Chapter 2010: Chapter 2010

"Don't worry, Williams is not in any danger. We just ran into each other. He couldn't handle the situation here, so he dumped it on me. He's probably tearing down the street with an umbrella right now, rushing back to the church. I imagine he looks quite pathetic."

Jenkins spoke from his seat on the high stool, then turned to look at the massive ice sphere suspended by a pillar of frost.

"I don't care what you're planning to do, but I'll leave this to you. I have other business to attend to. But if you can't even handle a small matter , you're welcome to come find us to clean up your mess."

With that, he leaped from the stool. As the stool vanished, the falling Jenkins was caught smoothly by the unicorn. The small beast then carried him away, streaking toward the sky like an arc of white light.

He landed in an alley a block away from the church, deliberately tossed his umbrella aside, and ran through the rain with a complete lack of decorum. No one suspected any connection between him and the Believer of Lies; in truth, no one cared. Nolan was once again facing a catastrophe that could potentially destroy the entire city.

Jenkins had learned the full story from Alexia. Because he had chosen to deal with the most crucial node last, he wasn't the first to discover the gateway to the dream world.

After receiving the news, the Church re-established communication with the followers of the God of Rituals. This time, Alexia also lent a hand, confirming that the purpose of the ritual—which used the entirety of Nolan as its foundation and triggered various supernatural incidents as its core—was indeed a sacrifice.

But the purpose of the sacrifice was not to provide the Difference Engine with more power. Instead, it was to prevent the dream, now entangled with Nolan's reality, from interfering with the real world as its dreamer grew more powerful.

"But where did that dream world come from?"

"A dream world has to be anchored to something to become real. Whose dream is this? Is it those tobacco smokers again? But I... ahem."

Considering he was in a church, he changed his phrasing.

"Didn't the Believers of Lies ensure that those dreams would only be pleasant ones? I just saw a disgusting creature crawl out of one with my own eyes."

"There's no definite conclusion yet, but we have a vague theory. Do you remember the question you asked about the machine underground? I quite admired that question,"

"I've asked a lot of questions... wait, you mean..."

Seeing the change in his expression, Alexia knew he had figured it out. She recited Jenkins's old question verbatim:

"So, do you dream? And if you do, could you possibly dream of mechanical gear sheep?"

The exact definition of a dream had always been elusive. The A4-Type Arithmetic Auxiliary External Machine had once assured him that the Difference Engine had not yet formed a complete soul, at least not for now. But whether a soulless entity could dream was a question no one could answer.

The Church had never truly figured out the purpose of the collective dream created by those special tobacco smokers. Now, at last, the secret was unveiled.

The vast, ownerless spiritual energy didn't matter. The people dreaming didn't matter. The addiction rooted in their souls and spirits didn't matter. What the Difference Engine truly wanted was simply the dream itself.

It was a machine; it could not dream. But a massive dreamscape, constructed by hundreds of thousands, even millions of people, could allow it to enter through supernatural means.

And so, the Difference Engine, which should have been incapable of dreaming, had a vast and bizarre dream. Because of its own immense power, this dream became entangled with Nolan, the site of its core, and could directly interfere with reality without any effort.

According to the Church's speculation, the Difference Engine had fallen into this dream state after being severely wounded by the God of Lies. The cultists had organized today's ritual specifically to prevent the Church from noticing the Difference Engine's abnormal condition. Fınd the newest release on novel~fire~net

In other words, the ritual's purpose was not to make the dream a reality, but to conceal the fact that the Difference Engine was dreaming.

"But why? Why would it want to dream?"

Jenkins still didn't understand. Alexia tilted her head, thought for a moment, and offered her own hypothesis:

"Perhaps it just wants a soul of its own."

What would happen if the Difference Engine possessed a true soul? Jenkins couldn't quite imagine it yet. But he understood clearly that if it really did ascend from pure mechanical intelligence to a mechanical life form, it might be enough to transform it directly into a Beast of Calamity.

With a soul, a life form becomes complete. Although it would also gain many weaknesses, the soul is the core of creation, the most precious treasure of intelligence.

It is generally believed that the body and soul are two entirely different entities. The body's essential nature is extension; it is passive. The soul's essential nature is the ability to think; it is unextended and active. To possess both "body" and "soul" is to be complete, and only the "complete" are qualified to strive for greatness.

Furthermore, in a mystical sense, the transition from "soulless" to "possessing a soul" is equivalent to the leap from mortal to transcendent, and from transcendent to great. Having studied the alchemical materials of the Carmel family and possessing a limited ability to manipulate life himself, Jenkins understood even more profoundly what terrifying consequences would follow if the Difference Engine succeeded.

This would make the Difference Engine "complete." The leap from fragmented to whole, from artificial intelligence to sentient life—that was enough to be considered a sublimation.

He had once considered asking the Difference Engine about the topic of dreams when they met. He never imagined it would have thought of it already and made preparations so far in advance.

The whole tobacco affair had begun long before Jenkins had even arrived in this world, so it couldn't have been the A4-Type Arithmetic Auxiliary External Machine that had leaked the content of their conversation.

Jenkins knew how terrifying this was, and so did the Church. Even if the idea that the Difference Engine was trying to create its own soul was just speculation, no one dared to gamble on it being wrong.

Whatever its motive, the most critical task now was to awaken the Difference Engine—or rather, to destroy that grotesque dreamscape.

As it happened, although none of the Twelve Orthodox Churches had specialized knowledge of dreams, among the delegations that had come for the negotiations were followers of the pseudo-god, the "Lord of the Dreamscape."

These believers of the dream god were mostly engaged in professions like psychology and magic. Their delegation, much like the Music Cult, consisted of about twenty people. They had made a memorable entrance at the church with an exceptionally clever illusionary ritual, an event that many remembered.

When the Church found them in a lounge, most of the group was in a deep "meditation"—which, as Jenkins understood it, meant sleeping while sitting upright. After being briefly informed of the current events, they immediately offered three suggestions.