A series of gurgling sounds rose from below; the sea of lava was indeed rising. The temperature here now far exceeded the normal sumr heat in Nolan. Luckily, Chocolate hadn't co along. That cat didn't particularly mind the cold—after all, he could just snuggle into Jenkins's arms—but he absolutely detested the heat.
The thought of his cat made Jenkins's heart clench.
"I have to get out of here."
His gaze grew more determined. Instead of choosing the third tal cocoon, he walked to the edge of the large rock and looked down at the sea of lava.
Scorching air billowed upward, and the acidic gases mixed within it already made his skin prickle uncomfortably. He opened his heavy backpack, taking a long mont to pull out what he needed.
Kneeling on one knee at the edge of the rock, he used a small silver knife to carve marks onto the hard stone surface. Then, he crushed the petals of a small blue flower between his fingers, dripping the juice into the carvings. He placed a small human finger bone, so crystal powder, and a small sapphire onto the ritual array.
There was no starry sky in this Mysterious Realm, so rituals that relied on celestial alignnts were unusable. But this ritual didn't require a connection to the heavens. Jenkins finished by cutting his finger with the dagger and squeezing a drop of his own blood onto the sapphire.
Instantly, the grooves carved by the knife, along with the flower's juice, began to glow. The crystal powder slowly dissolved into the light, and the finger bone and sapphire, placed side by side, rged into one.
When the ritual was complete, only a sapphire-colored finger bone remained. It looked like a work of art. For so reason, most ritual components turned into such beautiful objects after a little processing. But Jenkins, knowing its origin, would never display sothing like this in his ho.
The ritually treated finger bone radiated a palpable chill. Jenkins picked it up and examined it, confirming that the ritual—"Frost Fairy's Sigh," which he had only ever heard about from Dolores—had actually worked. It was a ritual left behind by a Benefactor ancestor of the Stuart family, one Jenkins had never used before.
He tossed the bone in his hand a few tis, then hurled it forward with all his might. It traced a perfect parabolic arc before gravity pulled it down into the lava.
Jenkins counted down silently in his mind, craning his neck over the edge of the rock. When the countdown hit zero, there was a muffled thump, and he saw a jet of frigid air erupt from the depths of the lava, shooting toward the sky like a geyser. The rapidly cooling molten rock ford a solid black mass in the area where the cold air surged.
But this substance didn't last long before it was shattered by a world-shaking roar.
ROAR!
A demon's arm rose slowly from the lava, its movent deliberate and overwhelmingly nacing. The miner and the conductor trembled like leaves in a storm. Even the hundreds of tal cocoons hanging above began to sway erratically, as if in fear of being seized by the massive arm.
Since they didn't have to dodge this ti, he could see the arm in its entirety. It was as thick as the final tier of the tal tower, its skin covered in bulging, greenish veins. The bulging muscles looked like a layer of armor, and unsettling, blasphemous runes glowed a dark green in the light of the lava. The runes were etched so deeply into the muscle fibers that it was impossible to tell if they were natural formations or carved by hand.
The hand had five fingers, just like a human's, but sothing disgusting and blood-red was visible in the crevices of its greenish nails.
The arm erged from the lava, first slapping down precisely on the "fountain of cold," extinguishing it, before reaching for the massive rock where they stood.
Jenkins drew his sword and swung. A flash of white light collided with the arm. As the arm was brutally severed, a chorus of even more chilling roars echoed up from the sea of lava.
"You've disturbed the stray mad demons,"
the human-faced snake warned, its body squirming uneasily. It probably wasn't afraid of the demons, but rather of Jenkins giving it the sa treatnt.
"Wouldn't it be simpler to just throw these two souls down to find the gate? Why are you doing all this aningless stuff?"
"Throw them down? And walk right into your trap?"
Jenkins retorted, turning around. He rummaged through his backpack again and pulled out a black cross. Where the horizontal and vertical bars t, there was a skull face. This was an alchemical item from the Church of Death and End, designed to help guide departed souls on their way.
For Jenkins, as a Saint of the Sage, helping souls move on didn't require such an item. But in this Mysterious Realm, he wasn't sure if ordinary thods would work, so using an item crafted by a professional burial team was a safer bet.
Holding the cross, he approached the miner and the conductor. Whether terrified by Jenkins's sword or by the incessant roars of the demons, they were both huddled into a ball. If their tal cocoons hadn't been so badly damaged, they probably would have crawled back inside.
"I'm not a bad person," he began. "I think I have a way for you to 'move on,' instead of being trapped here as demon bait, suffering for all eternity."
He brandished the cross in his hand.
"Of course, it's just a possibility. So, for now, tell everything you know. Otherwise, I can't guarantee whose hands you'll end up dying at."
"Sir, we're just poor souls..."
"Yes, yes, I know. You're the pitiful souls of our era, victims of the tis, the oppressed masses hidden in corners the great n can't see. You're the ones who truly need saving, the ones who genuinely support our age, yet your lives are still stuck in the last one... Gentlen, is there anything else you'd like to say?"
He looked at the two n, and they looked back at him. Then, they decisively swiveled their heads, letting the faces on the back of their skulls confront Jenkins.
"If you know, then why..."
"You have to give so ti. Did you really think I was soone who could influence the tis in the past?"
He had only been in this world for a year. Although that year had turned him into a beneficiary of the system, none of this could really be blad on him. Twenty years from now, faced with the sa question, he might not have an answer. But right now, he wasn't afraid of such soul-searching inquiries.
"I am just one part of this world. I've seen the fortunes and misfortunes of this age, and I intend to change it. It's just that I haven't succeeded yet, and you've already ended up like this. I mourn your misfortune, but I absolutely will not accept it as my responsibility."
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