Chapter 2217: The Demise of the Gear Man |
After a brief exchange, four vents opened on the Gear Man's back, out of Jenkins’s line of sight. Scorching steam erupted from them, propelling the automaton into the night sky of the artificial Nolan.
"Coward!"
Jenkins exclaimed, but he didn’t use the high stool to take flight.
Vines sprouted beneath his feet, creeping across the ground and swelling in size before writhing upward, lifting Jenkins high into the air. He drew freely upon the immense spirit within him, urging the plants to grow and spread, threatening to engulf the entire plaza.
Chocolate paid no mind to any of this, simply biting the shoulder strap of Jenkins's backpack and leaping onto the vines. Papa Oliver, on the other hand, kept backing away to the edge of the plaza, nervously gripping the handle of his black briefcase.
Seeing Jenkins being lifted high, the Gear Man stopped ascending and hovered at roughly the same altitude as him. With a strange clicking sound, five fist-sized metal spheres shot out from its shoulders, floating in an even formation above its head.
As the broken sword shot out again, the first sphere precisely struck the blade, using a magnetic force to hold it and prevent its return to Jenkins. The remaining four metal spheres flew toward Jenkins in unison. Though they weren't fast, Jenkins, perched atop the vines, had nowhere to dodge.
Not daring to touch these unknown weapons directly, Jenkins raised his right hand and pushed forward, attempting to use his control over metal to stop them. But as soon as his spiritual power made contact, he felt he wasn't touching metal, but some kind of sticky, organic tissue.
"It's a bit like that tentacled creature from under the ship in the last Mysterious Realm..."
The two spheres didn't collide and bounce off; instead, they merged for a moment before immediately separating again. The fifth sphere, which had been blocking the broken sword, now flew over as well. The five spheres began to circle Jenkins, as if looking for an opportunity to attack.
Meanwhile, the Gear Man remained hovering high in the air. At some point, it had raised both its hands. Traces of brass-colored light were gathering above its skyward-facing palms.
With the steam jets on its back blasting at maximum power, the Gear Man aimed its raised hands at Jenkins, and a pillar of brass-colored light erupted toward him.
The substance of this light was metal dust, infused with the corrupting spirit of the Difference Engine. If an ordinary person were to touch even a speck of it, the point of contact would instantly transform from flesh and blood into metal, a corruption that would spontaneously spread throughout their entire body.
Though confident, Jenkins had no intention of taking the hit head-on. But just as he was about to dodge down along the vines, the five spheres circling him unexpectedly linked together, forming a strange barrier resembling a small arcane lock that prevented him from moving.
Then, the brass-colored beam of light engulfed Jenkins's position, even turning the vines beneath his feet into metal. But before the metallic transformation could spread downward, the metal vines were destroyed by more writhing vines from below.
However, there was no sign of Jenkins on the destroyed metal, and even the five spheres had vanished.
The Gear Man looked at the broken sword dancing in the air, which proved Jenkins was still nearby. Its sensors detected the sound of something cutting through the air from behind. It immediately swung its left arm, perfectly batting the incoming metal sphere toward the distant, unseen horizon.
"Quite impressive. At such close range, I didn't even sense that the attacking object was my own creation."
The Gear Man remarked. Seeing that Jenkins still hadn't appeared, it extended its left arm and aimed downward. The arm transformed into a flamethrower nozzle, and roaring flames spewed out, trying to incinerate the vines Jenkins had grown.
Moist plants don't catch fire easily, but the Difference Engine's flames were no ordinary fire. In an instant, a sea of fire covered the public plaza. The continuously growing vines, however, only fed the inferno, preventing it from dying out.
The glare of the fire obscured the moonlight, casting the Gear Man's body in a fiery red glow.
Another strange sound came from below. This time, it didn't have time to react before its own metal sphere destroyed its left leg. All four spheres flew out of the sea of fire, surrounding the Gear Man just as they had threatened Jenkins earlier.
"Savior Williamette, do you know how to use these weapons?"
It said, addressing the sea of fire below.
"Of course I do."
The voice indeed came from below. The Gear Man immediately tried to descend, but the four spheres circling it began to resonate faintly, just as before. Unique, angular runes with no smooth curves appeared on the surfaces of the metal spheres.
The resonating spheres once again activated their imprisoning effect. The Gear Man, however, was not flustered:
"If you think you can rely on this alone..."
An opening appeared on its forehead, between its brows. Four brass chains extended from it, connecting to each of the four metal spheres.
Control of the spheres instantly changed hands. Maintaining this strange configuration, the Gear Man descended into the sea of fire, focusing all its senses downward to pinpoint Jenkins's location.
"Did you really think I couldn't fly?"
Suddenly, a voice came from above—it was Jenkins. But the Gear Man didn't look up to face the threat. It couldn't detect any large organisms above it, so it assumed this was just a trick from the Jenkins hidden in the flames.
And so, the pigeon that was Jenkins landed directly on the Gear Man's head.
A bronze light flickered once more.
Although he still hadn't learned to fly on his own, transforming into a flying animal was no longer difficult for Jenkins. Besides, changing into a creature like a pigeon also reduced his size, making him much harder to detect.
This trick wouldn't have worked against the main body of the Difference Engine, of course, but it was more than enough to deal with the Gear Man.
The flicker of bronze light signified that Jenkins was once again attempting to convert the Gear Man into a machine under his control. And, once again, the Gear Man's first response was to self-destruct.
"Did you think I'd let you explode again?"
The pigeon said, transforming into a ball of violet-gold light and reverting to Jenkins's form. He gestured downward, and the broken blade of the demonic sword flew up, plunging directly into the Gear Man's chest.
The frantic beeping was silenced.
But it wasn't over yet. The once-whole Gear Man instantly broke apart into a shower of small gears that rained down into the sea of fire below. Only a small part of its metal skull, now under Jenkins's control, remained. Without a complete body, however, half a metal head was useless.
Jenkins casually tossed it aside, then drew his Spiral Greatsword to melt the pieces.
With the Gear Man temporarily gone, the flames began to die down. Jenkins was once again lifted high into the air by the vines, looking down at the small gears falling below.
Broken down into individual pieces, the gears' power was diminished. They tried to reassemble but were swarmed and trapped by the growing vines. By the time the Gear Man managed to use its back-mounted steam jets to fly up again, its "thickness" was only a quarter of what it had been.
"Break apart one more time, and you'll probably be finished for good. So, how about we settle this with a single, final blow?"
Jenkins called out across the sky. The Gear Man nodded, offering no further words.
It disintegrated and reformed again in mid-air, shifting from a humanoid shape into a hovering sword. The blade was composed of countless tiny, whirring gears, packed so densely that no gaps were visible, though a closer look revealed the entire structure was rotating. The hilt still had steam vents, using bursts of steam to keep it suspended in the air.
Seeing this, Jenkins gripped his Spiral Greatsword with both hands. Flames roared to life along the blade, and it was impossible to tell if they were from the sword itself or from Jenkins's own bestowed fire.
The gear-sword slowly turned in the night sky, its blade, shimmering with a black spiritual light, pointing toward Jenkins. As the last wisp of flame in the plaza died out, the gear-sword, now bathed in moonlight, plunged down toward Jenkins's head.
The Spiral Greatsword traced a brilliant arc of fire through the air, the tips of its two twisted metal strands pointing toward the sky. First, their blades collided, though neither had a sharp edge due to their construction.
The gear-sword still registered as a blade, so the gears forming its edge instantly shattered into useless metal scraps on impact. But then the gear-sword disintegrated again in mid-air. Countless tiny gears swarmed around the upraised Spiral Greatsword, latching onto its blade piece by piece, threatening to smother the flames in an instant.
"Did you think I wouldn't see that coming?"
Roaring flames erupted with almost explosive force, blasting the scattered gears. Their individual weakness meant the gears closest to the blade melted instantly, dropping like swatted mosquitoes.
Only the gears at the hilt, which had not yet fully disintegrated, remained. Seeing this, they immediately tried to flee higher into the night sky.
"It's no use!"
He held the sword in one hand while his other formed a claw-like gesture aimed at the sky. The fleeing gears felt a pulling force and began to drift slowly toward Jenkins's hand.
"With so few gears left, I don't even need to touch them to take control."
The tiny gears drifted downward bit by bit until they all settled onto Jenkins's hand, their color shifting from brass to bronze.
Jenkins had no use for this metal, so he melted it down as well.
As the molten lump of metal fell to the ground, it signified the complete and utter destruction of the Gear Man.
Though neither side had used any particularly powerful techniques in the recent fight, every move between the nigh-immortal avatar of the World Tree and the seemingly indestructible man of gears carried the threat of death. For a battle between humanoid individuals, it had been incredibly intense.
It wasn't a flashy fight, but it was a genuine life-or-death struggle. Even in his current state, Jenkins had no desire to go through a battle like that again.
But this was not the end. At that moment, the ground finally began to tremble.