"Whoosh..."
The sound of ocean tides echoed clearly, and a moist sensation lapped against his feet, again and again.
Silas opened his eyes to find himself standing before a strange sea.
What met his gaze was a boundless expanse of water, pitch-black and viscous, as if it encompassed all colors and all possibilities.
Yet the seawater also appeared incredibly illusory, as though it didn't exist in the real world at all.
Mysterious, chaotic, lofty, profound.
The end of the seawater, and the space above where Silas stood, were both shrouded in hazy white mist, impossible to see clearly.
All he could see was this chaotic, illusory sea.
This sea, and the sound of these tides...
The sound of the tides felt incredibly familiar to Silas.
He immediately recalled that it was this very sound that had blocked multiple instances of evil god corruption and mental assault for him.
Was this its true form?
"Beautiful, isn't it?"
Someone said softly beside him.
"Who's there!"
Silas whirled around.
By the illusory, chaotic shore, a woman stood barefoot, gazing at everything in fascination.
The wind stirred her blood-red hair, outlining her graceful figure beneath her white robe.
Ma'am M.
"You again!"
Silas cursed angrily. The instant he recognized Ma'am M, he lunged fiercely at her.
"Splash!"
Ma'am M was knocked down by him, falling into the shallow seawater. He pressed down on top of her, reaching into his clothes.
As expected, he found his commonly used silver ritual dagger.
"You bastard!"
Silas roared, raising the silver dagger high and viciously stabbing it into her chest. Once, twice!
The illusory seawater soaked Ma'am M's white robe.
The drenched fabric clung tightly to her body, revealing her slender waist and full curves.
Her red hair floated and spread across the water's surface like a blooming flower.
Blood seeped into the seawater, mixing with the red hair until they were indistinguishable.
Silas's dagger rose and fell. Bloody water covered the surface around him and Ma'am M, adding a striking splash of crimson to this illusory, monotonous sea.
Ma'am M didn't struggle. Instead, she watched Silas with a gentle smile.
"...Why won't you just die?"
After stabbing her countless times, Silas finally grew tired. He stopped, staring into Ma'am M's eyes and asking coldly.
Ma'am M's golden eyes reflected his face.
"It really is beautiful here, isn't it?" She didn't answer Silas but said with a smile, "You know, to reach this place, I gave nearly everything I had."
"So your real purpose was to come here?" Silas sneered. "This is the task your Lord gave you? What a foolish task."
Only now did he finally understand Ma'am M's true intentions behind all her actions.
Ma'am M slowly shook her head.
"It has nothing to do with the True Creator."
She said, her voice tinged with delight.
Silas froze.
The True Creator?
She actually called her deity by name, instead of calling Him "Lord"?
Silas vaguely sensed something was wrong.
In Port Enmat, Ma'am M had been a standard fanatic, willing to sacrifice everything for the Lord.
But when he encountered her in Tingen, she had become less fervent. Compared to the deity, she seemed to care more about herself.
She'd even changed out of her white robe and worn various ladies' garments.
"Surprised?"
He heard Ma'am M laugh. "I stopped being His believer long ago. And it's all thanks to you... I should thank you."
"Thank me?"
"Yes."
Ma'am M touched her chest. Her body, wounded by Silas's stabbing, had already healed, though the torn white robe couldn't be restored, exposing large expanses of snow-white skin. "Remember? In the warehouse at Port Enmat, you wounded me."
"I truly regret not killing you then."
Silas said.
At that time, he'd used the Grade 1 Sealed Artifact to pierce through Ma'am M, pinning her together with the bomb made from a mass of flesh, detonating it at close range.
Unfortunately, that explosion hadn't killed Ma'am M. Instead, it had led to her haunting him to this day.
"When you pierced me with that staff, you mixed a trace of this place's aura into it."
Ma'am M continued speaking as if she hadn't heard Silas's vicious words. By "this place," she naturally meant the sea where they both currently stood.
"This place?"
Silas was stunned.
Back then, to resist the True Creator's erosion, the sound of ocean tides had echoed in his mind.
Could it be that this aura had entered Ma'am M's body through the staff at that time?
"Such magnificent power..."
Ma'am M murmured, her golden eyes sparkling with intoxicated haze, as if suffused with gorgeous vapor.
"It actually freed me from the True Creator's control. After so many years, I regained lucid consciousness once more."
Her words left Silas utterly confused.
In other words, by the time Ma'am M came to Tingen, she no longer believed in the True Creator.
Everything she did was entirely for herself?
That's why she coveted Silas's body.
That's why she didn't go to the Aurora Order to heal her wounds.
That's why she schemed relentlessly, until she occupied Silas's body and came to this space...
"Does this place have such great allure that it's worth expending so much effort, even abandoning your own body?"
Silas couldn't understand.
"Of course."
Ma'am M smiled.
"Facts prove my sacrifice was worthwhile. This sea hides the opportunity to reach the top of the Sequences, or even beyond the top."
Her smile gradually widened, widened, until it became brilliant and fervent.
"My speculation was absolutely correct. This is the existence that [They] speak of but cannot name!"
Ma'am M murmured to herself, intoxicated as she felt the touch of the seawater, overcome with wild joy.
Silas gleaned some information from her words.
It seemed this place was somewhere extraordinary.
My cheat ability appears to be an extremely powerful existence... But so far, aside from resisting evil god erosion, it doesn't seem to have any other uses... Could it be that my Sequence is too low, so I can't mobilize the power here?
He reasoned with his existing mystical knowledge, forming a rough hypothesis.
"Silas Londor."
In the moment of his distraction, Ma'am M had stopped her murmuring. She looked at Silas, her eyes brimming with greed.
"Please, give me everything you are."
"Splash!"
From the bloody water spreading across the sea's surface, several twisted humanoid monsters suddenly surged forth.
Silas could vaguely recognize their faces. They were the six people who had offered their lives, bodies, and souls to Ma'am M!
"Ahhhhh!"
The monsters shrieked, lunging at Silas.
They pinned his body down layer by layer, then frantically devoured his flesh.
Over the monsters, Silas saw Ma'am M slowly rising from the water's surface.
She gazed at Silas, her beautiful face revealing an exquisite smile.