Chapter 1314: Chapter 1314: Sunset by the Lakeside
When Shard and Miss Benanis returned to the Wilder Opera House, Luviya had already arrived and was discussing tonight’s events with Miss Lathis. Luviya also brought them new information:
“A professor from Zaras Literary Academy will also participate in the action at Eldron Lakeside tonight. Among the Three Major Academies, only the professor from Zaras Literary Academy has arrived early.”
“That doesn’t matter; we will wait on the periphery tonight, and we might not really be needed.”
Shard said he did not bring the Night Watchman this time; before confirming the demon’s whereabouts and identity, he would avoid bringing this Relic.
“Additionally, one of the three auction items possibly pointing to the Heart of the Earth, the statue of Edward Marcus, I obtained it yesterday afternoon.”
The statue was conjured by Shard and placed on the study’s coffee table. The three ladies examined it one by one but found nothing unusual.
“Could it not be this one?”
Miss Benanis said suspiciously:
“These stones come from the Randall Valley, in the southwestern part, so this is not a petrified corpse.”
At this time, Miss Lathis was using her Arcane Technique to investigate. After she finished checking, Shard said:
“I also checked at home last night and found nothing suspicious, so there’s only one method left.”
He drew out a brilliant silver arc, instantly cutting the entire antique statue into a pile of rubble.
Everyone picked up the small stones to inspect, confirming again that it was indeed just an ordinary antique. Of course, acquiring this antique was not a waste of time, as it at least gave Shard a reason to contact Ston Osenfort.
“Breath of Ages.”
Shard took a deep breath, and as gray smoke flew from the stones into his nostrils, the statue’s time rewound, returning to its original form. Due to the spellcasting’s consumption being one-fifth of the time, this spellcasting probably consumed less than 20 seconds of Shard’s life.
“Really, I’ve told you many times, don’t use that Arcane Technique casually. Is your lifespan infinite?”
Upon seeing this, Luviya immediately reprimanded.
“Maybe we just can’t see the statue’s value, so let’s keep it intact for now; it might be useful.”
Shard said, and Miss Benanis and Miss Lathis then realized that Shard’s Arcane Technique, which directly affects time and is almost a miracle, comes at the cost of lifespan. They also agreed that Shard should refrain from using it casually.
After all, as Shard had once said before, the only bet a mortal can be certain of is that a mortal will eventually die.
The statue, one of the three items, had been acquired, leaving the other two, a ceramic vase and an antique key, located at the local stone sculpture art exhibition and in the hands of Earl Granger, respectively. The former’s curator was a folklorist that Haila Osenfort mentioned could be sought for help, while the latter involved whether it was related to Mr. Lyman’s descendants.
Of course, finding these two items was urgent, but at least it couldn’t be done this Thursday. The time was nearing dusk, and what might happen at Eldron Lake upstream of the Elon River would soon be revealed.
Because it was unclear what exactly would happen, accompanying the witches this time were only Shard, Luviya, Miss Lathis, and three Nine-Ring Witch Followers, who were the chief accountant of the Golden Dawn Opera Troupe and the styling and costume designers.
The Church did not block off the area around Eldron Lake; instead, they set up a large camp by the lakeside, preparing to dispel the Mad Land’s ritual relying on the camp.
The Church’s ritual was much more complex than Shard’s “Power of the Earth: Healing Aura,” and typical rituals took long periods to completely purify the advancing Mad Land. In previous occurrences of “Mad Land,” the duration wasn’t a concern since as long as the black mud and the Mad Land were contained from spreading, solving it in one or two months wasn’t an issue. But this time, the madness spread rapidly via the water. Therefore, to accelerate the originally long purification ritual, the Sun Church, which hosted the ritual, united with the local Church of Nature to act together.
The plan was for the late afternoon, a joint spellcasting by the Church Circle Sorcerers would completely freeze the polluted area below the water’s surface, ensuring the spread of the pollution was temporarily controlled. Subsequently, a complex Divine Ritual would cooperate with the Sage-Level Relic, the Great Elf Sage Oak Staff, transported from the outskirts of York City in the Decorum County of Carsonrick, to strive to complete the purification before dawn.
Since there was no prior experience with such an urgent purification, whether this would be feasible was inconclusive for the Church, so they could only dispatch more Circle Sorcerer teams to prepare for possible scenarios.
But in Shard’s opinion, more people wasn’t necessarily better for this affair. After all, the pollution that stemmed from the Mad Land determined that, as long as one couldn’t exempt from the effects of the Mad Land, even gathering all the Circle Sorcerers of Carsonrick wouldn’t be enough.
In short, on this evening, a group of six wearing robes and riding horses arrived at the top of a hill on the eastern shore of Eldron Lake. From horseback, they saw the western sunset spilling across the frozen lake surface, with the brilliant sunset reflected off the ice, as if the great lake was glowing under the sunset.
The nearly perfect circular lake was surrounded by a winter-white forest, and further away, the silhouettes of country villages could be seen with a few wisps of smoke rising. The lakeside had a few large ships frozen in, while toward the western side of the lake, small fishing boats were docked beside the pier, and the church’s encampment was similarly bathed in the sunset.
The priests wearing white robes were praying to the last rays of the sunset, hoping that the divine power of the sun would still protect them at night. This was the Sun Church’s basic divine ritual Sun’s Blessing, and if performed by a large group of priests, its effect was quite formidable.
From the top area of the hill, the encampment around the pier appeared quite extensive. A rough estimate put at least several hundred people within the camp. Of course, not all of them could be Circle Sorcerers, but such a scale was enough to be called a major operation.
Shard tugged on the reins and asked Miss Benanis, who was riding a chestnut horse beside him:
“I remember there are no Thirteen-Ring Sorcerers stationed permanently in the Randall Valley.”
After all, the Church of the Five Gods had a limited number of Thirteen-Ring Sorcerers, who were also tasked with overseeing the development of the far seas and exploration of the New World.
“Yes, but last week, to hunt down the cultists, the Sun Church dispatched the famous ‘Earth Shaker’ Mr. Pierre Granger. This Thirteen-Ring Sorcerer, like me, is skilled in the power of the earth, especially in creating earthquake-related arcane techniques. But unfortunately, such moves cannot be casually used in urban areas.”
“Granger?”
Luviya asked curiously, while Miss Lathis beside them removed her hood to reveal her beautiful long hair:
“Yes, this gentleman was originally from the Randall Valley. It is said he has distant relations with the Earl Granger Family, but as you know, Granger isn’t a rare surname, so no one can say for sure if he really is related to the Earl’s family.”
“Will he show up tonight?”
Shard looked expectantly towards the lakeside encampment, but Miss Benanis shook her head slightly:
“Even if the black market’s messages are believed by the church, they wouldn’t send the only Thirteen-Ring outside the city. After all, with cultists lurking within the city, keeping a Thirteen-Ring there is the right approach… But I heard the Church of the Five Gods plans to dispatch a Thirteen-Ring each next week or later to this city to handle the Chosen of the Earth situation.”
“The Chosen’s saga is influencing more and more… Let’s camp first and rest a bit,”
Shard suggested, so the group turned their horses around. Shard, lagging behind, turned to look at the nearly fiery ice surface:
“What exactly will happen tonight?”
To avoid drawing the church’s attention, Shard and his group’s camp was set up in the woodland area a bit further from the lakeside. After simply setting up a campfire and erecting a fence, Shard even used his newly acquired arcane technique Thorns of the Moon at the camp entrance.
When he pointed his finger towards the fence entrance, bright silver thorns immediately sprouted from the ground, entwining tightly to block the camp entrance. Not only did they block the entry, but the thorns climbed and attached themselves to the fence, completely intertwining with it, as if the camp was surrounded by silver thorn bushes.
Miss Benanis tried from the inside; although she could destroy the thorns, it required some effort. From the outside, even an Eleventh Rank witch found it daunting. Of course, this also had to do with her lacking combat specialization and not being able to fully use a Maze Lock here.
Trying to fly over the thorns to get into the camp would cause the thorns to grow upwards to block the way. Unfortunately, as long as one flew high enough, Shard’s patch of bright silver thorns wouldn’t react. So this arcane technique was most suitably used in a more enclosed indoor environment.
“This is somewhat like the arcane technique Thorn Light that Iluna mastered (Chapter 975),”
Luviya said to Shard:
“But her move requires spellcasting materials and is a unique arcane technique of the Sun Church.”
After the evil creatures of Pantanal were burned away, Sister Delphine used the Primal Fire to bestow several interesting powers on Shard, one of which was that the campfire he kindled was much warmer, and staying nearby could rapidly restore stamina and spirit.
At this moment, the campfire warmed everyone, and the rising smoke had already been dissipated. Since they had eaten before arriving, there was no need to cook.
The six of them sat around the campfire chatting. After the sun had fully set, Shard, along with Luviya and Miss Benanis, went to the lakeside because all three possessed the Power of the Earth. Miss Lathis led two High Ring Female Sorcerers to stay here to support them, ensuring at least a retreat route was available.
It was evident that Miss Lathis wasn’t very willing to watch the three head into adventure, but due to Miss Benanis’s insistence, she reluctantly agreed.