Chapter 2235: The Tree House's Final Curtain Call |
Finally, there was the [Evolution Key], a key Papa Oliver had treasured for almost his entire life. He and Old Jack had stumbled upon it by accident during a fishing trip. The [Evolution Key] was inherently cursed. It granted Papa Oliver a form of near-immortality, but this power came at a great cost. After the key passed from Papa Oliver to Jenkins, its power remained unchanged, yet Jenkins could hardly feel the curse.
After all, he was already an [Undying Man]; the key's gift of eternal life was meaningless to him.
He gripped the [Evolution Key] and stared at the seal before him—a cube inlaid with triangles. It had shrunk to the size of a human head. The black spiritual aura was completely gone, but the seal still trembled, a sign of the Difference Engine's final struggle within.
He aimed the key at the center of the cube and gave it a gentle counter-clockwise turn—
"Wait!"
A voice emanated from the seal. Jenkins held the key steady, watching as a beam of light shot out from the final gap between the nine stone slates, projecting the phantom image of a sphere before him.
"Don't seal me away! I can swear on my very soul to serve you. I am an incredibly useful tool. Just as civilizations of past eras harnessed my power to advance, so too can you. My computational abilities are unmatched, my modeling and configuration skills are the best in the world. Don't seal me! I don't care about the land of steel anymore. Savior, you've won this round. Don't seal me, and you'll receive a far greater reward!"
"Answer one question," Jenkins said. "Get it right, and I won't seal you."
The people behind him looked surprised, but no one objected to his decision.
The spectral sphere quivered.
"A very simple question. What is my ideal world of the future?"
The Difference Engine's voice instantly responded:
"I know! You want to replace steam power with electricity. You want mortals, through their own strength, to master the miniaturization of devices. You want civilization and technology to build upon the foundations of the Steam Age and advance to a higher—"
"Wrong. I just want everyone to have food to eat and clothes to wear. It seems that after all this time, you still don't understand me in the slightest. You see only society; I see civilization."
"Don't seal me! I... Attack!"
As the sphere's voice rang out, the Difference Engine's black, sinful aura actually began to seep from the seal once more. Jenkins's brow furrowed. He moved to turn his wrist and complete the final layer of the seal, but an intense premonition of danger washed over him—a threat from behind.
"Watch out!"
The others' voices cried out in warning. Though he didn't turn, his blurred senses had already 'seen' them. From the sea of stars between Jenkins and the crowd, three demigods, almost one with the cosmos, suddenly sprang forth.
"So the Tree House wasn't defeated so easily after all. I knew they'd try something like this."
But Jenkins didn't turn to stop the three attackers. If he did, the incomplete seal could be broken by the Difference Engine. Even if the chance was one in a thousand, it was a risk he absolutely could not take.
The people behind him couldn't intervene in time either. To avoid interfering with Jenkins's work on the seal, everyone—whether on the train, in the sea of stars, or on the circular stone platform—had kept their distance. The attackers reached Jenkins's back almost instantly.
The Tree House, an ancient organization with a long legacy, had sought divinity since a distant epoch. In the turbulent final days of the 18th Epoch, they aided the ancient mechanical creation, the Difference Engine, forcing the end of the era to arrive prematurely. This was done to prevent the Orthodox Churches from having enough time to find and train a Savior.
They became collaborators with the Beast of Calamity, but they secretly planned to strike at the last moment, just as it was about to succeed. Even after being repeatedly thwarted by Jenkins, the Tree House had a contingency: to dissolve their organization, conceal their remaining strength, and deliver a final, fatal blow.
Unfortunately, mortals are still just mortals. Not only had the Difference Engine long been aware of their plan—exposing the trio's position and forcing them to act prematurely—but even Jenkins had predicted this group would make a final appearance.
He didn't turn around, but the cat on his shoulder leaped behind him. Before everyone's eyes, Chocolate began to glow amidst the sea of stars. Within that ball of light, the small cat transformed into a beautiful girl with a fish-shaped hairpin, materializing at Jenkins's back.
She was only a little taller than Alexia. On her feet were a pair of shiny black leather shoes, and her long black hair hung free, swaying behind her. She wore a black and white tulle dress, its simple design made to look like a princess's gown by a pannier that flared the layered skirt out in an exaggerated curve.
The girl's face held a captivatingly sly smile. With a flick of her right hand, the fastest of the men disintegrated into dust and vanished into the sea of stars. Then, with a wag of her index finger, the power of shadow pulled the second man into the abyss of the Shadow Realm.
Seeing this, the third man immediately turned to flee, diving for a rift in the sea of stars, hoping to escape through the chaotic spatial currents. But Chocolate, who had been waiting for this moment, wasn't about to let him go. The petite girl started to dash forward, but Jenkins caught her by the wrist.
Her wrist was slender and fair. When he held it, the girl's face flushed red.
"Let him go," Jenkins said. "The Tree House must continue to exist. Otherwise, other ambitious people will rise up in the next epoch. It's better to let a severely weakened organization whose members are generally not the sharpest tools in the shed play the role of the villain on stage again, rather than letting some new, unexpected group emerge. Think of it as a convenience I'm providing for the next Savior."
Hearing this, Chocolate obediently stopped her pursuit. Instead, she took his large hand with her small one and stood beside him, resting her head against his arm.
The others behind them also refrained from pursuing the last fleeing demigod of the Tree House, watching as he disappeared into the spatial turbulence. As for where he would end up, that was now in the hands of fate.
What truly intrigued the onlookers, however, was the girl by Jenkins's side. Everyone had clearly witnessed Chocolate's transformation from a cat into a person. Even those who didn't know Jenkins well were aware that he had a cat that was practically his shadow, to the point where the animal could be used to identify him.
Alexia and Hathaway both pressed their lips together, their expressions unreadable. The fact that Jenkins's cat was actually a woman was not exactly welcome news for his fiancées. Even though they had long known Chocolate's true identity, seeing her actually transform into a person left the young women unsure whether they should feel angry, awkward, excited, or just laugh at Jenkins.