Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic

"Is this what is called the divine afterglow? Why is it appearing now?"

"Divinity is deep within your Ring of Fate and soul. It only manifests in this way at certain special locations or in environments where soul power is prominent. So, now..."

Shard looked up to see Miss Luisa stopping ahead and looking back:

"I see, we are indeed dreaming now."

"Oh, Shard, what is the matter with you?"

Miss Luisa asked in surprise, sizing him up.

Only then did Shard notice that the blond girl, wearing light makeup, was particularly beautiful today. It was probably due to the heat; the three golden buttons at the bosom of her white lace-sleeved shirt had somehow become undone, revealing a glimpse of the garment underneath.

"You felt it..."

"No need to remind me. If I still don't understand, that would be quite foolish. This trope is a bit vulgar and cliché... and Miss Luisa never addresses me by my first name."

"Shard, why aren't you speaking? Have you found traces of that thing?"

"Miss Luisa" asked in a gentle voice.

She took a few quick steps toward Shard but somehow stumbled forward, about to fall right into Shard's arms.

But Shard did not reach out to catch her; instead, he thrust forward a curved blade of silver moonlight. The brilliant light illuminated the suddenly dark third-floor corridor and passed right through "Miss Luisa's" body.

The blond girl disintegrated into black smoke within the brightness and vanished into the air.

Shard remained vigilant, standing alertly in place. The lighting in the corridor darkened abruptly, as if the corridor itself was absorbing the light.

In such an environment, the golden afterglow on Shard's body shone even more brightly.

Gradually, whispers could be heard all around. However, it was not the whisper of a woman in the heart; it was the dream itself beginning to whisper. The chaotic and low voice seemed to be directly poured into Shard's head. Meanwhile, shadowy forms started to emerge from the dimming lights, crawling around.

These mud-like creatures from the dream, once appearing, almost directly affected Shard himself with their spiritual pollution. The intense dizziness made him want to pass out, but having faced divine beings twice before, he could bear this sensation now.

Thus, silver moonlight lit up the corridor again, and the curved Light Blade flew from his hand. Although the light could not brighten the increasingly cold and dark corridor, it effectively cut through the dreadful things within the shadows.

As strands of silver moonlight flew, the shadows from the dream converged into writhing sludge, with elongated tentacles clinging to the corridor walls, nearly devouring this space.

Shard knew the situation was grim, so he summoned the Ring of Fate behind him, took a deep breath, and pointed forward. While employing his Arcane Technique with full strength, the silver in the moonlight seemed to blend with the golden Light Traces on his body.

The curved Moonlight Slash swept the corridor, severing the dreadful things that violated basic human aesthetics. They did not converge again; instead, with the bursting sound next to his ear, like soap bubbles popping, Shard flickered in consciousness and found himself standing in the third-floor corridor once again.

But the lighting was normal, with no monsters in sight, only that Miss Luisa was gone.

He looked down at the golden Rift on himself:

"It seems we're still dreaming. Can you detect which direction contains the Whisper Element?"

"All directions."

Shard nodded and looked around, sensing that this was still a dream environment, the light once again grew dimmer.

He tried to exit from the third floor, but no matter how he tried, he couldn't get close to the intersection with the staircase; it was as if the corridor itself was endlessly extending.

Just as Shard was about to try to destroy the fabric of the dream itself, a door near the staircase on the right was violently flung open from the inside, and Miss Luisa charged out with great momentum.

She looked furious, her face flushed red. Before Shard could test whether this time it was real or a trick, the blonde girl raised her hand towards him, and a bewitching red flame appeared in her palm:

"Hah, here we go again. Instead of turning into a detective, you might as well have turned into Luviya or Lei...Hm?"

She looked Shard up and down suspiciously, then neatly retracted her hand, crushing the flames in her palm:

"Is this for real? Detective, did you understand this was a dream before I found you? That's pretty impressive, I seem to have underestimated you. But what are these golden cracks on you? They do look pretty, are you alright?"

Shard took a careful step back, and after confirming in his mind that the girl in front of him had Whisper but also the full Four Elements, he breathed a sigh of relief:

"It's so good to see you, Miss Luisa. As for this... decoration, it's useless."

He pointed at himself, Miss Luisa raised an eyebrow, Miss Writer's knowledge wasn't enough for her to recognize what it was:

"Well then, I'll pretend I didn't see it, as long as you're okay. Since you understand that this is a dream, I don't need to bother explaining the situation. Really, I wanted to broaden your experiences, even promised there would be no accidents, but something still went wrong, now I'm embarrassed."

She spoke with slight annoyance, then pointed ahead:

"First, let's leave the dream and talk back in reality. Although the Relic is out of control only for a short time, the Nightmare isn't very strong yet, but it's foolish to confront it here in the dream."

"So how do we leave?"

Shard looked around, hoping that Miss Luisa could conjure up something like a portal out of thin air.

"The Nightmare, born from the 'Joyful Dream Pen', has only absorbed a portion of a regular person's spiritual power and blood, so the capacity of the dreamscape it can create is limited. Let me burst it open!"

Saying that, the Brass Life Ring of a Four-Ring Sorcerer appeared amid the rising Steam Mist, with various Spirit Runes on the ring flickering with Spiritual Light, illuminating the increasingly dim corridor:

"Detective, hold onto my hand tightly, and don't get lost in the dream. It's a chance for you to see, the battle method of a Circle Sorcerer specializing in Enlightenment Element."n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

She reached out her hand to Shard, and he directly gripped it.

Miss Luisa's Core Spirit Rune 'Writer' flickered, followed by the Enlightenment Spirit Rune 'Flame' also starting to flicker:

"Detective, my Circle Sorcerer System maps the 'Ancient Fairy Tale: Matchstick Girl' across the first four rings. Each ring contains runes linked to this fairy tale, used to build the Sublimation Incantation as one advances from four rings to five. It starts like this..."

She touched the air with her empty left hand as if caressing it, and worm-like red runes appeared as if branded into the air, then the entire corridor burst into flames, yet Shard didn't feel any heat.

Amid the suddenly fierce flames, he thought he heard the sound of popping bubbles. Then the fire abruptly vanished, and they were standing in Professor Manning's home on the third-floor corridor, where the lighting was normal, with no flames.

Four-Ring Sorcerers indeed were powerful; Shard had just broken the dream relying on a slight power of Divine Afterglow, whereas Miss Luisa had effortlessly achieved the same with her simple Arcane Technique.

"It's still a dream."

Shard looked around and then at himself again.

"These marks on you are really handy, the doctor's ability to enter dreams must really fear someone like you... Well then, let's do it once more."

As she spoke, Miss Luisa's Core Spirit Rune 'Writer' and the Spirit Rune 'Frozen Dead' flickered with Spiritual Light. Ice-blue runes were inscribed in the space, and an extremely cold current instantly swept through the corridor, shattering the dream once again.