Lord of The Mysterious Realms Chapter 959

"I forgot to ask Dolores something," Jenkins realized. "I was going to have her help me investigate three names."

It was only after returning to Nolan that he remembered he had unfinished business, so he promptly made his way back to Ruen. In the few minutes he'd been gone, Alexia certainly hadn't fallen asleep. She stood alone by the window, gazing at the city lights sprawling below the mountain.

"Sheffield, Capello, and Stevel," Jenkins listed. "I suspect these three were Papa Oliver's apprentices in the past. I have a feeling that if I asked him or anyone else at the Church directly, they wouldn't give me a straight answer. I was hoping Dolores could help me look into it. Of course, if it's too much trouble, she doesn't need to go out of her way. It's not a major issue."

"No problem. I'm sure Dolores will be happy to help."

She turned to face Jenkins. "Goodnight, Jenkins." Follow current ɴᴏᴠᴇʟs on novèlfire.net

The hour was late. Jenkins spread his bedding before the fireplace, ready for sleep. He made a mental note to move back into the second-floor bedroom next week if the weather continued its warming trend.

With winter now past, there was no longer a need to use the living room as a bedroom. But that meant he would have to tidy up the upstairs room. Since annexing the widow's house next door, he hadn't seriously considered how to organize his own home.

Chocolate's soft cushion was already laid out on the sofa. The cat probably found the house too warm and had no interest in being covered by a small blanket. Jenkins gently patted the cat's head. It didn't get up, but curled into a tighter ball of fur and let out a soft "meow," not even bothering to open its eyes.

"Knock, knock, knock."

Just as he was snuggling into his covers, ready to drift off, he heard a rap at the door. Jenkins froze. When he came home, he had locked the gate to the yard. Anyone wanting to enter should have rung the bell by the gate. The only other possibility was that they had simply jumped the fence.

he called out, slipping on his slippers and walking toward the entryway. He blinked, and a brilliant golden light filled his vision, instantly stinging his eyes and making them water. Wiping his face with a frown, he opened the door to find an ordinary-looking middle-aged man dressed in an unsightly woolen sweater, his hair lank and greasy.

Jenkins had never seen the face before, but this man was no mortal, and Jenkins knew exactly who he was. This was a projection of a god—the God of Shadows and Stealth, the very deity who had intentionally lost their wager and ceded the divinity of Lies to him.

"My apologies, but what can I do for you this late?"

Since the visitor had been polite enough to knock, Jenkins saw no reason to be rude. Still, he had no intention of letting this god into his home. After all, he suspected this old trickster had something to do with the mirror world incident.

"I've come to pay you a visit, and quite politely, I might add."

The god said this while brandishing a stone slate he was holding.

"See? A gift for you. I found this Doomsday Document in the theater outside the city. It was stuck in the crevice between shadow and reality, so the mortals haven't found it yet. I figured you might have a use for it, so I grabbed it on my way. May I come in? This isn't exactly the place for a conversation."

Since he hadn't been expecting a visitor so late, the house was unprepared. Chocolate was asleep on the sofa, so Jenkins led his guest to the dining room. The deity seemed unbothered by the low-quality tea Jenkins offered.

The Doomsday Document was casually placed on the shoe cabinet in the entryway, making the god seem like a perfectly normal visitor.

"I'm sorry to disturb you so late..."

Jenkins didn't see a hint of apology in the god's demeanor.

"I mainly came to thank you for sealing the Beast of Chaotic Pollution again. To be honest, that smelly thing is a bit of a handful."

The god said, spreading his hands.

"What do you really want? Can we just get to the point? It's already very late."

Jenkins responded, clutching his teacup. He had heated the kettle with his inexhaustible fire, so the cup was pleasantly warm in his hands.

"When you sealed it, you got a pitch-black stone, didn't you?"

Though phrased as a question, the god stated it as a fact.

After a moment's hesitation, Jenkins asked his guest to wait. He stood and went down to the basement, retrieving the ring he had stored in a shoebox. He suspected the stone was a Cursed Item and had used the remnants of his divinity to create a seal, which appeared to be holding up well.

The God of Shadows and Stealth nodded, his right index finger tapping rapidly on the table. It wasn't necessary for him to manifest directly, so this was just a projection, but it looked almost indistinguishable from a real physical body.

"I knew this thing would show up. How to put it... it's difficult to describe what it is in human language, but I imagine you can sense its danger. It is... a conglomerate of calamity. When the stone is activated, a conceptual 'disaster' is released, which in turn triggers a catastrophe in the material world. You understand what I'm saying, right?"

Jenkins summarized quietly to himself, while on the surface, he nodded without a change in expression.

"Good that you understand. This stone is a product of the Beast of Chaotic Pollution's own power, crystallizing into a physical form only when it clashes with divine power. I came across one a long time ago. My mortal followers nearly made a grave mistake that time, but thankfully, everything was salvageable. Divine power can destroy this stone, but doing so would also release the disaster within. So, the best way to handle it is to seal it and let the great power of time erode its strength. We're now at the end of the epoch, and I assume you don't want this thing to become the spark that ignites the final catastrophe, do you? But you've done well. I think you're a better fit for the divinity of Lies than I was. Keep it. Patiently wait for the stone's power to fade completely."

He then stood up to leave. Jenkins quickly asked another question.

"So you visited me just for this?"

"Of course. After all, your encounter with that thing is somewhat related to the divinity of Lies."

The middle-aged man winked at Jenkins. "The last thing I need is for you to unleash a disaster, get branded an evil god by Them, and have me dragged down with you. You have no idea what a headache it was to switch over to the lawful alignment."

Without waiting for Jenkins to react, his body dissolved into motes of golden light and vanished into the air, leaving Jenkins sitting alone at the dining table, fiddling with the ring. From the sofa, the cat peeked out over the cushions, its head tucked low, and saw an inscrutable expression cross its master's face.