Chapter 1987: Chapter 1987

But Jenkins truly felt nothing. Sigrid and Hathaway were both present as projections, so their sensitivity to temperature was diminished. Jenkins, however, had been brought here as a physical entity through Real Illusion; what he felt was exactly what he was capable of feeling.

"Could I be misunderstanding my own ability?"

He mulled it over, tempted to test it further. But then he turned his head to look behind him. Alexia's form solidified from transparency into clarity. She took two steps forward, her shoes tapping out a pleasant rhythm on the ice-covered floor.

"I knew you'd be here," she said. "Come back, quickly. There's trouble in Nolan."

"What kind of trouble?"

"The seventh floor of the black metal tower has appeared."

The fifth and sixth floors had appeared last week with almost no interval between them. The seventh had been expected over the weekend, but surprisingly, there had been no sign of it until Tuesday.

Jenkins wasn't surprised by its appearance—that had been anticipated. It was just that its arrival was causing a far greater commotion than expected. When the group of four people and one cat returned to their home in Nolan, Jenkins rose from the sofa and strode to the window, pulling back the curtains.

From the city center, where the black metal tower stood, billowing clouds of black smoke spewed into the sky. It looked like a black tornado had stalled over downtown, or like a colossal chimney was belching black fumes into the heavens.

"It's not the sixth floor," Alexia replied. "The sixth floor just has patterns of leaves and vines on its outer walls, nothing else is unusual. The black smoke is erupting from fissures in the ground, just like last time when the earth split open and those metal gear-birds flew out from the depths."

She had been near the tower just moments before, intending to consult Miss Brolignans about a few things, and had been dispatched by the Church to fetch Jenkins.

"Hasn't the Church sealed the fissures? Using the same method as last time." Follow current novels on novel•fire.net

"This time, the ground all around the fissures has turned to metal—a special alloy. Even a demigod from the Church of the Earth manipulating the ground couldn't make it budge."

Once the spewing smoke reached the clouds, it spread rapidly, like a drop of ink in a glass of clear water. The city's gray fog was being stained black. It was still noon, but the sky had grown as dark as night, the fading sunlight creating an effect eerily similar to a solar eclipse.

Jenkins pushed the window open a crack and sniffed cautiously, but he couldn't detect any unusual smell.

"The Church hasn't figured out the problem with the black fog yet, but they know it's definitely not good. They're hoping you can summon a rainstorm, at least to slow down its spread."

Jenkins nodded, threw the window wide open, and pointed a finger toward the sky.

"I call the wind and rain!"

A peal of thunder cracked out of nowhere. There was no gentle drizzle to herald its arrival; within seconds, a torrential downpour began to lash the city. The distant pillar of black smoke vanished at a speed visible to the naked eye, but the strange black mist that permeated the air refused to dissipate.

The light remained faint. Gray fog and black fog churned together, drifting through the streets and alleyways on the rain-swept wind.

"This is the perfect chance to try that other ability," Hathaway suggested from behind him. "Perhaps that palace was suppressing your power to change the climate."

Jenkins thought she had a very good point. He took out the materials he hadn't finished using earlier, swatting away Chocolate's little paw as the cat tried to rummage through his pocket for any remaining raisins.

Still, there was no reaction. Jenkins shook his head and turned to Alexia and Sigrid.

"Let's go take a look at the base of the tower."

Then he looked back at Hathaway.

"Find Briny and Julia and bring them back as soon as you can. I'm not sure what the situation is right now."

All he could be certain of was that the black fog radiated a dark, spiritual aura.

About fifteen minutes had passed between the moment the smoke began to pour out and Jenkins summoning the downpour. In that short time, the black fog had already spread to every corner of the city.

The fog's spiritual aura wasn't particularly strong, but it was more potent than the gray fog that usually blanketed the city. An ordinary rain couldn't affect it. Only a storm summoned by an art of the Storm Lord could hope to suppress it.

The three of them took a carriage to the base of the tower. The fissure, like a gateway to some deep abyss, was still there. Under the relentless pressure of the rain, however, the black fog seemed to melt away as soon as it emerged, with only thin wisps of black gas clinging to the ground and creeping outward.

The people gathered at the tower had no idea what it was. A mystical barrier was finally erected, which managed to contain the emergence of the fog. It wasn't until evening that day, with the combined efforts of three demigods from the Church of the Earth and a massive ritual performed by the twelve churches, that they finally managed to close the fissure—at the cost of a ground-level earthquake rocking Nolan.

The summoned rain had long since stopped, but the black fog still lingered. The fog was visible, but it couldn't be touched, had no smell, and was impossible to capture. It was as if it were a mere phantom.

According to the Church's investigation, the black fog was confined entirely to the Nolan area; not a single trace had spread beyond the city's limits.

This was undoubtedly a plot by the Difference Engine, though what it intended to achieve remained a mystery. A full week had passed since the Difference Engine was grievously wounded by the Lying God. A new scheme was surely about to begin.

"Perhaps that vampire will have a clue."

"Vampire? What vampire?"

Jenkins had overheard the Keeper of Secrets muttering to himself nearby.

"The one who appeared with the Human Jigsaw Puzzle on the day of your speech. Haven't you heard about that aberrant demigod?"

"Of course, I've heard of him. Alexia and Sigrid even mentioned that the vampire showed signs of mechanical modification. I'm sorry, Mr. Smith, what do you mean? We captured that demigod alive?"

"Yes. You haven't heard?"

The Keeper of Secrets asked again, unable to help a sigh.

"Oh, Jenkins, what do you do all day? How can you not even know about something ?"

"To be honest, I don't know what I do all day either... Where is the vampire? I need to see it."

Thanks to the arrow Sigrid had shot with Alexia's help, the crude version of the Human Jigsaw Puzzle was defeated far more quickly than anyone had anticipated. As a result, the Church's combat forces, originally dispatched to prevent the monstrosity from fleeing into the city, had ample time to apprehend the vampire demigod.

The Tree House's original plan had probably been for the Human Jigsaw Puzzle and the mechanized corpses to buy time, ensuring the vampire could make a clean getaway no matter what happened.

But what they hadn't counted on was the bronze bird Jenkins had sent to observe from the sky. Thanks to his [Mechanist] ability, the bird could suppress the power of the Difference Engine's creations to some extent. And as it happened, the mechanically modified parts of the vampire's body used the very same technology as the Difference Engine.