The chanical gear giant in the dense fog was a strange creation from a few months ago, brought to life when the pirate king "The Thief" Diwo used an artifact from the Gear Artisans' Association to animate the entire chanical power system of a ship during his first battle with Jenkins.
The Church had temporarily contained it here, and now, on this ordinary night, it was once again t by Jenkins.
There was actually another lingering matter concerning the pirate king, Diwo the Thief. Jenkins had once caught a brief glimpse of the future in a museum, and his future self had warned him to kill Diwo before a certain date.
It later beca clear that the chanical giant Diwo animated using the Gear Artisans' Association's technology was not the artifact's intended purpose at all; Diwo had discovered a new power in chanization on his own. The reason Jenkins was told to kill him was to prevent this new idea from being passed on to the Gear Artisans' Association through further contact, and subsequently learned by the Difference Engine.
Jenkins wasn't entirely sure what consequences would arise if this seemingly impossible event were to occur. But he understood one thing very clearly now: if the bone fragnts in his hand were to rge with that chanical giant, imbuing the dormant machine with the powers of two Cursed Items—[Seven-Day Rebirth] and [Corpse chanization Curse]—he couldn't even begin to imagine how powerful the resulting new Cursed Item would be.
But every attempt to destroy the bones was thwarted by the black mist enveloping his arm. Seeing his altitude dropping, Jenkins steeled himself, recited an ancient incantation, and activated an ability he had never properly used before:
[Bone Offering]
A translucent, pale gray ritual matrix materialized out of thin air, continuously expanding. As the black mist and the hand bones were completely swallowed by the matrix, Jenkins, now unsupported, began to fall from the sky.
He landed deftly atop the chanical gear giant's head, then looked up. Under the moonlit sky, with the hand bones and black mist completely gone, a hideous, wheel-like undead creature made of white bone descended toward the beach.
It was, in fact, a circular wheel, but its outer rim was covered in a dense array of bone spikes, and at the center of its many spokes was a sphere ford from a cluster of skulls. After crashing down, it beca embedded in the soft sand, standing at roughly half the height of the chanical giant.
Although it appeared motionless, Jenkins could feel his control over it. This was an undead servant summoned by the offering, one he couldn't freely dismiss. Barring any damage in combat, the creature would probably only disappear around sunrise.
"It's finally over."
Jenkins, breathing a sigh of relief, muttered from atop the giant's head. He choked on the sll in the air and coughed, about to greet the Church Enchanters who were monitoring and containing the area, and to ask about the unusual concentration of gray mist.
But as he scanned his surroundings, he couldn't see any trace of the coastline he had seen from the air. While the chanical giant and the bone wheel were on a beach, looking further out revealed sothing else entirely: clusters of dilapidated old buildings standing in the mist in every direction.
Streets radiated out in all directions from the gear giant at the center, lined with a jumble of buildings of varying heights. He could even faintly make out towering smokestacks in the distance. But no smoke rose from them, no lights shone from any of the buildings, and as far as he could see, there were no signs of human activity.
The place that should have been a coastline with docks and warehouses was now occupied by a town. Wherever this was, it couldn't possibly be Nolan.
So far, tonight's "adventure" had been quite eventful. Jenkins was not without experience in accidentally stumbling into strange places, so he wasn't panicked. Instead, he prepared to jump down from the chanical giant to assess the situation. But before he could move, he felt the "big guy" beneath his feet begin to stir.
"The gear giant is alive?"
He was surprised but not alard. He ntally guided his control over the giant bone wheel embedded in the ground, simultaneously summoning his cane. Gripping the top with both hands, he pressed down hard.
With a long, drawn-out, grating "ding~," the lower end of the cane, guided by the power of life, began to "sprout roots." Tendril-like growths expanded outward, spreading from the chanical giant's head down across its entire body.
The giant didn't struggle, nor did it raise a hand to swat the "little mouse" on its head. As steam hissed from the gaps in its body, a "hiss~" sound and white vapor spread outward. The giant spoke, and its tone was sowhat familiar to Jenkins:
"Saint Son of the Sage, fortunate one favored by the World Tree, I want to make a deal with you."
Although the speech was much more fluid this ti, it was clearly the Difference Engine from deep underground. Jenkins glanced down and, just as he expected, several iron-gray hexagonal tal pillars shot up from beneath the sand. Connected to the pillars were tallic, gear-like tendrils. These tendrils snaked up from the gear giant's feet, making contact with Jenkins's vines at its chest.
Both sets of tendrils were like morning glory vines creeping up a wall, but it was obvious that the vines sprouting from Jenkins's cane were at a disadvantage. This could be explained by the fact that on the surface of a tal gear giant, the power of gears would naturally have the upper hand. However, Jenkins was controlling his vines in person, while the Difference Engine's main body was still deep underground, aning the power it could exert on the surface was far from complete.
This once again proved that in his mortal state, Jenkins was no match for the Difference Engine.
"What deal?"
he asked calmly, struggling to control his cane and the output of his life spirit.
"Help . A land of steel, an empire of gears..."
It wasn't much different from its proposition to the Believers of Lies. It seed the entity knew who currently held the qualifications of a Savior, and after failing to persuade the Believers of Lies, it had now approached Jenkins, who represented "the other camp."
"In your dreams. I'm half-elf, a blessed of the life spirit. You think I would help the forces of machinery?"
"But you also command death. Life is not the only thing that matters to you."
"I heard about your conversation with the Believers of Lies. If they wouldn't agree, then I certainly won't. Whatever you're planning, you are destined to fail."
he declared, one hand steadying his cane while the other reached into his pocket for the small, holy silver vial of potion. He was thankful he'd left Chocolate behind at the cetery; otherwise, the cat could have easily been hurt in the fight that was about to break out.
This ti, the grating tallic voice didn't utter threats like "Cooperate or die." Instead, the tal tendrils surging upward plunged directly into the gaps on the gear giant's body. With an increasingly scorching blast of steam and a teeth-grinding squeal of compressed tal, the giant raised its hand to swat at its own head.
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