Chapter 2028: Chapter 2028

Alexia strained to comprehend the vision taking shape in Jenkins's eyes, a phantom image born from the turning of the colossal gears. But the illusion was fleeting, vanishing in the blink of an eye.

"You've gained a new power?"

"I don't quite know how to explain it," he began, "but for some reason, evolutions related to machinery always seem to be accompanied by the tolling of a bell. The last time I repaired that pocket watch and gained the [Mechanist] ability, I heard one. So, the third chime, the one that symbolized the Difference Engine's evolution, affected me as well."

"Perhaps your powers manifest differently, but at their core, they both stem from the 'fundamental mechanical force of the late 18th Epoch.' What did you gain?"

"Not as much as the Difference Engine, I'm sure, but I think this might be the most significant leap I've made yet."

The less significant gain was the surge in his spirit, propelling him to the pinnacle of a level-seven Enchanter. He was now just a single step away, a choice of path, from becoming a demigod.

The truly important reward, however, was the miraculous evolution of several of his abilities, triggered by the "Lord of All Machines" declaration. In that instant, it was as if he witnessed every machine in the material world, saw the birth of the very first steam engine, and watched the entire evolution of the Steam Age unfold before him.

[Disease Curse (Yellow Spell)] → [Gear Disease Curse (Yellow Spell)]

[Nightmare Entanglement (Blue Heteromorphic)] → [Mechanical Dream (Blue Heteromorphic)]

[Mechanist (White Basic)] → [Principle of All Machines (White Basic)]

The [Disease Curse (Yellow Spell)] was an ability Jenkins had possessed for a long time. Though he rarely used it, its help—or rather, its impact on him—was immeasurable. From a simple winter flu long ago to the specialized influenza that raged during the undead plague, and now to this... one could say that ever since Jenkins first decided to use this curse in the form of a "common cold," his fate as a "harbinger of pestilence" was sealed.

And because he was keenly aware of the consequences of using it rashly, he had almost never employed the ability since. Yet, its power was, in a sense, even greater than his frequently used [Twin Demons] or [Blasphemous Creation]. After all, if he truly wished, he could use [Disease Curse] to unleash an extinction-level event.

[Gear Disease Curse] was a more specialized version of [Disease Curse]. Jenkins could still use his knowledge of medicine to inflict illnesses upon a target. However, regardless of the ailment he chose, it would inevitably be accompanied by a complication: "mechanization of the body into gears." The location and severity of this transformation would vary depending on the focal point of the primary illness.

What was more alarming was that the contagiousness of this gear-based complication mirrored that of the primary disease. In other words, if he inflicted a non-contagious condition like osteoporosis, the mechanization wouldn't spread. But if he chose something like influenza, its rapid transmission would carry the mechanization with it, and the consequences would be...

So, while an already formidable ability had grown even more potent, it made little difference to Jenkins. He would never use it unless absolutely forced to. This was no laughing matter.

[Nightmare Entanglement] was already an evolved ability. Its original form was a gift from Barnard, and it had transformed only after Jenkins battled a dream-calamity and touched the very essence of nightmares. In a way, the ability had no strong connection to machinery, yet somehow, it had evolved a second time. Perhaps this was because he had recently touched upon the Difference Engine's phantom dream.

[Mechanical Dream] still operated on the plane of dreams, and it still stemmed from the power of a dream-manipulating heteromorph. The difference was that now, when Jenkins used it on any sentient being capable of dreaming, the terrifying nightmare they experienced would be a "mechanical dream." New ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄhapters are published on novel-fire.ɴet

The specifics would be determined by Jenkins, the wielder. While this constrained the once boundless nature of "dreams" to the theme of "mechanical dreams," it also made the dreamscape itself vaster and far easier to manipulate.

To put it simply, in his current state, Jenkins could easily trap someone in an eternal dream from which they would never wake. Or, by simply layering dream-stories, he could drive the dreamer to madness. He could have done so before, but never with such ease.

He could also pull himself into the dreamscape, leveraging the different flow of time between dream and reality to accomplish things... which sounded, amusingly enough, a bit like the lie he'd told the Difference Engine in its own dream.

As for [Mechanist], an ability already intimately connected with machinery, it too was transformed by the final declaration. The new ability was named [Principle of All Machines], a naming convention uncannily similar to Alexia's [Mathematical Principles].

The ability inherited all the traits of [Mechanist] but enhanced each of them in various ways.

Furthermore, the influence Jenkins could exert on machinery was no longer limited to causing malfunctions or overclocking. With a simple touch, he could now directly "refine" a mechanical creation.

This didn't alter the materials themselves but rather optimized the structure, perfecting the finest details of its assembly.

Likewise, a simple touch could now render a machine completely and irreparably useless. While this was likely ineffective against the Difference Engine itself, it would certainly work on its creations.

The most significant—and, for the moment, most useless—trait of [Principle of All Machines] was that it enabled Jenkins's bronze book to automatically record the partial principles and structures of any machine he touched. It would then optimize and combine those schematics, allowing him, as the wielder of the ability, to fully comprehend them.

If he so wished, Jenkins could use the book to design any machine that met his requirements. However, the complexity of the design was entirely dependent on his own understanding of mechanics and the variety of machines he had encountered.

Just as the power of Alexia's [Mathematical Principles] was tied to her own mathematical prowess, the strength of [Principle of All Machines] was directly proportional to Jenkins's own knowledge of mechanical structures and principles.

It was the kind of ability that allowed a mortal to take the "next step"—a power one could only stumble upon by chance, never actively seek. Alexia had spent a lifetime, coupled with her encounter with an outsider, to obtain such a gift. Jenkins, on the other hand, had received his through the blessings of fate and his role as a Savior, bestowed by the declaration of a being of sin.