Chapter 1919: Chapter 1919

Hathaway, positioned at the very heart of the battlefield, had been shielded by Chocolate and thus missed the brutal clash that had unfolded over a mere three minutes.

At that moment, a bizarre celestial phenomenon of intertwined black and gold light was visible along the entire western coast of the continent. The mist pervading the sky grew unstable. A great fire in the southern forest suddenly roared to life, its flames surging and receding in a chaotic dance.

Countless steam-powered machines malfunctioned during that time, suffering from problems that should have been mechanically impossible. Even the animals lurking in the Evergreen Forest gathered beneath the central tree as if seeking a sanctuary.

When it was all over, Hathaway felt the light, felt it shining upon her face. Suppressing the instinctive urge to tremble, she slowly raised her head to the sky.

The sky looked as if a hole had been punched through it. Beyond the rupture, the heavens were a brilliant, clear blue, the sun beaming down upon a world of tranquil breezes and fine weather. Great swathes of white clouds drifted by, as pure and white as the cotton candy Jenkins had once procured from somewhere to feed his cat.

She didn't understand the significance of the battle that had just transpired, but a heartfelt sense of relief still bloomed within her.

Of course, it wasn't. Dark clouds soon swarmed in from the horizon to patch the hole in the sky. The gray mist, temporarily dispelled by the explosive release of spirit, crept back into the area. Raindrops began to fall, one by one, and everything seemed to return to how it was before the battle began.

Hathaway clutched the cat and pushed herself up from the severely scorched, still-warm ground to survey her surroundings. Chocolate struggled free from her arms, then bounded away through the rain toward a man approaching in the distance, holding a black umbrella.

She watched Jenkins approach. She saw the unicorn descend from the sky, a hint of worry in its bearing as it nuzzled its master's hand. She saw Chocolate settle on Jenkins's shoulder, its tail affectionately curling halfway around his neck. And she saw the last wisp of golden radiance dissolve into the air around Jenkins as his right hand dripped with blood. The crimson drops slid from his sleeve and fell into a puddle that had formed on the cratered ground, stirring ripples that spread across its surface.

She saw Jenkins's solemn expression as he drew near, tilting the umbrella to shield them both from the rain.

He looked at Hathaway, and Hathaway looked back at him. The cat on his shoulder simply yawned.

“I was careless. I failed to seize the opportunity. It truly does have a fatal structural flaw, but I never imagined that while it couldn't be repaired, it could be repurposed into a trap. That gate... was part of the trap itself. But thankfully, I've already sprung it before the final confrontation.

“This isn't the end. I still have a second chance. I've wounded it severely, and it now knows who I am. The next time it appears before me, it will be for the final battle, armed with the resolve for certain victory.”

A faint smile touched his lips.

“There's still time. I will succeed.”

She saw blood seeping from his forehead, though not severely. She saw her own tiny reflection mirrored in his captivating eyes.

she asked, the words emerging in a raw, hoarse whisper. Her body finally succumbed to an uncontrollable tremor. A profound weakness washed over her, and just as she was about to collapse, the man before her caught her.

Opening her eyes, she saw the cat on Jenkins's shoulder hissing in futile anger.

“Hathaway, who do you think I am?”

Although the umbrella offered some protection, she had been standing in the downpour for a while. Raindrops, warmed by her skin, trickled down strands of hair clinging to her cheeks.

She hugged Jenkins tightly, as if afraid he might run away, as if afraid he might suddenly vanish, as if afraid he might become someone else. She pressed her red hair against his chest and, after a long moment, asked:

“Will you explain all of this?”

“Of course. You'll know everything you want to know. We don't have to wait until the end. I've realized... there are some things you have the right to know.”

A battle does not always end in a clear victory or defeat. When Jenkins, in his deified state, charged directly through that gate, the outcome was not so simple.

He didn't find the complete core of the Difference Engine, but merely a fragment of it.

It was a hemisphere of fractured beauty, its uneven, severed surface a chaotic landscape of exposed gears, levers, and bearings. Its aesthetic was something no human mind could have conceived. The exquisite and thrilling perfection of its imperfection possessed an allure more maddening than the Venus de Milo.

The hemisphere did indeed possess the "structural flaw" Queen Windsor had mentioned, but the brass gate was also a trap crafted by the Difference Engine.

Jenkins had never expected it would have the audacity to sever its own core, allowing only the flawed portion to surface. The move was even more insane than a person splitting their soul to cheat death. Caught off guard, he was unable to completely destroy it before his divinity burned out. The realm beyond the gate was the enemy's home turf, and he had to consider his own retreat once his deified state ended, which prevented him from unleashing his full power.

The Difference Engine, for its part, never imagined that its first foray to the surface would bring it face to face with a true god burning with murderous intent.

No matter how sophisticated its defenses, no matter how ingenious its trap, under the weight of divine might, a quarter of its core was permanently destroyed. Had the god not suddenly withdrawn, the entire half-core that had surfaced would likely have been annihilated.

It was difficult to say who had won and who had lost. Jenkins's sudden assault had exposed the secret of the God of Lies. While it wouldn't allow the enemy to know that the god resided permanently in the material world or connect Jenkins to the Believers of Lies, the Difference Engine was now certainly aware that the Believers of Lies could summon their deity at any time.

From this day forward, it would never again appear above ground so carelessly. The probability of Jenkins encountering such a perfect opportunity before the final battle was now effectively zero.

Just as he had told Hathaway, he had tipped his hand. The next time he met the Difference Engine, it would be on the final day.

The Difference Engine paid the price of a quarter of its core, while Jenkins paid the price of the divinity he had worked so hard to accumulate. The source of thɪs content is NoveI[F]ire.net

Furthermore, the blood flowing from his arm as he stood with Hathaway in the rain was not a ploy for sympathy. His body had sustained an injury that, for the moment, he truly could not heal.

The injury wasn't sustained in his deified state. In that form, his soul had become a god, while his physical body remained under the ruins; the direct confrontation with the Difference Engine had not harmed it. The damage to his arm came from a massive cannon blast from within the gate. He had never anticipated facing an attack of that magnitude.

In that split second, his instinct was to protect his unicorn and cat from the spiritual shockwave. He had thrown his cat to safety and canceled the unicorn's summoning, leaving himself exposed.

As a result, he took the full force of the blast, which sent him hurtling into the great manor on the ground. The physical trauma from the impact and the fall was easily healed, but the energy the Difference Engine had infused into that shot—a spirit representing the ultimate mechanical power, utterly alien to the human body—stubbornly resisted the healing of his life spirit.

Hathaway accepted Jenkins's promise to explain everything once he returned home. On the battlefield outside Honeywood Town, now a scorched wasteland, the two hastily parted ways.

Although his Eye of Reality confirmed that the Difference Engine had fled deep underground, he still worried that the enemy hadn't truly left and might attack Hathaway after they separated. As she departed, he had Chocolate accompany her home.

This wasn't because Jenkins believed his cat was stronger than the red-haired lady, but simply so that if trouble arose, he would receive the information at the first possible moment.

Chocolate seemed reluctant, but seeing Jenkins's pitiful state, it grudgingly leaped down from his shoulder. With a flick of its tail, it turned on the puddled ground and let out a soft meow, as if to reassure him.

With only those words, Hathaway left.

Jenkins held his umbrella, watching her and the cat disappear into the distance. He then turned to face the area ravaged by the battle and the nearby town of Honeywood, which looked as if it had been struck simultaneously by a magnitude-ten earthquake and a typhoon. Only then did he use his "Real Illusion" to return to the quiet room in the small town of Bekov.

The battle between the God of Lies and the Difference Engine had repercussions far beyond Honeywood Town. The entire west coast of the continent felt its effects. An earthquake centered on their battle radiated across the continental shelf. Moreover, the abnormal spiritual fluctuations left all the Enchanters in and around Nolan feeling deeply unsettled.

Upon returning to the quiet room, Jenkins first manifested some bandages and wrapped his bleeding arm to avoid arousing suspicion. He then left the room to regroup with the other members of the Church, and together, they headed to Honeywood Town to investigate the anomaly.

Naturally, no clues remained. The battle's collateral damage had obliterated the hill where the manor once stood. Apart from Jenkins, no one could reconstruct what had happened there that afternoon. Even the Difference Engine couldn't possibly know the full extent of the events inside the manor.

However, based on the spiritual residue, the Church deduced that the God of Lies had been present. Near a fissure in the earth that had since closed, they found remnants of a mechanical bird and chains, and even some metal fragments from the shattered brass gate.

With some careful guidance from an interested party—namely, Jenkins—the Church concluded that the one who had engaged in a great battle with the God of Lies was none other than the Difference Engine, hidden deep beneath Nolan.

But no one could explain why it had appeared on the surface, much less how the God of Lies had so conveniently been there to intercept it.