Chapter 1290: Chapter 1290

It was an arduous process. Though the tower was dilapidated, leaving plenty of protrusions on its exterior for Jenkins to grab, he had never undergone any rock-climbing training.

Then a brilliant idea struck him. He released his cat and commanded it to climb to the clock tower's second-floor window. The feline shot up with nimble grace. Jenkins memorized its paw holds and, mimicking Chocolate's movements with the help of [Cat's Grace], he too reached the second floor.

The second floor of the clock tower was covered in bloodstains and bones. In the center, a bonfire had even been constructed from yellowed skeletons. He couldn't imagine what had transpired here in the backstory of this Doomsday Illusion.

The stone staircase leading up from the second floor was still usable, but with every step, Jenkins worried it would crumble. In truth, the entire clock tower felt like it could collapse at any moment.

He continued upward and discovered a man's body on the stairs. The corpse was jarringly out of place with the aesthetic of this apocalyptic world; its clothes were new. Though scuffed and torn in a few places, it was clear that, like Jenkins, this man was from the real world.

He studied the face and realized it matched the description Silver Flute Miss had given of someone she'd encountered in the Mysterious Realm. It dawned on him that this man, dead on the stairs, was very likely the reason the realm's power was bleeding into the real world.

Normally, if a Mysterious Realm remained unentered for a long time, or if all who entered perished, only a few of its strange creations or creatures would manifest in the material world. But this realm was different—it had multiple exits. Although Silver Flute Miss had escaped, her companion had not. The result was that the main body of the Mysterious Realm had begun to overlap with the real world, existing in parallel.

"I need to pick up the pace."

He wanted to give the poor man a proper burial, but time was short. He could only move the body to the sealed-off first floor, where he covered it with some tattered cloth and stones.

The top of the tower was just ahead, but the staircase was broken at the last section. Jenkins had no intention of climbing outside again. Instead, he tucked the cat into his coat, took a few steps back, and made a running leap across the gap.

His hands gripped the edge of the broken staircase. With a grunt of effort, he hauled himself up, swung a leg onto the stone step, and finally breathed a sigh of relief. He had made it to the top floor of the clock tower.

The windows on the top floor were all boarded up. Even with the strange, bright yellow moonlight seeping through the cracks, the chamber remained dim.

Jenkins raised a hand, conjuring a flame from his Grace to serve as a temporary light, ready to strike back at a moment's notice. But he found no one. The master of this Mysterious Realm was apparently gone.

His Eye of Reality swept the room. Jenkins scaled a pillar to the rafters, crawled along a beam into a small attic, then descended a ladder. He found himself behind the face of the clock, where an old man stood with his hands clasped behind his back, watching the gears turn.

There was no doubt about this silver-haired old man: his entire body radiated a black spiritual aura so dense it was almost tangible. Hearing the noise behind him, he turned, and Jenkins saw a face covered in black lumps.

The face reminded him of a sesame seed cake from his homeland, but seeing such a texture on a humanoid creature's face made Jenkins's stomach turn. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ novelFirｅ.net

What made it even more nauseating was the realization that the black lumps weren't lumps at all—they were eyes, fringed with excessively long lashes. As the old man fully turned toward Jenkins, those eyes blinked incessantly, studying him.

The old man raised his right hand, aiming it at Jenkins. Jenkins instinctively prepared to strike with his sword, but then he saw it: in the center of the man's palm was a mouth, complete with a sickeningly long and slender tongue.

"I often wondered," the mouth spoke, "when I finally had the chance to return to the material world, what kind of intelligent being I would first encounter."

The voice emanating from the palm was speaking the standard local language.

"Is my appearance so unexpected?"

Jenkins couldn't tell if the creature had identified what he was.

"I had expected someone more mature, a steady and world-weary middle-aged man, clad in custom armor and laden with weapons and magical potions, sent as a mercenary of the Church to confront me."

"Times have changed," Jenkins said. "Aside from wartime conscription, all forms of mercenary work are now illegal. We live in an age of peace. There aren't so many adventurers running about anymore."

As he spoke, Jenkins kept his eyes fixed on the creature's shadow on the floor to track its movements. Looking directly at it was deeply unsettling.

"What a truly uninteresting age..."

The old man sighed and fell silent, not speaking again until Jenkins was on the verge of losing his patience.

"Stranger, since you managed to find your way here, you must be aware that this world and I are overlapping with reality. So, I'm very curious to know... how do you plan to stop me?"

"By killing you with my sword."

Jenkins gave the White Bone Holy Sword in his right hand a slight flourish.

"Your sword looks sharp enough," the mouth replied. "But while it can kill my body, it cannot kill this world."

This was precisely what Jenkins had been worried about. He didn't know the connection between this creature and the world around them. Even if he managed to kill this monstrous old man, the process of the Doomsday Illusion overlapping with Nolan might not stop.

"You are facing a problem," the mouth continued. "You want to prevent a city in the material world from succumbing to an ancient apocalypse. Therefore, you need my help."

"But you're facing a problem, too. I don't believe for a second you're staying here by choice. Think about it: when this post-apocalyptic city truly manifests in the material world, who will be the first target of the Church? The fact that you haven't left yet means you can't leave until the overlap is complete. You're worried, too. Seeing me here must have told you that the Orthodox Churches are already aware of this situation. If I kill you, this whole affair might not end. But if you kill me, you'll certainly be in trouble once this place merges with reality."

The tone from the palm-mouth remained calm. "So we both face difficulties, and we both need help. I don't know if you've noticed, but our objectives aren't actually contradictory. How about this: you help me leave this place and enter the material world ahead of schedule, and I will teach you how to push this city away."

"You think I'd make a deal with a thing like you?"

"But you have no other choice," the mouth retorted. "Only I know this place's deepest secrets. If you don't work with me, you cannot stop what's coming."