Chapter 1918: Chapter 1918
As the chains shot toward the soaring bronze coffer, a jarring noise, like a terrible musician carelessly plucking at strings, instantly warped the air and changed the direction of the wind, causing the grasping links to miss their target.
A figure soared into the air. Reaching the sky, Hathaway snatched the bronze coffer and tried to fly away.
But she was no match for the mechanical entity behind her. Though she was flying forward, her head spun, and in the brief second it took to regain her senses, she found herself hurtling straight toward that grotesque gate.
Staring into the crack in the door, from which black smoke billowed, blood streamed from her eyes and nose. Still, she fought to keep her mind taut, turning with all her might in an attempt to escape.
But the four chains that flew from within the gate were faster, binding her hands and feet in an instant.
In the ensuing struggle, Hathaway was unequivocally defeated by the gate behind her. She was forced to turn and face the thing, watching as it slowly began to swing open before her.
A black light washed over her face as the darkness from the crack projected outward, covering Hathaway and casting enormous, parallelogram-shaped shadows across the sky and ground.
Dizzy and disoriented, she saw something beyond comprehension—a writhing form hidden deep within the black mist. She felt as though she was seeing everything, all of it, an indescribable shape revealing itself completely before her. A clicking sound, at first just in her ears, soon began to echo from within her own mind.
The Difference Engine didn't try to persuade Hathaway to release the coffer. Instead, it used the chains to pull her in, attempting to "swallow" her along with it.
Down in the deep crater below, the wooden materials of the mansion had long since been vaporized by that single blast. The stone had been reduced to little more than pebbles mixed into the severely carbonized soil.
The earth smoked, the fumes swirling in the air above in a spectacular and eerie display.
An arm shot up from the mound of earth, pointing straight at the sky. A bolt of lightning crashed down, illuminating the sleeve-less limb, which was covered in wounds and bloodstains. In its dark hand, it clutched a ring aimed at the heavens. In the flash of lightning, the ring was revealed to be covered in a web of fine, golden cracks.
The ring shattered, and a pillar of white light descended from the sky.
It wasn't just the wind; the rain also ceased in that same instant.
The chains pulling Hathaway froze for a moment, and then all four were severed from the gate. Tʜe source of this ᴄontent ɪs nοvelfire.net
The gate began to close, and the chains and skeletal birds in the air all retreated back into the fissure in the ground.
With a tremendous rumble, the gate began to sink back into the earth as it shut. But at that moment, a powerful, incomprehensible hymn rang out, accompanied by a sweeping wave of golden divine light that seemed to bring time itself to a complete standstill.
An oppressive and terrifying power radiated from the crater that had been carved out by the energy cannon. Hathaway, now in freefall, had already been on the brink of losing consciousness from facing the Difference Engine's true form. As the new presence washed over her, her already fragile mind neared the point of collapse. She knew she absolutely could not pass out—a fall from this height meant certain death.
Hathaway did not fall unconscious. A figure glowing with golden light caught her from behind just before she hit the ground. She felt its immense presence, and a tremor ran through her as she realized just who was holding her.
She had never imagined such a thing could happen. The proximity to a god sent an involuntary shudder through her body. Panic and astonishment surged to their peak, but amid the swirling emotions, a sudden burst of courage cleared her mind, if only for a moment.
Because the figure had appeared from behind, she couldn't see its form clearly, catching only a glimpse from the corner of her eye of a hand radiating a warm, gentle golden light, wrapped around her waist.
Though she was conscious, she now wished she had fainted. Thankfully, the anxiety-inducing moment didn't last long—less than a second, in fact.
The god said nothing, merely patting the black cat on its shoulder. A sliver of divine power flowed into the creature, and the cat reluctantly leaped from the god's shoulder. Grasping Hathaway's collar with its two small paws, it slowly flew her down to the ground.
Jenkins gathered his power, feeling the divine radiance envelop his entire being. The bronze gate housing the Difference Engine's core had only retreated halfway, a narrow crack still remaining.
"Though I am the God of Lies... my conscience is clear, and all I do, I do for justice."
His mind was lucid, divine power was his to command. There could be no moment more perfect than this.
Hathaway and Chocolate, now safely on the ground, watched as a dazzling streak of golden light shot across the sky. Like a falling meteor, it collided with the gate. Black mist erupted from the crack, instantly swallowing everything in sight.
Hathaway instinctively hugged the cat that had just saved her, cowering behind a large rock. Chocolate was normally loath to be touched by anyone other than Jenkins, but it had to protect Jenkins's "little toy" from harm. Besides, it had admired her instinctive reaction, so it would make an exception. Just this once.
The world plunged into darkness. Hathaway felt an earthquake, a storm, a lightning strike, a tsunami. In the span of a mere three minutes, it seemed as if every catastrophe known to the world had descended upon this one spot.
She had never considered three minutes to be a long time, but now she truly understood what Jenkins meant when he said that "time is relative."
She had endured so much in such a short time that her mind was a complete blank. She remembered splitting up with Mr. Hood and Mr. Black Cat to escape, but an unexpected turn of events had prevented her from leaving in time, forcing her to hide nearby and wait for the battle to end.
When she saw Candle Mr get hit by that blast, his fate unknown, she had an overwhelming feeling that the coffer absolutely could not fall into the hands of that gate. That was why she had rushed out to snatch it, never imagining things would escalate to this.
She hugged the black cat tightly, for the first time regretting that she wasn't petite like Alexia, which would have allowed her to curl up into a smaller ball.
The chaotic tide of spirit and the phantasmagoria of light outside forced her to shut her eyes and press her face against the black cat's back.
As the thought crossed her mind, Chocolate fumed with displeasure at her for "pushing her luck" by getting so close. But for her safety, the cat couldn't move away. It could only endure, protecting this fragile human female amid the aftershocks of the all-out battle between the God of Lies and the Difference Engine. All the while, it made a mental note to demand a grand feast from Jenkins that night as compensation, silently praising itself for being the true protector of the household.