Chapter 2068: Chapter 2068

In an instant, all thoughts of the Difference Engine vanished from his mind. Compared to a mature Beast of Calamity, it was nothing.

"No, no, no, it didn't escape. Rather, a portion of the worm's power has been co-opted by an entity in the present, causing the Paradox Worm to manifest in a degraded form. Great One, do you have any idea what in this era could possibly accomplish such an impossible feat?"

Jenkins was speechless, his mind filled with the image of a colossal mechanical worm writhing in the fog.

He shook his head, trying to banish the image from his thoughts.

"In any case, can you deal with that thing? That worm."

"Of course. You can rest assured on that. Great One, the very meaning of our people's existence is to prevent the Paradox Worm from manifesting in any form across different points in time. This time, however, its power has been co-opted, and we need your help."

"No problem. What do I need to do?"

The power of the Paradox Worm was difficult to explain. The great worm's genesis lay in the perilous use of temporal power. An accumulation of paradoxes, born from constant time travel, ultimately led to the emergence of a creature that should never have existed. It absorbed the terrifying power of these temporal paradoxes, shouldered their sin, and became a Beast of Calamity in an ancient epoch.

Traversing and controlling time were merely the Paradox Worm's most basic powers. It was a paradox in itself: its very existence proved its impossibility, while the fact of its impossibility, in turn, proved its existence. Although it possessed a physical form, any attack against it was completely ineffective. Beneath the gods, only temporal abilities could affect the creature, yet it could physically attack any living being.

It sounded simple, but once it began to happen, it became completely inexplicable.

Just like the events currently unfolding on the outskirts of the Evergreen Forest, which Audrey and Brolignans failed to comprehend entirely.

Although the two diviners lacked a helper like Jenkins, they, much like Alexia, had deduced that a fog of chaotic time was affecting the area.

The problem was, they couldn't leave the carriage and were thus powerless to change the situation. Alexia had actually managed to contact Audrey for a brief moment, but their conversation was cut off almost as soon as it began, as if nothing had happened at all.

But the advantage of being diviners was their ability to conjure answers from thin air, drawing conclusions even without a single clue. The two outstanding seers of the material world performed a joint divination of the near future, only to arrive at a single conclusion: in ten minutes, they would be performing the very same divination.

So, they performed another divination. This time, the conclusion was that in ten minutes, a carriage from the Ponton Winery would be heading toward downtown Nolan, fully laden with goods.

The Ponton Winery had been located in the valley where the Evergreen Forest now stood. It had been occupied by cultists seeking eternal life. During a violent clash between those cultists and the Believers of Lies, the winery was destroyed and the forest appeared in its place. All of this had happened last autumn.

"There's no point in trying again. Time in this area is in complete chaos. Every second, we exist in a different point in time. In essence, we're drifting through the cracks of time itself. Outside this carriage are ever-shifting temporal tides. The plains you see are just what our minds expect to see, which is why jumping out only brings us right back—the inside and outside of the carriage aren't in the same time. We can't traverse time on our own."

As she spoke, Brolignans took out a pen and paper, wrote a short letter, and then casually tossed it out the window.

"We can't, but an ordinary piece of paper, devoid of any special properties, has a chance of falling through these temporal cracks and landing in a specific moment. If someone finds it, they might understand our predicament."

"But will that do any good?"

Audrey asked, her voice laced with concern.

"It's useless, of course," Brolignans replied. "But there's no harm in trying our luck."

Just as she finished speaking, the ninth-level diviner suddenly glanced backward. Her eyes seemed to pierce not only through the rear wall of the carriage but also through the shifting waves of time. Perhaps that was an exaggeration, but Audrey truly believed her teacher had seen it all.

"Close your eyes. Don't look at anything."

With those words, she pulled Audrey into her embrace and covered her eyes with her palm.

The loss of sight heightened her other senses. Faintly, Audrey thought she heard a sound from behind them—the indistinct squirming of something reptilian. More clearly, however, she could hear the metallic grinding of colossal machinery.

"Teacher, what's behind us?"

"Don't think. Don't even consider it. Pray, Audrey. Pray to our Lord." Newest update provıded by NoveI(F)ire.net

Though she didn't understand what was happening, Audrey began to pray in a low voice. It was an easy way to divert her attention from distractions, and so she gave no more thought to the meaning of the sounds behind them.

A full half-hour passed before Brolignans finally removed the hand covering Audrey's eyes and gently eased her out of her embrace.

"It's alright now. It's gone."

Heeding the earlier warning, Audrey didn't ask what "it" was. But she saw her teacher tightly gripping the Vampire Buster. In that critical moment, she had chosen a dagger with special efficacy against vampiric beings to protect them.

"Was that... some kind of vampire?"

Audrey imagined what a mechanical vampire might look like, and just then, there was a knock on the carriage door.

The knocking was polite enough, but neither Audrey nor Brolignans dared to open the door. Growing impatient, the person outside simply pushed the door open and entered.

Jenkins scrambled into the carriage and collapsed onto the seat next to his teacher, Audrey, gasping for breath.

"You... which Jenkins are you? From what point in time? Did you get my teacher's letter?"

Audrey stared blankly for several seconds before the question finally tumbled out.

"What letter? No, I was just chasing a big worm. A huge, metal one."

He seemed to have caught his breath. He sat up straight and ran a hand roughly through his hair.