Capítulo 1279: Chapter 1279: The Severed Arm
In the secret attic, for a moment, no one spoke as everyone focused their attention on the stone in front of them.
Shard also concentrated all his attention, not forgetting the rumors that the Evil God “Stone Heart Demon” would descend into the Material World through perfect stone carvings. Therefore, before completing his work, he carefully carved the Holy Emblems representing the Ancient Gods “The Upside-Down Judge,” “Crawling Darkness,” “Ancient God of Death,” and “Secret-Keeping Mentor” inside the statue.
Due to being overly engrossed, it wasn’t until Shard finished his carving that he noticed Luviya’s statue depicted a girl with her hands behind her back, slightly on tiptoe, as if gazing into the distance. However, Shard didn’t recognize the face, indicating it was probably a friend from Luviya’s distant past.
Although Luviya could use “another me” to assist in the carving, the injured “other Luviya” wasn’t as helpful as “her” beside Shard’s ear. The violet-eyed girl had to focus completely throughout and was slower than Shard. It wasn’t until finishing her work that she got the chance to turn and look at Shard’s “creation.”
Then she was astonished, even suspecting Shard of cheating by directly bringing a museum masterpiece. It was beyond her understanding of art, seemingly out of place in such a humble environment.
For Shard, during the carving process, even though he had a specific image of the statue in mind, including details, achieving an exact replica was quite challenging. Fortunately, with “her” assistance, whenever Shard’s thoughts slightly deviated, “she” would gently adjust the invisible blade’s position.
Although the final product differed subtly from Shard’s memory, he was satisfied with the statue’s appearance, believing no matter how many times he tried, he couldn’t do any better.
Old Stonemason Humphrey had completed his work as well and was astonished by Shard’s statue, unsure of how to evaluate it.
The sculpture birthed in Shard’s hands was a full-bodied statue of a woman. Her upper body was bare, while her lower part had a loose wrap skirt. Her figure was dignified and graceful, her skin full, with a beautiful oval face, a straight nose, a flat forehead, and a full chin, her calm expression exuding a touch of appropriate solemn confidence and intelligence.
Her pose was slightly twisted, her left leg slightly raised, her weight on her right leg, with her head and upper body slightly oriented to the right, while her face turned to the left front, creating a natural “S” curve that shaped her half-bare body into a remarkably harmonious and beautiful spiral ascending posture.
This nonexistent attic chamber had small windows, and the moonlight poured onto the statue, making it appear as if it was about to glow.
Most noteworthy was not the statue’s legs, covered by a dress hem expressively, nor the exposed feminine features of the upper body, but the statue’s arms were in a broken state. The left arm vanished below the shoulder, and the right had only half of an upper arm. Yet, this did not detract from the statue’s beauty; it instead lent a… indescribable harmony Luviya couldn’t articulate.
She raised her head, unconsciously stepped back a few paces to fully see the broken-armed statue within her view. She even felt a strange sense of sacredness emanating from the statue. As she gazed at the female statue, it was as if a solemn goddess was also gazing at her.
Looking at the end, Luviya even averted her gaze out of an indescribable anxiety from within. She glanced at Shard again, unclear how the presently pensive Shard managed to create this statue.
She even speculated if Shard was currently being influenced by something strange.
“This truly is…”
Old Stonemason Humphrey almost couldn’t control the speaking ability of his soul, his soul’s eyes seemed to be shining, and his previously solid spiritual body unexpectedly showed semi-transparent areas:
“This is an astonishing blend of noble elegance and alluring abundance! This is the quintessence of beauty! Whether it is her face or the curve extending from her chest to her abdomen, or her back, any part, this statue is synonymous with beauty!”
He, being a professional stonemason, could appreciate the value of this artwork better than Shard and Luviya.
By the end, tears actually appeared on his soul’s face. As they fell to the ground, they once again formed the “Soul Tears” that Shard was quite familiar with, precious materials only shed by powerful souls lingering in the Material World when their desires are fulfilled. However, the appearance of tears also meant the Old Stonemason was about to depart.
The soul gradually became transparent, light particles dispersing from the soul’s surface. Old Stonemason Humphrey showed a satisfied expression, took a step forward intending to observe the statue more closely, but was stopped by Shard’s tap on the shoulder:
“Mr. Humphrey, don’t rush to leave yet, the statue isn’t finished.”
“Not finished? Are you going to complete these imperfect broken arms?”
The light dots emanating from the stonemason abruptly flew back, he turned around, stared at Shard:
“Adding the arms would certainly be great, but in my view, the broken arm appearance is actually quite nice.”
“No, no, it’s not due to the broken arms.”
Shard shook his head and asked Luviya:
“Can you see what’s wrong with this statue?”
Luviya hesitantly shook her head:
“It’s the first time I’ve realized you have such talent. To me, it already is a perfect statue.”
“No, there’s still an issue—it isn’t old enough.”
Shard stated with certainty, naturally not possessing any artistic talent, only being able to imitate.
He then made a request to the stonemason statue by the fireplace:
“Could you give me a larger piece of stone?”
The stone statue did not respond, but a harsh sound of stone rubbing against the floor had already come from afar.
When the new giant stone stopped in front of them, Shard first laid it down, then reached out to use sorcery:
“Fossil to Mud!”
The stone transformed into a stone jar filled with muddy clay, then together with Luviya, they immersed the severed arm stone statue he had “carved” into the muddy clay after laying it down.
“Firestarter!”
The two circle sorcerers jointly summoned flames that quickly dried the muddy clay, but not completely. Shard instructed Luviya to step back, while he stood in front of the giant stone on the ground and took a deep breath:
“Arcane Technique – Breath of Ages!”
Shard’s arcane technique, [Breath of Ages], can make time for an object rewind or advance; he usually rewinds time through a “sucking” action, but this time he actively exhaled.
As the gray smoke flew out of his nostrils, penetrating the giant stone lying beneath, the incomplete clay dried visibly. Shard advanced the time by ten years towards the future, which was the limit of his spellcasting ability to alter time after his power enhancement.
The spellcasting materials for this arcane technique correspond to a tenth of the changed time’s lifespan, but fortunately, he can cast [Breath of Ages] once every month without materials. Now it’s the beginning of February, Sparse Star Month, and he happened to have the chance to cast without materials.
After the effect of the arcane technique fully manifested, Shard, together with Luviya, wanted to upright the giant stone and extract the statue from the hardened clay.
The spirit of the Old Stonemason hurriedly stopped him:
“Don’t be careless, be cautious, don’t damage the statue. Let me, let me help you get it out.”
Even though his soul status is such, he can still influence reality with sculpting tools. Soon, the severed arm statue, which had spent ten years in the clay, stood again beside the coal furnace in the attic. And, as expected, time bestowed upon it a not-so-obvious weighty feeling, just as Shard imagined, even after wiping the dust with a towel, the statue buried in clay still appeared to have more charm.
Shard was quite satisfied with it, and Luviya looked at the statue with astonished eyes, then said to the Old Stonemason:
“Just now I said, sculpting the stone statue is actually freeing it from the stone, see, you’ve truly liberated it.”
“I have no regrets in my life.”
The Old Stonemason said emotionally, yet this time his spirit did not show any signs of wanting to leave, seemingly wanting to see how the demanding statue evaluates Shard’s work.
Having barely cleaned off the dust and mud from the surface of the statue, Shard stepped back and stood next to Luviya. The purple-eyed girl touched Shard’s hand:
“How did you create this?”
She always knew that although Shard claims to be semi-illiterate, he has deep knowledge in mathematics, basic physics, and chemistry. However, in the fields of poetry, sculpture, and music, Shard had never showcased any talent or flair. It might be better to say he doesn’t understand them at all.
Shard slightly shook his head, while the stonemason statue by the coal furnace circled the aged severed arm statue with a somewhat harsh friction sound. It didn’t bother to carefully examine the works of the Old Stonemason and Luviya, and simply focused continuously on the details of the severed arm statue, remaining silent for a long time before asking Shard:
“Does it have a name?”
“Yes, the severed arm…”
This world doesn’t have the original mythological stories, and because this statue has a severed arm, it couldn’t contain any deity’s name, otherwise, it would be a desecration.
After a slight pause, Shard asked Luviya:
“In astrology, which constellation associates with [Love] and [Beauty]?”
Luviya, after brief thinking, provided the answer:
“Taurus.”
“The Severed Arm Taurus.”
Shard gave the answer, and the Stonemason Statue slowly opened its mouth:
“This is a genuine piece of art; I must first express my apology for my previous offense and then proceed to my query: This doesn’t feel like a work you could carve out. I can feel within it the truest thoughts about beauty and nature. This kind of statue is not likely born from a mere few seconds of inspiration but is the culmination of years of accumulation reaching a peak, with several attempts afterwards finally creating such a work.”
Its doubt was quite reasonable; even without knowing Shard’s identity and profession, it was clear that for him to swiftly complete such work was abnormal.