Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic

"[Night Stalker] Jogori Deus and [Charming Lady] Lydia Pangleau acted together, the astute gentleman and lady, traced the silhouette of the keen thief in the long night, observing as he picked open the resident's door lock with wire and entered the room."

The puppet representing "Thief Jack" on the table entered a certain building in Saint Delan Plaza. After gauging the general position, Iluna blinked, while the three princesses on the outskirts also saw the thief's chosen target of burglary.

"Misfortune descends from the long night, as [Night Stalker] Jogori Deus and [Charming Lady] Lydia Pangleau act together, they must face the impending misfortune together."

Shard's misfortune ended, while the misfortune for the two other story characters began.

"What relic is arranged in the eastern area of Saint Delan Plaza?"

The cultist who attracted misfortune for the three characters asked Professor Anse, the middle-aged professor slightly shook his head:

"We haven't placed relics under every floor tile; the western part of Saint Delan Plaza is not arranged with any, given the low probability of theft. Their misfortune might be discovered by patrolling police officers. Rest assured, we anticipated this scenario, and the story from the [Dice Story Collection] won't encounter particularly exaggerated dangers."

"[Charming Lady] Lydia Pangleau, encounters a sealed **."

"Hmm?"

Everyone doubted they misheard that hoarse voice, because after the adjective "sealed," there was the maddening noise resembling fingernails scratching on a blackboard.

Immediately following, they heard a more unbelievable story:

"[Night Stalker] Jogori Deus, encounters the incomplete bygone **. (Note)"

After the adjective "bygone," was the noise of birds flapping wings, as if truly a flock of birds existed in the darkness.

Miss Green, the ten-ring sorceress from the Sun Church, looked again at Old Mr. Modro, of eleven rings, and the Creation Church's team members also stared amazed at the map on the table. The adjectives "sealed" and "bygone," once appearing in mysticism, are quite remarkable terms. Coupled with these inexplicable noises, it's apparent the "misfortune" experienced by the two outside of Shard is highly unusual.

Regrettably, the table doesn't directly show what they encountered, and this time, Dorothy from the relics chose to swap places with Lecia proactively.

While Angelina struggled to support her sister, misfortune descended upon the character attempting to enter the house via the window:

"The sealed ancient terrifying entity detected malice from [Charming Lady] Lydia Pangleau and launched a defensive attack against her, needing a total defense point of over 3000 for success. Due to the point extreme of the story character, there is no possibility of successfully defending, [Charming Lady] Lydia Pangleau perished."

The puppet on the table exploded into fragments, wooden debris striking everyone's clothes. The young cultist manipulating the character couldn't make any response before uttering a strange howl, blood flowing simultaneously from his mouth, eyes, nose, and ears.

He fell backward, lay facing up on the floor twitching a few times, then became motionless.

This sudden twist was unforeseeable, even Iluna, who had previously mocked the opponents for whimsically manipulating fate, didn't expect "Fate's revenge" to be so exaggerated and swift.

In fact, even she didn't understand why Saint Delan Plaza would appear with both a "sealed terrible entity" and "bygone existence." This place is one of the two Capitals of the Old Continent human kingdoms, moreover, at the central core of the city. With no signs discovered by the Church, [Dice Story Collection] merely had a stroke of bad luck, leading to such an exaggerated presence.

Not to mention, it happened with two entities that cannot be depicted by "Angel-Level Relics," Iluna could hardly believe what a terrifying sight it was at the doorway of Shard Family now.

"Incomplete bygone existence attacked [Night Stalker] Jogori Deus, total defense points..."

"[Night Stalker] Jogori Deus chose to flee! Pay three [Coin of Wisdom], this judgment must succeed!"

The last opponent Iluna faced, Professor Anse from the Truth Society, said loudly, feigning calmness.

[Truth Society] had prepared five coins of wisdom, two for choosing extra characters, three to ensure the judgment for capturing [Thief Jack] would surely be extreme, but against the Angel of Bygone Days, he dared not hope for luck.

But if Shard was here, he'd know this choice was a major mistake, "Demon Bill Schneider" is genuinely a Six Rings Warlock, capable of a one-hit kill on a First Ring Sorcerer, very commonplace and he can summon demon power anytime. But "Angel of Bygone Days Lat August" in reality, is just an ordinary Second Ring old man, his powers mostly gave Shard some special blessings, his combat strength only slightly stronger than a First Ring Sorcerer.

Thus, although one person died, the other indeed didn't need to flee immediately.

"[Night Stalker] Jogori Deus fled successfully; since no defense was attempted, [Night Stalker] Jogori Deus is in a severely injured state."

The hoarse voice in the dark continued narrating, after spending the final [Coin of Wisdom], the puppet of [Night Stalker] Jogori Deus vanished from Saint Delan Plaza on the desktop and appeared at the perimeter of the plaza.

Sitting opposite Iluna, Professor Anse's expression was very ugly, a few minutes ago it seemed a certain win situation, just because they called upon misfortune to harm Shard Hamilton, in a blink they turned into such reality, and he didn't even know who he should hate.

But now that the situation reached this point, without any wisdom coins left, relying only on one character couldn't catch [Thief Jack], Miss Pavo's chosen two roles both had unique traits and needed joint action, lacking any one part, the plan couldn't succeed.

Now, he must consider how to extricate himself, and the prerequisite for escaping is that his manipulated story character is the sole surviving character in the game, giving him the chance to concede to the Keeper of Secrets.

With this in mind, the next decision came almost instantly.

"Use the silence talisman. [Night Stalker] Jogori Deus, eliminate [Mortal Luck] Shard Hamilton."

"What?"

"Despicable?"

"How could you do this?"

"God will curse you!"

"Beyas, quickly get Mr. Hamilton..."

Two hundred meters away from the Saint Delan Square street corner, illuminated by the gas streetlights, Shard and Dorothy, holding Mia, emerged from the darkness.

The young detective was frowning, listening to the pale-faced Dorothy recount the events at the Prophet's Society. He had repeatedly stopped the girls from offering their help, but they didn't intend to listen to Shard.

Even with Dorothy recounting the internal story flow of the relic, Shard still couldn't understand why the relic had receded just now.

There were no traces of any elements around; neither Shard, Lecia at the time, nor Mia made any moves. Shard also didn't know who had helped him out of the predicament. Dorothy, who was recounting the events, even after listening to the complete story fragment at the Prophet's Society, hadn't provided an answer.

"Could there really be other terrifying beasts around here? Or relics lurking that I can't detect?"

Shard wondered in confusion.

As for the "bizarre existence" the two other story characters encountered next, based on those two adjectives, Shard had a rough idea of what it was. What concerned him now was that Dorothy informed him that [Thief Jack's] target had already been decided.

"Hmm... that thief invaded No. 6, Saint Delan Square?"

Shard looked up towards his home, his expression unchanged, but the blonde girl obviously felt that Shard was not as calm as he appeared on the surface.

"It's okay, [Thief Jack] was very cautious. He spent some time using ordinary means to pry open your door. Then he was interrupted during his search by some unknown bizarre existence and is currently hiding in your home. It takes time even for it to find what it wants. We should be able to catch up."

Dorothy softly comforted on the side. She knew how much Shard cared about his house. Mia, cradled in her arms, also seemed to understand their conversation. Even though she had shown no reaction facing the cat swarm earlier, she now let out a low whimpering sound from her throat.

"Are we really going to keep going forward? There's... something very scary ahead."

Dorothy said anxiously under the night, not believing that the two of them could defeat those two beings whose names couldn't even be uttered under any circumstances.

Though they hadn't seen what exactly descended on Saint Delan Square, the blonde girl seemed to have already sensed the terrifying pressure coming from there. The square, surrounded by gas street lights, had turned into a breeding ground for unnamable things in Dorothy's mind, a place once bustling and lively, now filled with killing intent on this night.

"Maybe when we're near, we'll still see the normal scenery of Saint Delan Square, but in reality, it's an illusion. The true Saint Delan Square is already covered in sinister, frightening scenes."

Dorothy was quite worried.

"I think it should be nothing, since it's suddenly summoned misfortune, it shouldn't continue to affect the area. They, or I should say, it will leave after killing, just like that group of cats just now."

Shard stated with certainty.

As his words fell, both of them simultaneously saw a figure suddenly appear at the Saint Delan Square street corner fifty meters away.

"Spatial movement?"

Shard mumbled in surprise.

"[Night Stalker] Jogori Deus!"

Dorothy, recognizing the puppet she had seen before, recognized him at once.

He was a thin man, with ordinary features, hardly noticeable, appearing to be around thirty-five or thirty-six years old. Originally dressed in a plain black coat, he now had his own blood sticking to it. Limping while walking, constantly coughing, making one suspect if he would cough his lungs out the next second.

"He actually escaped from the hands of those two bizarre existences! Could it be cheating again?"

Dorothy spoke to Shard in disbelief, while Shard, with a serious face, extended his hand to stop Dorothy from proceeding:

"Dorothy, you take Mia and step back, don't enter our combat range. An injured First Ring Sorcerer, I have a way to deal with him."

Understanding that a fight was about to happen was because the severely injured man was already limping toward them.

Dorothy quickly retreated as instructed, standing in the shadows unlit by the streetlights. Shard stopped his steps; he was actually very curious about what decision Iluna had made, but he decided firmly not to use the Circle Sorcerer's methods.

The sudden urge to draw his gun made him understand Iluna's intentions. Shard swiftly drew the Ruger revolver provided by MI6 from the holster, aiming it, while the injured First Ring Sorcerer, obviously lacking the means to kill Shard immediately from four or fifty meters away, also struggled to pull out a .45 semi-automatic pistol.

The gas streetlights of the winter night shone on both of them, their shadows extending at peculiar angles as both guns aimed at their respective targets.