Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic

"Even having seen the documents, I still feel fear towards this thing."

Only Miss Annette knew in advance that the so-called "Gargoyle" was this huge, Miss Beyas shared the same exclamation as Shard.

"I thought... it was only about the size of a human, I didn't expect it to be this big."

Shard expressed his thoughts, and Miss Annette looked around and further explained:

"Keeper of Secrets Level Relic, Thousand-Eye Gargoyle No. 3765, actually has another more memorable unofficial name, a sobriquet given by the ancient alchemists."

"What sobriquet?"

"Giant Divine Soldier."

Looking up at the gargoyle so immense it was terrifying, Shard twitched the corner of his mouth, fully understanding what he was seeing:

"Well... if you had mentioned this name earlier, I probably would have understood what this was quite easily."

Such a large, open space seemed to be constructed for the gargoyle to fight freely. To be honest, if they hadn't known in advance how to make this thing rest, even if the Silver-Eyed One decided to join them on the spot, the four together might not have been able to overcome this Relic.

The vast space seemed empty, but the three of them later saw some corpses at different stages of decay along the walls. Among them, the freshest corpse was probably from this morning. All the corpses had their eyes gouged out, likely the work of the Blood of Mercury, slaughtering innocent people to pass through here.

Carefully counting the bodies, there were a total of 36. That is to say, aside from the people from the Blood Spirit School this morning, the Blood of Mercury had used this method to enter the Ruins at least 17 times.

Miss Beyas quietly prayed for the corpses, while Miss Annette continued to inspect the remaining open space. Shard, looking at the three freshest corpses, suddenly asked Miss Beyas:

"Do you mind if your companion uses Necromancy Arcane Technique?"

This definitely needed to be clarified.

"What? Necromancy? Is it the plague?"

The curious Female Sorcerer of the Order asked.

"Of course not."

"Then it doesn't matter."

She shrugged nonchalantly, and Shard then took out Bone Powder and sprinkled some on the corpses. However, after chanting Spell Words, there was no response.

"Strange..."

He tried again, but the Arcane Technique still had no effect. After a brief explanation to his two companions about the basic effect of "Soul Echo," Miss Annette suspected that the Silver-Eyed One had treated the bodies, making it impossible to obtain information from the corpses via Necromancy.

"Or there's something wrong with the Ruins themselves."

Miss Beyas also speculated, while Shard quietly inquired:

"Do you think the Blood of Mercury could have discovered the so-called 'unnatural' Relic suppressed here by the now-vanished Order?"

No one could give an answer, but they all understood that the dangers within the Ruins might involve more than just the three obstructing Relics and the Circle Sorcerer.

They continued to prepare to move forward, but the difficulty they encountered was not an inability to find the way; rather, there were too many paths leading out of the space where the gargoyle resided. There were four walls in total; each wall had at least six stone doors. Ultimately, it was Shard who listened for footsteps, combined with Miss Annette's Divination, that locked in the correct direction to proceed.

The danger they might encounter next was the Keeper of Secrets Level Relic: "Mirror Behind," which directly harms the Magician's "Other Self." It had already been decided during Sunday's banquet that Shard would deal with this Relic, and the two ladies didn't inquire further about his approach, nor did Shard ask the female voice in his mind again.

"You trust me so much? I am honored," she said teasingly.

This time, it was Shard who pushed open the stone door, but beyond it was not a space to accommodate the mirror, but a dark corridor wrapped in stone, with a corner visible about twenty steps away.

"The mirror might be around the corner, so I'll go first," he said, but no response came from behind. Turning around, he saw that behind him was just a wall, with no sign of the two ladies or the immense Thousand-Eye Gargoyle.

Shard blinked his eyes and asked softly to himself:

"Um... are you still there?"

It took a full two seconds before he got a response:

"Swing your fist forward."

He swung his fist immediately, and after smashing it into the air in front of him, the sound of shattering glass almost made him believe that his hand would get injured. The space in front of him, with the point of his fist's impact at the center, displayed radial dense cracks; however, they quickly healed.

"Isn't the mirror supposed to harm 'your other self'? Why is it trapping me? I thought my task was just to spot the mirror, then you would reach out a hand from behind me and smash the mirror with one punch."

As he pondered, he swung both fists continuously in front of him, but the cracks healed much faster than Shard could punch. Although he had become physically stronger as a Circle Sorcerer, he did not possess the ability to swing his fist with the speed of sound or light.

"I cannot interfere with reality," she repeated the words he had heard in his ear.

"Wait, I think I'm in trouble."

Perhaps triggered by Shard's punches, wave after wave of black dust flew from the depths of the corridor. As they emitted tearing sounds in the air and rushed towards Shard's chest, they vanished without requiring him to fight back, as golden cracks flashed across his body's surface.

"Oh, no trouble after all."

He spoke in a dry tone.

"That was an attack targeting the soul, but the divinity protected his spirit."

"How do I get out?"

[I've found a solution, it shouldn't have attacked you, it's exposed itself.]

Her murmuring voice carried a hint of pleasure, she was probably in a good mood:

[You're in the mirror space, the mirror can't do anything to you, it can only trap you temporarily.]

"What should I do now?"

[Punch yourself.]

If it weren't for the fact that "she" was still using that strange language which Shard had never heard anywhere else a second time, he might even think that it was the mirror playing tricks on him.

"Are you sure?"

She laughed lightly, and her laughter proved that it was indeed her.

Shard took a breath, clenched his right fist, closed his eyes, and struck his chin hard.

Unexpectedly, he felt no pain, as if he were hitting dough that covered his face.
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The sound of glass shattering clearly rang in his ears. When he opened his eyes, there was no passage in front of him. He had just pushed open the stone door, which faced that mirror.

There stood Shard, in front of the mirror, with his right fist raised high, and the large hole in the shattered mirror surface was undoubtedly the result of his own punch. The sensations belatedly communicated the pain of his bleeding fist, and each piece of shattered glass hanging in the frame reflected his current state.

"Shard?"

A tentative call came from behind, it was Miss Annette's voice.

"I'm fine... The mirror is temporarily malfunctioning."

The Keeper of Secrets Level Relic "The Mirror Behind" also had the trait of being "hard to destroy" that most relics possess. Now that the mirror surface was shattered, it only made it temporarily malfunction. It would recover quickly, but as long as there remained even a single crack, the ability to attack "another me" could not manifest.

The mirror itself would automatically shift its position when not observed by humans, turning towards where people might appear. This meant that even if Shard moved the mirror against the wall right now, it would automatically adjust its direction when they left.

"There's no problem now, the mirror is out of order."

Shard repeated this, sighing with relief and turning to shake his bleeding hand:

"Could someone give me some water? I can't easily reach into my right pocket now."

"Oh, how did you get hurt so badly?"

Miss Beyas immediately crossed the stone doorway and came over, directing the light orb to illuminate the area. Meanwhile, Miss Annette checked the mirror to see if there was anything other than the mirror behind the stone door.

With the water treated with Satiety Food, the cuts on his palm healed. Shard then curiously inquired about what he had done from the two ladies.

"You pushed the door open, walked in, then punched the mirror to pieces."

Miss Beyas described it simply and then was pressed by Shard for more details:

"Was there anything unusual about me, like..."

He hesitated, then whispered:

"A shadow appearing behind me, swinging at the mirror."

"What do you mean?"

Miss Beyas asked skeptically, as if doubting that Shard was still influenced by the mirror, which caused his mind to be confused.

She shook her head:

"Nothing unusual, detective, we didn't even realize what happened before you smashed the mirror. What happened just now? Why didn't you use a kick?"

"Because I couldn't kick my own face... Let's explain after we get out."

He shook his head, indicating that there wasn't time to chat here.

Looking at the ground, the silver glow on his fingertips illuminated the glass shards on the floor, which reflected the images of the three of them. Shard and Miss Beyas both looked normal, but behind Miss Annette, Shard saw once again that transparent woman who looked very much like her, only slightly more mature.

Blinking, the transparent woman in the mirror shard disappeared, and Shard looked surprised at the Female Diviner standing in the moonlight, observing her surroundings, with nothing abnormal about her.

"She... well, the current situation isn't suitable for asking about this."

Behind the stone door, where the mirror was placed, was the third ruin space they entered, which was about the size of the space in front of the first stone door. The silver light from Shard's fingertips and the light orb summoned by Miss Beyas were enough to illuminate the place.

There were still no signs of living people, and this time not even any dead. Besides the mirror standing there, there were doors on all four walls, but this time there were no carvings on the walls.

Rather, on the metal frame of the mirror was a line of ancient script, which when translated to Draleon roughly meant:

[Beware "the other me."]

None of the three Circle Sorcerers commented on this line of text.