Chapter 2218: Twenty-Four Demigods |
As the ground trembled violently, the vines blanketing the square writhed, poised to confront the next adversary. Jenkins saw Papa Oliver retreat from the square, watching from the entrance of a connecting street. Meanwhile, Chocolate had scrambled onto the roof of a nearby apartment building, paws resting on his backpack, his eyes fixed intently on Jenkins.
Perched atop the mass of vines, Jenkins had no time for his cat. He commanded the plants beneath him, raising himself higher to survey the city. At the edge of his vision lay the encompassing darkness, a stark reminder that this was a Mysterious Realm, and the borders of Nolan were its absolute limits.
Within the confines of the Mysterious Realm, accompanied by the roaring quake and bathed in the light of the twin-colored moons, black metallic tentacles with swirling patterns erupted from the earth. One by one, they pierced the ground, stretching from the depths toward the sky.
The tentacles were metallic, their surfaces bearing regular patterns from some unique forging process. But those markings seemed to radiate an infinite malice, warping the very rules of this world and transmuting everything in their vicinity into metal.
They writhed and danced, tearing through buildings, flinging fragments of furniture and ceiling debris into the air as they swayed wildly in the moonlight. A resonant spirit spread out, blanketing the entire Mysterious Realm.
The moonlight still shone down. The weather hadn't changed, and the two unnervingly full moons continued to hang in the sky, yet the heavens had inexplicably grown dimmer.
Whispers, born from the friction of metal on metal, echoed from deep within the earth. This wasn't some contrived effect to build atmosphere; it was a sign. The Difference Engine was about to cross the threshold and complete the most crucial step of its ascension.
One after another, the cylindrical tentacles rose, conquering the night sky in a matter of breaths. It was as if the entire city rested upon the back of some colossal monster, and that monster was now stirring from its slumber.
The vines beneath him struggled to maintain their balance, shielding Jenkins from the violent jolts of the trembling earth. But that stability was short-lived. Directly beneath the city square, a furious eruption of metallic tentacles burst forth—this was, after all, the very heart of the Difference Engine.
The vines' growth rate had its limits, so Jenkins could only command all the vegetation in the square to wrap itself around the colossal tentacles emerging from the depths.
The two forces battled ceaselessly, pressed tightly against one another as they spiraled upward. Even the roots of the vines became entangled with the subterranean sections of the metal limbs, churning together until the entire square was coated in a grotesque slurry of plant sap and metal shavings.
The two opposing tendrils continued to extend upward until, finally, both metal and vine materialized beneath Jenkins's feet. With a light stomp, he brought the growth of both to an abrupt halt. They froze in place.
Jenkins now stood at the summit of what looked like a mountain range, a spiral peak constructed from metal and vines entwined in a display of terrible beauty.
The writhing vines and metal continued their struggle beneath his feet. The thick, coarse stems and leaves of the plants resembled terrifying external organs, while the dark patterns on the metal glinted like countless opening eyes.
They remained defiant, yet both were held in check by Jenkins's power. He tilted his head back, gazing at the moons, but could feel none of their power, nor that of the stars.
The inhabitants of the Mysterious Realm had inexplicably vanished with the onset of the earthquake, as if the very essence of this world had shifted in an instant. Its rules now completely suppressed the power of flesh and blood, giving the advantage to metal and machinery.
At the edge of the square, standing directly below the roof where Chocolate perched, Papa Oliver stared, dumbfounded, at Jenkins atop the spiral peak. Before he could utter a word, the briefcase in his hands suddenly began to glow:
"Finally! What took you so long!"
Papa Oliver hurriedly dropped to one knee and carefully placed the briefcase flat on the ground, the side bearing the Traveler's holy emblem facing upward.
From the rooftop, Chocolate peered over the edge, curious to see what Papa Oliver was doing, all while cautiously keeping watch over the immediate area.
Papa Oliver whispered a brief prayer to the Sage. Then, amidst the continuous tremors, he carefully unfastened the latches on either side of the briefcase with a soft click. As he lifted the lid, Chocolate peered down from above and saw that the inside of the case opened into a large hole, as if it were a portal leading deep into the earth.
"Meow?"
Chocolate scratched his face with a tiny paw just as a man's head emerged from the hole in the briefcase. Since he could only look up from within the portal, the first thing Mr. Gilbert saw—even before spotting Papa Oliver—was the curious cat peering down from almost directly overhead:
"Oh, by the Sage! I see Jenkins's cat! I see his cat! It's him! Miss Miller said that if we saw the cat, we'd know we were in the right place! Yes, it really worked this time! I'm through!"
the relatively young demigod exclaimed, before Papa Oliver grabbed him by the collar and hauled him out of the briefcase. The ground was still shaking, so they quickly worked to secure the case, keeping it pressed firmly to the earth.
After the first man emerged, Chocolate could hear faint cheers and prayers echoing from the other side of the portal. A second head soon appeared in the opening, and Papa Oliver and Mr. Gilbert joined forces to pull him out.
But that wasn't the end of it. The old gravedigger's feet were tangled in the straps of the coffin he always carried, so after hauling him out, they had to help him hoist the coffin onto the ground as well.
A steady stream of people emerged from Papa Oliver's briefcase, pouring into the Mysterious Realm. Even Chocolate couldn't discern the origins of the strange case, which had forcibly torn a passage between this place and the material world.
One by one, they climbed out of the case. The first demigods to arrive had already launched themselves into the sky to help Jenkins suppress the rampaging mechanical tentacles.
However, the passage opened by the briefcase couldn't remain connected to the outside world indefinitely, and not everyone would be able to make it through.
In the end, twenty-four people made it into the Mysterious Realm, not counting Papa Oliver. All twenty-four were demigods, though not all of them belonged to the Orthodox Churches. Three were from Pseudo-God churches and had been in negotiations with the Church of the Sage.
Once the black briefcase collapsed into a single point of darkness and vanished, the twenty-four demigods ascended into the sky as one. Papa Oliver had sustained some injuries from losing the power of the "evolution key," so he didn't join them. Instead, he remained on the ground below Chocolate's perch, ready to provide support.