Chapter 2232: The Aegis of Books |
Amidst the cheers echoing through the sea of stars, Jenkins finally caught his breath and suddenly spoke. The people, lost in celebration and joy, were taken aback for a moment. Then they saw the vortex contract, as if it were about to absorb all the spirit within this starry expanse.
A series of spatial rifts tore through the sea of stars. Behind those tears was not the endless darkness of the void, but swaying metal tentacles, forcing their way into this dimension through the cracks in space.
The vortex finally stabilized. From within its profound darkness, a dense mass of metal tentacles emerged. The tentacles gradually formed a tall, humanoid shape, standing like a titan in the heart of the vortex. Embedded in the center of the tentacled giant's head was a cracked, black sphere. That was the core of the Difference Engine.
Compared to before, the Beast of Calamity's power had noticeably diminished. The coordinated strike from Jenkins and his friends had not been in vain.
The people gathered behind Jenkins, standing on the floor, in the sea of stars, and on the train, all gazing with him at the core of the Difference Engine, now finally revealed.
"Savior, you have far exceeded my calculations. You are indeed the greatest variable, but you have not changed the outcome of this battle. I have truly won."
More and more spatial rifts tore through the artificial starry sky, revealing the enormous metal shell hidden beneath it. Countless echoes reverberated through the sea of stars, as if the Difference Engine were everywhere at once:
"You have used your power, you have used your weapons, you have even used all your mortal bonds. What do you have left now?"
Even with the Silver Dragon, the Star Spirit, Mr. Augustus, and his other friends present, with the combined force of humans and elves standing at the ready, it was undeniably the Difference Engine that held the upper hand in this starry expanse.
The Difference Engine's mechanical kin emerged from the clouds, from the mist, and from the fire. No machine powered by steam could be trusted any longer. People fled across the land, screaming and crying. This was the true prelude to the apocalypse; disaster was about to escalate into the final cataclysm.
The immense giant, formed from twisted metal tentacles, let out a maddening laugh that echoed through the sea of stars. It gave Jenkins no more time for talk. With a swing of its fist, it moved to deliver the final blow. There was no need for any more words.
Chocolate tried to lunge forward but was once again held back by Jenkins. Alexia and the others also moved to intervene, but Jenkins stopped them all.
He stretched out his hand, and the enormous fist instantly retracted. The giant swiftly assumed a defensive stance, but in reality, nothing had happened.
Jenkins didn't mock its caution. Instead, he addressed the sphere on the giant's forehead and asked:
"Since you believe you've calculated everything, then tell me, how much power do I have left?"
"Your spirit is still abundant. You have two final abilities, both tied to the Legacy Sage, which you haven't used yet."
the Difference Engine answered.
"So you knew."
Jenkins remarked with a sigh, then shouted at it:
"Then bring it on. After all this time, we can finally face each other. One last move. Since you think I'm at the end of my rope, then come on. I'll be waiting right here."
He stood on the circular platform floating in the sea of stars, shaking his head at everyone around him, signaling for them not to act.
Jenkins's attitude could have been genuine confidence, or it could have been a deliberate ploy to make his enemy suspicious. But for the Difference Engine, even after ascending to become a Beast of Calamity, its fundamental logic remained unchanged. It only trusted facts derived from its own calculations, and the fact at this moment was that Jenkins had exhausted all possibilities.
Spirit as black as ink flowed from the sphere on its forehead. Brands of great sin followed the flow of spirit, leaving runes of transgression on the metal giant's body. These were the most ancient runes, runes that represented the world's deepest meanings, yet the people around Jenkins dared not even look at them too closely.
A ball of black light gathered in the giant's palm, and it brought its fist crashing down toward Jenkins.
A strike that could shatter the sea of stars and summon the final doom, a strike that symbolized the end itself, born from transgression. But the fist struck no one. Even the aftershock of its power harmed not a single soul.
Jenkins raised his right hand, palm up. A transparent golden barrier had blocked the metal giant's fist.
Most of the people here could summon a similar shield, and the ability Jenkins was using seemed, at first, to be no different. But then a massive, translucent golden page unfurled, large enough to cover half the sea of stars, shimmering with flowing text that no one could recognize.
The giant's fist had been stopped by the Aegis of Books. After using Four Seasons to nurture the World Tree, before returning to the metal tower, Jenkins had the Silver Dragon fly him back to the church. There, he used the method Papa Oliver had told him about, sacrificing five empty ability bubbles to unconditionally learn the church's divine art, the Aegis of Books.
Now, the immense golden page completely shielded everyone. It floated up and down with the undulations of the starry sea, and the giant's full-force blow hadn't left so much as a crack upon its surface.
Countless words and images danced across the page. Even the most learned scholars couldn't decipher the meaning of the text, and even the most well-traveled explorers couldn't identify the cities in the illustrations.
It was as if the long river of time itself was engraved upon that open page. Though they couldn't read it, they understood with a strange certainty that what it recorded was the complete civilized history of an entire world.
But that wasn't all. In the corners of the page, even denser text recorded knowledge that was both insane and fascinating. The culture created in a completely materialistic world, born from minds at ease—a culture that was poison to idealistic worlds, a culture of wild fictions and madness that eroded the soul—all of it came together to form the most indestructible shell.
Order, chaos, good, and law—these were the cornerstones of that civilization, and together they formed a message from a distant time and space.
The Aegis of Books itself forms a shield whose strength varies based on the number of books the user has read and the amount of their spirit, with spirit being the decisive factor. But that was only because the power generated from all the books a mortal could read in a lifetime could never compare to a transcendent element like spirit.
But in Jenkins's hands, the chapters of an otherworldly civilization—words born from different rules and imaginations—piled up to create an effect that far surpassed spirit.
The great page now floating in the sea of stars was the power born from the first half of a stranger's life—from all he had seen and read. This immense power was in no way weaker than the Beast of Calamity's. And while the power of sin corrupted space and time, the golden page was also corroding spacetime, changing its very rules.
He had brought more than just knowledge and culture from another world; his very soul carried different rules and the information of a civilization's progress under those rules. On a rainy night one year ago, Jenkins had tried to use that painting to manifest what he knew of his old world, and in doing so, he had nearly caused a chaotic clash of rules, which was fortunately stopped by the Sage in time.
It was also at that moment that the Sage confirmed for the first time that the Jenkins he had met in the distant past had truly appeared.
For a year, Jenkins had repeatedly tried and failed to learn the Aegis of Books. This wasn't bad luck; it was fate actively preventing the possibility of "Jenkins learning the Aegis of Books." The rules and knowledge he carried clashed significantly with the rules of this world. This conflict could have been slowly converted and absorbed by the world as he lived his mortal life—even abilities like Knowledge Bestowal, which only revealed fragments of that knowledge, were acceptable.
But if he were to use the painting that revealed the heart's desires, or an ability like the Aegis of Books that converted knowledge into transcendent power, a rash use would cause enormous problems.
That was why, for the past year, whenever Jenkins tried to learn the Aegis of Books, he would inevitably run into some trouble that he was forced to deal with. And if he had found some other method of turning all his knowledge into power, learning that ability would have resulted in a similar situation.
The world could accept knowledge from under different rules, but it couldn't immediately accept the entire system of knowledge and imagination from another complete world. Even if the two worlds' powers were dissimilar, that other world was still one with a complete and coherent set of rules.
It was for this very reason that Jenkins had been unable to obtain the Aegis of Books for so long. And the moment he finally understood why was right after Oviya had appeared.
After appearing, the golden page continued to expand. Even after blocking the metal giant's punch, it kept stretching outward, as if to cover the entire artificial sea of stars.
In the rifts across the sea of stars, the swaying, gear-like tentacles hid, daring not to touch the page. Far in the distance, the summoned kin of the Difference Engine also instinctively recoiled from the golden light.
The people around Jenkins were all bathed in a golden hue by the light, and even the train circling through the sea of stars turned a brilliant gold.
The mechanical giant staggered back from the page's recoil, its body tilting backward, but it steadied itself against the massive vortex to keep from falling.
"Savior Williamette, what is this?"
Though the voice still came from all directions, a display of the Difference Engine's power as a Beast of Calamity, a clear note of panic could be heard in it. This was not part of its calculations.
"Since you know I have two abilities left, it's impossible that your database couldn't identify what this one is."
He pointed a finger at the sphere on the giant's forehead, a golden light shining from his fingertip, just as the tall phantom had done moments before.
"The Aegis of Books is merely a defensive ability. Something is wrong. Savior Williamette, what have you done?"