Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic

Chapter 274 The Power of Impermanence

"God... Godfall! The Sixth Era still has other Benevolent Gods!"@@@@

Someone by the long dining table murmured, but everyone was compelled to avert their gaze from the figure at the end of the street, an entity not meant to be beheld by mortals.

A vast Silvermoon hung high above, as the blood fog swept back in. At one end of the dining table, the Deity met the gaze of the deity from the road's end in the long night.

Time seemed to stand still in that moment, the blood-red light interwoven with the light of the Silvermoon. The ground vibrated, and the wind howled as if even the world itself was uneasy.

"Silvermoon!"

A gentle voice arose in the minds of everyone still able to maintain consciousness, a deity under the silver moonlight pointing towards the sky, a dazzling Light Trace blazing from the fingertip; a momentary holy brightness scattered the blood fog covering at least half the city.

He walked down the road towards the grand mansion, trailing a silver light that seemed destined to eternally brand itself upon the fabric of space.

The immense shadow of flesh hung in the sky, its twisted and massive body roaring. The flesh shuddered, droplets of corrupt blood falling around the mansion, and the blood fog surged once more, where the silver light met the blood-red light, black thunder cracked intermittently.

At the end of the long table, the Saint of the Blood Robe flicked his knife and fork, and a dinner knife flew out from a hole in the wall.

The God of White Robes, coming down the road, continued his pace. A silver Great Sword, shimmering with holy light, materialized beside him and soared straight into the sky, splitting the flying dinner knife and then surged towards the mansion. Around the mansion, a silent, semi-spherical, blood-red barrier appeared, then silently swallowed up the seemingly all-cleaving silver Great Sword.

The deity continued walking toward the mansion, a Silvermoon tearing a great hole in the blood fog overhead seemed to draw nearer.

An eerie silence lingered for a moment before people realized that the Silvermoon was not merely appearing to draw nearer.

It grew larger and larger, until the Silvermoon obscured the sky. The silver lunar disk descended from the heavens, slow yet weighty, carrying tremendous wind pressure and potential energy as it collided with the transparent, blood-red barrier surrounding the mansion.

Boom~

The explosive sound in that instant swept the blood fog and dust throughout the city like shockwaves.

The ground shook, even the dinnerware and the long table on the third floor of the mansion vibrated.

The sounds of shattering glass nearly pierced everyone's eardrums. The blood-red barrier dented, then shattered piece by piece, huge droplets of blood fell toward the ground. Meanwhile, the falling Silvermoon summoned by the deity also transformed into specks of light, encircling the mansion.

Shard Hamilton took a deep breath, the burn of divine power had not brought forth all of its strength—right now, he couldn't even be sure if he was still himself as his heightened soul allowed him to see more, but also understood what his adversary truly was.

Even though the deity that descended into the material world looked human, He was not human. The eyes harboring the corrupt flesh that devoured the mansion was indeed the Saint's true form.

The silver Great Sword and the summoned meteor were just superficial confrontations between the two. Their power levels were not much different, but the issue was that Shard's divinity was only a droplet, and already one-third had burned away.

The falling Silvermoon momentarily gave him the upper hand, and in that brief moment when spatial constraints loosened, His figure vanished beneath the silver moonlight.

Specks of silver Light Trace finally entered through the hole in the walls into the third-floor Blood Feast, where the figure of the god in white robes reappeared.

But soon, the same blood-colored light lit up on Shard. The gluttonous power from the "Lord of the Blood Feast," intertwined with the sublimated power of the relic. A giant stone gargoyle visage, swirling with silver and blood light, appeared beside It, its maw engulfing the surging blood light.

The stone gargoyle visage shattered, and golden light traces gradually converged into Shard's hands. After a brief skirmish, He unexpectedly devoured a drop of divinity. But such an act could only be done once by suppressing it with the power of the Ancient God since there was almost no difference in power between the two parties, the other being a true deity.

With divinity integrated into his being, Shard hesitated before plucking out his own left eye, letting the eyeball fall into the balance; his eye regrew again. This cost was meaningless, as his sacrifice was merely the regenerating flesh. But his unique existence meant that Shard Hamilton's body was the deity itself; the plucked eyeball was part of the divine body, thus forming a more powerful sacrifice.

"Leave."

In the blood-colored banquet hall, the dark gold balance quietly hovered above the table. Three eyeballs tilted the balance even more towards Shard's side. The dark gold luster suppressed the true master of the Blood Feast with a firmer stance.

The Saint put down the knife and fork in his hands, looking towards the dark gold balance:

"Not enough!"

Dark, twisted blood light surged on the Saint, but again it was suppressed by the Ancient God's balance.

The God of White Robes reached out to pluck his left eye again, but the Saint of the Blood Robe spoke to stop him. The Saint's body, a mass of flesh, twitched anxiously above the mansion, the blood fog not yet dispersed by the light of the Silvermoon gathered again as He accumulated power:

"Not enough!"

The chaotic energy and collision of rules nearly caused the mortals present to collapse, but the Silvermoon sheltered them, sheltering everyone here. The "Lord of the Blood Feast" wished for a desperate struggle, and Shard softly said:

"With the Ancient God Judge as my witness, in this duel, the injured shall leave."

Shard could keep plucking out eyeballs, even a hundred if needed, but suppressing the Saint's power was still through the divine-manipulated balance, and continuing like this would also be unsustainable. And He knew Shard could still suppress Him with the Golden Scales, so He would definitely not refuse such a proposal for a quick end:

"Agreed."

The dark gold balance hung high above the Blood Feast table, as the God of White Robes and the Saint of the Blood Robe simultaneously slapped the table.

The long table disappeared from the mansion's third floor, then abruptly appeared under the night sky over Tobesk, the night wind making the white tablecloth rustle, warming the mortals around the table with the summer's warm breeze. (Note)

The surrounding was foggy with blood mist, the Silvermoon appeared nearby, and below was the unusually quiet Tobesk, with the gleam of gas lamps dotting through the blood color.

The howling night wind brushed the faces of the mortals, and in that moment of powers being accumulated by the deities, their pressure finally lessened a bit. They could feel that their current location was no longer indoors, but still, only Iluna Beath could keep her eyes open.

At both ends of the floating dining table under the moonlit night, the two deities gazed at each other.

Iluna saw an enticing red halo emerge around the Saint of the Blood Robe, saw a huge shadow of flesh as if emerging from another side of space, gradually overlapping with the Saint's position.

Iluna saw the silver white light on the God of White Robes grow weaker as He pushed his chair back and stood up.

The God of White Robes stood against the night sky, the quiet Silvermoon lingering behind Him, a "Genesis: Silver Moon" appearing in his hand.