"You lost my vessel?!"
Theus looked at Chloe, his head aching. Aside from Lord Theus, he only had that one usable vessel, and she had gone and lost it?
That was way too unreliable!
If he had known, he would have insisted on keeping that vessel behind. Now it was gone, and who knew where it had ended up—wait.
Theus suddenly realized that he could descend. Why not just descend there and see where the vessel was?
Moreover, Worker Theus's vessel could still listen to the prayers of believers. Perhaps he could use it to contact the outside world. Isaac and the others were still in the Northern Territory, after all.
Damn it, how had he forgotten that?
"About where was the missing box?"
"Uh, around here." Chloe tapped the ground with the tip of her shoe. "Inside Moth Chasing Flame's former base."
Theus thought back. Beneath the trapdoor in the old church lay their hideout.
"Come to think of it, I haven't seen the church since its reconstruction. Where did you put the door?"
"The protective inscription was modified before, wasn't it? I placed the door inside the inscription."
Theus's eyes widened. "So now, if you want to return to the hideout, you have to go to the protective inscription? Wait, don't I remember the protective inscription being completely sealed off?"
As the core of all Castel, the importance of the protective inscription went without saying. Theus had surrounded it with over six meters of reinforced concrete, practically emptying the ironworks of the iron ingots it had accumulated for so long.
"That's when the protective inscription isn't operating. We do need to reach its physical body to enter then." Chloe blinked. "But when it's active, anywhere covered by the protective inscription is a door."
Theus drew a deep breath.