Chapter 2053: Chapter 2053

At Jenkins's question, the old man leaning against the low street-side wall gave a dry laugh.

"The power displayed by the Saint Son of the Sage and you Believers of Lies has far surpassed the estimates of Great Wisdom, the Treehouse, and us. Yesterday, over the sea by the docks, the Saint Son of the Sage wielded a power far greater than any ordinary Saint Son, nearing the level of a true Saint walking the world. Do you realize how terrifying that is? And then, a short while later, your group managed to steal its 'Lord of All Machines' power. You have to understand, Great Wisdom only earned the right to make that declaration through its status as the origin of all intelligent machinery and an entire epoch's worth of planning, yet you stole it with ease.

So the Difference Engine grew fearful and decided to enter the tower ahead of schedule to complete its final fusion. The Treehouse is afraid, too; their enemy's power far exceeds their projections. So, they've decided to use us as sacrifices."

"For the Difference Engine to fuse with the primordial steam engine, it needs the brains of people proficient in mechanical knowledge as a lubricant... Oh, just look at your expression. The Treehouse, on the other hand, needs a large number of Enchanters stained with sin to summon a creature from the void to weaken the Savior's power before they enter the tower. Don't ask me what a creature from the void is; I don't know either.

The Gear Artisans' Association was no longer of any use to them, so yesterday, after Great Wisdom's 'Lord of All Machines' declaration, it initiated a purge against us underground. The battle raged for a day and a night. If the Treehouse hadn't resorted to underhanded tactics, we wouldn't have been so utterly defeated..."

Jenkins realized his mouth was hanging open. The story was unbelievable, but the logic held together.

"So, you were all wiped out? Are you heading to the Sage's Church?"

"That's right. Since they dared to do this, do you think I'm going to hide in a corner and wait to die, or am I going to give them a little surprise before I go?"

"My whole life has been one of hardship and wandering. I've done all sorts of terrible things and met with misfortune countless times. I never expected that on my deathbed, I'd have a sudden urge to do one 'good deed,' and fate would finally smile on me by having you appear right here. Could it be that those ridiculous stories are true? That only those who do good are favored by destiny? Here, take this. This is..."

"We'll talk about that in a moment. Sit here and don't move. I'll be right back."

Jenkins, who had been squatting, stood up. He looked toward the other end of the gray, misty street, where a man dressed like a magician, tossing a red ball in his right hand, was approaching.

He wore an extravagantly styled white formal suit, a black cloak draped over his back, a flat-topped silk hat on his head, and a monocle over one eye.

His Enchanter level was a standard eight, "standard" meaning all his empty bubbles were filled. Including his hat, he had a total of five Series A and Series B items on him, and he even possessed a dagger-shaped Series C Bestowal, though he had not yet drawn it.

He was a textbook example of a human demigod Enchanter at the peak of his combat strength—no mechanical modifications, no bizarre promotions, just a standard, level-eight demigod through and through.

It went without saying that this was a demigod from the Treehouse. Yesterday, from the captured cultists, Jenkins had learned that the Treehouse had only four combat-ready demigods left. This was probably one of them.

Which meant that now, the Treehouse was down to three.

the magician asked, and then his eyes fell upon the unicorn.

Normally, seeing a male Believer of Lies, one wouldn't immediately suspect him of being Miss Fabry. The only way the magician could make that leap is if the Treehouse already knew the Believers of Lies were nearly annihilated by the Difference Engine. The issue was, the Difference Engine knew all the Believers of Lies were actually Jenkins. A simple explanation from it, and the Treehouse would realize Miss Fabry never existed.

"So, it really doesn't trust you completely."

The Difference Engine had not revealed this crucial piece of information to the Treehouse.

"Lady, what was that?"

"I said, you should be addressing me as 'sir' now."

A brilliant flash of sword light cut through the thick fog. The magician pulled his cloak in front of him, and with a gentle tug, vanished behind it. The sword strike only sliced through the fabric.

With a blink, Jenkins saw the invisible magician trying to use the rooftops of the adjacent houses to get around him and attack the dying old man.

Jenkins swung his sword again, forcing the magician off the roof. But like a spider, he clung to the vertical surface of the wall with all four limbs, making a wet tapping sound as he scurried rapidly toward the old man.

The small beast let out a soft cry, and the single horn on its head began to emit a faint glow. Under that light, the magician, moving in his strange posture, peeled away from the wall. Black smoke rose from his palms as he crashed heavily to the ground.

Jenkins took two quick steps forward to meet him. The magician scrambled to his feet and clasped his hands together, inserting the little, ring, and middle fingers of his right hand into the gap between the middle and ring fingers of his left. His two index fingers pressed together. His lips, coated in bright red lipstick, moved slightly, and then he pointed at Jenkins.

Jenkins immediately felt a chill, not because of a change in the surrounding temperature, but because the clothes on his upper body were decaying, as if the passage of time had aged the ordinary fabric.

"What's this? Oh, a curse. A pity it won't work on me."

He was currently using a disguise, a black robe illusion, so it was actually Jenkins's overcoat that had been destroyed. He ignored it. His body flickered and took on a new appearance, providing him with a fresh set of illusory clothes, even though in reality his torso was now almost bare.

"Immune to curses? Or some other trick?"

the magician wondered. Seeing Jenkins continue to advance, he plunged his right hand into his overcoat pocket and, with four shimmering silver darts held between his fingers, flung them at Jenkins.

Normally, hand-thrown darts wouldn't move so fast that Jenkins couldn't track their trajectory, but these four sharp weapons, the instant they left the magician's hand, appeared right in front of him.

"Teleporting to attack the target directly?"

Confused, he narrowed his eyes. A steel plate materialized in front of him, blocking the darts. But then a brilliant silver line appeared on the other side of the plate. The darts had somehow passed straight through it, heading for his eyes before he could react.

The four darts were part of a Series B Extraordinary item set. The effects displayed so far included spatial travel, extreme sharpness, and what seemed to be an auto-tracking function.

He threw up a hand to block them, trying to catch the projectiles, but they transformed into four silver threads, drifting past his hand to weave and fly around him. The latest_epɪ_sodes are on_the novｅlfire.net

At the same time, the magician closed in fast. He took off his hat, clapped it back onto his head, and vanished again. While Jenkins was warily watching the four flying darts, the magician appeared in his blind spot, lunging at his back with the Bestowal dagger in his right hand.

the cat on his shoulder warned.

Jenkins spun around, swinging his sword behind him. The Holy Sword clashed with the dagger, and surprisingly, neither gained the upper hand. But while Jenkins was distracted, the four darts took their chance, sinking one after another into his shoulder and arm.

Jenkins seemed not to feel it. He pressed down hard on the magician's dagger with his White Bone Holy Sword, his eyes locking with the magician's.

The magician shuddered violently and instinctively tried to pull back, but Jenkins had already reached out and grabbed his right hand, the one holding the dagger.

A black current of energy, lethal to the living, surged from their connected hands into the magician's body. The best reaction would have been to break away immediately, but instead, the magician took a step forward and seized Jenkins's hand with his free one.

The magician's eyes widened, a red light spilling from them. It wasn't just his eyes; his skin began to swell like an inflating balloon, and through the cracks, a dangerous red light flickered.

"Going to self-destruct, are you? Your little magic tricks are quite interesting."

Jenkins said, the four darts still embedded in him, and then he opened his mouth wide at the magician's face—

In a distant church, a silver dragon, lying on a desk and reading the third volume of the *Detective Knight Biography*, tilted her head slightly to look out the window.

"Is something wrong?"

Princess Sophia asked from the edge of the bed, where she was holding a copy of the *Stranger's Story Collection*. After the earlier meeting, the Church had nothing scheduled for "Miss Fabry," so she was quietly reading in her room. The Church was quite happy to have this Believer of Lies stay put.

"I thought I heard a dragon's roar... Oh, not a dragon's, a human's."

Anathasia turned her attention back to the novel in front of her, brushing a lock of silver hair away from the pages.

"Sophia, I was just thinking... after Jenkins wins, why don't we stay in the material world for a while?"

"Why the sudden desire to stay?"

the princess asked, her eyes still on her book. She was very fond of the stories about princesses.

"Because the material world is just too interesting. We've lived in the void and the astral plane for a very long time, but it was always just us... The star spirits and those monsters in the void aren't fun at all."

Anathasia said, resting her chin on the pages of the book.

"Alright then. As long as you're happy."

Princess Sophia said, turning to the next page of her story.

Far away, Jenkins had closed his mouth and was now coughing violently. A dragon's breath, it turned out, was not something a human body was built to unleash. He felt his entire lungs burning, and if not for the rapid healing from his [World Tree Seedling], he might have died from internal bleeding in seconds.

The magician in front of him had taken the dragon's breath full in the face. His head, along with a protruding sign on a distant street corner behind him, had been vaporized. His body, however, was outside the blast's radius and remained undamaged.