Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic

"I felt the Whisper!"

The Priest shouted at Shard.

"I felt it too."

And this time it was stronger, the source of the elemental traces was still the corpse and not the dagger, and this phenomenon could already explain some issues.

"Priest, we can't harm it anymore, it will only make it stronger."

"Of course, I understand. Is there a way to briefly control it? Just for a few seconds!"

"Certainly, Priest, lure it under the tree!"

Shard replied, and so the Priest, baiting the corpse, began to run forward.

"Great Sin Chain!"

In the clattering sound, pitch-black chains extended from Shard's sleeve. As Priest Augustus turned his head with a look of surprise and doubt, the chains climbed up the tree trunk and wrapped around the thickest branch twice before falling down, forming a circle on the ground and tying a knot.

The corpse, brandishing the dagger, followed the Priest to the tree. The Priest stepped into the circle made by the chains on the ground, and nothing happened. But when the corpse stepped into the trap of chains, with a violent tug by Shard, the corpse was immediately suspended upside down.

"Watch me."

The Priest immediately turned around to face it, pushing aside the dagger that the hung corpse continued to swing, and then placed his hand on the corpse's forehead:

"Ha!"

The old man uttered softly, as the Ring of Fate behind him rotated rapidly, and in the Steam Mist that gushed out, the Holy Light shone in all directions, the glimmer in that instant even gave Shard the feeling that he had touched the purest power in the world.

However, what was very strange was that when this power was used, the Spirit Rune on Priest Augustus' back did not light up with Spiritual Light.

The holy white light gradually converged at the Priest's fingertips. Shard, squinting his eyes, even saw in the process several white feather phantoms fluttering and falling behind the Priest.

This was not something that truly existed, but a curious phenomenon that only the spiritually sensitive Outlander could see.

The white light gathered at the Priest's fingertips was finally pressed onto the corpse's forehead. There were no abnormal phenomena such as the corpse exploding; it trembled a couple of times, and then completely stopped moving.

The wheezing Priest stepped back, and if not for Shard's support, he might have sat directly on the ground.

Shard felt that the Priest's back was drenched.

"I'm indeed no longer young."

The old man gasped for air, shuddered in the night wind, and took a while to let go of Shard's arm and stand up straight.

The corpse was still hanging upside down under the tree, and the black dagger had fallen from its hand, sticking into the ground.

"Meow~"

The cat on his shoulder was curious about this scene but conscientiously did not leave Shard's shoulder.

"What should we do now? Should we send the corpse directly to the church?"

Shard inquired.

"No, it's too far from the church. If this thing runs loose in the city, we would all be sinners."

The Priest said.

"But what exactly is this? Why are there Whisper elements on the corpse? Is it a Relic that controlled the body?"

"No, I believe the Relic is right in front of us. Detective, I have read some dreadful material, knowing what a mad Circle Sorcerer would do. I sincerely hope I am wrong, but we still need to question the soul."

Shard nodded, examining the corpse up and down:

"This body couldn't be that of the farmer's wife's deceased husband, the original owner of the grave, Muxir Nem, could it?"

He said doubtfully. Although judging by appearances was wrong, this corpse, whose clothes were burnt off, did not look like a common farmer who had lived here for years. His skin was not rough, and his palms bore none of the marks left by years of heavy manual labor, but rather calluses from years of clerical work.

Not to mention that, although the corpse's appearance was not as handsome as Shard's current looks, it also didn't seem like someone who would be content staying outside the city in a small village.

"This should be the scholar who helped the farmer's wife arrange the funeral. He buried himself in the ground, which is why Mr. Muxir Nem's soul, who wasn't buried, could complain to his wife in dreams."

The Priest concurred with Shard's opinion:

"I suspect this is a very ancient ritual, using resurrection after death to gain power. Evil, very evil, and it involves some ritual content I do not understand."

Hearing Priest Augustus speak this way, Shard then checked the coffin, and indeed discovered traces of a Ritual Circle and Ancient Script on the inside of the coffin.

Judging from one glance that the text was headache-inducingly old, interpreting it was not a difficult task for Shard. While individual runes could be recognized, Shard was unclear about the ultimate purpose of the ritual.

"Should we summon his soul? I happen to possess necromancy abilities, and this corpse's condition meets the requirements."

Shard was eager to try.

"No no, let me do it. Your Arcane Technique can only communicate with Soul Shards, I can summon a complete spirit. Detective, put it down first, let it lie flat on the grass,"

the Priest said, as the Spirit Rune on the Ring of Fate behind him flickered with Spiritual Light.

Once Shard had carefully placed the body down, the Priest took out a wooden tube from his pocket and sprinkled a circle of black powder around the edge of the body. He instructed Shard to hold the cat and step back, strictly warning him not to let the cat jump over the head of the body. Then, he placed a relatively bright lantern in front of the head of the body and began to chant Spell Words.

Translating those Ancient Scripts into Draleon's common language, the gist was "Return, spirit."

In the cemetery where only a faint night breeze had been blowing, a sudden violent Yin wind arose. The howling wind sounded almost like the wailing of ghosts.

Mia, sitting on Shard's shoulder, pressed against his face, while he carefully observed the Priest's ritual.

All of a sudden, Priest Augustus's eyes widened, he bent down, and then slapped the face of the body:

"Return!"

Shard couldn't help but think the Priest's furious expression was comical.

But the tactic was effective, for Shard saw a ghastly green specter being slapped out of the body by the Priest... He was very intrigued by this Necromancy Magic.

The appearance of the spirit was identical to that of the body lying on the ground. Upon appearing, it looked confused as if it hadn't yet grasped the situation, and then it recognized where it was in the graveyard under the night sky.

After surveying its surroundings, the spirit saw its own body on the ground, as well as Shard and Priest Augustus.

"Have you... grown tired of living?"

Its expression turned vicious in an instant, not giving Shard and Priest Augustus any chance to converse with it.

Behind the spirit, the Ring of Fate of a Five-Ring Sorcerer emerged. But neither Shard nor the Priest panicked; a Circle Sorcerer wasn't purely a spiritual profession, and only the unity of body and spirit could wield the power of Mysticism. Hence, Shard's face was gradually becoming more like that of the spiritual body.

Even as a Five-Ring Sorcerer, without its body and manifesting purely as a spirit, its strength was inevitably reduced. If the spirit had been of the Higher Ring, Shard and the Priest would have fled immediately, but with only Five Rings, they believed they could manage.

The Ring of Fate behind the spirit appeared as a mere shadow due to the state of its controller. Several vague Spirit Runes flickered with a dismal green glimmer, and with each cold gust of wind, strange sounds emanated from the ground below.

"Dammit, this one's trying to desecrate the body and revive the Undead!"

Priest Augustus cursed in a manner most unbecoming of Clergy Members, then lifted up his robes and stamped his right foot on the ground. Behind him too a Ring of Fate emerged, and being proficient in both "Spirit" and "Body" forces, he was doing his utmost to prevent the resurrection of the undead.

Shard, of course, wasn't idle either. He swung a crescent of Moonlight toward the spirit of the Circle Sorcerer with his right hand. As the other made use of its spiritual body to evade, Shard took a step and appeared behind it. Read exclusive content at My Virtual Library Empire

However, the attempt at a surprise attack failed, as the spirit vanished at the same time Shard thrust his sword forward—a special Shift ability of Soul Bodies.

The spirit reappeared directly above the body.

"You fools!"

Laughing, it dived towards its own body when it saw Shard charging over with the cat.

"You can't touch a spirit, oh!"

Shard threw Mia over, the orange cat flying over the face of the body. Even though the spirit had not entered the corpse, the body itself opened its eyes.

It was transitioning from a body sealed by Priest Augustus to an Undead Creature.

"You think this will stop me?"

The Ring of Fate behind the spirit flickered with Spiritual Light again, pacifying the body that was trying to rise. Seeing that Priest Augustus was still fervently preventing an uprising of corpses throughout the cemetery, Shard casually grabbed the chains at his sleeve and flung them forward.

"Hm?"

His intention had been to force the spirit away from above the body and then to use the chains to restrain it. Unexpectedly, as the spirit turned and raised its hand to block, the pitch-black Rune Shackles, made of "Gluttony" and "Greed," actually pierced through the spirit's arm and easily through the entire spirit from the front.

"What is this?"

The spirit looked at Shard in astonishment, and he was equally surprised, having thought the chains lacked any Attack Power.

Not only had the chains pierced through the spirit, but dense black trails were spreading from the wound throughout the Spiritual Body.

The spirit summoned by Priest Augustus didn't even have a chance to curse Shard before it rapidly darkened as if stained with ink.

The Ring of Fate behind the spirit decayed like rusting metal, with the dense Rune Shackles representing "Gluttony" and "Greed" moving like squirming worms over the pitch-black Spiritual Body and the rusting Ring of Fate.

The spirit raised its hand, pointing at Shard as if to place a Curse, but its hand had barely lifted when the spirit swelled uncontrollably. The humanoid Spiritual Body twisted and lost its luster of intelligence.

"He's losing control!"

The Priest shouted, and the startled Shard snapped back to reality, knowing they couldn't allow this to continue.

Steel in hand, Shard took a step forward to face the entity and raised the Moonlight Greatsword with both hands:

"Praise the Moon!"

He shouted as he swung the sword, and the malformed Spiritual Body was cleaved by the sweep of silver light, dissolving into black ashes that gradually dispersed in front of Shard.

The chains clattered onto the corpse as the ashes of the spirit, smelling foul, faded away with the night wind. This was the first time Shard had seen a spirit dissipate in such a way, the most disturbing scene of the night thus far.