Chapter 2219: Ancient Spiritual Power |
Of the twenty-four demigods who had entered the Mysterious Realm through the briefcase, Jenkins was familiar with most, but he didn't see Miss Bevanna among them. While they didn't represent the absolute strongest combat force in the material world—as some had to remain outside to prevent them from being wiped out in one fell swoop in case of failure—they were certainly the most powerful support the Church could provide for Jenkins.
"Stay away from the square," Jenkins's voice boomed from atop the spiraling fusion of metal and plant life. "Go to the nodes far from here and help suppress those tentacles that look different."
He was positioned at the very center of the subterranean metal monstrosity, but it was common for a mechanical lifeform to have multiple nodes. Thus, the other locations also needed to be subdued.
Jenkins hadn't been standing idle. He had been controlling his power, focusing all his strength on suppressing the core body of the Difference Engine buried deep underground while simultaneously trying to locate its true nucleus.
But so far, his spiritual aura alone hadn't revealed anything. It seemed he would truly have to defeat the "second phase of the Difference Engine" to see the core hidden in the deepest recesses of this Mysterious Realm.
The demigods followed Jenkins's instructions, flying to various parts of the city. As the glow of divine arts and rituals blossomed across "Nolan," the colossal body that occupied the entire city's underbelly could finally no longer concentrate all its strength to battle Jenkins above the square.
A bronze radiance bloomed beneath Jenkins's feet. Even though he couldn't fully utilize his Principle of All Machines ability or summon its crucial bronze tome at this moment, he had perfected his control over the balance of life, death, and machinery in the last Mysterious Realm. He could now unleash mechanical power through plants.
The bronze light, a symbol of his dominion over machines, bolstered the strength of the vines beneath him, allowing them to instantly overpower the entangled metal tentacles.
Under the deep night sky, the clash of bronze and brass completely eclipsed the moonlight. The powers of machinery ground against each other, but with the power of life aiding one side, Jenkins held the advantage.
"Now! Spiritual Communion!"
A formidable soul power, carrying with it a torrential mental force, surged down the double-helix structure beneath his feet and into the earth. The resonance caused by this spiritual power sent a wave of alarm through the giant metal body that had not yet fully emerged. The tentacles, dancing wildly beneath the moon, thrashed like mad, churning the air and spraying a deadly toxic mist.
There was no fog, yet the already dark night sky grew even more somber. The "myriad lights" of Nolan City's night gradually dimmed, as if they were colors fading from an old photograph. With the end of the first phase and the start of the second, the Mysterious Realm itself was undergoing a strange transformation.
Everything around them was now veiled in a hazy mist, reminiscent of the apocalyptic scenes in the outside world. But the real world had not yet reached this point. It seemed as if even space itself was being corroded by the power of sin.
If Jenkins couldn't defeat the Difference Engine, the real world would, sooner or later, become just like this—plunged into the deepest, darkest doomsday.
An Enchanter's "ability" possessed characteristics distinct from any ritual or supernatural effect. Belonging to the life category of abilities, Spiritual Communion, amplified by Jenkins's ever-strengthening soul, almost instantly connected him to the emotions of the giant metal creature hidden underground.
Because it had emotions, Jenkins considered it a living being. But this was definitely not the core of the Difference Engine. The machine had fragmented its already shattered soul, granting a minuscule portion to Jenkins's current foe. It lacked the true nucleus of the Difference Engine and was merely a critical part of its body, but filled with a trace of soul, its power was not to be underestimated.
A trace of soul was enough to give birth to emotion, and that trace of emotion was enough for Jenkins to capture. The moment their consciousnesses touched, a message was transmitted from the other side, as if it had been programmed to do so upon contact:
"Savior Williamette, you used this power that can directly communicate with the soul while facing my body. What method will you use now to face my core?"
"Are you trying to say I've fallen into your trap again, that I've used a crucial power too early?"
"No. I'm just saying that without this bargaining chip, your probability of victory has decreased once again."
"So you were that worried I would use your fractured soul to find a way to defeat you."
The exchange of consciousness happened in an instant. The massive mechanical body resisted Jenkins's mental communion, but with only a meager amount of soul power, it was impossible to repel his psychic connection.
Though Jenkins had gained the upper hand on the mental plane, on the material plane, the mechanical body, sensing the crisis, almost instinctively unleashed even more power. The diffusing gray mist had already blanketed the entire city, but the distant glows of divine arts showed that the Church's demigods were fighting with all their might, helping Jenkins suppress the rampaging metal monster.
Jenkins simultaneously used his spiritual power to try and interfere with the enemy's control while retracting his spiral sword and taking out his cane. Gripping it with both hands, he plunged it into the spiral "mountain range" formed by the double-helix structure beneath him.
A green radiance once again spurred the vines to relentlessly attack the metal tentacles. The colossal metal lifeform, a splinter of the Difference Engine's main body, was on the verge of being completely overwhelmed.
It was at this very moment that a clear, resounding bell toll echoed from the distance once more. The sound seemed to originate from the border of the Mysterious Realm, and in an instant, it reverberated throughout the entire world.
Stimulated by the bell, the power of the colossal metal creature buried deep underground suddenly surged. Caught off guard, Jenkins nearly lost control of the double-helix structure beneath his feet.
He felt a deeper, more ancient power seeping into the metal giant's shell. On the plane of soul and consciousness, Jenkins sensed a vast mental force originating from the past.
It must be emphasized that while the Difference Engine was once a soulless structure of pure gears, that didn't mean it had never studied souls and spiritual power. The shell the Difference Engine was created with wasn't actually that large; it was over the past ten thousand years that it had continuously added new functional modules to itself. Therefore, the appearance of this spiritual force from an ancient age was not an impossible occurrence.
That spiritual power integrated almost perfectly into the metal giant's faint soul. Jenkins, in contact with it, immediately felt the helplessness, confusion, and despair within the mental force.
"What is this?"
A mortal might worry about such a force contaminating their own spirit, but Jenkins had no such concern. He continued to rely on the strength of his soul, communicating with the fractured soul in a near-overwhelming manner. At the same time, even though the Difference Engine's core had infused this body with more power, the advantage remained with Jenkins, as it was not under the core's direct control.
The surrounding gray mist grew ever thicker, but the twenty-four demigods had come prepared; they weren't here just to make an appearance. Everyone had come with resolve. Although Jenkins didn't rely on the Church's power, the Orthodox Churches were, by any measure, the most powerful supernatural organization in the material world.
The light of divine arts and the aura of incantations twisted together with the gray mist, making the Nolan within the Mysterious Realm an even more terrifying place. It wasn't just the earth; this inherently unstable fragment of space had exceeded its capacity and begun to show cracks. The space was vibrating—a detail an ordinary person might not notice, but both Jenkins and the Difference Engine understood what it meant.
"World Tree!"
Jenkins shouted, and even though the World Tree Seedling ability could not fully manifest, the faint image of a colossal tree still appeared behind him. It wasn't the usual phantom of the World Tree, but rather one that resembled the steel giant from the previous world.
The flow of spirit drove his body to command even greater power. The veins beneath his skin bulged, as if tracing enormous runes across his body. His eyes seemed to flash with light, and his arm and the cane he held appeared to merge into one. Jenkins's figure, standing high in the sky, flickered in and out of view, and for a moment, no one could be certain that he existed in this continuous flow of time.
This nearly all-out, crushing force was on the verge of destroying the metal giant underground. But at that moment, the suppressed, fractured soul stirred. It channeled the spiritual power transmitted by the bell from the Difference Engine's core and manifested the phantom of a man before Jenkins's eyes.
This phenomenon was a product of their clashing spiritual forces. If Jenkins were to break contact with the fractured soul, the phantom could not affect him at all.
"What new trick are you trying to pull?"
Golden ripples spread from the distance—a divine art from one of the demigods, somehow augmenting Jenkins's power at this moment. Yet the phantom remained unchanged within the golden waves. A translucent man stood in the air, gazing at Jenkins atop the spiral structure. He wore a simple linen robe, a white ribbon was wrapped around his head, and tucked into the ribbon was a single, brightly colored feather from some unknown animal.
"Is a future of machinery not a good thing?"
This wasn't the Difference Engine speaking to Jenkins. He could feel it; this was the thought of a past being made manifest by that spiritual power. This was an ancient human who had died long ago, a spiritual imprint preserved by the Difference Engine.
"What's so good about a future of machinery?"
"Humanity is too weak," the man's thoughts conveyed. "We cannot defeat those terrifying other races. If we could turn our flesh to metal, our bones to steel, and our organs to gears, we too could claim a piece of this world for ourselves..."
This person must have lived in a very ancient era, a time when humanity was exceptionally weak.
From the distant past to the present, the Difference Engine had never lacked for supporters. And now, those supporters from the past had appeared.