A perfect physical form, a grand soul, and the power of the Sage—Jenkins felt that in this mont, he had taken another step beyond being the "strongest in the material world." It wasn't as flawless as his divine state, of course, but his current fusion of a god's soul, a man's body, and a deity's power made him nothing less than a Saint descended upon the mortal realm.
Golden and silver light coiled around his body. The coat bestowed by the Sage, which he had worn specifically to ward off the damp, resonated with the power of the Saint, transforming under the interwoven light into a pure white robe.
The demigods from the Sage Church had already made their way from the city to the docks, arriving just in ti to witness the white-robed Saint, Jenkins Williams, raising his wooden staff high under the lone pillar of celestial light.
Golden, silver, and green spirit swept out in all directions in a nearly visible shockwave. The vines in the sea surged upward with even greater frenzy, causing the giant brass gate, still struggling to open fully, to emit a sharp, groaning sound.
A massive green emblem, the circular sigil of the World Tree, appeared beneath Jenkins's feet, resonating with the world like a vast ritual formation.
The brass gate finally swung wide open, revealing a boundless expanse of swirling black mist. From the depths of that mist ca a dense, high-pitched tallic noise, like millions of insects wailing incessantly.
Two thick tal chains shot out from the depths of the black mist, but before they could reach Jenkins, they were repelled by the gold and silver light coiling around him.
A sea of tentacle-like chains poured from the gate. The turbulent surface of the ocean reflected the giant green emblem beneath Jenkins's feet. Under the reflection of the World Tree Seedling, the vines erupting from the sea intertwined with the ocean of chains. For a mont, the bizarre sounds of their struggle and the constant thud of heavy objects falling from the sky into the sea beca the loudest sounds at the docks.
And behind that ocean of chains, in the depths of the black mist beyond the brass gate, three massive, interlocking gears of varying sizes gradually ca into view.
The golden gear in the upper left was the largest. A dium-sized silver gear was attached to its right, and a brass-colored gear connected with both in the lower right. Only the brass gear had an axle at its center, extending into the darkness within the gate.
Jenkins's purple eyes saw clearly that the axle passed through an ocean of machinery behind the black mist, connecting directly to a pyramid-shaped palace. As the axle turned, the brass gear drove the gold and silver gears in motion.
The world itself seed to emit a soft *click* as the three strange gears began to turn. In that instant, an extrely familiar sensation washed over Jenkins.
His eyes caught the falling tal fragnts from the battle between chains and vines hanging suspended in the air. Above the churning waves, water droplets were frozen in space, yet it felt as if they might resu their fall at any mont.
Ti had stopped. The vines surging from the sea were frozen as well. But everything connected to the brass gate remained untouched by the temporal stasis. The chains moved past the frozen vines and rushed toward Jenkins in the air. In response, Jenkins pointed his staff forward, and the motionless vines sprang to life once more, tangling with the chains again within the frozen ti.
"Why are you unaffected by ti? How are you able to move within this stasis?"
A grand voice questioned him from within the gate.
"Why can you stop ti... That clock. C-08-2-2218, the Stopped Clock, from the thirty-first of last autumn. Even though that clock was destroyed, it seems the Gearsmiths managed to save so of its data."
He took a light step on the air, his body rocketing toward the open gate. The three turning gears imdiately halted, allowing ti to resu its normal flow. A terrifying number of chanical birds took the opportunity to fly out from the black mist, attempting to block his advance.
"Summon the storm!"
A violent pillar of lightning descended from the sky. In the pouring rain, the effect of a single bolt easily spread across the entire area. Arcs of electricity crackled through the air, causing the chanical birds to fall from the sky in droves.
Jenkins had now reached the gate itself. The chains were entangled by the vines, and the descending lightning protected him from the chanical birds.
And so, a new tallic creation erged from the depths of the black mist. This ti, it was the giant, pyramid-shaped palace itself.
The ocean of machinery within the gate automatically assembled itself into instrunts, and the howling wind carried their eerie tallic notes across the sky. Jenkins had no intention of dodging. He flew straight toward the top of the palace as it gradually materialized from the black mist, his target the terrifying, skeleton-like automaton of gears seated upon the throne.
The figure remained seated, motionless, and t the approaching Jenkins with a direct palm strike.
A deafening boom seed to shake the very heavens. Black light and gold-and-silver light clashed, the force so imnse that it even cald the raging sea.
The black mist within the gate was blasted away by the shockwave, allowing the others to see the vast, sea-like expanse of machinery within.
After their first direct confrontation, Jenkins was forced back to his original position, though he appeared unhard. The automaton remained seated on its throne, the right half of its body covered in cracks from which black light flickered. The throne beneath it, connected to the pyramid palace, barely avoided shattering, but the entire right side of the palace had begun to collapse.
The tal chains retracted, wrapping tightly around the floating structure to keep it from falling apart, while the vast number of chanical constructs within the gate flew toward the palace.
It was as if it were absorbing the tal, its own volu growing ever larger. Jenkins didn't wait for it to complete its "transformation." After calming the spirit roiling within him from the palm strike, he threw his staff into the ocean below.
In an instant, a sea of trees burst through the ocean's surface, rising to Jenkins's height. The palace, having absorbed an imnse amount of tal, had already swelled into the form of a giant.
The core of the tal giant was the collapsing palace, the core of the palace was the automaton on the throne, and the core of the automaton was the counterfeit chanical Heart.
The situation was simple. All Jenkins had to do was seize or destroy that heart, and the battle would be his.
The giant raised its hand and swatted at the white-robed Jenkins in the air as if he were a fly. The sea of trees below him imdiately grew upward, bracing itself and catching the palm. Branches and vines snaked through the gaps in the tal hand, continuing to grow and coil around the giant's arm.
The giant shot out hot steam from all over its body, and with the combined thrust of steam engines scattered across its form, it forcefully tore its arm free from the sea of trees.
The sea of trees continued to grow above the ocean, but only the one in the very center managed to beco a "giant tree," lifting Jenkins to the sa height as the giant's heart.
"Jenkins Williams? Who are you, really?"
Even though Jenkins had used only the abilities he was supposed to have, the Difference Engine still sensed sothing was amiss in their brief exchange. Before an intellect like this, any slight flaw could be magnified and scrutinized, especially since the information he had revealed in that dream was anything but ordinary.
Fortunately, Jenkins had never expected to keep his secret forever.
He remained silent, choosing instead to ask a question of his own.
"I am but one of the Savior candidates. Our power is nearly equal at this mont. Do you truly believe you can win?"
"And how long can you maintain this form?" the voice from the tal giant's chest retorted, then added, "Jenkins Williams, perhaps I do know who you are. I believe you must have long seen the path of the machine, how it will extend civilization further than ever before. So why..."
"Because you're on the wrong path."
The giant opened its right palm toward Jenkins. A cannon barrel extended from its center and fired a direct blast at him. The searing white light was once again deflected at a near-ninety-degree angle into the sky. But just then, the huge tal plates on the giant's chest opened, and two black, fish-like objects were launched out on jets of steam.
"Danger!"
Not even the initial blast had given Jenkins such a potent sense of danger. Black spiritual light clung to the surface of the two unknown, dangerous bombs. These had to be another of the Difference Engine's creations; he just didn't know what they were this ti.
He gathered his power once more, pulling another bolt of lightning down from the sky, but this ti, the strike failed to send the chanical projectiles plumting into the ocean.
With a wave of his hand, the sea of trees below extended its branches, but the steam-tailed projectiles pierced straight through them.
If Jenkins currently possessed an ability like [Blessing of the Book], he could have easily blocked the unidentified flying objects. Unfortunately, he did not.
But it didn't matter. He reached forward again. Dense black lines appeared in the void, faintly sketching the silhouette of a colossal beast's maw.
After rging with the Bestowal he had recently acquired, the Creation Pencil's speed was now too fast to perceive. The process was only visible now because of the sheer scale of what he was creating.
Falling rainwater filled the gaps between the lines, instantly turning to solid ice. The beast's teeth, anwhile, were ford from steel that Jenkins himself created.
The mont the projectiles entered the beast's maw, the construct fully materialized and snapped shut. High in the sky, the upper and lower jaws of the beast's head smashed together, its steel teeth clamping down on the flying objects.
The disembodied head, now subject to gravity, plunged with the projectiles into the water below. An explosion followed from beneath the surface. The blast wasn't massive, but amidst the scattering ice, a fine black ash drifted up into the air.
That fleeting sense of danger had co from this black ash. Jenkins didn't recognize it, so he summoned the wind and sent it blowing back toward the tal giant.
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