Outside Zouteland Street.
Just as Leonard was about to be devoured by Ma'am M, she suddenly stopped.
On that grotesque body, Ma'am M's face descended while Silas's face took its place, seizing control.
Was Silas waking up?
The three couldn't help but think so.
Under their watchful gaze, Silas slowly opened his eyes.
In those azure, magnificent eyes, endless madness and pain surged.
The world was screaming.
Everything was twisting, changing, completely beyond Silas's comprehension and form.
He saw the sky's color constantly shifting, like a layer of iridescent, ever-glowing oil film covering it.
The buildings on the street stretched and grew taller, then tilted toward him, pressing heavily on his body, making it hard to breathe.
His once-familiar teammates had become hideous monsters with green faces and fangs, staring at him with hateful eyes, gathering together to whisper, mock him, ready at any moment to harm him.
They want to kill me!
This world wants to destroy me!
Mad thoughts kept surging and exploding in his mind.
Mixed in were the chaotic, agonized screams of seven or eight people, each person's spirit torn apart, blended together, then forcibly stuffed back into his consciousness.
Sometimes they shrieked, venting physical pain. Sometimes they murmured, praising the greatness of the gods.
Sometimes they quarreled with each other, arguing over who was right and who was wrong.
Silas's consciousness was on the verge of collapse!
Beneath all these voices was the terrible influence of the potion itself, that craving for flesh and blood torturing Silas, urging him to devour every living thing with flesh.
Unable to think, Silas attacked the threat before him almost by instinct.
"Bang!"
With a loud explosion, the thick blood vessels wrapped around Leonard's arm suddenly burst!
The "Blood Vessel Thief" was destroyed!
The authority of "Profane Words" returned to its rightful owner at that moment.
Through the flying fragments of blood vessels, Leonard stared in shock at Silas's eyes, filled with madness.
"Die!"
A grand and terrifying word, spoken in an ancient language, gathered indescribable mental impact and invisible force, striking Leonard at extremely close range.
"Crack!"
Leonard's body was sent flying like a cannonball, slamming hard into the wall of the security company.
The crisp sound of breaking bones followed. The physical injury and mental shock arrived simultaneously, causing blood to flow from his mouth and nose.
His expression dejected and face pale, he collapsed to the ground, falling unconscious.
The black tentacles that had surged from Saint Selena's urn, enhanced by Dunn's blood, arrived just in time, wrapping around Silas's body.
The cold, slimy tentacles coiled around him, and he shuddered, regaining a bit of awareness.
What did I just do? I actually attacked Leonard...
Kill them...
Praise the great Master...
I'm so hungry...
His thoughts were thrown into chaos by the jumbled consciousness, making even thinking incredibly slow.
"Whoosh..."
Until a phantom sound of ocean waves echoed in his mind.
After the tide sound arose, the originally chaotic voices were quickly suppressed, like rats exposed to sunlight, rapidly scurrying to dark corners.
Silas was able to wake up.
Looking around, he found himself on the street in front of the Blackthorn Security Company, where the surrounding environment had been severely damaged.
Not far away on the street, the blood-colored cross hadn't yet dried. Carriages were overturned, buildings destroyed, scorched, smashed, and corroded.
Ah, right. I was just held down by those people and forcibly made to drink a potion.
Silas quickly recalled what had happened before he lost consciousness.
The ambush by the Marauder, Ma'am M's parasitism, drinking the potion, the phantom sea...
Of the three familiar colleagues present, one had already collapsed unconscious.
One held a dangerous urn in his hands. The last one had his hand tucked in his pocket.
The two conscious ones looked at him, their faces full of vigilance.
Silas couldn't help but look down at his own body.
On the grotesque flesh, countless eerie faces covered the surface...
Damn it!
He couldn't help but curse inwardly. That damned Ma'am M had actually turned his body into this.
"Captain."
Silas instinctively looked at Dunn and spoke.
"Silas, do you have a way to control the mutation in your body?"
Dunn's face was pale from blood loss, his hands clutching the urn tensely.
"I..."
Silas was about to say he'd try when his abdomen suddenly swelled.
The faces that had been suppressed to his abdomen crowded together, bursting forth with a large amount of flesh, rapidly forming a half-body of skinless, bloody torso!
In that instant, his body simultaneously possessed two upper bodies, like a conjoined freak!
"Roar..."
Ma'am M and the other faces all gathered on this newly formed half-body, facing Dunn, who had released the tentacles, letting out an angry hiss.
In that moment, before Silas could react, he suddenly had a strange feeling.
Deep within his body's flesh and blood, a suffering soul was wailing, as if invisible whips were lashing it, driving it like a herded lamb to act...
"Boom!"
Crimson flames immediately rose before his eyes.
His body became incredibly light, his feet left the ground, but quickly solidified again. The flames dispersed, and he had already appeared before Klein.
The monster's half-body fingers were sharp as knives, thrusting straight toward Klein's chest.
Silas jolted awake and quickly reached out to stop it, pushing the monster's half-body and causing that hand to scrape past Klein's arm instead.
"Pff!"
Klein's sleeve and arm were torn open, blood gushing out, but at least he'd avoided the worst outcome of death.
So that was "Shepherd," wasn't it?
Silas instinctively thought.
His body was quickly carried along, moving rapidly again.
Because Dunn was in the area most densely packed with black tentacles, the half-body monster couldn't approach.
It could only dodge the tentacles while continuously hurling blazing fireballs at Dunn.
So Silas felt that strange sensation again. Elsewhere within his body, a soul was being driven, whipped, and offering up its ability.
This is definitely the true nature of "Shepherd"!
He had discovered an enormous secret, but at the same time, he also understood his current situation.
From his current state, Ma'am M's advancement had gone out of control.
She had gone to great lengths to seize Silas's body.
But relying solely on that scripture's "invasion" was still very difficult to achieve.
That's why she borrowed the ritual impact of advancing to Shepherd, using the souls sacrificed by others to assault Silas's mental world, planning to take his place when he lost resistance.
If successful, Ma'am M would not only gain that sea, but also advance on the spot to Sequence 5, becoming a mid-sequence powerhouse...
Of course, she had clearly failed.
She hadn't managed to gain control of that tidal sea, nor had she successfully advanced.
Ma'am M's failure brought Silas enormous trouble.
Inside his body was a completely out-of-control potion, a monster formed from multiple bodies fused together.
Although with the help of the phantom sea, Silas temporarily possessed conscious awareness, once the duration of that tide sound ran out, he would again fall into the madness from before!
So, could he use the cheat, use that tidal sea in his brain, to control the potion?
The answer was no.
The tide could only help him resist mental impacts, like a evil god's pollution, or like just now, driving away fragments of others' consciousness.
But Silas's problem now was in his flesh. He had consumed the potion, and inside his body was still mixed with large amounts of others' flesh and blood.
Being able to stay conscious now was already very difficult.
The situation was too chaotic. Even the cheat couldn't help!
As time passed, the tide sound in his brain was gradually fading. Silas knew his time remaining conscious wasn't much.
What is this?
Is this my ending?
Tangled up with a bunch of cultists' flesh and blood, falling into madness and losing control, becoming a twisted, disgusting monster, wreaking havoc until being killed?
I refuse!
I'll fight to the death!
Even in a certain death scenario, I'll still seek that sliver of hope!
"Bang!"
Silas raised his fist and smashed it into the monster's head on his other side.
Oddly, pain was immediately transmitted, and for a moment, he even felt like he'd just hit his own head.
The half-body monster attacking Dunn paused and instinctively turned its head.
"Roar!"
It appeared furious, roaring at Silas.
"Roar all you want! This is my body! Get out!"
Silas cursed.
"Whoosh!"
Crimson flames immediately rose from his palm.
"Shepherd"!
The monster had already demonstrated it twice.
Silas imitated it. He tried to sense what was inside his body and immediately discovered several souls "penned" within.
Their souls were entangled with Beyonder characteristics, like ignorant lambs, completely without resistance, entirely under his control.
Lend me your abilities!
Silas's mind flowed, transmitting his consciousness to one of the souls.
The shepherded soul immediately resonated with him, manifesting the characteristic's ability.
It was precisely the flame in his hand now, the Beyonder ability from "Pyromaniac."
"Taste this!"
He shouted, throwing the blazing fireball at the enemy right in front of him.
"Boom!"
The flames had no possibility of missing, all striking the monster's head, immediately igniting!
"Roar..."
"Ahhh!"
The burning pain was transmitted simultaneously to both the monster and Silas.
They screamed in unison.
"Whoosh!"
Silas only shouted once before flames ignited in his palm again.
This level of burning was already commonplace for him. Compared to this, continuing to control the monster was more important.
"Captain!"
Enduring the intense pain that was constantly transmitted through his nerves, Silas shouted, "I'll help control it. Let's destroy it together!"
That's right. Since he couldn't separate the mad, out-of-control flesh and blood, he might as well destroy them all.
After that, relying on his powerful physical recovery ability, perhaps he could still have a sliver of hope.
As for the potion, relying on the cheat, there might also be a chance to solve it!
In this desperate situation, even a one percent hope must be firmly grasped!
"Silas!"
Klein called out, tears seeming to fill his eyes.
From his perspective, he felt Silas had decided to sacrifice himself to save Tingen.
He couldn't help but feel emotionally agitated and grief-stricken, but couldn't say anything to stop Silas.
"Silas... don't move."
Dunn's eyes became incredibly deep. He said firmly, his gaze resolute.
"Bang! Bang!"
Around him, thick objects surged again.
As they burst, large amounts of blood were absorbed by the black tentacles, which immediately became violent!
"Swish, swish!"
Their speed suddenly accelerated, carrying extreme cold and deathly silence, converging toward Silas at the center.
"Roar..."
The monster sensed terrible danger, roaring, wrapping itself in flowing flames, seemingly preparing to jump.
"Don't move."
Silas's voice, full of malice, came through.
He forcibly pulled at the "shepherded" soul within, seizing control for himself.
The flames that had risen halfway immediately dispersed, abruptly failing.
"Roar!"
The black tentacles drew closer and closer. The monster panicked, moving its legs, trying to escape by running.
"Hiss!"
A dagger formed from flames instantly pierced through the thigh, pinning its body firmly to the ground.
On the other side, Silas's face wore a fierce smile:
"I told you, don't run! Get ready to die with me!"
The black tentacles completely imprisoned it amid the monster's desperate roars and violent struggles, completely isolating its roaring voice.
"What are you waiting for?"
He looked at Klein and said.
Klein looked at Dunn, pale to the extreme and swaying on the verge of collapse, then at Silas, determined to die.
Tears mixed with blood quickly flowed down his face.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out that thin gold piece.
The [Sunflame] charm!
In his slightly blurred vision, an arcane ancient Hermes word escaped his lips:
"Light!"
Silas watched as that charm was thrown toward him.
The street, which had become dim due to Saint Selena's urn, suddenly brightened.
It was noon now. Under the clear sky, the high-hanging sun was casting its most intense light upon the earth.
The charm floated before Silas, rapidly compressing, resonating with the sun overhead, becoming the most extreme light.
Klein actually had this kind of method...
No, I need to protect myself...
Silas closed his eyes, activating blood magic, transferring all healing ability to his side.
In the next instant, he felt another sun being born.
"Boom..."
In the dazzling brilliance, Klein and Dunn simultaneously closed their eyes.
The earth trembled. The light was so intense that it still stung even through their eyelids.
They heard the monster's unwilling final wail, which quickly disappeared into nothing.
The impact caused Klein to involuntarily step back several paces. He barely controlled his body.
When he opened his eyes again, he saw that at the center of the explosion, Silas still stood.
Half his body and arm had disappeared, and his lower limbs were charred black like coal.
The black threads that had originally wrapped around the monster rapidly retreated, as if severely injured.
The threads quickly burrowed into the urn in Dunn's hands. With a clang, even the lid automatically closed.
The monster was dead!
Silas was still alive?
A mix of surprise and joy crossed Klein's face when he noticed Silas was fully lucid, with no trace of madness.
"Please hurry and find me some fresh meat..."
Silas felt the weakness within his body and said to the two present.
The good news was that the monster was indeed destroyed. The bad news was that with the dissipation of their souls and flesh, the potion had become extremely unstable.
He could lose control at any moment.
The next second, his pupils suddenly constricted.
Because a hand suddenly appeared, piercing through his chest.
"Pff!"
Silas heard the wail of his own heart being penetrated.
There's still an enemy...
Already at the end of his rope, Silas could no longer recover his body. His strength was gradually disappearing. He slowly fell.
In his gradually dimming vision, he saw a man wearing clergy robes step into the battle, fighting with Klein and Dunn.
The clergyman's offensive was powerful and merciless, resolving the two weakened men at the fastest speed, then bending down to pick up the urn.
When picking up the urn, his gaze met Silas's.
It was a middle-aged man with dark gold hair and one blind eye. He looked at Silas, his face completely expressionless.
Bastard, daring to ambush me. I'll definitely kill you...
Before losing his last bit of consciousness, Silas thought hazily.