webnovel Chapter 1933: "Another Island
Chapter 1933: "Another Island
"This hotel?"
Miss Aphrola shook her head slightly:
"Not sure. Emma, are you saying that when this site was selected, it was already within the calculations of that Diviner? Oh, I don’t understand much about the power of Space; just tell me what exactly happened here. Where did Shard and Megan go?"
"Space duplication."
Miss Sylvia softly stated her conclusion:
"Copy the existing space, projecting it to a distant location. Both Space and lifeless Material can be copied this way, but not relics, living people, or items with extremely strong Supernatural Powers. The hotel we are in now should be a copy, while they are in the original one."
"You mean..."
Miss Aphrola’s eyes widened slightly:
"But isn’t there a stable Space ceremony we set up in this hotel?"
"It’s not anyone’s technique; it’s a natural phenomenon. Our ceremony can resist the spatial effects of Arcane Techniques, ceremonies, and even most relics, but cannot resist the World. That’s why I say this is quite a technique. Did that Diviner foresee, a hundred years ago, that on the evening of Rain-Prayer Moon, 21st, 1854 at 7:48 PM, such a thing would happen tonight? He was laying out for tonight a century ago?"
Miss Sylvia said, taking a triangular Metal Talisman from her pocket. Her fingers exerted force, and the metal immediately bent. The Return Charm worked, and her figure immediately disappeared from the basement. But when Miss Aphrola and the other Female Sorcerers went to the first floor, they still saw the black-haired witch:
"It won’t work."
Miss Sylvia said:
"This charm can ensure I return to the hotel, but not the hotel where Shard is, rather this hotel. As expected, it’s not that simple."
She looked at the empty and dim first floor of the hotel:
"Shard and the other girls probably all went to that island located on the back of the real island, and now we have two paths.
First, delve into the white fog, find Megan’s yacht, and after joining the others, prepare to land on the island in about half an hour using the small boat Shard left behind. But we lack a Diviner to guide us, and Luviya Annette isn’t here;
Second, space duplication means there must be a connection passage between the two hotels. It’s very hard, extremely hard to find, but once found, we can all immediately join Shard and the others."
Miss Aphrola pondered for a moment:
"We have enough manpower still, even though the girls in the hotel have disappeared, there are still people elsewhere. Sylvia, you and the other girls stay here, try to find the gateway connecting the two hotels. I’ll go find Megan’s yacht; it’s already past 7:48, and the Edwards on the yacht have probably disappeared too. But with Vanessa, Granny Cassandra, Sister Delphine, the next steps will be easier."
Miss Sylvia nodded, and at this moment, the hotel’s front door was pushed open. Dr. Schneider, soaking wet, and the displeased-looking Priest Augustus returned from the rain. After a brief exchange, the doctor and priest learned what had happened here.
"Then the two of us will go directly to the lakeside."
The priest said, and the doctor nodded:
"This scenario was within Shard’s expectations. Just didn’t expect that originally it was worrying about how to get to that island, but now there are so many people already there."
(Little Mia running...)
Cold, shivering...
This was Shard’s only feeling while hiding in the cabinet with the Invisibility Cloak during the earthquake at 7:48 PM.
He thought something else would happen at 7:48:01, even if there were no strange noises and tremors, no Megan’s voice or monster’s roar, there should at least be abnormal changes in Spirit and elements.
But nothing happened, it seemed that besides the earthquake, nothing else occurred.
For a moment, Shard suspected he had mistaken the time, but the Arcane Technique [Contact with the Father of the Infinite Tree] couldn’t be wrong. Then he suspected that Laplace Klein Howard miscalculated the time, but quickly realized how ridiculous that thought was.
"Anyway, I can’t just hide in the cabinet."
So at 7:48:03, he rushed out of the Hide-and-Seek Wardrobe wearing the Invisibility Cloak and still saw Dorothy in the hotel room on the third floor outside. Dorothy, Lecia, Angelina, Little Mia, Tifa, and the girls whose names Shard could and couldn’t recall were all there, but Megan was missing.
Aside from that, the hallway was a chaotic scene; it seemed some people suddenly fainted.
"What’s going on?"
Shard removed his Invisibility Cloak, bewildered; Megan disappeared so suddenly that all their previous preparations seemed to become a joke. He couldn’t understand how Megan vanished without any sign under such tight ceremonial protection at Green Lake Hotel.
The fingers trembled slightly; he could sense the positions of Megan and Audrey. They... didn’t seem to be very far from him.
The girls in the room were also bewildered:
"Miss Edwards suddenly disappeared. Oh, Shard, many people in the hallway fainted, what’s going on?"
Shard wanted to go to the hallway to check the situation, but Miss Dector, Miss Sylvia’s female assistant, reminded him:
"Mr. Hamilton, look outside, something’s not right.
A moment ago, you might not have felt much while inside the two relics, but I sensed an abnormal spatial fluctuation. It was subtle but utterly undeniable. We shouldn’t be in the city; my spatial perception ability was completely suppressed upon touching the building’s walls."
"Enhanced Spatial Awareness!"
With her reminder, Shard immediately realized something. Closing his eyes to activate the arcane technique, he then opened them in surprise:
"Give me the map of the Green Lake Region!"
Tifa, who was stationed at the room door to check on the unconscious companions, immediately sent someone to fetch the map, but Dorothy stopped her, opened the desk drawer, and handed the "Green Lake City Travel Guide" to Shard:
"On the last page."
With the map in hand, Shard activated the arcane technique again. Upon locating himself on the map, it fully confirmed his suspicion:
"How is it possible? We are now on the Green Lake Central Island? No, not the regular island, this isn’t right; it’s like we’re in a mirror... Are we on a different island?"
Miss Dector immediately strode to the window, glanced outside, and instantly reached a conclusion:
"Mr. Hamilton, the fog outside is very thick, much thicker than in the city. I can’t see the light of the street lamps, nor the buildings across the street. Wherever this is, it certainly isn’t the city."
Although Shard did not have the insight of Miss Sylvia, he wasn’t just a tuition-paying student without any knowledge at Saint Byrons. He reached a conclusion similar to the Grand Witch:
"Space duplication?"
This explained the condition of the female sorcerers outside who suddenly fell into a coma. This kind of compulsory spatial shift is different from Miss Sylvia’s portal opening or spatial transfer arcane techniques. In that instant, the disturbance of spirit and space would severely damage the minds of Circle Sorcerers with sensitive senses but without spatial transfer resistance, which is one of the dangers of spatial movement.
"So Megan disappeared so easily... In the city, the hotel’s ritual protected them from being suddenly relocated. But once the hotel came here, this island became its territory, not to mention the fog severely affecting the space ceremony’s effects... That diviner, what a tactic."
Shard then thought of the same problem as Miss Sylvia:
"The hotel location... Did he plan this a hundred years ago?"
Upon rough examination, the girls who fainted in the third-floor hallway sustained no irreversible damage, only temporary inability to awaken. Staying here any longer was meaningless; the girls who were still conscious were willing to follow Shard’s lead, so they all followed Shard through the dark, lightless second floor to the first floor. The unconscious companions were also moved down.
On the first floor, Miss Haley Aflora and the other girls were still there, but at least half of them had also fallen into a coma due to the forced spatial transfer. And upon reaching the basement, the ritual core glowed; not only Laster Edwards and Mr. Soren Green had vanished, even Durut Giles was missing.
But the girls maintaining the ritual were still there, although more than half were similarly unconscious.
"I wonder if this is still usable..."
The [Space-Time] Spirit Rune shone on the basement walls but failed to reveal any hidden passages.
"I still have the Crystal Shoes..."
But the Crystal Shoes thrown only fell to the ground; Shard did not return to No. 6, Saint Delan Square as a result.
"[This is no longer the Material World, but the backside of the world. Unless you completely unfold the Maze Lock, throwing the Crystal Shoes here won’t work.]"
"Alright."
So all the conscious and unconscious gathered in the first-floor hotel hall. After carefully verifying identities to prevent any unrecognized people, besides Shard, Dorothy, Lecia, Angelina, and the two formal Witch Apprentices Haley and Tifa, there were five High Ring ladies, and twenty-eight Inner Ring girls remained combat-capable.
The good news was that although not many in number, the female sorcerers in the hotel were absolutely loyal girls, so there was no need to worry about disunity with the absence of the Grand Witches.
Among these girls, the two wearing maid dresses, like Tifa, were followers of Miss Galina. Among the others, one-third were followers of Miss Aflora, one-third were from Paradise Island Pharmaceuticals, and the remainder were followers of Miss Sylvia.
Originally, Miss Sylvia’s followers should have been the least, but as most followers of the Space Witch had spatial talent, almost none of them fainted.