Chapter 241: Chapter 241

There was no time to lose. The Church in the royal capital was also making preparations, ready to ensure Jenkins's safety from afar. Meanwhile, in an office in Nolan, three Enchanters began by setting up a divine ritual to prepare for the urn's reverse-activation. Then, the director of the Special Items Processing Office personally retrieved a special Extraordinary item, B-06-5-5091, capable of remote teleportation: the Astral Astrolabe.

It had just been rented from the Church of Starry Sky and Equilibrium that very day.

At the very top of the white stone base sat a massive sapphire, its perimeter engraved with the symbols of the twelve most important constellations recognized by the world's astrologers. Within the gem, one could even see a silvery light flickering. The astral plane has no concept of space; theoretically, one could reach any point in the material world from there. The astrolabe leveraged this principle, sending objects from the material world into the astral plane, from which they would descend back to their destination.

Of course, the cost was immense. The astrolabe consumed a mercury-like liquid as its energy source, a substance that only the Church of Starry Sky and Equilibrium could produce. The expense of teleporting three items this time was so high that Jenkins's eight thousand pounds would be mere pocket change by comparison.

To ensure Jenkins's proxy and the three items arrived simultaneously, the reverse-activation and the astrolabe had to be operated in unison.

The elderly Keeper of Secrets asked Jenkins one last time if he was ready and reminded him of several precautions. He placed his right hand on Jenkins's shoulder and gave a firm nod, making Jenkins feel as if he were being sent off to a heroic sacrifice.

As a safety precaution, the Nolan diocese would forcibly pull Jenkins back once the mission reached the fifteen-minute mark. So, if he encountered trouble right from the start, all he had to do was find a place to hide.

"Be careful. Your safety is what matters most."

Mr. Peters, dressed in a formal brown cashmere suit, warned him again, "If anything happens to you, Miss Bevanna will have my hide when she gets back." Fınd the newest release on novel※fire.net

"Don't worry. I plan on coming back to have dinner with my family..."

His expression changed as he realized the ominous nature of such a statement. He immediately shut his mouth, asked the three gentlemen to look after his cat, and urged them to begin without further delay.

Outside, unseen by Jenkins, dozens of Church Enchanters had been urgently dispatched to the cathedral. The outer walls of the Special Items Processing Office were now covered in golden patterns; when the Enchanters placed their hands on them, their spirit would automatically converge inside the room.

Jenkins hadn't had a chance to look down earlier, or he would have discovered that the entire room was covered in a web of golden lines as complex as the city's underground steam pipes. Reverse-activating the urn to send Jenkins to the Cheslan Kingdom in a manner akin to a divine descent was by no means a simple task.

This also demonstrated the urgency of the Constantine affair. Otherwise, the Church would never have considered sending a level-2 Saint on such a dangerous mission.

Jenkins placed his right hand on the lid of the urn. Mr. Smith, the highest-ranking Keeper of Secrets in the Nolan diocese, stood behind him. Mr. Peters, a level-7 Enchanter, was setting up the reverse-activation ritual, while a Mr. Bellini was in charge of the teleportation using B-06-5-5091.

The four men stared at the grandfather clock in the corner. Even Chocolate was perched on the sofa, watching the clock face with half-open eyes. When the time agreed upon with the Church headquarters arrived, a dazzling golden light erupted from beneath their feet.

It felt like being tossed into a churning washtub, buffeted violently in every direction. This wasn't spatial transference, but Jenkins once again felt something spying on him from a distance. The last time he'd had this sensation was during the hospital haunting, when he broke through the window and fell into the white mist.

Jenkins was now certain that behind the fragile spatial fabric of the material world lay something truly terrifying.

The dizzying sensation ended quickly. When his vision cleared, Jenkins found himself standing upon a sea of stars.

He wondered, "Isn't this the astral plane?"

A silver light appeared in the distance. The light stopped before Jenkins, hovering over the surging sea of stars. It was a woman with delicate features. Her body was translucent, and she wore a neat white robe and a pair of golden spectacles.

He called out tentatively.

The woman bowed in greeting. Then a voice echoed from all around, though the star spirit's human form never opened its mouth. "That is the name I once used in the mortal realm. Then I shall call you Jenkins Williams."

"Were you not looking for me? I just detected that an item I left in the material world many years ago was triggered. More surprisingly, you were nearby, performing a kind of spatial transference..."

Jenkins covered his face. This was a twist of fate. "It's an accident."

He briefly explained what he was doing. The star spirit nodded and looked at him with eyes that held infinite wisdom within their stillness.

"My apologies, Williams. I will send you to your destination now... As compensation, and as a testament to the friendship between star spirits and the new gods, if you ever need to transport items through the astral plane in the future, simply activate [Starlight Illumination] while calling my name and recalling my form, and I will aid you."

The voice, coming from all corners of the starry sea, reverberated with an echo. Though the voice was cold, the woman in the scholar's robe before him radiated immense goodwill.

"Won't it be too much trouble?"

"Not at all. For me, it is as simple as picking up a pebble and tossing it into a lake. Of course, if you need to transport an object, you will need to provide a beacon... Farewell, god blessed by the starry sky!"

Just like last time, before Jenkins could ask any questions, he was falling from the sea of stars.

The moment his feet touched solid ground again, he had arrived in the underground chamber. It was a vast, sealed room. Just like before, hundreds of golden candlesticks, strange characters written in an unknown substance, and a round table at the very center formed three nested circles.

But the candlesticks were unlit, the characters no longer glowed, and the round table was empty. The entire room was dim.

His brief stop in the astral plane felt like an illusion. Now, he had finally reached his destination.

He whispered a single word:

Two silver spheres of light flew out from his chest, temporarily illuminating the space before him.