Chapter 1678: Chapter 1678

"Nolan's Clock Tower is definitely not black, and even if it were painted, it wouldn't have that kind of metallic texture."

In the bustling crowd outside Nolan City Hall, Miss Windsor was the first to speak, even before Jenkins, a local himself, could say a word.

The people who had fled the buildings all looked up. Where the white Nolan Clock Tower had once stood, there was now a monolithic black spire, seemingly forged from metal. It pierced the swirling gray mist, its blurry, eerie form sending a chill down the spine of everyone who saw it.

It was slenderer than the original white clock tower but far taller, nearly twice its height. No windows or openings were visible on its exterior, and each of its levels was a perfect hexagon.

The metallic tower's surface was completely smooth, devoid of any ornamentation, yet its texture alone bespoke the passage of ancient ages. It was a unique sensation that only time could impart. The tower stood before them as if it had traveled through time from a distant past, clashing starkly with the steam-powered, industrial city.

Jenkins recited the words in his mind. In the next instant, a black spiritual aura practically exploded from the metallic tower. The moment his gaze made contact with that dark light, he heard the distinct click of a single gear tooth turning in his mind. His soul immediately sensed that something was wrong. At the same time, an inexplicable coldness began to spread from his heart throughout his entire body.

Jenkins let out a muffled grunt, feeling as if a part of his heart had transformed into a structure of gears. But under the guidance of his powerful soul and driven out by the force of his life energy, the strange transformation was forcefully reversed.

He quickly deactivated his Eye of Reality. When he looked at the tower with his naked eye, there was no sign of any strange phenomena. The black metal spire stood silently and eerily in the gray mist. It was simply there, reflected in the eyes and hearts of all who beheld it.

That was Jenkins's only thought at the moment.

It was difficult to immediately determine if there was any connection between the earthquake and the appearance of the metal tower that had destroyed the clock tower. But it was clear that the day's meeting could not continue. Fortunately, the most important item on the agenda had already been concluded, so everyone could accept ending things there.

To soothe the people frightened by the earthquake, Queen Isabella decided to host a reception. The event also served as a way to gently and reasonably leak the news that the war was over—one of the few pieces of good news they had had in a while.

Although today's earthquake had a strangely limited area of effect, the tremors near the epicenter were incredibly intense. Disaster relief efforts were already in full swing. Luckily, Nolan had experienced frequent earthquakes recently, so there were not many casualties.

After accepting Queen Isabella's invitation to the evening reception, Jenkins made the excuse of going home to change his clothes. In reality, he rushed to the church, then arranged to meet Miss Bevanna at the base of the black tower.

Although the tower appeared normal to the naked eye, everyone knew this thing was absolutely not. Before Jenkins had arrived, the Church had already cordoned off the nearby city square and dispersed the crowd of onlookers. With the entire city shrouded in fog lately, as long as people stayed away from the square, they couldn't see what was happening at the tower's base, even from their rooftops.

By now, all Twelve Orthodox Churches had dispatched teams to investigate the situation, each led by a demigod. Jenkins picked his way across the rubble of stone and wooden beams from the ruined clock tower, greeting acquaintances as he hurried to Miss Bevanna's side. The Legacy Sage Church's team was scattered around the tower, collaborating with teams from the other churches. They were collecting samples of the air, rubble, and soil, while performing rituals like "Dispel Evil Forces" and "Detect Malice" to prevent anything from bursting out of the tower.

"What's the situation?"

Finally arriving at the base of the spire, Jenkins felt the oppressive presence of the black metal tower intensify. Looking up from this vantage point, it was easy to see that the tower had erupted from the ground, shattering the original clock tower like a spear.

From below, he still couldn't see any windows, but he could make out a plain, unremarkable black iron door. Its color was so close to that of the tower itself that it nearly blended in completely.

The door was currently shut tight. Mr. Smith, the Legacy Sage Church's Keeper of Secrets, was standing before it, speaking with two elderly men Jenkins didn't recognize. The two were not followers of the Sage, but mystic scholars from other faiths.

"It's hard to say what the situation is," Miss Bevanna replied.

She stood as she always did, clutching her large book at the end of a high, upturned wooden beam. For some reason, however, she had a very short purple gauze cape draped over her shoulders today, though it was unclear whether it was for decoration or to ward off the evening chill.

"The Church of Earth told us the epicenter of the earthquake is directly beneath this tower. To be more precise, the earthquake was caused by this tower thrusting up from below like a javelin." ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ novel·fire·net

"How much of this tower is still underground?" Jenkins asked with a frown, not daring to use his Eye of Reality again.

"How did you know there was more underground?"

"Well, if you look closely, you can see that the level currently at the surface isn't complete," Jenkins explained, though in truth, he was guessing based on the tropes in most of the stories he had read.

"There's a vast amount of it underground. In fact, the Church of Earth told us that the portion currently above ground is like the very tip of a lightning rod on a sky-piercing tower."

Miss Bevanna's answer was so precise that it instantly gave Jenkins a clear mental image. He stroked the cat on his shoulder, whose fur was standing on end for some reason, and asked hesitantly,

"About this tower... is it related to the Gear Artisans' Association?"

"We don't know yet," she said. "The Church of Creation and Machinery is attempting to analyze the tower's structure and composition, but their progress hasn't been promising."

The Church couldn't help but connect this tower to the Gear Artisans' Association, which was known to be hidden deep beneath Nolan. In fact, almost everyone was certain that the recent string of earthquakes, the A-12-2-0322 [Stone of the Eyeless] unearthed in the mines a few days ago, and this tower were all the results of that cult's subterranean activities.

Because they knew, however vaguely, that a terrifying entity was sealed deep beneath Nolan—one that was possibly connected to the great cataclysm at the end of the epoch—the Church was treating the appearance of this metallic black tower with the utmost seriousness.

One only had to look at the number and caliber of the personnel in this first wave sent to secure and investigate the site to understand the Church's stance.