The chance of absolute luck, won from the hands of the gambling deity, had its effect here. The dice tumbled through the air, and when it landed in his palm, the upward-facing side was twenty points.
He raised an eyebrow, waiting for luck to give the final push to the forming Maze Lock, just as Shard stood at the doorstep of the house about to be taken by a god, turning around to save the little girl.
The Maze Lock could isolate the power bestowed upon Daknis by the Dark Realm, and using the Maze Lock in conjunction with the best state of Divine Afterglow, plus the gradually recovering Iluna, he believed he was more than capable of dealing with his opponent. After all, when the previous Maze Lock took shape, it had directly repelled the gaze of the Evil God.
But this ti, it seed that luck was not reflected in acquiring the Arcane Technique of the Maze Lock, because after the dice landed in the palm of his hand, Shard felt nothing. Startled for half a second, two voices said simultaneously:
[Look at your chest.]
"Shard, your chest is glowing!"
Tifa reminded him, struggling to hold his arm, so Shard took out the piece of poetry paper from his chest. It was glowing because the Academy had sent a notice—
[Shard Hamilton, are you now ready to accept "Dream of Saint Byrons Integrated Academy"?]
"Ah? Why is it this? Isn't it the Maze Lock? Oh, I rember now, today is Saturday, the Academy said they would send it over the weekend... Yes, that's right."
Shard pressed his finger on the glowing word "yes".
The paper's light flickered, and an exquisitely crafted, enal filigree snuff bottle, the size of a palm, fell into Shard's hand.
The bottle was primarily sky-blue in color, with bright yellow sunflowers painted on it, connected to each other with golden lines, irresistibly reminiscent of the pleasant tis of sumr.
Darkness was close at hand, and Daknis, who had fully transford into a demon, lunged at them with claw and fang.
In Iluna and Tifa's astonished gazes, Shard opened the cap of the snuff bottle.
Last ti, it was the doctor who opened it, and the snuff bottle imdiately took effect, scattering seven-color smoke that allowed him to see Saint Byrons and the basics of Saint Byrons in his dream.
But this ti, Shard opened the cap, and what drifted out was warm, red-gold smoke with a scent.
Ti, truly, had stopped at this mont.
Darkness solidified, the demons surrounding them solidified, the pus flowing on the ground solidified.
The red-gold smoke wrapped around the three of them, protecting them. Within the smoke, all three heard a voice, a woman's gentle voice, asking them a question.
Although Tifa and Iluna could only understand a few words of the language she used, both thought of similar scenes without prior agreent.
Tifa seed to go back to being thirteen years old, sitting in front of a small blackboard as nineteen-year-old Miss Galina explained the basic rules of Witch Power; Iluna seed to go back to her ti in training at the Papacy, in that large, stepped auditorium, basking in the sumr sun, listening with friends to the old Priest's monotonously delivered lessons.
Shard understood the question—
"What was the last lesson I taught you in the Forest of Thousand Trees?"
The voice seed to rise right next to his right ear, as if the Witch was right behind him in the darkness.
Shard felt a sense of vertigo. He stood shoulder to shoulder with both ladies, facing the oncoming darkness. Ti seed to rewind again to centuries past when he bade farewell to the two Witches.
The Chosen One's Dark Gift had already bridged history; Daknis had lifted the veil of history with the power of darkness, summoning a horde of demons. And now, the red-gold warmth wafting through a corner of this veil touched Shard. He truly felt that breeze from the ancient past, brushing against his cheek.
The powers of the Evil God, Crawling Darkness, included history, and history and ti have never had a boundary. He took a deep breath; the Arcane Technique "Breath of Ages" reached the power in the snuff bottle. He had only turned back the ti by one second with the snuff bottle, and all of this beca different due to the touch of the Power of Ti.
The boundaries of Ages blurred due to Daknis' reckless manipulation of power. He should not have used this power so irreverently.
[No matter what darkness you face in the future, you must always believe in your own light...]
"Her" voice rose next to Shard's left ear, offering him guidance, but Shard could never forget the Witch's words:
"... That is the most pure power we possess, as humans who are not so ordinary."
Ti resud its flow, the light under the tree was utterly extinguished, everything plunged into darkness, yet everything was eerily quiet, even the overpowering roar of the demons was gone.
Because in this darkness, that gentle voice softly said:
"Answer, correct."
Iluna and Tifa stood frozen in place, assuming darkness would consu them entirely, but then a warm, sun-like golden glow suddenly appeared behind them.
This warm halo spread out, forcibly forming a hemispherical area under the tree.
They all heard the "answer correct" spoken in the common tongue of Draleon, and the voice, incredibly, ca from behind the three of them.
A transparent hand, flickering with golden light, rested on Shard's shoulder. Shard had completely forgotten about the Maze Lock. He took deep breaths, following the hand, trembling as he turned his head to look back.
Reflected in his eyes was a Witch, robed in a hoodie shining with holy white light, with skin white as milk, and strikingly bright golden hair, looking as if she were still only in her early twenties.
Her golden eyes tenderly gazed at Shard, her lovely features youthful, her eyes as if they could see right through his soul:
"Long ti no see, Shard."
Miss Mana Feliana stood in the year 1853 of the Sixth Era, smiling as she spoke.
Shard, trembling all over, controlled his current emotions, his voice sowhat hoarse as he responded:
"It's been a long ti, I truly never thought, in my lifeti, I would have the chance to see you again. Teacher... Miss Feliana."
Iluna, who was beside Miss Feliana and bathed in her light, gradually regaining her physical state, was taken aback:
"Feliana?"
Tifa's mouth dropped open in surprise, but years of being a Maid allowed her to quickly cover her mouth.
"ow~"
Mia, who had jumped onto Shard's shoulder, was still sowhat frightened of the surroundings, but still greeted the Witch, having seen her before and knowing her formidable strength.
"What's this expression? Shard, are you surprised to see ?"
The Witch said with a smile, as a pillar of golden light soared from her body, breaking through the darkness above and piercing the dense canopy, directly shattering the firmant of the Dark Realm.
In the Dark Realm, every Circle Sorcerer, no matter where they were, looked up towards the heart of the dominion. Monts before, they were trying to stop the spread of the crystals, but now everything had halted.
They all saw that extraordinary pillar of golden light, and this power seed to not belong to this Era, not to the Circle Sorcerers.
The ground's pus-like substance rippled, crystal stones all around developed cracks. Demons roared in resentnt, rage, and fear, sensing this terrible power that shouldn't exist here.
"I really never thought I would see you again."
"Nor did I think I would see you in your Era. What I left you was rely Spirit and knowledge that could be absorbed, but communication between darkness and the Breath of Ages has linked the present and the past, and the qualities of this special area have caused ti to beco unstable, so here I am. To be more specific, I believe I am dreaming."
She looked up at her surroundings, seemingly finding everything around her novel:
"Such a concentration of demons, it really is rare. My student, Shard Suren Hamilton, it seems you have encountered so little trouble."
Suddenly, with a smile, she turned to Iluna, the seventeen-year-old girl wisely stepped aside, allowing the transparent golden figure to co from behind Shard, to stand by his side:
"I'm glad you still rember my words. Now let
fulfill the duties I didn't complete in the past and truly teach you sothing."
Standing in that pillar of golden light, she stretched her left hand towards the sky, Shard breathed deeply as he also extended his right hand towards the sky:
"Get ready, my students, I will call—"
Everything seed to truly return to the past, back to the Forest of Thousand Trees.
But this ti it was slightly different, for before the countdown began, Miss Feliana's raised left hand grasped Shard's right hand. Palm to the back of his hand, thumb, middle finger, ring finger, and little finger clasping his, left index finger and Shard's right index finger aligning.
Tifa continued with an expression of astonishnt, her mouth covered, Iluna bit her lip holding the Balance, eyeing Shard suspiciously.
"One!"
She said softly, the golden light from her fingertips overlapping with the silver light from Shard's.
"Two!"
Not just their fingers, but their transparent golden arms partly overlapped with Shard's. The golden tips of her hair gently brushed Shard's cheek, reminding him that this was not his dream.
"Three!"
Gold and silver halos rose at the fingertips, and Shard suddenly heard the sound of a water droplet, a drop falling into his heart. That instant touch finally allowed him, after the infection of fear, the oppression of darkness, Priest Augustus' understanding of darkness, and all he had been through in recent months, to touch the light.
It was the light of Miss Feliana, a bond that inherited past power.
[In the Dark Forest, rife with the spread of Darkness, you sit by a campfire under a tree, eting Him, Her, and Them. As you reach across history and the Breath of Ages, when you touch this light again, you understand it's her dream, but it's your reality.]
[You have touched the Light of the Witch from the Fifth Era, connecting the Fifth Era with the Sixth, through the river of history and the Breath of Ages, you have inherited the Enlightennt of past tis.]
The halo that burst from their overlapping fingertips was not bright, but extraordinarily resolute. Demons in terror, roaring, sensing the imminent doom they faced, charged towards the people in the light.
The halo at the fingertips, the Divine Afterglow, and the automatically manifesting Brass Spiritual Light on the Ring of Fate illuminated the surroundings, steam surging as the light from their fingertips rged into the Ring of Fate.
This was the power of light, a power that should not exist in this Era. That unusual light converged to one point on the Ring of Fate, and as it spun slowing down, Shard's eighth Spirit Rune appeared.
[Outlander, you've inscribed the Brass Enlightennt Spirit Rune - Light of the Witch.]
[Outlander, you've gained the Arcane Technique - Feliana's Witch Light. A power not of the Sixth Era, its spreading light fuses everything.]
Thus, on the clearing surrounded by a sky full of demons, amid the long darkness, fear, and eerie pus, Shard called forth his brand-new power:
"Feliana's Witch Light."
Standing amidst the darkness, he raised his arms and looked up at the contorting swarm of demons above, as if confronting the entire dark world.
The halo of gold made their shadows waver on the ground as the girls reached out to grasp the back of his clothes. In this scene, reminiscent of an oil painting, the light began to spread.
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