides, the talismans hanging overhead that had to be pushed aside to avoid bumping one’s head, and the candle flames that flickered even though there was no wind, the scene in front of him grew increasingly strange.

As he progressed, the fog grew lighter, but at the same time, the air also became colder, and all items from the real world around began to slowly fade.

When Shard turned into the final corridor, the flames of the candles on the ground had all turned blue, the walls were decrepit as if they had weathered thousands of years, and all divine traces were there, but all were decaying.

“Death is affecting this place. What exactly is Priest doing?”

The fog was completely gone here, and the air was so cold that with every breath, Shard could exhale white mist. If he didn’t know this was a church, the scene in front of him would have looked very much like a haunted house plastered with talismans.

“Is Priest just ahead?”

The attraction in the Holy Emblem Pendant on his chest was growing stronger, which meant Shard was getting closer and closer to the target.

Turning the corridor corner, the passageway in front of him had finally mutated to a point where it no longer resembled the architectural style of a church interior. The narrow and winding corridor eventually led to a square entrance that connected to the underground, from which black wind was gradually blowing out.

The wind, sweeping past Shard as he was checking out the situation, caused him to shiver violently, as his soul felt a coldness it had never experienced before.

The wind left a thin cut on his face, and then from the wound, gold Light Traces sparkled, and bits of gold ashes drifted with the wind behind him.

“What’s going on? There’s the power of a deity nearby.”

Shard covered his face, then saw the cracks slowly crawling and extending on his raised right hand.

“No, but at this location, the power of the soul will be more pronounced.”

“Is it enough to manifest the Divine Afterglow?”

Shard murmured to himself, staring at the black entrance to the underground. Although strings of talismans and bells blocked the entrance, pushing aside those highly elastic metal wires would be no problem if he wanted to continue downward.

“Outlander, the concept of death ahead is almost to the point of overflowing.”

“I know, I’ll be careful. Having come this far, I have no reason to turn back.”

He bent down and walked downwards, stepping on the rough stone steps, and after passing the Thirteenth Rank, he arrived in the underground corridor.

The howling black wind kept blowing from the front end of the corridor. Innumerable whispers echoed in Shard’s ears, and he could clearly hear them—the murmurings of the deceased at the last moments of their lives. Those icy winds were like knives, leaving scars all over Shard’s body and cutting through his clothing, but then, a golden divine afterglow appeared from those rifts, protecting the Outlander’s soul.

Even Shard had to raise his arms to shield his face in order to struggle forward with difficulty. The wind made it hard for him to stand firm, and the soft black soil beneath his feet seemed to threaten to swallow him with every step.

There was no white fog, no Divine Ritual, not even a ghost—this was the final passage.

Beside the golden scars on his body, the brightest color on Shard was a thin line on his wrist. It seemed to truly ignite, casting red sparks that drifted behind him with the harsh wind. It was his right hand, bound with this string, that he used to shield his forehead, to maintain his body heat and stabilize his soul.

“So, what kind of fire is it that Sister Delphine holds in her hand, that it should be so powerful?”

Death was suppressing all supernatural powers, and the Holy Emblem Pendant on his chest that guided direction had lost its function. But it didn’t matter anymore, because on the muddy ground covered with sludge, there were clear footprints, belonging to Priest Augustus.

Shard shielded his forehead with his right hand, bowing his head against the death-powered black wind, and then looked at the ground, following the footprints step by step in the dark final channel.

Death was eroding him, embracing him, and that cold power seemed to physically manifest itself in the space. Shard even had the feeling that the “Death” Spirit Rune might appear in his Ring of Fate the next second.

With each step forward, the Light Trace on his body grew brighter. Unable to look up, he could only keep hoping that he would see Priest Augustus lying on the ground or an old man sitting against the wall in the next second.

But nothing appeared until Shard reached the end of the corridor, stepped out of the passage, and came into the massive towering square space at its end, still without seeing a familiar figure.

There was nothing here, only the ancient double stone doors standing on the wall directly opposite the end of the passage.

That ancient stone door, as if representing the passage of time itself, was inscribed with stories about death and written in ancient runes that would make Shard dizzy at a glance. It seemed to describe the very first death, but also seemed to tell other utterly incomprehensible stories.

And the black wind carrying the Power of Death was blowing from the cracks of the stone doors, but still eerie without any sound, cold and silent, as if everything in the world had come to a halt here.

[Outlander, you have heard the Whisper.]

Seeing that door, a prompt came to his ear. Thus Shard understood that the door separating the true death was also a Relic.

“But where is Priest Augustus?”

He walked out of the passage, then stopped, looking at the trail of Priest Augustus’s footprints on the ground, leading up to the door.

At this moment, even Shard felt his whole body so numb he could hardly move, while drowsiness surged, and he had to concentrate all his willpower just to resist the desire for eternal sleep.

That desire was indeed very tempting, but fortunately, the images of Mia Cat and the girls were echoing in his head.

After so many adventures, from Tobesk thousands of miles away to Midshire Fort, and now standing at the deepest part of the Interstice, what Shard saw was that the footprints led to the front of this ancient stone door, but the Priest was not here:

“The Priest said in a dream that he had ‘crossed death’s boundary.’ Could it be that he was not referring to the Interstice of Life and Death, but…”

Shard’s mouth fell open slightly, and he raised his head to look at the stone door, feeling that beyond it was the end of everything. He even felt that he could see what had happened to Priest Augustus in the near past.

Lat August had already passed through the Gate of Death.