Chapter 1821: Chapter 1821
Now that he had found a trace of the evil spirit, Jenkins immediately suggested they track it down. Perhaps they could destroy it ahead of schedule and put an end to the incident.
No one had ever dealt with A-12-2-0965 this way before, but then again, Jenkins had never heard of anyone who could see spiritual auras like he could. He wasn't sure if his plan would work, but the old elf declared he wasn't sleeping tonight anyway, so a walk was just as well. Jenkins wanted to help him, and the flames of the Dragon Soul provided a ceaseless supply of vitality, making an all-nighter seem entirely manageable. With the plan settled, the two of them set out together.
The spiritual aura was not pointing somewhere nearby. The old elf's rented apartment was in the city center, but their final destination was a public cemetery on the city's outskirts, a journey that took them across half of Nolan.
"Should I say this is expected? The source of the evil spirit is a cemetery, not some nameless corpse in an alley. This is much simpler than I imagined."
Jenkins remarked as they climbed over the fence. He had originally considered turning into a rat and slipping through the gaps, but the thought of the hassle of changing clothes back and forth made him decide to simply vault over, giving the old elf a hand up as well.
The cemetery was shrouded in a gray mist tonight. While it helped conceal the two intruders from the gravedigger, Jenkins felt there was something strange about the fog.
Before he could pinpoint what was so odd, he found the source of the black spiritual trail. It led to a plot in the northeast corner of the cemetery, the oldest section from before the grounds were expanded. The graves here were of a more ancient, modern vintage.
The old elf bent down and brushed away the debris from a crooked tombstone:
"Died in the winter of 1672. Cause of death: a fish bone lodged in the throat."
Jenkins knelt on one knee as well, pressing a hand to the ground and closing his eyes to feel. He couldn't detect an evil spirit, but the black aura undeniably pointed here, which meant the true target of A-12-2-0965, "Seven Day Rebirth," was the corpse itself.
"Let's open the grave," Jenkins proposed. "I'll give the body a blessing and try to purify it of the Cursed Item's power. May his soul find peace."
Though digging up someone's grave was hardly ethical, Jenkins and the old elf were doing it for a noble cause, so they felt no moral qualms.
There was no need for Jenkins to draw a shovel. The old elf simply scattered some seeds and commanded vines to do the digging. He wasn't manipulating the plants with life force, as Jenkins did, but using his own ability, "Activated Vines."
Although it was a bit slower, it saved them the manual labor, so they were happy to stand by and watch, chatting about the current situation as the work progressed.
The old elf had also read about the great fire raging in the south of the material world's main continent, but he hadn't realized how severe it had become. Though he had never personally experienced the end of an epoch, he had read the terrifying accounts in elven records.
The elf lamented that he was witnessing the history of the material world unfold but felt no anxiety about it. He had little time left and had lived long enough not to care when he died. His only hopes were to pass away in his homeland and to impart all the knowledge of the elves he possessed to Jenkins.
The excavation proceeded without a hitch. What they eventually unearthed was a dilapidated coffin, not an urn, indicating the deceased had received a traditional burial. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ Novᴇl_Fire(.)net
The old elf carefully maneuvered the vines to lift the coffin lid. Due to its age, the nails no longer held. Soon, they saw the skeletal remains, and Jenkins's eyes confirmed that this was indeed the target of the black aura.
"This is it," he declared. "I'll bless it, and 'Seven Day Rebirth' will be over."
He spoke, and the elf nodded, stepping back to the edge of the pit to observe. Jenkins set his cat on the grass nearby, letting the drowsy feline stand on its own as he found a stable spot to lean over, intending to touch the skull directly.
But as he bent down, the skeleton moved. A yellowed, almost shapeless claw shot out and seized Jenkins's wrist. The presence of his "Hero" ability instantly caused the skeleton's hand to emit black smoke, as if it were burning.
Startled, Jenkins stared at the skeleton but saw none of the telltale signs of the undead—no blue soul fire.
"Did it just reanimate? Or is this the effect of 'Seven Day Rebirth'?"
With his right hand caught, he grabbed the skeleton's arm with his left. But to his shock, the rest of the corpse shot out of the grave pit. The one-armed skeleton soared into the air as if flying, heading into the distance just as Jenkins scrambled out of the grave.
"What's happening?" the elf exclaimed in astonishment.
"I don't know! After it!"
Leaving no time to fill the open grave, the two of them gave chase, following the direction the skeleton had vanished into the sky. Relying once more on the pendant the elf had bought, they finally saw the skeleton land in a corner of the cemetery.
There, a set of rusty steam pipes emerged from the ground, their surfaces coated in a thick, grimy layer of dirt. Faded painted letters vaguely spelled out "Good Luck Steam Plumbing Company," and the skeleton had already opened its left arm, preparing to embrace a pipe.
"Damn it, how could our luck be this bad?"
Jenkins thrust out his hand, the Air Bomb Ring flaring. The explosion sent the mid-air skeleton flying, the sound echoing far into the night.
The old elf dropped to one knee, spreading the fingers of both hands and pressing them to the ground. Wild grasses erupted from the earth, shooting skyward to ensnare the falling skeleton.
Not daring to waste a second, Jenkins lunged forward and grabbed the skeleton. A green radiance, the power of life, pulsed from his body. Bound by the grass and Jenkins's grip, the skeleton was unable to break free, slowly disintegrating under the overwhelming rush of life force.
But the black spiritual aura of the Cursed Item did not vanish. A tense Jenkins shouted for the elf to throw away the pendant.
The pendant lifted into the air, enveloped in a visible black light. As a dark mist billowed out from it, the master of the corpse, the evil spirit from the elf's dream, finally materialized.
"You go first. I'll handle things here," Jenkins urged, seeing a light flicker on in the distant gravedigger's hut. The noise they had made had finally drawn attention.
"Are you sure you'll be alright alone?" the elf asked, still worried.
"I'm not alone. And while breaking in was wrong, the name Jenkins Williams still carries some weight. The gravediggers are more professional at dealing with evil spirits than we are, so don't worry."
"Alright. I'll wait nearby," the elf replied, pulling his hat down over his ears and hurrying off into the distance.
Jenkins stepped back, watching the evil spirit with its black aura slowly take form as the sound of footsteps grew closer from behind him.
The gravedigger in charge of this section of the cemetery was an old man with white hair. Surprisingly, he recognized Jenkins at once.
Though startled by the appearance of the evil spirit and the distinct mental contamination of a Cursed Item, the old gravedigger was a seasoned veteran. He first asked Jenkins to temporarily restrain the spirit and keep it from leaving the cemetery. Then, he fired a signal flare into the sky. The acrid smell of burning powder made the cat, who had reappeared at some point, sneeze repeatedly.
The wobbly, sputtering flare quickly proved effective. In less than three minutes, while Jenkins was merely keeping the evil spirit occupied with his Life Source, a team of Gravediggers led by a demigod arrived.
"How did you get here so fast?" Jenkins asked, amazed.
"These aren't peaceful times anymore," the old gravedigger explained, leaning on his shovel as he and Jenkins retreated together, watching the demigod and his squad engage the spirit. The kindly-looking old man suddenly frowned, looking down. "Pardon me," he asked, "but what is that piece of bone you're holding?"
"Oh, I tried to resolve the 'Seven Day Rebirth' issue myself, so I dug up the body. I didn't expect that even blasting the corpse wouldn't work, and that it would summon the spirit."
Jenkins explained sheepishly. He gripped the skeletal right arm, trying to summon his blessed fire to incinerate it.
But at that exact moment, billowing black smoke from the distant battle came rushing straight for him, pouring entirely into the bone in Jenkins's hand. Gritting his teeth against the discomfort, Jenkins refused to let go, only to be lifted off his feet and carried into the sky by the skeletal limb.
The green life spirit in his hand was powerless against the bone, locked in a struggle with the black smoke that enveloped it. Jenkins could only be dragged higher and higher into the night sky, flying swiftly toward the western coastline.
Chocolate, abandoned on the ground, the bewildered gravediggers, and the old elf hiding just outside the cemetery could only crane their necks and watch as Jenkins vanished into the distance, leaving them all with a throbbing headache.
The Mechanized Body Curse was a Cursed Item in its own right, albeit an uncatalogued one for now. When combined with "Seven Day Rebirth," another Cursed Item, it produced the current outcome. As he first took flight, Jenkins had no idea where he was being taken, trying in vain to burn, freeze, and otherwise attack the bone in his hand.
But the strange black smoke protected it, and Cursed Items could not be so easily destroyed. What might have once been a human bone merely tainted by a Cursed Item's power had, through a series of fateful mishaps, become something else entirely.
The coastline appeared ahead, the sound of waves crashing against the seawall reminding Jenkins where he was.
His gaze fell upon the beach, shrouded in a fog nearly ten times denser than what was in the city. He could faintly make out a colossal black shadow standing deep within the mist, surrounded by the darker silhouettes of temporary wooden structures erected by the Nolan Police Department and the Church to obstruct the view.
Under the moonlight, the mechanical components on the hazy giant reflected a pale, silvery glow. A sense of order and chaotic disarray coexisted on this single creation.