Chapter 1260: Chapter 1260

Upon spotting the spiritual glow, Jenkins spoke to the petite woman beside him. Then, following the fairy's instructions, he extended his hand and formed a strange, complex gesture. As he did, he slowly activated his Soul Emblem. The moment the gesture and the emblem aligned, the snow-covered rock wall he was pointing at erupted in a brilliant white light.

The rock face then seemed to melt away, its color fading to reveal an opening tall enough for Jenkins to walk through upright. From within the cave, a faint, flickering light emanated.

Jenkins remarked with a smile, "That was surprisingly smooth." He then led the way inside. Alexia, casting a wary glance at their surroundings, followed close behind.

He had thought the entrance was spacious, but the cavern grew even wider the deeper they ventured. The light within emanated entirely from minerals scattered across the walls and the ground underfoot. Neither Jenkins nor Alexia recognized these self-luminescent stones, but a glance was enough to tell them the material was natural and unworked.

The passage wasn't long, but when Alexia tossed out a metal talisman, the resulting flash of white light revealed murals on the rock walls on either side.

Languages can be lost to time, but pictures speak a universal truth, a language understood as long as intelligent beings have eyes to see and senses to perceive. ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ novᴇlfire.net

Stretching from the entrance into the darkness, the murals seemed to depict a continuous story. But due to the immense passage of time, the images and colors were mostly mottled and unclear. They could only barely make out that the ancient people of this region had placed a massive object and a great deal of treasure deep within the mountain's caves.

She pointed to the mural as she explained.

"So, there's a good chance something dangerous is in here? We should probably play it safe. If we accidentally unleash some ancient monster, it'll be a huge pain to deal with."

Jenkins said, and the petite woman agreed. They spent a full two hours inside the passage, setting up precautions to ensure that while they could enter, nothing else could exit. Only then did they proceed.

After walking for less than ten minutes, they saw the light of an exit ahead. But when the two of them stood at the mouth of the tunnel, they were stunned by the sight before them.

In the center of a vast, snow-white plain, a perfect, silvery-white metal cube was slowly spinning on its point, with one corner facing directly down. Its silver light bathed the entire snowy expanse.

Although the plain wasn't enormous, it definitely shouldn't have been at the end of this passage. When he had surveyed the area from above, Jenkins was certain they were surrounded by rolling, low mountains. He would never have missed a plain as conspicuous as this.

"It's a spatial anomaly."

Alexia, standing beside him, offered the explanation, and Jenkins immediately understood. Although the material world's spatial stability was exceptionally strong, under certain special circumstances—such as the destruction of a powerful, space-altering numbered item—it was possible for strange spatial phenomena to be created.

There were fairly detailed records of such events, but Jenkins still couldn't imagine what could have created such a vast pocket of warped space.

He looked again at the massive silver cube in the middle of the plain. Its surface had a strong metallic quality, gleaming like liquid mercury. The perfectly smooth, mirror-like faces and sharply defined edges were clearly beyond the manufacturing capabilities of the current era.

"This... I think I actually know what this is."

Jenkins had only asked casually, not expecting Alexia to actually have an answer. He looked at the petite woman in surprise, who wore a puzzled expression herself.

"I'm certain it's the object I know of, but this is far too coincidental. We were just discussing it a few days ago, and now it appears before us, perfectly intact. It's deeply suspicious... The only clue I ever found about the Difference Engine you mentioned was in the records of the *Northern Cantos*."

In the 15th Epoch, the material world consisted of several large continents. The land where Ruen now stands was part of what was then the far northern continent, known as the Northlands. Jenkins was also familiar with the *Northern Cantos* that Alexia mentioned. It was a forbidden book written by a mad bard of the 15th Epoch, chronicling the insane visions he experienced after witnessing some unknown entity. It was one of the more well-known forbidden texts of the modern day.

"A wealthy merchant brought a miraculous machine to the Northlands, and the people were astonished by its ability to seemingly 'predict' and 'divine' all things. They trusted it, respected it, worshipped it. In the end, the city that had come to be dominated by the machine's 'guidance' fell into eternal ruin. In the fragments of the *Northern Cantos* I found in those ruins three years ago, there was a description of that machine..."

As she spoke, Alexia raised her hand and pointed ahead.

"That's it. From the ruins, I learned that the machine might still be in the Northlands. That's why I wanted to search for clues in the tower, and why I came to Ruen. And... I think the massive object the ancient people sealed in the cave, the one we saw in the murals, is probably this as well."

As Alexia's finger rose, ripples, like those on water, suddenly flickered across the silver cube's surface. The cube's rotation began to slow, and as the ripples appeared with increasing frequency, six distinct faces gradually emerged from beneath the surface, rising to meet it.

The six protruding faces turned to look at Jenkins and Alexia in sequence with the cube's languid rotation. Their shared feature was their sharply defined, angular contours. Their enormous eyes, at first vacant, gradually took on a human-like quality.

Though it should have been afternoon, the sky rapidly darkened. Ominous clouds blotted out the sun, and as whispers and human voices began to rise, ancient buildings of all sizes emerged from beneath the snowfield. In a matter of seconds, a small city stood before Jenkins and Alexia. Only by looking up could they see the silver cube with its six protruding faces, now floating in the city's center.

These whispers were not the chaos induced from the depths of one's heart that often accompanies the appearance of a Cursed Item; they were the actual voices of countless people speaking. The city of a bygone era was awakening. Its inhabitants walked out onto the streets, living and working as if a thousand years had never passed.

Jenkins glanced behind him. The cave entrance was gone. In its place was a small path leading to the countryside.