"I can give you the answer you want, but I'd like my companion to leave first."
As Jenkins spoke, Alexia tugged sharply at his arm, but he remained unmoved.
"No. Actually, I wanted her to be the one to answer. The power she uses feels quite familiar to . How about I let you leave, and she can answer my questions instead?"
The overlapping voices echoed across the snowfield, punctuated by the faint jingle of shaking tal chains. Jenkins felt like he was being underestimated.
"Actually, I'm very good at answering questions," Jenkins declared. "Not long ago, I even answered a question about the warmth of the human heart for an old man who was several thousand years old. Let her go, and I'll give you your answer."
As he spoke, he raised the miner's lamp that symbolized [chanical Light], its fixture glowing with a pleasant, silver-blue light.
"I can probably guess that you're perplexed by your own limitations and want to know how to break through them. You see, while my companion is an expert in mathematics, when it cos to solving structural problems, you should turn to , an expert in gears and machinery. Yes, I'm very good with chanics."
This statent utilized the power of his [Lie] Godhood, and the effect was imdiate. Blue runes flickered across the surface of the silver cube, even appearing on the faces that ford its sides.
"I have calculated. Your words are highly credible. Very well, the woman may leave. You will answer my questions."
Alexia, of course, was unwilling to go, but Jenkins insisted. He personally escorted the short lady to the entrance of the passage and told her to take his cat with her. But Chocolate was also reluctant to leave and even refused to get close to Alexia.
After so commotion, the cat and the woman finally, reluctantly, departed, leaving Jenkins to turn and face the snowfield alone.
"Ask away."
His hands were in his pockets, clutching the items he had just acquired from the altar.
"My computational capacity is limited by my structure, which is why such a major error occurred thousands of years ago. I have already found a suitable thod to resolve this, but I wish to ask for your opinion."
The tal cube's rotation suddenly stopped, and then the tal, like liquid rcury, began to deform. The six faces rapidly rged, and the tallic edges contracted inward. Ultimately, what appeared floating in the sky was a giant human face ford of flowing, liquid tal.
The image of the face constantly shifted with the flow of the tal, the six different visages appearing without any pattern.
"After all these long years, I have calculated my own structural deficiencies countless tis. In the end, I've co to understand that machinery has its limits. The power of a machine has boundaries. Therefore... I must beco human."
It plumted from the sky like a liquid teor, hurtling toward Jenkins. But with a flash of white light, a dazzling sword arc slashed up to et the airborne face.
Sheathing his sword, he leaped into the air. The unicorn imdiately caught its master, carrying him toward the horizon. Droplets of tal followed close behind, but they were unable to catch the rapidly flying Jenkins.
"How interesting."
The main body of the face in the sky had just hastily dodged the sword arc. Now, it stabilized once more, watching Jenkins from the other end of the snowfield.
"That sword strike was rather odd. I seem to have felt the characteristic power of an 'old friend.' It's truly strange. For a purely undead attribute to be so perfectly balanced with the power of life... that's an event with almost zero probability..."
"I also understand why you agreed so easily to let Alexia leave," Jenkins retorted. "You have no confidence in dealing with both of us at the sa ti. After seeing that illusion just now, I thought your power hadn't waned at all after being sealed for so many years. It seems the opposite is true."
As he spoke, he took the tal rod from his pocket. "I think you should recognize this."
"If this thing were truly useful, why would the people who sealed have left it for you?"
The shifting face asked, taking three different voices to finish the short sentence.
"Is that so?"
He infused his spirit into the tal rod, and dense runes imdiately lit up. As more and more spirit flowed in, the rod gradually disintegrated. It wasn't a tal rod at all, but an aggregate of runes ford from tal threads.
Once the spirit was infused, the aggregate broke apart. The runes that composed it separated from one another, floating up from Jenkins's hands. They surrounded him in shimring golden chains, forming a sphere that enveloped him, as if imprisoning him in a cage.
"I understand now. You're not nearly as strong as I imagined. Perhaps your story was only partially true. The one that destroyed the city wasn't you at all. And the fact that the remaining citizens could seal you after the Church of the Righteous God withdrew is suspicious in itself. I suspect you don't possess any powerful abilities, do you? You're just a simple calculating machine..."
The loss of spirit wasn't significant, yet the golden runic cage fully deployed, enclosing Jenkins within.
"So, do you understand what it is you're holding?"
The mixed voices asked, sounding completely unconcerned.
"Of course. My companion actually figured it out long ago. What you're good at, she's good at too. This is a shield—a shield to block your computational abilities. The people of the past relied on this to prevent you from calculating what they were planning to do."
A series of sparks flashed across the surface of the spherical runic cage. An unseen force was attacking it, but to no avail.
"So it all makes sense. The ancient people never expected their successors to be able to defeat you, so what they left behind was an item to ensure a smooth escape. They were just worried you'd calculate their intentions, so they only left partially true text on the alloy plate. Isn't that right?"
On the rcury-like, shifting face, small bumps rapidly protruded and then vanished. Jenkins guessed this must be an indication of its mood. Then, on the side of the face he couldn't see, slender, rope-like tentacles extended. After nimbly undoing the thirteen tal chains encircling it, the face was finally free.
The snow reflected the sunlight, but even that pure white brilliance was no match for the dazzling, flowing, rcury-like substance.
Silver tentacles covered in black bumps—which were actually partially exposed gear teeth—reached up from behind the face toward the sky. The six different faces flashed across its surface in succession, and an overlapping, deafening laughter made Jenkins's scalp tingle:
"Did you think you could get away? This body is mine! Do you know why I let the woman skilled in calculation leave, yet kept a weakling like you? The body of a half-elf is far superior to that of an ordinary human!"
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