Spellbreaker Bracer

Arthur Conan leaned back in his chair and removed the complex goggles that had accompanied him for over a dozen hours. Though his pale face was etched with exhaustion, his eyes burned with a light as intense as a flame.

Lin Jie also felt waves of dizziness from the long period of intense mental concentration, but he held on, his gaze never leaving the masterpiece that would soon be his.

It was a piece of armament filled with a contradictory sense of beauty.

Its main body was constructed from multiple layers of tough, black UMA leather, perfectly conforming to every curve of Lin Jie's arm from wrist to forearm, exuding the fluidity and power of modern ergonomics.

Over the leather, several pieces of purified, deep-colored Chaos Brass were inlaid in a way that seemed casual yet secretly aligned with certain occult principles.

On the surface of these brass components, the curse runes left behind by the Gremlin were slowly flowing, as if they were living creatures.

Most striking were the golden Spirit Conduction Circuits, etched from refined gold, that shimmered faintly on the inner side of the bracer.

They cleverly connected all the independent brass components, eventually converging at the palm of the bracer.

There, a circular piece of polished brass lay dormant.

This armament possessed both the retro-mechanical feel of 19th-century steampunk and the mystery and elegance of classical alchemy, while incorporating scientific design concepts that transcended this era.

"Come on, Mr. Interpreter, give it a try." Arthur's voice carried the tension and anticipation of an artist waiting for a connoisseur's evaluation of his work. "See if this little monster we created together meets the requirements of your crazy design."

Lin Jie nodded. He stepped forward and slowly slid his left arm into the bracer, which had been custom-made for him.

The moment his skin touched the soft, tough leather inside the bracer, a strange sensation of being connected by blood arose.

The golden Spirit Conduction Circuits seemed to be activated by his body temperature, glowing faintly.

The Chaos Brass ingots embedded on the exterior also began to resonate weakly with his heartbeat.

This equipment was no longer a dead object; it had become an extension of his arm, an organ filled with unknown power.

Following Arthur's instructions, he fastened several silver buckles.

The bracer was perfectly secured to his arm—neither too loose nor too tight—with the weight distributed evenly, causing no obstruction to the movement of his arm.

This was the perfect embodiment of the "ergonomics" and high degree of body integration he had pursued.

"Now, try to drive it." Arthur instructed from the side. "Forget those rigid scientific frameworks. Just like when you interpreted the afterimage, channel your mental power, your own will, through your arm and into the bracer. Command it! Wake it up!"

Lin Jie took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

He recalled the feeling of using Touch of Afterimage several times before, then focused a weak but extremely concentrated mental intent onto his left arm.

He imagined his will turning into a stream of water, tentatively flowing into the golden channels inside the bracer.

"Hum—"

A low resonance that only he could "hear" rang out in his mind.

He felt his mental power amplified several times over the moment it flowed into the Spirit Conduction Circuits!

They acted like a catalyst, completely activating the sleeping power within the Chaos Brass!

A powerful, destructive, and chaotic force of curses, originating from the collective will of the Gremlin, was instantly awakened. Like a tamed hound, it followed the golden circuits and, with unstoppable momentum, efficiently converged onto the large circular brass piece in his palm!

Lin Jie opened his eyes. He saw the curse runes on the brass piece in his palm swirling with unprecedented speed, even emitting invisible fluctuations that rippled through the air.

He had succeeded!

He had taken a curse that was passively limited to polluting the environment and, through a brand-new structure, transformed it into an ability that could be actively released and precisely controlled!

"How does it feel?" Arthur asked nervously.

"It feels..." Lin Jie flexed his left hand. The sensation of being filled with power made him want to laugh out loud. "It feels like I could make every clock in Buckingham Palace stop at the same time."

"Hahahaha! Good! Well said!" Hearing this metaphor, Arthur let out a hearty, manic laugh. "That is worthy of our masterpiece! It needs a name! A unique Grotesque Armament must have a name that manifests its soul!"

Lin Jie looked at the brass piece in his palm, which was constantly emitting an invisible interference field, and a name naturally surfaced in his mind.

"Let's call it the Spellbreaker Bracer." Lin Jie said slowly. "Its purpose is not to release curses, but to break every spell we do not wish to exist."

Arthur wore an expression of admiration.

"Spellbreaker Bracer, a good name! It's much more concise than those crude ideas that only know how to call things 'Claw of XX' or 'Heart of XX'!"

Just then, a homemade Astronomical Clock in the corner of Arthur's Workshop, which he used for timing, suddenly emitted a "clack-clack" sound. Immediately after, the pendulum, which had been swinging steadily, seemed to be throttled by an invisible hand and stopped abruptly.

It was no coincidence.

It was the trace of the "Spellbreaker" field unconsciously emitted from Lin Jie's palm that had interfered with its normal operation!

"Very good, very good indeed." Arthur looked at his stopped work. Far from being angry, he showed a smile of delight at finding a worthy subject. "We need a more professional target to test its true power."

He led Lin Jie to an independent "Weapon Testing Room" on the other side of the workshop, with walls made of thick lead plates.

In the center of the room stood a life-sized mechanical dummy made of countless gears and springs, holding an alchemical musket.

"This is a Clockwork Soldier confiscated by the Association from a heretical organization that worships the Cult of the Machine." Arthur introduced. "Its internal structure is far more precise than any weapon on the market, and therefore, it is extremely sensitive to any form of interference."

"It is the best target to test your Spellbreaker Bracer. Now, use your ability on it. Let's see what kind of sparks the chaos of the Gremlin can ignite!"

Lin Jie nodded.

He stood about ten meters away from the Clockwork Soldier, took a deep breath, and once again injected his mental power into the bracer.

This time, he was no longer testing; he poured a much stronger will into it!

He raised his left hand, aiming his palm from a distance at the cold mechanical dummy.

"Hum—hum—hum—!"

The runes on the brass disc in his palm spun to their absolute limit in an instant!

An interference field, invisible to the naked eye but carrying information of chaos and destruction, was fired out like an intangible bullet!

The moment the field made contact with the Clockwork Soldier, the joints throughout the body of the previously motionless mechanical dummy erupted with a series of piercing, screeching sounds!

The alchemical musket it had been holding high dropped powerlessly.

The precision gears spinning at high speeds within its chest cavity seized and locked up at the exact same moment!

In just one second, this war machine, a pinnacle of nineteenth-century precision engineering, had been reduced to a pile of useless scrap metal!