Jenkins shook his head vigorously.
"Alexia, have you been reading so strange novels lately? Please, rest assured, I'm not that kind of person. I'll be back as soon as I can. I know there are people waiting for ."
"Words are cheap. What gives you such confidence?"
Alexia pressed.
"That drop of godhood."
"I'd bet anything that drop of godhood will be completely spent before you even climb to the ninth floor to see the Difference Engine."
"What makes you say that?"
"Jenkins, have you forgotten? I can perform divination too."
Alexia's thod of divination was different from Audrey's, bearing more resemblance to the Difference Engine itself.
"So, aside from the godhood, where does your confidence co from? Don't tell you just feel like fate will protect you."
"I... my essence. This question has been troubling for a long ti. But now, I'm quite certain my essence is not life, not death, not machinery, not even fate or reality."
"Then what is it?"
"I don't know. But I'm sure it's my key to final victory."
"Jenkins, think. Think about all the things that have happened around you, all those events tinged with the flavor of 'fate'. Those are what will ultimately help you, not so uncertain 'essence'."
Alexia let go of Jenkins's hand, then suddenly rose onto her toes and grabbed his collar, forcing him to bend down.
"Jenkins, you have to co back."
"I know."
She looked up and kissed him, holding on for a long mont before releasing his collar. It was the first ti he had ever seen Alexia's eyes so red. He opened his arms and pulled her into an embrace.
"You should have faith in . Have I ever failed before?"
"I'm still too weak. If I were stronger, maybe I could help you, or at least go into that tower with you."
"Don't be foolish, Alexia. When did you beco so irrational? Do you really think I'd let you face that kind of danger with ?"
Jenkins smiled and gently released her.
"I'm already planning my life after moving to Bel Diran. How could I possibly not return? I promise, I will absolutely co back."
He repeated his vow, then added with a grin,
"I swear it in Chocolate's na. Do you believe now?"
"Speaking of which, are you planning to take Chocolate into the tower with you?"
Alexia changed the subject abruptly. Jenkins guessed she didn't want to dwell on things that made her uneasy.
"Of course not. It's too dangerous in there. Why would I take Chocolate? I plan to have soone look after her for a while,"
Jenkins replied.
"Then you should take a ticket with you. B-11-5-2305, the 'Howard Ticket'. It will at least guarantee you one chance to get out of that tower."
"Of course. If it were possible, I'd want to take ten. I'm just worried that if I leave from the third floor, I might have to start over from the first to get back in. That's not an unlikely scenario."
He chuckled. Just then, Audrey called for him. The diviner had sothing to discuss with Jenkins.
Left alone, Alexia didn't linger to wallow in sorrow. Instead, after taking a few deep breaths, she walked briskly to Jenkins's room in the church and retrieved a box that was stored with B-11-5-9421, the "Reversed Blessing Bracelet - Love," which Jenkins had hidden away.
The box had been sent from the future by Jenkins's future niece, ant to give him a second chance. Alexia had kept it at the Legacy Sage Church all this ti, believing it was the safest place.
Even Jenkins didn't know the origin of the box; he assud it was one of Alexia's treasures.
"If I only find out what this is when it's ti to use it, wouldn't that be a bit foolish?"
Without hesitation, she pressed the button on the clasp and opened the box. She peered inside, then took out a letter. The white envelope had no recipient written on it, and in place of a postage stamp was a simple line drawing of a cat, which surprisingly captured Chocolate's spirit.
There was a sentence written on the envelope:
"Uncle Jenkins says that if you know a secret, you either never tell it, or if you do, you tell the whole thing. He hates 'riddle-makers' who only tell half the story."
Alexia shook her head with a small smile and opened the letter. It was a single, handwritten page, bearing nine hyphenated phrases:
"Ice of the Starry Sky, A Noble Death, An Ancient Love, The Silver Dragon, The Ancient Host, Four in One, A Mortal God, Lord of All Machines, Sincere Friendship."
She froze for a mont, then a genuine smile blood on her face. After a dozen seconds, she closed the box, placing the letter back with the other items she hadn't removed.
She then returned to the dining table. Jenkins, who had been called away by Audrey, hadn't co back yet, but the other ladies had already started their al. Alexia sat down in her seat, the gloomy mood from before completely gone.
She looked around the table, at everyone gathered there.
"Is sothing wrong?"
Hathaway noticed the change in her friend's deanor.
"I was just thinking that Jenkins's greatest treasure is the friendships he's made since coming here. Every step he's taken, every footprint he's left behind, has value."
"What do you an?"
Hathaway asked again.
"I don't entirely understand it myself. But I believe he will definitely return on ti. Yes, he definitely will."
When Audrey called Jenkins away, it wasn't for a final farewell. The truth was, the Church had discovered the eighth Doomsday Docunt. The tablet hadn't been hidden within the negotiation hall manifested by the Gate of All Things, but in the courtyard directly beneath it, very close to the patch of Fantasy Flowers.
The Church had simply sent soone with a shovel, and with a few casual digs, they unearthed the stone tablet from the shallow ground. It was the eighth slate, and it continued the cryptic, enigmatic style of the others:
"The tender sprout erges from the ground, Unaware the world has already changed.
Grey mist obscures the sun, Black clouds stretch across the sky.
All that can be imagined, All that cannot be imagined, All that is unimaginable.
Has long since shown its signs.
The gods watch from the clouds as the end arrives, The King of n raises his sharp sword.
A cry cos from the abyss:
This is the final chapter—
Steam!
This is the final cry—
Doomsday!
And this is the final duel—
Sin and Redemption."
"I understand the rest, but why does the content of this tablet read like the last verse of a long poem?"
This was Jenkins's question after reading its contents.
"Indeed. The last few stanzas explicitly ntion the end, so it does feel like the final tablet,"
Audrey agreed.
"But clearly, we only know of eight Savior's Emblems... Could it be that the Believers of Lies, who are suspected of faking their deaths, truly did it to hide the qualification symbolizing destiny? And not because there were only two of them?"
As she voiced a theory she knew was likely incorrect, she glanced at Jenkins. He blinked once, then imdiately steered the conversation away from the Believers of Lies.
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