Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic

She said with a smile to Miss Luisa, then looked at Shard as if she was observing a rare animal:

Your adventure continues at empire

"Hamilton Detective? Good evening. Dr. Schneider mentioned you in his letter. So, the doctor actually found a new Gifted One? Did he really use some precious Relic to overdraw his own luck?"

The opinions about Dr. Schneider were really surprisingly unanimous.

After exchanging greetings, Shard briefly went over the events of the evening again. Miss Annette, the diviner, did not show the same surprise as Miss Luisa:

"In that case, I actually have something to say."

She seemed a bit too calm.

"What else is there?"

Miss Luisa asked hesitantly.

"Actually, I shouldn\'t be telling you this. It\'s information from the Prophet\'s Society, and by the rules, I shouldn\'t disclose it to others. But since we\'re all here, I can\'t let you walk into danger unknowingly... Do you not want to know the reason why Lady Lassoya is attending the banquet, as the detective mentioned?

Is she really here just to accompany her lover, influenced heavily by that Relic Ring?"

Miss Annette\'s index finger gently tapped the glass she held pinched between her thumb and slender middle finger.

"What\'s the reason?"

Shard already had a bad feeling. With such strange luck around, it would be disappointing if nothing significant occurred on this surreal night.

"They want to combine a Sage Level (Level 2) Relic, \'God\'s Gift Box,\' with an Angel-Level (Level 1) Relic, \'Blood of Mercury,\' which requires even stronger materials for support. Lady Lassoya\'s presence at the banquet is for one of these materials. The \'Blood of Mercury\' plan is to summon the Evil God, \'Lord of the Blood Feast,\' within the Lakeside Manor\'s mansion.

They need the power bestowed by the Evil God."

"Lord of the Blood Feast?"n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Miss Luisa said in surprise.

"Evil God? His arrival?"

Shard did not even know what expression to make.

The night the professors arrived at his home, he had heard of this Evil God and knew about the cultists\' collaboration with \'Blood of Mercury.\' He just didn\'t expect that \'Blood of Mercury\' would actually call Him, and that it would happen tonight.

Miss Luviya remained calm, seemingly believing that the situation was still under control:

"I only found out just now when I went to get the champagne. The Society passed the information to me and advised me to leave here as soon as possible. But don\'t worry, the ritual to summon the Evil God won\'t take effect until eleven sharp. The True God Church must have received the news by now, and it\'s expected that Circle Sorcerers of Ten Rings or more will soon arrive."

Shard pulled out his pocket watch:

"It\'s now twenty past ten tonight."

"Dorothy, I\'ll enter the mansion with you and get Priest Augustus and the doctor out. Detective, you stay here. Leaving rashly might raise suspicions, but also don\'t get close to the mansion.

According to the information, cultists will primarily engage the True God Church\'s Circle Sorcerer squad, and the \'Blood of Mercury\' members who came to execute the plan include not only the \'Silver Light\' Lassod you mentioned, but also a high-ranking Circle Sorcerer known as \'Heart Collector.\' Be very careful."

The diviner with brown short hair lifted her slender pale neck and downed the champagne in her hand, then with a rip sound, she tore her skirt and petticoat, making her expensive gown into an ordinary dress suitable for movement. Miss Luisa also nodded, raised both hands to gather her carefully styled blonde hair at the back of her head, then forcefully snapped off the heels of her shoes.

Miss Luisa turned to Shard:

"Detective, remember, under no circumstances approach the mansion tonight. If we all die, it\'s your responsibility to inform the Academy of the situation."

"Is that a possibility?"

He asked with a hint of worry.

"We must consider all possibilities, this is a common practice, and we cannot refrain from saving the doctors and the priests. Hamilton Detective..."

The brown-haired diviner, Luviya Annette, gazed at Shard, and only then did Shard notice that the lady\'s eyes were a light shade of purple. The purple color was stunningly beautiful, inducing an illusion of being drawn deep into it. Although purple eyes can occur naturally, they are extremely rare:

"I am a diviner, destiny is revealing to me, another part of me is also warning me. I see an abnormal fate trajectory on you, something significant will definitely happen tonight, please be cautious."

Thus, Shard watched as the two ladies hastily departed. That feeling, as if sending women to the battlefield and being powerless oneself, was truly distressing.

"I am still too weak, powerless to do anything."

As he watched their graceful backs disappearing, Shard could not help but think. But before the voice of the woman inside him could comment, he remembered something he had forgotten to mention: there were elements related to the Evil God near the grape arbor.

"Could that place be a node of the ritual?"

According to the history textbooks, the Circle Sorcerer System was formed in the latter part of the Fifth Era. Unlike the Arcane Technique and Sorcery, which only exist in contemporary times, "rituals" have been part of mysticism since ancient times and have functioned in both past and modern power systems.

However, in the Sixth Era, due to the convenience of Arcane Techniques and Sorcery, Ritual Studies gradually declined, with only a few individuals still researching it.

But this does not mean rituals are useless, although they require advanced preparation, usually involve immense consumption of materials, and need to meet stringent conditions, the effects of large-scale rituals are usually irreplaceable.

Just like summoning an Evil God, something that no Arcane Technique or Sorcery can achieve alone, it requires a ritual. And since it is a large-scale ritual, it absolutely won\'t be confined to a single table or room.

If the information from the Prophet\'s Society is correct, and the "Blood of Mercury" is indeed so dangerous, then the scale of the ritual to summon the Evil God could easily cover a small area of the garden from the vast Lakeside Manor.

"Maybe I could try disrupting the ritual\'s setup in the garden."

Shard found a focal point and was pleased that he might play a role and do so without risking danger. He had already met a relatively friendly Deity of Bygone Days in the past space-time and didn\'t want to encounter an Evil God in the current one.

Upon returning under the grape arbor, the young poet who had been there earlier was gone. Now, there was only a middle-aged man dressed in fashionable burgundy attire sitting at the stone table, flipping through a small book with one hand.

Shard approached, intending to find some excuse to make the middle-aged man leave, facilitating his search for a way to disrupt the ritual. Unexpectedly, the middle-aged man set down his book, turned towards him with a smile, and spoke first:

"I\'ve been waiting for you for a long time."

This was not Tobesk\'s accent; this man wasn\'t local.

"Waiting for me? I\'m sorry, sir, but do we know each other?"

Shard said in surprise. He was still some distance from the stone table under the grape arbor but had already stopped:

"A Circle Sorcerer?"

He asked inwardly, and the woman\'s voice inside him responded:

[Yes, quite a high level.]

His heart seemed to skip a beat, but anxiety did not show on Shard\'s face:

"I think you\'ve mistaken me for someone else."

As he said this, wanting to turn and leave, the man called out to him, still smiling, but Shard felt a chilling danger, as if facing a primed shotgun.

The man\'s malice was no longer hidden:

"No, I haven\'t mistaken you. It\'s you I\'m looking for. Although I don\'t know your name, don\'t know your identity, don\'t know your profession, don\'t know your address, I am indeed looking for you..."

He rolled up his left sleeve to reveal his arm, black as if charred:

"Has your luck run out? The gift of fate, now it\'s time to repay!"