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墨書 Inktalez
Arthur's fingers traced the brittle parchment of the diary, the oil lamp on the table casting a flickering halo of light.
Lily suddenly pressed down on his hand as he turned the page, her nails still stained with the machine oil from repairing the mouse trap two days prior.
"Look at this," she said, pulling out a faded train ticket wedged between the pages. "The night train to Steam City from twelve years ago... it was the same service that disappeared the night my father went missing."
The rusted copper doors of the clock tower groaned in the midnight air. Arthur braced himself against the doorframe, fragments of rusty cascading down onto his neck.
Lily gripped her modified Steam Wrench, the sound of turning gears echoing in the empty clock tower.
"Three hundred sixty-four steps," she counted the dew that had collected on the railing of the spiral staircase. "My father had a severe fear of heights; how could he have...?"
The doorknob to the Top Level was wrapped in silver threads, glimmering like spider silk under the moonlight. Suddenly, Arthur's pocket watch spun its hands wildly in reverse, and Lily's wrench clanged against the metal floor.
A clicking sound of interlocking gears came from behind the door, and twelve brass chains lunged forward like venomous snakes emerging from their lair.
"Be careful!" Arthur shouted as he yanked Lily towards a corner, the chains scraping past his ear and embedding themselves into the stone wall, shaking loose ancient gears from within.
A shadow slowly rose from behind a mechanical console, revealing half a face marred by steam burns beneath a cloak—its left eye embedded with a Copper Prosthetic Eye, and its pupil was a rotating Hexagram Gear.
Lily froze in place. On that person's misshapen right hand, an acid-corroded Wedding Ring sat on its fourth finger—identical to the one her mother had clutched in her final moments.
"Dad?"
The girl's voice sounded like a stuck music box. "But your hair..."
The Night Watchman's Artificial Eye gears suddenly jammed, transforming mechanical sounds into a harsh grinding noise.
As Arthur's sword pressed against his throat, he caught the familiar scent of turpentine emanating from the man—just like in Lily's laboratory.
"Back in the day, the pursuers from Steam City brought the Memory Eraser," a raspy voice squeezed out from a rusted throat. "Only I could operate the defense core of the clock tower in the entire town..."
The bronze valve in the control room required three keys to turn simultaneously. The remnants of Lily's father's right hand pressed against the Iris Verifier, and suddenly, the gear wall split and reformed, revealing a massive Control Panel covered in verdigris.
Arthur's pocket watch had completely stopped here, and Lily stared at the purple crystal cluster condensing in the energy slot. "Is this what made the whole town forget—the Magic Core?"
"The Magic Energy Leakage Incident fifteen years ago was no accident." The old man lifted his left arm's mechanical armor, revealing glowing purple crystals embedded beneath his skin. "At that time, the council ordered the destruction of all survivors; I could only activate the Memory Erasure Program..."
He suddenly broke into a violent cough, black oil seeping from his Artificial Eye. Lily's trembling fingers hovered above the red lever as the floor of the control room began to tilt. Images of all the town's residents flashed across the circular screen, including a fading photograph of the deceased husband cherished by the Bakery Owner.
"If you shut down the system," Arthur pressed down on the lever, "the magic energy crystal fused within you will..."
The roar of a Steam Locomotive echoed outside, and a beam from a Searchlight pierced through the morning fog. The old man abruptly tore off a copper pendant from his chest, revealing a yellowed baby portrait—one of Lily as an infant.
"Run!" He pushed both of them into a suddenly opened secret door. "They've come to retrieve the out-of-control experiment..."
In that instant before the secret door closed, Arthur saw the old man insert an Energy Pipe from the Control Panel into his Mechanical Eye. As an earth-shattering explosion erupted, Lily clutched at the corroded Wedding Ring, crying like a child who had lost their toy in the falling elevator.
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