Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic

"This is an Arcane Technique of my own creation based on the fairy tale 'Matchstick Girl.' The spellcasting materials are the story handwritten by myself. This is my greatest achievement as a Low Ring Sorcerer thus far," Luisa explained her Arcane Technique while Shard looked on in astonishment and disbelief.

By then, the figure summoned by the Arcane Technique had already shakily struck a match and stretched its short arms towards the sky. Under the faint light of the match, the black "Cat Mud" actually let out a scream.

"To deal with a monster that is half-real, half-illusory, you must use methods of the same nature," Miss Luisa said with a hint of pride.

Under Shard's amazed gaze, the figure of the Matchstick Girl continued to hold the match aloft. Hundreds of eyes within the black Cat Mud wept blood tears. Subsequently, the room's temperature plummeted again, and as the curtains were already drawn, the dim view darkened even more, suppressing the light of the match.

"Detective, use the Light Spell. My Arcane Technique can handle it, so now it wants to extinguish the match. Use the Light Spell now to ensure it can't suppress both sources of light from the Circle Sorcerer at once! It seems weaker than I anticipated."

"No problem."

Shard momentarily set aside his doubts, then raised his right hand high. A silver glimmer slowly appeared at his fingertips as he shouted:

"Silvermoon!"

The rotation of the Ring of Fate in his soul drove his spirit to influence reality through Arcane Technique. Silver light burst forth suddenly from his fingertips, improving visibility which had dropped drastically in the room. However, the silver light didn't stop there but exploded out like the sun itself.

"[Its power was already... have you forgotten you're in a 'Divine Afterglow' state now?"]

The Arcane Technique itself did not harm its user, so Shard's eyes were unharmed.

But the sun-like bright silver light completely engulfed the room. Shard saw the flame in the Matchstick Girl's hand combining with this moonlight to envelop the black Nightmare. He heard a horrible scream from above, as if a million cats were releasing their resentment before death, but then he felt someone tugging at his sleeve.

The Sanctity's silver light seemed to be evaporating the entire room. When the silver moonlight finally extinguished, the Cat Mud on the ceiling disappeared. The bedroom felt instantly transformed from a chilly alley into a warm church hall, filled with warm and holy air everywhere.

He looked toward the person tugging at his sleeve and heard Miss Luisa, covering her eyes, complain:

"Oh, my eyes! Detective, you actually call this a Light Spell?"

Previously, Shard misjudged the Light Spell's power when he used Silvermoon's "Light Spell" to suppress darkness in a situation where the Relic was out of control.

Fortunately, it was a fine day in summer, and the bedroom curtains were tightly closed; otherwise, the silver light that had just exploded would undoubtedly have attracted the attention of passersby on the street. The situation was not so favorable for Miss Luisa standing right beside Shard, who had been momentarily blinded by the intense light.

But instead of tending to her first, Shard anxiously asked:

"Is the Nightmare still here?"

"I think it's gone."

Shard looked around the room, feeling a sacred atmosphere akin to that of a church. But as the moonlight faded, so did that feeling. But it was clear that the Nightmare, caused by the uncontrolled Relic, had vanished:

"Your Matchstick Girl and my Light Spell seem to have dispersed it. Oh, Miss Luisa, are you alright? Do you need help with healing? I'm really sorry, I..."

Temporarily ignoring Professor Manning on the ground, he assisted the blonde female writer to sit down in the chair in front of the desk; although she was a Four-Ring Sorcerer, she could not function normally without relying on her eyes.

"The doctor said this is a Light Spell? Oh, no, this can definitely be called an Exorcism Spell. I should have thought of it earlier; this light could even suppress an uncontrollable Relic, so it cannot be just a normal Light Spell."

"We'll talk about the Arcane Technique later, Miss Luisa. Can you see my fingers now?"

If the writer were only temporarily blind, it would be fine, but it would be troubling if her vision were permanently damaged due to the recent incident. He waved two fingers in front of Miss Luisa, but she did not respond.

"Let me heal you first."

"But isn't your 'Cyndia's Silvermoon Blessing' only usable at night?"

"I've learned a new Arcane Technique, please wait a moment."

He took out a small vial from his pocket, shook it slightly, and immediately droplets condensed on the wall of the vial. Then he treated these droplets with the Arcane Technique 'Satiety Food', and finally had Miss Luisa tilt her head back and open her eyes:

"If I didn't know you, I would suspect you were trying to do something bad."

The blonde writer joked and then lifted her head, feeling the droplets fall into her eyes. She instinctively closed her eyes, letting the warm liquid soak her eyelids, and then opened her eyes to find her vision had completely recovered, even the mild nearsightedness from staying up late writing seemed to have disappeared.

Shard wanted to continue with the droplets, but Miss Luisa raised her hand to stop him:Nôv(el)B\\jnn

"No need, my eyes are completely fine now."

She said as she stood up and, from a very short distance, blinked her emerald eyes at Shard, the color in her eyes indicating their vitality. Shard blushed at Miss Luisa's sudden proximity and took a step back, then, bowing his head, he put away the vial emitting silver light:

"The new Arcane Technique I learned, I didn't expect it to be this effective."

Seeing Shard like this, the female writer smiled, refrained from teasing him, and instead instructed:

"Now that you have healing abilities during the day too, that's really great. But don't put it away just yet, Professor Manning is still waiting for your help."

After the uncontrollable incident with the Scribe Level Relic 'Joyful Dream Pen,' resolved by Shard's 'Light Spell' and Miss Luisa's 'Matchstick Girl,' the room returned completely to normal. However, Professor Manning, curled up on the carpet, had shriveled like a deflated balloon, barely alive, appearing to have aged ten years in an instant and seemed unlikely to survive.

When he was constructing dreams with the materialized Nightmare, too much life force was drawn away.

While Professor Manning was not like Miss Luisa's deceased friend who had used the Dream Pen multiple times and deeply immersed himself in it, the uncontrollable Relic was far more terrifying than merely using it.

Fortunately, he was still breathing, so after confirming that Miss Luisa was truly alright, Shard first used 'False Immortality' on the professor, then pulled out the fountain pen stuck in his wrist, and used 'Satiety Food' again on water for treatment.

In treating external injuries, the Arcane Technique developed by Gluttony was very effective, but a drained body didn't seem to qualify as an injury. Thus, Shard only tried it out with the idea of giving it a shot; after healing the wound on the wrist, he carefully fed the professor, who was still unconscious, some water emitting silver light to prevent him from choking.

The shrunken body showed improvement, and 'Satiety Food' turned out to be more useful than Shard had expected.