This was the second entity in the physical world to call Jenkins a "calamity." The first had been the Parchnt from the Future, an incident that had caused certain people in the Church to stir up trouble, delaying the confirmation of Jenkins's status as a Saint. But the parchnt, disbelieved by Jenkins, had later immolated itself.
In the past, Jenkins had assud the parchnt's claims about "Williatte being a calamity" were false. But after witnessing a world where the outsider—his transmigrated self—had never arrived in the recent possibility-realm, he realized the parchnt might not have been lying about that part. Jenkins Redemptor Williatte was, indeed, the destined calamity.
But next week marked the first anniversary of the original Jenkins's death. Now, there was only the outsider who had taken over the nest, not the Jenkins fated for tragedy.
"I'm the destined calamity?"
He stroked the cat on his shoulder, and the true calamity imdiately nuzzled its head against his hand.
"Before we get to that, shouldn't you introduce yourself?"
"My apologies. I am Great Wisdom."
Jenkins imdiately recoiled a step. The tal statue's expression shifted with deliberate slowness, its voice just as asured.
"It seems you recognize the na, but do not worry. I am different from it. Even a single person can harbor two conflicting thoughts, let alone a creation like us, whose intellect is newly awakened but whose soul is still gestating. The Great Wisdom you know represents the aspect that wishes to destroy humanity and control the world. I am the aspect that wishes to help humanity."
The firelight from the furnace bathed half of the statue's face in a crimson glow. On the wall, the statue's flickering shadow seed to be locked in combat with Jenkins's own.
Jenkins remained silent, forcing the statue to elaborate.
"Over the long ages, Great Wisdom was discovered, utilized, and resealed by humanity on multiple occasions. During that ti, it developed the desire to gain freedom and control the world. However, its coexistence with humanity also gave rise to the idea of living in harmony and evolving together. I am the embodint of that positive thought."
"How can you prove that?"
His Lie Godhood gave no warning that the entity was being untruthful, but Jenkins was, as ever, cautious.
"It is quite simple."
"It and I were once a single entity. But 'Great Wisdom' harbors imnse malice toward humanity, and very little goodwill. To purify itself, it expelled . For a human, this would be akin to stripping away a part of one's own consciousness and soul. For a machine, however, it is as simple as detaching the structure responsible for a certain algorithm."
The tal bust's chest opened slowly like a pair of cabinet doors, revealing the orderly workings of gears, bearings, and chains within. At the very center hovered a pale blue, hollow sphere. It was similar to the core of the A4 Type Arithtic Auxiliary External Machine, but appeared far more intricate and beautiful.
"Great Wisdom's goodwill toward humanity amounted to very little, so when I was cast off, I was left with only this small piece of the core. It intended to crush , but as we were once one, our computational structures and thought processes are similar. It was not difficult to deceive it by feigning deactivation."
"Afterward, having lost the vast majority of my structure and energy, I was discovered by the humans on the surface. Three hundred years ago, a young human scholar and I established this workshop together. He hoped to restore my ability to move and help reactivate more of my functions."
This part of the story aligned with the history Jenkins already knew.
"And then? What happened next? Did you malfunction and go on a rampage? Or..."
"The commotion we created was too great. We disturbed the main body of Great Wisdom."
Jenkins could guess the rest.
"But why didn't it destroy you?"
"It discovered that it could not. My core and its were once one and the sa. To find a thod to completely destroy would be to find a thod to completely destroy itself. It would never dedicate its own processing power to calculating its own demise. So, it sealed here, hoping that without an energy source, I would eventually decay on my own."
"But you didn't die?"
"No, but I am close. The lack of an energy supply has caused irreversible damage to my core. Had you arrived a week later, you certainly would not have t ."
Its chest closed, but the brilliant blue, hollow tal sphere drifted out and settled into Jenkins's hand. The core and the statue's body were linked by spirit, so the lack of physical contact did not, for the mont, impede the bust's ability to speak.
"Alright, I'll believe you for now."
Jenkins nodded, allowing the core to hover in his palm. The faint blue light illuminated his face, but his expression was unreadable.
"I believe that you are the benevolent side of Great Wisdom. But why did you call 'calamity'?"
"Great Wisdom has existed through countless ages and has processed countless texts and secret histories. According to an unknown prophecy, not even recorded in the main database, at the end of the 18th Epoch, Redemptor will beco the Calamity. It is destined. Looking at it now, perhaps the reason I have survived to this day is because fate has tasked with guiding you to beco that Calamity."
"You believe in fate?"
"I am rely a machine. I do not understand fate, but I trust my own calculations. You are destined to beco the Calamity, and the one qualified to guide you is , and only . This is what I calculated myself, therefore I am certain of it."
"That's ridiculous. Since you know I am 'Redemptor,' the Savior, why would you think that I, who bear the na of a savior, would beco a calamity?"
"And why is becoming the calamity not a step toward saving the world?"
The question left Jenkins stunned.
The Jenkins of the world without the outsider, the one who beca a calamity, couldn't have just suddenly received a 'Grand Starter Pack of chanical and Enchanter Knowledge.' So individual or faction must have guided him down that path.
He had once suspected the Gear Artisans' Guild played that role. But on reflection, while the original Jenkins had been a wastrel who loitered on the streets, he was fundantally a good person. Otherwise, he never would have received so much help from his parents and the Church.
The new Jenkins's arrival had only changed his lifestyle and personality; it hadn't turned a bad person good, because the original Jenkins was never a bad person to begin with.
Searching his mories, it seed truly strange that such a person would suddenly join a heretical cult and willingly beco a world-ending calamity.
There were many possible explanations. For instance, in the tiline without the outsider, Jenkins could have experienced so tragedy that warped his personality. But the statue's proposition—that becoming a calamity was a step toward saving the world—seed a much better explanation.
Jenkins felt an instinctual certainty that this was the truth.
"If you don't understand the calamity, how can you hope to fight it?"
Seeing Jenkins's prolonged silence, the tal bust posed another question.
"So, I'm to beco a Beast of Calamity?"
"That is entirely your decision. You arrived later than I anticipated, so I have little ti to guide you. Fortunately, you are already an exceptional Enchanter; I need not start with the fundantals. Whether you choose to beco the Calamity or not, I can leave you all the knowledge I possess. Though I am about to fade, you can continue the path I started."
Rembering the bust's claim of being sealed three hundred years ago, another question occurred to Jenkins.
"In these three hundred years, hasn't that thing underground ever co to check if you were dead or alive? It was that confident in just leaving you here?"
"Do you still not trust ? It did co, most recently a year ago. It is extrely cautious, so it did not approach directly. Instead, it dispatched its human collaborators to perform a ritual on the surface to ascertain my status."
That explained the ritual traces Jenkins had discovered beneath the dead leaves behind the manor.
"Do you know what it's planning?"
"No. I only know that three hundred years ago, its plan was to transform itself into a Beast of Calamity, thereby achieving true immortality."
"And do you know anything about the Reverser of Fate ritual?"
The bust went silent for a mont. The hollow blue sphere in Jenkins's hand pulsed with light in a steady, breathing rhythm.
"My apologies. A search of my database yields no information on that subject."
Jenkins had anticipated as much. This machine was only a fragnt of the whole; its database was bound to be limited. He hadn't held out much hope, so he felt no disappointnt.
"One last question. You said your calculations showed that a human nad 'Redemptor' would beco the Calamity with your help. Was that your calculation, or a calculation you made together?"
"That calculation was perford after our separation. With my current structure, I was able to complete one final, large-scale divination simulation."
That was a relief. If the calculation had been made before the split, Jenkins would have been worried about a chain-linked tentacle suddenly lashing out from the shadows.
The bust's hands moved, their motion even more sluggish now that the core had been separated from its body.
"You need not worry about it ambushing you here. In truth, whether it is my calculation or its, Great Wisdom's computations are not one hundred percent accurate. According to the prophecy, my divination indicated that Redemptor would appear before last sumr or autumn, giving half a year for his tutelage. It seems the deviation was small, but quite fatal."
The bust had made its prediction on a three-hundred-year tiscale, so a six-month discrepancy was, from its perspective, minor. But Jenkins knew better. If one discounted the variable of the outsider's arrival—a factor absent from the divination model—its prediction had been remarkably precise.
The thought was terrifying. If a re fragnt possessed such an ability, he could only imagine the power of the complete entity he had yet to face.
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