Before going to sleep, Jenkins made it a habit to activate [The Unknown Path], just in case. He'd assud that with the demon incident behind him, things would be quiet for a while. He was wrong. As his spirit flowed through him, a distinct purple thread materialized in the air before his very eyes.
"Oh?"
Jenkins furrowed his brow. Chocolate, who had been curled up and napping, opened his eyes for a mont before snapping them shut again. He peeked at Jenkins through narrow slits, and when he saw his master was distracted, the cat gave a little wag of his tail and staggered to his feet, feigning the grogginess of one just roused from a deep slumber.
The thread of fate didn't point outdoors, but rather toward the coat rack in the corner of the room. Jenkins stared for a mont, montarily stunned, before throwing back his covers. Clad in his pajamas and slippers, he padded across the floor.
Every room in the church was fitted with both steam and heating pipes, so his thin pajamas were more than enough to ward off the autumn night's chill.
He reached into the pockets of the coat hanging there. The purple thread pointed directly to the Star Sea Badge. Jenkins had acquired this peculiar item from Pops Antique Shop. Its previous owner had t his end at the hands of Cursed Item A-10-2-9116, and the man's landlord had sold off his belongings, allowing the badge to fall into Jenkins's hands.
"What does this an?"
He couldn't comprehend what sort of fateful junction this was supposed to be. The thread before him shifted, changing direction to point toward the window. Treading carefully in his slippers, he pushed open the door to the balcony and stepped outside, only to see the line extend directly into the depths of the night sky.
The weather was fine tonight, the sky dotted with only a few wisps of cloud. In an age free of light pollution, the brilliant expanse of the cosmos was visible even from within the city. This was one of the few precious nights before the winter heating systems were fired up, when one could still see the stars through the industrial haze.
He shifted a potted plant to get a better view and tilted his head back. The mont his gaze fell upon that particular patch of stars, the fateful guidance vanished.
Jenkins stood there, taken aback for a second. He committed the spot where the thread had vanished to mory before heading back inside.
"What does it an?"
He scratched his head, completely failing to grasp what this latest sign was supposed to an. Up to this point, [The Unknown Path] had guided him three tis. The first ti, it had led him to a letter received by Papa Oliver, revealing that the art student, Black Velte, was deeply suspicious. The resolution of that affair had saved the church from peril and given Jenkins his first brush with divinity. The second ti, it had directed him to the Barnard residence, where a tearful Mrs. Barnard told him of the malevolent spirit in the hospital, an event that ultimately set him on the path to godhood. The third ti, it had guided him to Cursed Item A-10-1-0230, the [Parchnt from the Future], which revealed the crisis unfolding in Nolan City and granted him the bizarre ability, [Twin Demons].
On all three previous occasions, however, the target of the guidance had been clear and its aning almost imdiately obvious.
"The Star Sea Badge... and the stars."
He picked up a glass of water and took a sip, his brow still furrowed in thought. It was sweet—soone must have added honey to it.
"Both are related to the stars," he mused. "And the only recent connection I've made with the cosmos is my [Astral Perception] ability."
He carefully considered the possibilities as he channeled his spirit into the badge. A ball of silver light erged from its surface, then swiftly broke apart into countless specks that spun through the air like pixies, blanketing the entire room. Once the light settled, the chamber was filled with shimring silver points, undulating like a gentle tide and as srizing as the stars themselves.
Next, he activated [Astral Perception]. An image from the astral plane superimposed itself upon the brilliant sea of stars created by the badge.
Yet, nothing unusual occurred. The sea of stars from the badge manifested in the physical world, while the astral sea existed in a parallel dinsion. Though Jenkins could perceive both simultaneously, they remained distinct and did not interact.
"If this isn't it, then perhaps it's related to the thod Papa Oliver taught for accumulating spirit through stargazing," he considered. "But I still haven't gathered the materials for the ritual to temporarily heighten my perception."
He nodded to himself and pulled away the red cloth covering the mirror on the wall. Keeping both the ability and the badge active, he peered into the copper-frad, silver-inlaid glass. The art of mirror-making had yet to reach modern perfection, and his reflection appeared sowhat dim in the candlelight.
The mirror's reflection showed only Jenkins and his cat in the room; neither of the starry seas was visible.
"Heighten perception, heighten perception..."
He tapped his temple, muttering the words over and over. "I wonder... does my [Eye of Reality] count as heightened perception?"
The more he considered it, the more plausible it seed. He let the badge's light and his ability fade, then cautiously poked his head out onto the balcony. A glance down revealed no one; a glance up, the sa. Confident he was alone, he stepped out fully, activated [Astral Perception], and gazed upward. At once, the roiling astral sea rged with the serene, silent stars of the night sky.
Averting his eyes from the moon, he focused on the spot where the thread of fate had pointed. As his gaze swept across it, an icy current descended from the cosmos, seeping into his body through the crown of his head.
"Ha! That's a bit of money saved!"
Jenkins now understood Papa Oliver's warning to never use this thod for more than two hours at a stretch. Within this overlapping vista of the projected astral sea and the true night sky, two layers of reality that should have remained separate had sohow fused into one.
The surging astral sea swelled and receded like a great tide, its waves washing over the immutable stars. As his spirit began to replenish, the sound of a cosmic ocean filled his ears. And hidden beneath that sound, almost imperceptible, was a faint, ethereal song.
The song was undeniably sacred, yet the longer he listened, the more a bone-chilling dread crept over him. It was the feeling of standing with eyes closed before a creature tens of thousands of tis your own size. It was a primal warning, an instinct for danger passed down through the bloodlines, a vital sense that had allowed humanity to survive in this perilous world.
He shuddered violently and turned up his collar against a sudden chill, sniffling once before activating the Star Sea Badge, all without lowering his gaze from the sky.
He had been worried that activating such a conspicuous item outdoors would draw unwanted attention, but his fears were unfounded. The light that spilled from the badge hovered directly above his head, manifesting a tide identical to the one he perceived from the astral plane with his [Astral Perception] ability.
The two tidal images drew closer, bit by bit, like a ghosting image on an unstable screen. The very instant that the true night sky, the astral sea, and the badge's starlit tide rged into one, every star in Jenkins's vision blazed with a dazzling light.
A sigh echoed from so impossibly distant place. As an intense cold spread through him, his body went limp, and he crumpled to the ground. The heavy thud of his fall sent Chocolate darting from the bed in a flash. The cat hurried to his side and nudged Jenkins's nose with his own, seeming relieved only after confirming his master was all right.
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