"Jessica, how long can you have both of these ladies appear at the sa ti?"
Jenkins turned his question to Jessica, who considered it for a mont.
"If there's no combat, they can both be present for about half an hour. If it's just one of them, she can be active for at least two hours. But if I use even a sliver of spirit for anything, that ti shortens to five minutes or even less."
Jessica's answer involved both the total amount of her spirit and her ntal state. She was still only a level-zero Enchanter, but Jenkins was confident this duration would increase as she grew stronger.
"Later, you can try to see if the spirit they accumulate can be added to yours, even if it's only a partial addition. Most of an Enchanter's spirit belongs to the soul, and your souls are one and the sa. It's possible..."
He nodded, leaving the three ladies to ponder the idea themselves.
Bending down, he picked up an orange from the table, intending to give his mischievous cat a bit of fruit. Just then, Jessica asked another question.
"So, when they aren't manifested, what do you plan to do with these two bodies?"
Although creating these two bodies hadn't been a simple task for Jenkins, the cost hadn't been enormous either. He wanted to suggest simply burning them when they weren't in use, but then he considered that they were identical to Jessica's own body.
"Then you can keep them. I'll craft two coffins that can provide a continuous stream of life force to ensure the soulless bodies don't decay. It's quite simple; I did sothing similar with a tulip seed a few days ago, but..."
He hesitated for a mont but still pointed out the problem.
"But this way, you'll need to have the two souls enter the bodies periodically to take care of... physiological issues. Otherwise, they'll probably..."
"I understand. You don't need to say any more."
A blush crept onto Jessica's face as she cut him off.
Bringing the two Windsors from the possibility worlds into the real one served several purposes. One was for them to assist Jessica in helping Jenkins complete his work to beco king. Another was because of the Dark Soul. But most importantly, it was for the intelligence Queen Windsor possessed regarding the Difference Engine.
Her transition from the Mysterious Realm to reality hadn't caused any critical mory loss; all her mories were perfectly intact with her soul.
However, she still lacked information about the Reverser of Fate Ritual. It seed that without Jenkins as the greatest point of conflict in her possibility world, the Difference Engine had never considered relying on that ancient and particularly sinister ritual.
Regarding the Difference Engine itself, Miss Windsor provided rather detailed information. After the Difference Engine had used the chanical Heart to resurrect her body, Miss Windsor had relied on her own understanding of the world to break free of its control, even managing to subvert the machine and control it to a certain degree.
From this, she learned of the Difference Engine's origins, most of its experiences, and its story.
"It's quite similar to the machine in your real world," Miss Windsor explained. "In my 'world,' its goal was also to use the cataclysm at the end of the epoch to fully ascend into a Beast of Calamity, thereby achieving immortality. Although it didn't use the 'Reverser of Fate Ritual' you ntioned, its plans to replace its power source with steam and to gather smog to envelop the entire world were successfully implented in my world."
"So, before you left, did it complete its ascension?"
"It did."
Miss Windsor nodded. Jenkins stopped feeding his cat, popping the last orange segnt into his own mouth. Chocolate imdiately let out a dissatisfied protest and tried to climb off his lap, only to be pressed back down by his hand.
"What? It succeeded?"
"Yes, it was completed last winter. By the ti you arrived in Nolan, I had already ordered it to leave temporarily. It will return on the final day, leading the cataclysm to destroy everything. I can only control it to a certain extent; I have no say in its core directives."
Miss Windsor said this with regret, which ant that the future of her possibility world was inevitably one where the great cataclysm would descend upon the material plane.
"Then how strong is it? The Difference Engine as a Beast of Calamity, I an."
"Since you like to call it the Difference Engine, I will as well. It is incredibly powerful. My demigod self, as you saw it, is nothing more than an ant it could crush with ease. The taphor might be cliché, but it's the truth. I can't quantify its power into a number for you, but mortals pose absolutely no threat to a Beast of Calamity."
Jenkins listened and nodded, letting out a breath before asking again, "In a world without the Reverser of Fate Ritual, how did it ascend? There must have been specific asures."
"It was similar to this world, with the process of extending its chanical tentacles from underground to cover the entire globe. But after completely converting its power source to steam engines, it didn't orchestrate the strange ritual you described. Instead, it scattered chanical creations onto the surface, causing more and more people to accept chanical modification and fall under its control. They then transported a ceaseless supply of wood and coal underground."
"Wait a minute. So you're saying that after the steam conversion, the Difference Engine actually lost its original energy advantage? It needs fuel?"
Feeding on information was a considerably more advanced thod of energy acquisition.
"Yes. This was to align with the the of this epoch's apocalypse."
"Alright, I understand... And then? What did it do with all that energy?"
"The energy provided it with more computational power to understand the world and carry out more refined modifications to its own structure. At the sa ti, the burning coal and wood produced gray smog, and the tentacles that reached the surface beca giant chimneys to release it. The smog gradually enveloped everything, and when it reached a certain point, the gray mist blotted out the sun. The material world could no longer see direct sunlight. At that mont, it completed its own upgrade and, in a way I don't understand, beca a Beast of Calamity.
It looked like the modifications it made to itself were effective, but I think releasing the smog to alter the world's environnt was probably the key, wasn't it?"
Miss Windsor voiced her uncertainty, and Jenkins nodded, having more or less grasped the entire process.
"In that case, after replacing its energy system, fuel becos its weakness. At least until it becos a Beast of Calamity, its reliance on energy is a major limitation. There's a lot that can be done with that..."
Jenkins thought for a mont before asking, "Does it have any other weaknesses?"
"Have you ever seen its entire body?"
Instead of answering, Miss Windsor posed a question of her own. Jenkins imdiately shook his head.
"No, I haven't."
"I have. It's a terrifying sphere, like a massive black hole in the night sky, suspended in a vast underground cavern. It's not a perfect sphere, but sothing similar. Its complete body is even larger than Nolan itself. In that cavern, it ceaselessly broadcasts a terrifying and rhythmic grinding of tal, like the howling of a demon. tal chains, like writhing tentacles, relentlessly strike the walls of that imnse underground cavity, carrying the fallen rubble to the glowing furnaces within its spherical body to be forged into more tal.
Dust and gray mist fill that space, and malevolent spirits are everywhere, howling ferociously with every movent of the machine. You can't even imagine the scene..."
She closed her eyes and pressed a hand to her forehead. Jenkins imdiately took her hand, helping to calm her agitated mind and the spirit that had just manifested in her body. rely recalling the Difference Engine's true form was enough to cause an ordinary person to awaken as an Enchanter. That was the power of a Beast of Calamity.
Of course, the fact that Miss Windsor had originally been a demigod also played a part.
"Are you alright?"
She had the sa face as Jessica. By now, Jenkins and Jessica had acknowledged their relationship, and looking at that face, he subconsciously showed a concern that went beyond friendship.
"I'm fine."
Miss Windsor shook her head, a faint smile on her pursed lips. Only then did Jenkins turn his attention to Jessica, finding her deep in thought about what had just been said, showing no aversion to their close contact.
"It has one very obvious weakness," Miss Windsor continued. "It's a design flaw left by its creator from the very beginning to prevent a machine rebellion. It's intrinsically linked to its structure and function, so it cannot be modified through technical ans even if its existence is known."
As she spoke, she picked up a pen and drew a pattern resembling a blooming rose on a handkerchief.
"On the core of its main body, there is a hollow pattern like this. A heavy blow to this pattern will imdiately plunge it into a state of suspended animation for at least fifty years. The force of the blow doesn't need to be imnse; the explosion of a standard steam bomb would be sufficient."
Jenkins took the handkerchief and carefully committed the pattern to mory.
"On the core of its main body?"
"Yes. While the Difference Engine cannot fix a flaw based on its fundantal structure, it has increased its size over countless ages. This was not only to add computational power and functionality but also served to protect its original body, which I call the 'core'."
The A4 Type Arithtic Auxiliary External Machine had once said that the Difference Engine's core was most likely underground. If Jenkins wanted to exploit this flaw to defeat it, he would have to venture deep underground for a final battle.
He now possessed a single drop of divinity, but he couldn't be certain it would be enough to sustain him until he found the core hidden deep within the earth. However, this weekend, he would most likely obtain another drop of divinity. When that ti ca, Jenkins would choose to descend for the final confrontation.
"You seem to have made an important decision," Jessica suddenly remarked.
"No, I was just lost in thought."
Jenkins shook his head. Jessica eyed him suspiciously but didn't press the matter further.
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