Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic

Carrying the Spirit Severed Arm, Shard silently left Little Franco's bedroom and returned home. Welcomed by the jovial Mia, he brought the "severed arm" to the third floor of his house. Of course, during this time, the Binding Aura was maintained in a state of spellcasting, otherwise the arm would have disappeared.

The Ring of Fate manifested behind him, and under the Spiritual Light of the True Death, the black iron cemetery's fenced gate, locked by hinges, appeared in the gas-lit corridor. The metal fence seemed capable of absorbing light, quickly dimming the hallway as it appeared:

"May the Eternal Termination protect me before the Endpoint."

Like a Black Snake, the hinge slid away along the fence's edge. Shard pushed open the fence gate and entered the white fog with the curious cat.

Within the fog, countless tombstones loomed vaguely, with a cross tombstone slanted in the ground beneath his feet. All the tombstones bore mottled marks but no inscriptions.

The Soul Graveyard possessed the power to repair fragmented souls, thus Shard brought the severed arm and pressed it against the side of a tall, elegantly white marble-topped tombstone.

The severed arm, bound by the Moonlight Ring, smoothly merged into the tombstone, after which a few simple words "seeped" onto the tombstone's surface.

"Outlander, since the main body of the soul still exists, you cannot repair the damaged soul with the Soul Fragment."

"That doesn't matter."

Shard looked at the words on the tombstone:

"Maria Fendi (Sixth Era 1828-1854)"

"Miss Norma"

"I deeply love this piece of Earth, and I shall return to the Earth."

"Died of suffocation."

He placed his hand on the last cause of death, and a line of small text appeared below:

"Place of death, Old Continent, Draleon Kingdom, Tobesk City, east suburb, abandoned manor."

A map, thoughtfully provided below, marked the precise location of the abandoned manor. A glance was enough for Shard to recognize it as the place where Miss Norma lived as a child, the noble manor where her mother used to work.

He saw a close-up of the manor in a photograph during the day.

After noting down this information, Shard picked up the cat at his feet and exited the graveyard. It was already past midnight, arriving on a Friday. He had no intention of setting out immediately but planned to go and conclude this investigation during the day.

"Can you guess what happened?"

"I can roughly guess, just... hoping it's not as I think."

Early Friday morning, after breakfast, Shard set off.

The eastern part of Tobesk City is mountainous, hence the city's public cemeteries are all in the east, as the rugged mountainous terrain determined that the city could not expand to the east.

But in the early stages of the city's development, some nobles owning woodlands in the eastern forest area established their manor at the foot of the mountain, and today's destination for Shard was a building from that time.

The carriage brought Shard first to the public cemetery, where he alighted and then proceeded on foot into the mountains. The path he took was not long, but after twenty minutes along a countryside path, he spotted the silhouette of the manor that had been abandoned for over a decade.

The abandoned manor still retained a fenced gate, though the gate had been opened, with the rusty chains discarded in a snowdrift nearby.

Passing through the gate, Shard walked along the courtyard's stone path, covered with snow and mud. The courtyard was thoroughly ruined, and it was evident at a glance that it hadn't been used in a long time. But when he turned his head towards the stable, he saw several horses eating grass with their heads lowered.

Shard's destination was not the manor house; he quickly left the stone path, turned left, and saw a simple camp made with three tents and a campfire beside a knight stone statue, whose head had disappeared while wielding a sword.

It was nine in the morning, with wisps of blue smoke floating towards the cotton-candy-like clouds in the city's azure sky. A pot was set over the campfire, and the camp's inhabitants were having breakfast.

Dressed in a black coat and wearing warm boots, Shard did not hide his footsteps. The sound of boots over the snow quickly alerted the young people sitting around the campfire to his presence.

There were three of them, appearing somewhat haggard from extended "outdoor living". The coat and trousers remained relatively neat, though their chins were covered in beards. Despite increasing the difficulty of recognition, Shard still identified them as including Mr. Martin, three missing persons connected to Miss Norma.

"They are all ordinary people, with no sign of any element traces."

"Sir, who are you? You've intruded on private land!"

Before Shard could speak, a tall young man, their leader, raised his voice; he was Mr. Martin.

"Private land?"

Shard glanced around:

"Is this not an abandoned manor?"

"Yes, but we have purchased it again! The transaction was completed last week, and we have complete proof of the certificates and contract duties!"

This did not seem like a lie, and the two behind Mr. Martin had already picked up the fire pokers and shovels beside the campfire, seemingly intending to intimidate Shard.

"To buy this place? Very well then."

He halted, then glanced around:

"Please allow me to introduce myself; I am a private detective."

Instead of saying he was here to find Little Martin, he introduced himself:

"Mr. Johnson Franco, bedridden due to serious illness, has commissioned me to find the missing Miss Norma. I found this to be the place she lived as a child, so I came to try my luck. Have you by any chance seen a beautiful lady here recently?"

"No!"

Mr. Martin said quite confidently, and Shard nodded:

"Then, may I ask, what's under that piece of soil beside your camp that seems to have been recently disturbed? And why do you bring a shovel for camping?"

"Sir, you better mind your own business!"

The young man frowned at Shard, who regretfully looked at the freshly turned, snow-free ground:

"It seems that Miss Norma has already met with misfortune."

No sooner had Shard spoken than the three young men's faces changed dramatically. Mr. Martin immediately yelled:

"Sir, please leave here; this is private land."

"What if I don't want to leave?"

"There are three of us!"

Mr. Martin also picked up the shovel that was standing nearby, and the three moved towards Shard. Although one was slightly shorter, the other two were almost as tall as Shard, making a very imposing sight.

Shard took a step back, moving his gaze from the ground and drew a gun from his waist, aiming it forward:

"I'm sorry, I'm alone, but I have a gun. Want to bet whether or not I have bullets in it?"

The three clearly were taken aback, not expecting to see a gun. So, Shard pulled the hammer, raised the muzzle, and with a bang, blue smoke drifted towards the azure sky.

He lowered the gun again to aim at the three:

"So, do you want to bet again on how many bullets are left in the revolver?"

The sound of the gun seemed to still resonate under the vast sky, as two shovels, a fire poker, and the revolver faced off for a moment.

Then, those "cold weapons" all dropped to the ground.

Shard smiled, about to put away his gun and say something, but after the cold weapons fell, the three young men also slumped onto the snow immediately.

A layer of disgusting black mud oozed from under the only snow-free land. And from the black mud, the Evil Spirit Shard had seen twice yesterday appeared again. Its severed arm had been repaired, and its long hair hung down around its head; by now, Shard was quite certain that it was Miss Norma who had gone missing.

"An Evil Spirit appearing in the daytime?"

Looking up at the bright sun, Shard was slightly surprised. Yet, this time the Evil Spirit did not attack Shard; they stood in a stalemate for a while, and the rational human voice actually came from the Spiritual Body:

"They're fine; when they wake up, they'll just think they fainted from the cold last night."

Even though the words still carried a tinge of mania and tremor, this was undoubtedly a rational voice.

"Why meddle in things that don't concern you?"

The dark Spiritual Body standing on the mire asked, while the soul, tainted by unknown forces, still retained some Self.

"Someone commissioned me to find the missing Mr. Martin, it's as simple as that. Madam, if you're willing to tell me the truth, that would be best. I can help you find peace, let your soul rest eternally."

He cautiously proposed, but an Evil Spirit is ultimately an Evil Spirit. The squirming long hair swooped towards Shard's face like wild snakes, but with just a casual swing of his Sword, the Moonlight Great Sword easily extinguished those eerie strands.

Holding the Sword in one hand under the winter sunlight, he walked forward on the snow, and a Moonlight Slash thrown with his left hand shattered the dark sphere projected by the Evil Spirit. His right hand thrust the Great Sword forward, accurately piercing the Spiritual Body and pinning it directly to the ground.

The squirming Spiritual Body attempted to resist, but as the Blade of Chaotic Time took effect, three Moonlight Great Swords pierced out from the void, like Light Pillars, thoroughly pinning the soul to the ground. The black mud beneath it continuously wriggled but feared the Sanctity of the Moonlight, unable to assist the Evil Spirit in resisting.

The Moonlight Great Swords summoned by the Blade of Chaotic Time wouldn't disappear just because they weren't held by Shard, so he merely held one Sword, then reached with his left hand towards the soul's head:

"Please tell me your secret — Guide to Death."

By directly touching the soul, the secrets of this rational yet insane soul unfolded completely to Shard.

The bright sunshine of the winter morning gradually faded from Shard's sight, as unfamiliar scenes unfolded one by one in front of him. Everything about Miss Norma, who lay buried in the ground, was shared with the soul from afar by this simple touch.

"I see."

Since Miss Norma's childhood, the land of that manor had always been calling to her. And from a very young age, Miss Norma could hear the voices. Years of contact taught her some peculiar knowledge and made her believe eventually she would merge with this Earth.

Miss Norma now rested in that snowless soil. Her disappearance wasn't forced; she lingered among men, taking many years to finally choose the three men who loved her most, deceiving them into believing she would resurrect from the soil. Thus, led by Little Martin, the three young men personally buried their lover, who wore a gentle smile, in this icy, snowy land this winter.

But they didn't wait for their resurrected lover, only the bone-chilling winter wind and a Detective investigating the matter.

This was not the tragedy of Miss Norma, nor the comedy of Martin and the other two; it was just, the Earth calling her...

Yet, Shard did not discern any anomaly in this piece of land.