This ti, Jenkins knew what the thing in his dream was: the despicable puppet from beneath the manor. But the sealed puppet hadn't granted this mortal any extraordinary power. It couldn't waste its precious energy on such trivial matters; it was still waiting to encounter so greedy Enchanter directly.
After a torrent of pleas, cries, and oaths, the puppet grudgingly revealed the location of an Extraordinary item buried near the estate. After that, the power of the seal severed its connection to the material world once again.
B-04-3-7292, the Soul Box. A powerful Extraordinary item that had mutated from an ancient lich's phylactery, it allowed any creature with a soul to hide one-third of it inside. The user would gain a host of special abilities—soul transference, immortality, possession, and more. Even a mortal with no Enchanter's talent could harness a portion of its power.
In the fifth year after Corin Audley had more or less figured out the item's true purpose, a group of young travelers arrived at the mountain estate, just as they did every year. Jenkins already knew what happened next. The old man, outwitted by Quake, ultimately t his end from one of Jenkins's own unaid bullets.
He had already found a new body for himself, so he seized the opportunity to travel to Nolan City and start his life anew. And the truth behind that body's immunity to the influence of a Mysterious Realm was that Audley, in his correspondence with the young killer, had warned him of the dangers that existed in the world.
Once the young killer realized sothing was amiss with his neighbors, he had decisively fled the apartnt. Otherwise, Jenkins would have found one more corpse there.
And Audley, having regained a body and adapted to his new identity, made finding an opportunity for revenge his first order of business. Just then, Jenkins happened to return to Nolan, which led to the ambush that night.
As for his encounter with the black pistol, that was a complete accident. It was more as if the pistol had found him, not the other way around.
That living gun had been manipulating Audley's consciousness from the very beginning; everything that happened tonight had been orchestrated by it. Its true objective was to fuse with Audley's soul, seize the power of B-04-3-7292, and thereby escape its seal completely.
But unfortunately for it, fate had it choose an opponent who happened to be an outworlder, incandescent with rage at having nearly lost his pet.
In the heavens, a god read the history of a pathetic soul. On the ground, a cat found a new toy.
The pistol, though grievously wounded from its confrontation with a god, still had the strength to escape. After crashing to the ground, the gun slumped onto the pavent like a heap of sludge. Black tallic threads extended from its barely-there fra, and it gradually morphed into the shape of a spider. The terrifying black creature skittered across the ground toward the shadows, only to be pinned down by a cat that erged from them.
"ow~"
It was a simple, ordinary ow, yet it was suffused with an indescribable malevolence.
Chocolate had only ant to play dead earlier, to teach Jenkins to cherish it more. But it hadn't expected to see the man so utterly grief-stricken. It would never admit it had made a mistake, so it could only bla the other participant in the affair.
"ow~"
Even though it had lost so of its power by forcing its way into the material world, Chocolate's strength was still leagues beyond that of so half-baked pseudo-god or the sealed descendant of a Calamity. It was nightti in the material world—the period when its power was at its absolute peak.
The cat's front paw pinned the crawling tal spider. A curse spread from the black tal creature to the cat's paw, but it dissipated before it could even touch its leg.
Chink~
Its two claws struck the tallic surface again and again, just like when it batted at tal blocks. But this ti, the cat didn't have to worry about Jenkins finding out, nor did it have to worry about the integrity of its plaything.
A bright yellow radiance flickered beneath its paws as the power of shadows converged upon its body. Chocolate sat down before its enemy, its two little paws striking relentlessly, so fast they beca a blur. Its expression was completely serious, its whiskers twitching in rhythm with the movents of its limbs.
The third strike cracked the tal spider. The tenth strike shattered the thing beneath its paw. By the twenty-seventh strike, the pistol's various components lay scattered across the ground. And after the forty-fifth strike, the cat opened its massive jaws and swallowed the concept whole.
Born in the shadow realm, it had gained the ability to manipulate shadows. By swallowing the primordial moon, it had acquired the power of that bright yellow celestial body. But in truth, the real talent bestowed upon Chocolate by fate was devouring.
Jenkins, having exhausted his divinity, destroyed the soul in his hand and, following the faint connection, annihilated the soul fragnt within the distant Soul Box. By the ti he descended to the ground and returned to his body, the well-behaved cat was loyally guarding the three figures.
"Good job, Chocolate!"
Jenkins stroked the cat's head, then quickly ran to where the gun had fallen, only to find a pile of fragnts. His Eye of Reality swept the area, revealing nothing out of the ordinary. When he consulted his mory, it seed the gun's ability to interfere with it had vanished as well.
"So it was destroyed by earlier. Was it from the shockwave of divine power... That's good, too."
He let out a sigh of relief, bent down to pick up two bearings that were glowing with white spiritual light, and then slipped past the growing number of police officers who had been drawn to the scene. Under the moonlight, he fled into the distance, carrying the slumbering girls.
Although Hathaway and Briny were both quite slender, their combined weight was still a heavy burden for Jenkins. He didn't know their intended lodging, so he simply found a random inn in the small town to stay the night. The middle-aged owner at the front desk must have seen his fair share of strange sights, as he didn't show the slightest surprise when Jenkins walked in carrying two young won.
In fact, after Jenkins extravagantly requested the best room, the owner even slipped him two little blue candies. But Jenkins was in no mood for such things right now and casually tossed them to the cat trailing at his heels. For once, Chocolate showed no interest in candy either, disdainfully flicking them toward a mouse in the corner of the room.
The poor mouse was so terrified it was on the verge of fainting.
After placing the girls on the bed, Jenkins carefully approached the window. He parted the curtains with a finger and peered outside. The police were searching the street below, but he knew they would find absolutely nothing.
"So," he mused, "how am I supposed to sleep tonight?"
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