Chapter 311: Chapter 311

Jenkins was still trying to stall, desperately scrambling for words. The blow from the iron bar had damaged the bones in his shoulder and chest, and he couldn't tell if his organs had been injured on top of the fractures.

He glanced at Chocolate again, who was still rubbing against the small package. The parcel seemed to have moved a little closer to him.

The man watched Jenkins, waiting to see what else he could possibly say.

"So, C-08-2-2218, the Stopped Clock... is this?"

Jenkins finally remembered what he knew. In the basement of the Oil Ink Mister Club, an old man who was using a supernatural item to prolong his life had once told him something. He'd mentioned that before the Gear Germs' method of transmission had mutated, a defection had occurred within the Church of Creation and Machinery. The defectors had stolen three Bestowals, one of which was a clock.

It was one of the few secrets Jenkins knew about the Gear Artisans' Association, and he had only meant to say it off the cuff. But the moment the words escaped his lips, he knew he had struck a nerve.

"That's it!" Thıs content belongs to ⓝovelFire.net

His voice rose suddenly. "Your trick just now—it wasn't teleportation at all. You used that Bestowal to control time. You either accelerated your own temporal flow or stopped the time around you! No, even a Bestowal couldn't stop time entirely. You must have been speeding yourself up!"

"It was no accident," Jenkins bluffed. "I came here deliberately!"

Jenkins declared this while still sprawled on the floor. His body's regenerative abilities were potent, but his internal injuries and fractured shoulder wouldn't mend so quickly.

He reached out with his spirit to probe The Unknown Path, but there was no response. His heart sank.

"How did you find me? And how do you know about the Bestowal I possess?"

He vanished again, only to reappear directly in front of Jenkins, pressing the gun's muzzle against his forehead.

Jenkins managed a faint smile and lunged upward.

The pistol exploded in the man's hand.

It was no accident. The instant the muzzle touched Jenkins's skin, flames erupted from the point of contact, melting the barrel shut. It would have been a miracle if it hadn't exploded.

"You're asking for it!"

The middle-aged shopkeeper snarled, his mechanized right arm lunging for Jenkins's throat. Jenkins dodged back nimbly, pulling out a talisman with his good left hand and flinging it forward.

It was useless. A flicker of light appeared in front of the man, and the explosive talisman's effect was nullified before it could even detonate. But it bought Jenkins enough time to create some distance. He pressed his left hand to his upper right arm, a faint green light glowing from his palm. Before the shopkeeper could charge again, Jenkins stomped his feet hard on the ground. A torrent of fire surged from his trouser legs, instantly forming a protective ring around him.

The man wasn't teleporting, so even if he accelerated through time to charge, the flames would still burn him.

Muttering a low incantation, the man made the surrounding air grow heavy and damp. The gas lamps on the wall and the fire in the stove flickered a few times, then extinguished. But the ring of fire protecting Jenkins remained.

"Not an ordinary fire, I see," the shopkeeper noted. "But you don't really think this is enough to let you escape, do you?"

"No," Jenkins replied. "I know you're a level 7 Enchanter. Of course, you have more tricks up your sleeve."

Jenkins quickly bent down, scooping up Chocolate with his left hand and setting the cat on his shoulder. With his right, he picked up the metal block that was all that remained after its wrapping had burned away.

"Chocolate," Jenkins murmured, "were you playing with my things again? Did you accidentally drop this into the parcel?"

A pillar of light from an unknown source descended from the heavens, enveloping a man with sallow skin and black hair. At the same time, the body of the fair-skinned, blond-haired Jenkins toppled backward, falling out of the column of light.

A strange and solemn hymn echoed directly in his mind as a milky-white luminescence filled the room. For an instant, the world seemed to freeze. A distant shout echoed, but it vanished as soon as he tried to focus on it, like an illusion.

A wind rose within the room, a violent gale with the divine figure at its eye, whipping shards of glass and wood into a furious vortex.

The middle-aged shopkeeper's eyes went wide as he stared at the young man before him, before he immediately bowed his head. He convulsed, clapping his hands over his ears. Having witnessed the face of a god, his mind was reeling from the immense spiritual shock.

Jenkins hadn't even made a move, yet the man collapsed to the floor.

"Oh god... Why? Is this some kind of joke? What is happening... why..."

The man groaned, using the last of his strength to reach for the clock in the corner. But he and the divine being occupied the same space, and the laws of time, warped by the radiating godhead, were far beyond the control of a mere level 7 Enchanter.

His prone form flickered a few times, and Jenkins could clearly see the clock's hands twitching. But ultimately, the hands remained still, and the man failed to escape.

"You've wasted one drop of my godhead."

Jenkins extended a faintly glowing finger. The man on the floor shook his head helplessly, trying to scramble backward. A look of pure misery twisted his features. His eyes were squeezed shut, so he couldn't see the bystander's corpse behind him, a body riddled with bullets. He hid behind the body like a frightened ostrich, a perfect reversal of their earlier standoff.

Two silver ribbons of light spiraled around Jenkins's right arm like twin serpents. Their color pulsed, cycling continuously from light to dark. Empowered by his divine nature, the silver light was intensely, almost blindingly, brilliant.

With a casual flick of his finger, the ribbons of light lashed out like a whip, one end remaining connected to Jenkins, the other striking the middle-aged man.

After two silent seconds, a sound like a watermelon bursting echoed through the room. The man's head exploded, splattering red and white matter in every direction. Even the droplets of blood that hit the floor continued to pop and burst, a series of crackles like a string of firecrackers.

The headless corpse slumped to the floor, leaning heavily against the body of the bystander. Its mechanized right arm lost its brassy sheen and began to rust at a speed visible to the naked eye.

For some reason, his divine power was burning away with exceptional speed this time. He had barely done anything, yet half of it was already gone.

Though Jenkins found it strange, he knew time was of the essence. He picked up the test tube containing the Gear Germs and focused his thoughts on it. "What is this?"

The godhead responded instantly. The last of his divine power burned furiously within his spiritual form, creating a golden aura so bright it was visible to the naked eye.

The surface of the liquid in the test tube rippled. A low hum filled the air, and a series of colorless images flooded Jenkins's vision.