Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic

"Priest, rest assured, I won't be in any trouble; you should leave first. Oh, one more thing, I've left many empty bottles outside the door. Could you leave some of your blood in one of them?"

Shard had not originally planned to use the blood of anyone from his group, as everyone had their own story, but none seemed "special" enough. However, the Priest was different—once he crossed that door, he had essentially leaped between death and life, and Shard thought such blood might be useful.

The Old Cleric was puzzled, but nodded anyway:

"Alright, that's easy."

He turned and left, and Shard, clutching the charred black feather, gazed at Silvermoon and heard the heavy sound of the stone door being pushed open behind him. The Priest indeed had a way to repeatedly leap through death, and by the time Shard turned around, the door had already closed.

This meant Shard had to figure out how to leave death on his own.

"Are you sure I can leave?"

He couldn't help but ask again:

"It would be rather ridiculous if I saved the Priest but ended up staying behind myself."

[Yes, and you don't need to use divinity.]

Shard touched the stone door, then tried the "Key of the Door." The Arcane Technique could indeed be used, but trying to turn his hand to open the "lock" was like wrestling with the entire world.

But no matter, he now knew for sure that the "Key of the Door" worked on this door, and he knew exactly what he had to do.

Regarding the seal that was to follow, he now had only the last drop of divinity left—absolutely not to be spent on sealing this door, otherwise, he'd lose his Divine Afterglow State and couldn't even return to the mansion at the foot of the mountain through the Interstice of Life and Death.

He wanted to use an Arcane Technique to seal the door, and coincidentally, he did possess an Arcane Technique suitable for sealing.

Looking at the feather in his hand:

"Whisper Element, indeed, the Priest's wings and the power of death, both came from that Unclassified Level Relic that went out of control in his youth in Tobesk. So, Priest Augustus isn't really the third Chosen One?"

He clutched the feather and looked towards the low black sky, while behind him the Ring of Fate silently appeared amidst the scorching Steam Mist. Ten Spirit Runes of four types faced the distant huge half-moon of Silvermoon, quietly emanating Spiritual Light towards the dark world.

As the Ring of Fate appeared, the shadowy spirits flitting over the water seemed to halt their steps.

The world of the deceased seemed to come to a complete standstill at that moment, but Shard, who had already closed his eyes, didn't witness this:

"Kiss of the Tree."

The white spirits did not turn to gaze at the only living being within death but rather looked towards the distant silver moon.

That moon slowly rose from the farthest part of the water, the half-moon becoming a full Silvermoon in the sky above the water, and then it gradually slid up into the dark sky, set against the low canopy.

The white shadows standing on the surface of the water looked up at the sky, shimmering with light—it was unclear whether this was a reflection of the Silvermoon or a reflection of the spirits themselves. Meanwhile, by Shard's side, the wind rustled the treetops, and the red-gold fire crackled in front of the stone door.

The great tree stood above the stone door, its roots firmly entwined and restraining the door, with branches seeming to pierce through the entire sky. These branches stretched out towards the black calm surface of the water, even death could not cause the branches to wither.

However, the power of the Maze Lock "Kiss of the Tree" was still severely limited; the Forest of Thousand Trees did not appear, only that group of fire and the huge tree did. The range of the Maze Lock was confined to the mudflats in front of the door, it did not spread to the water representing the path of departure, nor did it alter the stone door.

Shard took a deep breath, placing the feather in his hand on his chest. Then, he stood beneath the tree, like all the spirits on the water, looking up at the silver moon in the diagonal starry sky.

Moonlight filtered through the tree canopy, illuminating Shard's face, the Nether Moon reflected in his pupils. The black feather melted into his chest, and his heart completely stopped beating at that moment, a familiar icy sensation spreading throughout his body. Standing amidst true death, gazing at the moon that guided death, he vividly felt his arrival in this world, the sensation of his final moments in his homeland:

"So, I truly had died before..."

Black Iron Spiritual Light gathered on the swiftly rotating Ring of Fate, unseen phosphorescence flew from the calm black water, even the moonlight seemed to converge above the Ring of Fate.

[Crossing the Interstice of Life and Death, stepping through the Gate of Death, you truly entered death. This is the place closest to The End, the final resting place of all souls.]

"You gazed upon the end of death, pushed open the Gate of Death, and touched the power of the Primeval Angel - Jackal..."

"Hmm?"

"...You heard a 'Whisper' from death."

The Ring of Fate turned, not just amassing the glimmer of Black Iron Whisper, but even the surrounding darkness kept pouring into the Ring. Shard believed no one had ever truly touched death in true death.

Outlander, you have engraved the Black Iron Whisper Spirit Rune - True Death.

Although it is not the more broadly applicable Spirit Rune of "Death", "True Death" seems more powerful, and—

"False Immortality... True Death?"

Shard shook his head, channeling the power of his own eleventh Spirit Rune to better adapt to the darkness. Dawn was approaching outside, and he couldn't afford to waste time.

The canopy of the great tree was rustled by an unexplained wind, rustling under the vast Silvermoon. Whether it was Shard's illusion or not, once "True Death" had formed, the place seemed more real yet paradoxically more illusory.

The souls gazing up at the Silvermoon seemed to possess the Moonlight's brilliance within their bodies, and beside Shard, the cluster of bright red golden bonfires fiercely ignited.

In the material world, in the Old Continent, in the Draleon Kingdom, in the Midshire Fort City on the twenty-third morning of the Month of Harvest, just before dawn, a slight tremor of the ground woke the citizens before the first ray of sunlight shot from behind Sicarl Mountain.

Midshire Fort City, being in a seismic region, was not panicked by this. Only a few people noticed the abnormal light in the night sky, and even fewer stood at windows or doorsteps, looking out at the towering Sicarl Mountain, and saw an abnormal red golden aurora, fluttering in the night sky like ribbons.

It covered a small part of the southeastern sky, its brilliance flickering under the starry sky, occasionally shifting colors between red, blue, green, and purple.

"An aurora before a major earthquake?"

The light was so dreamy and brilliant, but no one knew what this strange light that accompanied the earthquake really was. Only those Circle Sorcerers with good eyesight could discern that the light faintly reflected a vast body of water or perhaps a tree with a huge canopy.

The earthquake was merely one occurrence that disappeared, and the ribbon-like red golden aurora vanished with the quake, as if the spectacle were merely a collective illusion before dawn.

In the Russell Mansion at the foot of Sicarl Mountain, a bonfire that had burned all night still had not been extinguished; only the fire streams scattered across the estate had grown fainter.

The blind nuns looked up to see the light over Sicarl Mountain; no one spoke. Only Sister Delphine, the Order leader, continued to hold her hands as if embracing a flame, her back to the bonfire and facing the wide-open mansion door, her head bowed motionlessly.

Her hands were clasped in a cupped shape, the cracks in her knuckles and fingers almost translucent in the firelight and embers, revealing the bones within.

An elderly figure, who appeared next to the nun at some point, looked up towards the fading aurora at the mountain peak:

"It is beautiful. It reminds me of the night sky I saw when I was young, following the former Speaker to visit Saint Byrons in the Far North."

"Ms., what is this light?"

Sister Delphine asked softly, her tone as chilly as ever.

"Another world is reflecting in the sky, indicating a High Ring Sorcerer, at least someone, used a power like the Maze Lock, a true miracle. Yes, someone has temporarily completely sealed the gate at the foot of the mountain. Quite impressive, but how was this accomplished? Could it be the Silver Guardian from Saint Byrons? I remember they haven't finished investigating the affair of Ms. Mana Feliana recently,"

Zina Cassandra coughed:

"That's not important, after all, sealing just one of the three passages isn't very significant. Speaking of which, has he not returned yet?"

"Not yet, I've already reminded him that dawn is upon us."

Sister Delphine replied.

The elderly witch shook her head, her face still showing the grace of her younger years:

"It's really worrying. If he's lost there, I think Little Karina will never come to see me again in this lifetime."