Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic

The sound of cats calling spreads far on the night street, but clearly, the city is never lacking in cat calls.

Only two people were attracted by the cat calls; one, of course, was Shard, who looked into his own cat's eyes, quite sure that Mia was directly looking at him. But considering this cat had seen the Evil God with him, and even absorbed a strand of Divinity, it didn't seem particularly surprising that the cat could see him now.

Lecia, who also heard Mia's call, instinctively looked in the direction Mia was gazing, and then was startled to notice Shard standing there. Earlier, Shard was not gone from her sight, just subconsciously ignored. It was only upon paying real attention that she realized how strange that previous oversight was.

"Shard, now..."

The blonde girl quickly walked towards Shard while holding the cat.

"Catch your breath first, don't be in such a hurry. Don't come near me now, hold Mia tight and don't let it touch me."

Shard continued walking forward, recognizing from the eye contact that it should be Lecia in front of him:

"The Dice Story Collection, I know."

"Iluna Beath..."

"It's the church friend I mentioned before."

In Lecia's surprised gaze, he continued giving responses and then asked:

"Lecia, I need to know what's happening now."

"No problem."

Lecia leaned against a nearby streetlamp pole but released her grip on it a few seconds later.

"Meow~"

Mia softly called, looking up at Shard as he walked away, prompting Shard to ask immediately:

"Are Iluna and the others aware of your appearance by my side?"

The just-opened-eyed Dorothy was taken aback, following behind quickly with a shake of her head:

"We only noticed you slowed your pace, not what you were looking at."

"Then keep moving forward."

Shard said and then mentioned with some concern:

"I know the rules myself. Now I know you're not currently appearing in the story, so you and Lecia shouldn't swap easily. Such frequent swapping will severely damage your spirits."

"But it's Angel-Level..."

Seeing the worry on Dorothy's face, Shard quickly explained:

"Is this the first time I've dealt with Angel-Level Relics? Don't worry about me at all. The current situation is that only if a certain target directly impacts me or poses a direct threat to life can it appear in the story's narration. So you just hold Mia and continue talking with me. Now, what's the situation inside the Relic? Have the three storytellers found Thief Jack yet?"

"Iluna Beath's two opponents have found him."

Dorothy clarified the whereabouts of Thief Jack, and they walked past the edge lighting of two streetlamps towards the next gas streetlamp. Patrolling police came from a distance, and Dorothy hid her sword inside Shard's large coat, the tall policeman in the team merely glancing at her, mistaking her for a lone girl returning late at night.

"Miss Beyas is in a difficult position, seeming not to want to expose your Circle Sorcerer identity. Lecia can't directly communicate with Miss Beyas. There are many Circle Sorcerers from the church over there. Do you need me to draw the church's Circle Sorcerer team arranged on Silver Cross Avenue in? Let them enter the story and capture Jogori Deus and Lydia Pangleau. Since Mia can let me see you, I probably can also let the church's High Ring Sorcerers see those two guys stealthily moving."

"No, for rules and story-type Relics, never try to cheat, just rationally use the rules. Moreover, we shouldn't easily introduce other variables to the story."

Shard gazed down the street, softly saying:

"Introducing extra variables, each of us has to go through an extra dice roll. Iluna, I mean Miss Beyas, every time a roll is made, I'm the disadvantaged party if she can't reveal my identity."

"What needs to be done now?"

Dorothy asked while tightly holding Mia, the cat unusually calm. Miss Writer, although lacking experience in similar situations, had broad thinking:

"If I'm not yet a character in the story, how about I directly kill Jogori Deus and Lydia Pangleau? They're only First Ring; I'm Five Rings."

"I can't let you take risks. You're normal, while they are story characters affected by Relic rules; who knows what they'll do? I'd rather not catch Thief Jack than have you suffer any harm."

Shard emphasized, Dorothy curled her lips, wanting to say something when she suddenly saw Shard's expression change:

"I've received the next instruction. Miss Beyas wants me to return home directly? Strange, even if she doesn't know what to ask me, she shouldn't let me leave Silver Cross Avenue."

"Let Lecia answer you."

"Wait..."

Before Shard could stop her, Dorothy leaned against the streetlamp pole with the cat again, immediately standing up again. The short soul swap made her complexion look bad, but the blonde girl did not complain at all.

With her eyes open, Her Highness the Princess explained the current situation:

"Thief Jack is moving, heading in the direction of Saint Delan Square. The church's judgment is mistaken, its target is not Yordle Palace at all. Truth Society's High Ring Sorcerer and cultists, through a high roll of 1200 points, discovered the destination is indeed Saint Delan Square, letting Jogori Deus and Lydia Pangleau successfully follow behind Thief Jack. Miss Beyas has no choice but to send instructions for you to return home."

As she spoke, Shard clearly sensed the two in "stealth" hurriedly passing by them, but he still couldn't detect traces of "Thief Jack."

"Yes, without stealing, Thief Jack is equivalent to nonexistence. Though possessing the power of the [Dice Story Collection], the appraisal needed to capture him at this moment would be extremely stringent. Iluna's opponent must be thinking of waiting until the theft occurs to capture."

Shard's footsteps remained unchanged, after all, he was just walking in the direction of home:

"Saint Delan Square, huh? I wonder which of my neighbors will be so unlucky."

Upon hearing Shard's words, the blonde girl glanced at him but didn't voice her inner thoughts:

"Additionally, Miss Beyas's opponent is the High Ring Sorcerer from the [Truth Society] and the cultists worshiping the Evil God."

She turned the corner with Shard, leaving Silver Cross Avenue. The lights faded suddenly, and it was about seven minutes before reaching Saint Delan Square.

"But who would be the thief's target?"

Lecia asked again, Shard shook his head:

"Including tenants and homeowners like me who own entire buildings, there are no fewer than 100 households living in Saint Delan Square. Anyone could be his target, and our only advantage now is that, as a story character, I can directly learn from you things that I shouldn't know about through the Keeper of Secrets in my identity."

"Shard, this situation is very unfavorable to you, maybe I can do something for you."

Lecia whispered softly beside him, while the cat widened its eyes, looking into the surrounding darkness, amber eyes seemingly noticing something.

"My knight, at times like this I must do something for you."

"Lecia, you've done enough for me already. Now accompany me and return together to Saint Delan Square. We need to confirm which unlucky guy has been stolen from before we can act. The two walking ahead of us will enter the area of Saint Delan Square in a few minutes, and although Miss Beyas cannot manipulate me to use the Circle Sorcerer's power, we do have other methods. Once we must enter a battle scene, I'll need your help."

"Okay, Shard."

Lecia was just about to nod when she noticed Shard voluntarily stopping his steps. She looked around in astonishment, suddenly realizing that the lights around them had all gone out, clouds drifting over had obscured the Star River and Moon, coating them with large swaths of darkness, even the light from neighboring building windows had disappeared.

The surroundings were extremely silent, this silence even brought some inexplicable fear. Lecia instinctively held Mia tightly and moved closer to Shard:

"I sensed the Whisper Element? A relic? But how?"

Her words fell, only noticing her voice was so hoarse. The blonde girl was amazed at the body's instinctive response, subsequently, she finally saw pairs of eyes emitting green light appearing densely in the surrounding darkness.

Along with those gazes, the darkness illuminated slightly, and Lecia and Shard together saw dense wild cats surrounding them. It's as if they were swarms of locusts or white maggots densely in rotting corpses.

The Whisper Element suppressed all surrounding light and sound, the wild cats thus stared at them, all standing upright from their crouched positions:

"Meow~"

"Meow~"

"Meow~"

The miserable chorus of cat cries swept over like waves, making the hair on Lecia's neck stand up in the dark, she never knew cat cries could be so terrifying.

The shrill cries, like the last lament of a person nearing death in the night, or the low growl of an indescribable entity lurking in the darkness of a horror story. Thousands of wild cats gathered towards them in the dark, the glow from the cats' eyes becoming more and more daunting.

Instinctively trying to summon the Ring of Fate, Lecia was stunned to find the thick air seeming to suppress her own power.

In a daze, the cat swarm had already surrounded their feet, black, white, ginger, coffee-colored, each cat had a similar eerie temperament. When the swarming wild cats screamed and approached, Lecia felt she might never like cats again.

Just as she was about to unleash the Arcane Technique regardless of everything, the icy body sensed warmth, it was the temperature of the cat in her arms. In an instant, it felt like transitioning from winter to spring, Mia's body heat was so reassuring at this moment, Her Highness the Princess thought she would still like cats.

"Relic related to the cat swarm."

Shard's voice clearly came into Dorothy's ears, Lecia then completely regained her senses, stepping forward quickly to stand close to Shard without touching him. In the darkness, Shard's body was emitting light, Lecia had seen this peculiar trait of Shard several times in the night.

At this moment, that steady silvery moonlight was so delightful, Lecia even felt her face blushing for inexplicable reasons:

"What should we do now?"

"My luck hasn't gotten so bad as to encounter a dangerous relic on a night walk; it seems the story has undergone new changes. Fortunately, despite being close to losing control, the Whisper Element isn't very strong, this relic is probably Scribe-level... Lecia, you'll probably need to act now. Take [Night Watchman], then try to..."

Lecia wasn't a story character, if Her Highness the Princess dispelled the relic, the story might develop into "encountering the relic but being dispersed by a powerful High Ring Sorcerer."

Just as Shard was about to finish speaking, Mia, held in Lecia's arms, pushed out her small head unhappily from the crook of the blonde girl's arm, looking towards the surrounding cat swarm.

It was never afraid of its same clan, and always disliked any other cats approaching Shard. Its amber eyes stared at the surrounding cat group, about to make a sound to respond to the rising and falling cat cries when suddenly moonlight and starlight spilled down from high above, the surrounding gas lamps and window lights returning in sequence.

The Whisper Element gradually calmed down, the eyes emitting strange light with the cat group gradually moving towards the two and a cat, stopped as little Mia saw them, then slightly lowered their heads, retreating into the shadows like the ebb tide, disappearing from sight.

Shard uttered mid-sentence froze, looking around in amazement:

"Hmm? Where's the relic? Why did it disappear before we even acted?"

[Who knows?]

Only "She" was chuckling lightly.