Chapter 2079: Chapter 2079

With the heavy sound of a closing door, all the strange phenomena vanished. The profound light, the terrifying black void, and the god who walked among mortals—all were gone.

It was as if time had rewound ten minutes, with one exception: Jenkins had disappeared.

Papa Oliver, like everyone else, couldn't accept the truth he had just learned. After a long moment, he turned to Alexia, who was stroking Chocolate's head. The cat rarely allowed anyone to touch him, but he was in a foul mood, and Alexia was considered "family," so he didn't stop the petite woman's caress.

"I only just learned of this myself."

Alexia said to Papa Oliver, her words finally rousing him from his stupor:

"You mean, everything we just saw was real?"

She shrugged, then looked up at the black hole left by the God of Lies on the outer wall of the third tower—a void contained by golden light, created with the last of his power before he vanished.

"But what does it matter if he is a god? He can only use that power under specific circumstances. Papa Oliver, don't think of him as a deity walking the earth. Think of him as a mortal who only occasionally ascends to the heavens. That power could only be used once. He originally planned to use it on the Difference Engine, but now, for us..."

At this moment, Papa Oliver was no longer concerned with understanding the truth:

"With that power, defeating the Difference Engine would have been simple. Why did he protect us? That was his trump card. What is he going to do now?"

"I don't know the answer to that. Papa Oliver, the key now is to prevent this information from spreading. At the same time, we need to prepare..."

"I think preventing this from spreading will be very difficult."

He and Alexia glanced at the people who were gradually recovering from the shock of a god's descent.

"And what should we prepare for? Does Jenkins have another way?"

Alexia pointed to the golden ring on the outer wall of the third tower.

"The battle with that unknown Calamity Beast exhausted most of his power, but he managed to leave behind a 'door' at the last second." Googlᴇ search N0velFire.ɴet

Alexia narrowed her eyes.

"That isn't a complete door out of the Mysterious Realm. It can likely only allow a part of him—his soul, for example—to temporarily return to our world. But this is the best possible outcome. Papa Oliver, you need to notify the Church. Prepare for Jenkins to appear at any moment. We must be ready to meet all of his demands."

(Finney is praying...)

The smell of sulfur. As a dizzy Jenkins pushed himself up from the rough ground, his sense of smell warned him that the air was thick with it.

A sharp pain shot through the hand he used to support himself; the rock was coarse and extremely hot. He looked around to find a world bathed in crimson. He was sitting on a massive stone slab jutting out from a cliff's edge, but the path leading away from it was blocked by a rockslide.

It seemed to be a cave, and the so-called "cliff's edge" was actually a precipice overlooking a sea of flowing magma. The stone slab, an extension of the blocked cave, hung suspended over the molten sea. The scorching air and the acidic fumes constantly rising from the magma threatened to send both Jenkins and the great stone plunging into the depths at any moment.

This was undoubtedly a Mysterious Realm. The surrounding black spiritual aura and the clearly defined, restricted area were unmistakable signs.

"Is this a volcanic crater or the depths of the earth?"

The act of burning his divinity had left him temporarily weakened, and combined with the spatial disorientation from his abrupt entry into the Mysterious Realm, he needed a long moment before he could even manage to sit up properly.

The overwhelming stench of sulfur and the increasingly dry, hot air would have been lethal to an ordinary person in minutes. This time, however, the Mysterious Realm was brightly lit, a stark contrast to the pitch-black places he had been in before.

He scanned his surroundings, searching for the realm's rule-keeper and wondering if they were collaborating with the Difference Engine willingly or had been coerced.

But the stone slab was completely empty, save for himself.

Just as he was about to lean over the edge to look, he heard the distinct, grating creak of old machinery.

A mechanical serpent, as thick as Jenkins's waist, slithered up from below, clinging to the cliff face that connected the stone slab to the abyssal sea of magma. The front of the serpent bore a human face—not a human head, but a face integrated into its mechanical facade, which only made the creature all the more bizarre.

The serpent's body was composed of several interconnected metal segments, and its metallic exterior was covered in transparent, scale-like plates. Judging from the sound of its body scraping against the rock, he guessed the transparent scales were also made of some metallic material.

"It doesn't seem to have the power of a Calamity Beast."

Jenkins remembered the Difference Engine's arrangements and remained exceptionally vigilant.

"Savior, you have finally appeared."

The human-faced serpent had now coiled itself onto the large stone, its upper body rising to face Jenkins. The serpent used the common human tongue, its eyes narrowing into crescents as it spoke. Its voice was exceptionally soft—so soft it was unsettling.

"Would you like to hear the rules of this place?"

The human face smiled, a bizarre smile. Such an expression on a serpent was far more unnerving than on a person.

"How do I get to the next level?"

"Simple. The door to the next level is in the magma below."

Although Jenkins couldn't yet enter magma with his physical body and remain unharmed, he had plenty of ways to retrieve a door if that was all he had to do. However, this was only the first Mysterious Realm; he had to pass with the least cost possible.

"So I have to enter the magma?"

The human-faced mechanical serpent was clearly not the original host of this realm. The Difference Engine had taken it over, and it would not let Jenkins pass so easily. It probably didn't have enough power to alter the rules of a Mysterious Realm, so it must have chosen one that was exceptionally perilous to begin with.

"Of course not. Do you think the magma below is ordinary? The purpose of a Mysterious Realm is not to kill intruders outright, so you don't need to jump in directly."

With that, the human-faced serpent let out a low chuckle. The sound sent a shiver down Jenkins's spine. If this weren't a Mysterious Realm, he would have drawn his sword and cut the creature down without a second thought.