Few people slept that night. Around two in the morning, Jenkins was in the drawing-room with Miss Bevanna and Miss Stevel, discussing their plans for the hours ahead. Just then, word arrived from outside the city: the Children of the Mist had appeared on the outskirts of Nolan.
Miss Bevanna hurried off to help. Jenkins yawned, stroking Chocolate, who was sleeping peacefully on his lap. He was about to say sothing more, but Miss Stevel was already rising to leave:
"I can't be gone too long, or they'll suspect ."
Jenkins tidied up, planning to find a room to rest for a while, but he had barely taken a few steps out of the drawing-room when he saw Miss Audrey and the people from the Church of Destiny and Equilibrium hurrying toward him:
"Jenkins, over here!"
She waved him over, and it was only then that Jenkins saw Miss Broniaons was with them:
"Is the divination finished?"
"It was interrupted. My teacher needed several hours of rest to recover, but thankfully, we still made so progress."
The results of the divination had already been sent to the Evergreen Forest. Miss Audrey and her group had co to the Sage's Church for two reasons: to participate in the negotiations in a few hours, and to deliver the news to Jenkins personally.
Returning to the sa room, they asked a nun to prepare so tea. The people accompanying Miss Audrey placed a file on the table and departed, quickly leaving only Jenkins and the two diviners in the room.
Jenkins had expected Miss Broniaons to first ask about the sacrifice of the Believers of Lies, or even to perform a divination herself to verify the authenticity of the remains. But she asked nothing, seemingly uninterested in their deaths.
Jenkins picked up the file. The report was quite thick. He flipped straight to the last section to read the conclusions. As he read, Miss Audrey spoke:
"The prophecy of 'The Hour of Awakening, the Day the Bell Tolls' has co true, which indirectly proves the reliability of this divination. Therefore, I believe the other parts of the report are also highly accurate. Even though it was cut short, it was still a successful divination."
Miss Broniaons's divination focused mainly on the eight-story tal tower. Building on the conclusions obtained from Magic Miss and the northern tower, she made a further discovery: the order of the tower's levels was chaotic.
In other words, while the characteristics of each level were visible from the outside, once inside, the sequence of the Mysterious Realms' thes would likely not match the external order.
Additionally, the divination revealed so details about the characteristics of the Mysterious Realms. Because the process was incomplete, the jumbled revelations were difficult to interpret, but one thing was certain: regardless of each level's the, every single one would be related to machinery.
And more importantly, perhaps those Mysterious Realms were not purely Mysterious Realms.
"What do you an?"
The file didn't elaborate on this point, so Jenkins had to ask the diviners directly. Miss Broniaons still looked weak, but she answered his question:
"Ti. Halfway through the divination, I discovered it. The tower contains the power of ti. I should say, I didn't even discover this through divination. Rather, it was a natural sensation I felt—the terror behind the curtain—as my consciousness tried to pierce the mist."
"I've never heard of the Difference Engine having power over ti... Right."
It had indeed demonstrated the ability to stop ti today, a power originating from the clock that was damaged last autumn.
"Jenkins, since you've joined our school of thought, I assu Audrey has discussed topics related to ti with you. Our school was founded by an exceptional ancient diviner. She pointed out that divination and prophecy, in a sense, are also forms of interference with ti, because we are observing the future."
Jenkins had indeed seen this viewpoint more than once in the notes of Oviya, the young diviner.
"So, as you delve deeper into the knowledge and power passed down by our school, you will find that our legacy also involves a partial understanding of ti. My interpretation of that tower is that it contains the power of past ti."
"I still don't understand."
"Neither do we."
Miss Audrey said:
"So, this is sothing you'll have to figure out for yourself. After all, you're the Savior, aren't you?"
Synthesizing the information he'd gathered from the frozen tower, Magic Miss, the diviners, and the [A4 Type Arithtic Auxiliary External Machine], Jenkins now had a preliminary understanding of the nine-story tal tower (currently eight stories).
Each level of the tower corresponded to a Mysterious Realm, and the the of each realm was to 'counter' a Savior's ability. The nine Mysterious Realms were interconnected; aside from the first and the last, the exit of one was the entrance to the next.
These nine realms ford an even larger, overarching Mysterious Realm, which ant that each ability could only be used once across all nine levels, rather than resetting upon entering the next one.
And in addition to countering the Savior's abilities, the nine Mysterious Realms also contained the power of machinery and the power of past ti. This made the already perilous realms even more formidable. The Difference Engine would, in all likelihood, be waiting at the very end of this massive-scale Mysterious Realm, waiting for Jenkins after he had exhausted nearly all his abilities.
Therefore, unless it was a matter of last resort, he would not consider entering that tower. It was clearly a trap, a chessboard set by the Difference Engine in its quest to truly beco a Beast of Calamity.
"So, as long as I don't go in there, what we'll be fighting won't be a Beast of Calamity."
He reached this conclusion, but then asked himself:
"But the Difference Engine has already tried to ascend to a Beast of Calamity through other ans twice now. There might be a third. And if it does ascend using a third thod—which the possibilities have already indicated is very likely—and then uses the Reverse-Fated Ritual as a way to absorb even more power in its new form as a Beast of Calamity, what am I supposed to do?"
It was now long past midnight. Everything that had happened yesterday, from that strange and vast dream to the three declarations issued to the world, could have allowed it to transcend its own nature. Jenkins had only managed to disrupt a part of each attempt.
"So, it was scared by the God of Lies, and that's why it gave up waiting for all nine stories of the tower to rise? It switched to ascending imdiately through other ans so it could deal with the Savior... Thinking about it this way, did I cause all of this?"
The more he thought about it, the more certain he beca that this was the reason the Difference Engine had suddenly changed its established strategy. Especially that first battle yesterday, the one on the coast against the chanical n from behind the giant brass gate. In hindsight, it felt very much like the enemy was testing the Savior's power to decide which thod of ascension to use.
"On one hand, it was spooked by the God of Lies, who shouldn't have appeared in the material world at this ti. On the other, it discovered that there was only one Savior, and that this person was incredibly powerful... Could it really have been that scared?"
He grew more and more convinced of his theory. He wanted to stop the Difference Engine from using a third thod to ascend, but he had no idea what it planned to do. The Difference Engine's plan had been in motion for over a thousand years. By tomorrow, Sunday, Jenkins would have been in this world for only a single year. If fate wasn't playing so kind of cosmic joke, there would be no comparison between the two of them.
The ti had reached three in the morning, but Jenkins felt not the slightest bit sleepy. He stood in the hallway, staring at an oil painting on the opposite wall, unsure of what he should be doing. Ti was pressing, yet he was helpless, able only to wait for his opponent to make the next move. That was the most agonizing part of it all.
He rubbed his face, then went to the kitchen to fix a late-night snack, sharing it with Chocolate, who had been 'awakened' by the aroma. Afterward, he went to the Gate of All Things and t with the Keeper of Secrets.
The Keeper Jenkins knew best was Mr. Smith, but the old gentleman had recently been stationed at the base of the tal tower. The one on duty here now was a female Keeper, old Mrs. Aria.
Although the Gate of All Things projected its internal space directly into the sky, the true, physical gate still existed here underground, and it was open about sixty degrees. Peering inside, however, revealed only complete darkness.
"You can also return directly to that side from here."
the Keeper explained, before asking Jenkins his reason for coming.
"I wanted to ask if the Church has a way for soone to learn an ability directly. Papa Oliver told about a thod that uses empty bubbles as the price, but that sacrifice is too great. Is there a way with a slightly smaller cost?"
"What ability do you want to learn?"
"The Aegis of Books."
Jenkins had no intention of lying:
"The Church has tried to arrange it for many tis before, but sothing always ca up. And now, it's even more impossible to coordinate the venue and personnel for the ritual amidst this chaos. Besides, I don't think it would succeed anyway... But I really need this ability, which is why I ca to ask if there was another way."
The Keeper nodded, bowing her head in thought for a long while:
"What kind of sacrifice can you accept? Or, what price are you willing to pay?"
Her question ant she must have thought of sothing. Jenkins answered with conviction:
"First, it can't affect my own strength. Otherwise, trading power for power would be aningless. It can't sacrifice my emotions, or the people close to . Other than that... though it may sound harsh, I can sacrifice anything else."
"Then there is no other way, Saint Williatte. You know what abilities an to an Enchanter. To gain an ability, you must lose sothing. If it were simple for an Enchanter to learn an ability they aren't ant to have, then neither the Church nor the heretics would need to bother cultivating young people with specific talents.
The thod Oliver ntioned is actually one of the lower-cost options. For 'The Aegis of Books'... sacrificing five bubbles should be about right."
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