Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic

""Curious about the changes in your body? You've absorbed my flesh and blood, so if there weren't even these little changes, wouldn't I be a bit too weak?"

The decapitated head said with a beaming smile:

"You see, I didn't play any tricks this time, did I?"

Shard nodded, retracting the chain. However, the chain didn't disappear into thin air, it retracted into the sleeve of his robe, and yet he felt nothing entering his sleeve.

"I can feel the flame of desire in your soul, very pure."

The head continued to praise in a low voice. Shard shook his head vigorously and took a deep breath to adjust his condition, making sure that he had completely recovered both physically and mentally before planning to leave.

The first rays of sunlight had shone on Coldwater Port dozens of minutes ago; he was still preoccupied with the redhead Princess.

Just thinking about Lecia sparked more distracting thoughts in his mind—a side effect of the flesh he had assimilated—certainly there was a price to strength, and for a month, Shard would be plagued by such strange whims.

"I..."

"You wouldn't happen to be thinking of thanking me, would you?"

The head in the pool continued to laugh.

"Of course not, I just wanted to ask, what exactly do you want to do?"

Shard asked over his shoulder, standing at the exit.

"I was born from desire, and as long as there is desire in this world, I will never disappear. What I want to do is merely to witness your desires. Helping you is just to see how far you can go."

The enticing laugh was the same as when Shard had arrived. Not having gained Shard's spirit, it didn't look disappointed in the slightest:

"After we part this time, we are certain to meet again. I hope the next time we meet face to face, you can give me a new surprise."

Shard opened his mouth, but in the end, said nothing. He knew he couldn't trap this thing, and the broken seal could no longer hold it. Its danger level was definitely not below that of an Angel-Level entity; though it had not demonstrated any combat ability before him, even a Thirteen-Ring Sorcerer encountering this thing might not be certain of the outcome.

Bear in mind, Shard, whose soul harbored a drop of divinity, almost completely lost himself to desire.

"Then, farewell."

He said softly and politely, turned around, and left, passing through the already open iron gate, running towards the direction from where the sea breeze blew.

With the sound of footsteps growing distant, in the pool, dozens if not hundreds of times more hands and legs than Shard had seen before, unfurled like the plumes of a peacock from beneath the water, stretching out and then retracting back in.

The sound of water sloshed, but the head alone did not move. Resting its chin on the ground beside the pool, it watched the direction Shard departed with a full, amused smile:

"Do you really think that a mortal body could absorb my flesh and blood as flawlessly as you did?""

With a light hum, she sang an ancient song as she returned underwater:

"It turns out, you don't even know what you truly are."

The passage behind the iron door and the rugged narrow path in the damp church were similar, but probably because of the barrier of that dark room, it hadn't collapsed like the path they had come through.

As Shard progressed, the damp sea breeze ahead became stronger, and the sound of splashing water grew clearer to his ears. But the farther he went, the narrower the passage became.

It wasn't until Shard could nearly see the light in the distance that the narrow passage only allowed him to pass by turning sideways.

Forced to use the Moonlight Greatsword to hack away at the stones to make a path, what should have taken only a few minutes took Shard twenty minutes to navigate.

Climbing through the narrow crevice in the rock, when Shard's hand, covered in dirt, finally touched the not-so-bright sunlight, it was almost seven in the morning.

Shard estimated his current location to be behind the cliffs on the side of Aphrola Manor.

"Finally about to get out."

It wasn't until he broke the last bit of stone with the sword in his hand and struggled to climb out of the crevice that he realized the faintness of the light was due to the position.

This was an inward-recessed dock beneath the cliff, as if a piece of the seafloor had been hollowed out, with seawater continuously flowing in and crashing against the ground, the ground sloping upwards to the rocky wall Shard had broken through.

The rotting wooden pier and the wreckage of wooden boats on the ground all indicated that this place used to serve as a dock. Combined with the knowledge that the former Aphrola Manor was a stronghold of the Crimson Cult, and that the damp little church and the room sealed with the Relic were built by merman.

All of this was enough to deduce that, hundreds of years ago, the cultists in the manor used the cellar and the small dock at the bottom of the cliff to transport dangerous items and used this place as an escape route. But as the Relic was sealed inside the passage, this hidden dock was abandoned, until Shard arrived.

"Although the Witch only occasionally comes to Coldwater Port and doesn't stay for many days at the manor throughout the year, could she truly know nothing of what's underneath it?"

Thinking, Shard checked the slope above the dock. Close to the wall, a skeleton lay. The long exposure to wind and the dampness had almost completely destroyed the clothes on the body, with shreds of flesh still clinging to the bones, making it utterly impossible to infer who it might have been.

Besides that, there was a lot of trash washed up by the sea and remains of fish on the ground. But there were no signs of recent human activity, suggesting that perhaps the people of Aphrola Manor really didn't know about this place.

Heading down the slope, Shard prepared to dive into the water and swim back to Coldwater Port. As he drew closer to the outside of the sea cliff, the sound of the bursting waves grew louder, and he could finally see the sky clearly.

Although it was a summer morning, the sky was a bleak and dull yellow. Along with the raging waves, the drizzle that had persisted all night was blown towards Coldwater Port by the fierce wind.

In the darkness beneath the sea cliff, the surface of the water was obscure, but when Shard's boots dipped into the water, he realized to his shock that the sea was a blood-red color.

The water wasn't tainted with red floating on the surface; it had turned red. Shard daringly touched the seawater, dabbing it lightly on his tongue. Even without the whispering voices in his ear, he knew there was a Desecration Element in the water. Enjoy exclusive adventures from My Virtual Library Empire

This kind of water, once concentrated chemically, could even be directly used as Magic Potion or Ritual Materials.

"It seems the Sea Return ritual has begun, right on time... Do these large ceremonies always come with free Potion Ingredients? Last time at Lakeside Manor was the same."

Daydreaming, he entered the water.