"Lord..."
A phantom soul was pulled out from the body, and from the outside, one could vaguely make out Mr. A's appearance. He resisted Silas's absorption with all his might, desperately calling out to his deity. Compared to ordinary Beyonders, Mr. A's soul was much more substantial—perhaps because he was a Shepherd, his soul itself had been strengthened.
"Hmm?"
Not only that, but Silas also witnessed an even more peculiar sight. Within Mr. A's soul, several other equally tormented souls were currently wrapped inside.
Those were the sheep he had grazed!
Scattered points of light flew up from the flesh and blood. The light points bore different colors, separately surging into Mr. A and the sheep within his body. By the time the light points stopped precipitating out, Mr. A's soul had been completely extracted.
A powerful suction force emerged from Silas's palm. Two rows of phantom teeth grinned open, a dark maw gaping wide, waiting to devour the sheep whole.
"No! Lord, Lord!"
Mr. A struggled in vain. As a Shepherd, he understood most clearly just how painful it was to become a sheep. His soul would suffer lashings day and night, worn down through servitude until his spirituality was completely extinguished and he vanished entirely.
Of course, his struggles were completely ineffective. Silas slightly increased the suction force, and the phantom soul was pulled up, flying uncontrollably into Silas's palm.
"Smack!"
Mr. A's soul entered Silas's body, but still refused to be docile, continuing to struggle incessantly. So he raised the invisible whip high and lashed it viciously against the spirit body. At the same time, the Shepherd's characteristic began to activate, forcibly driving him to the vacant position.
His struggles grew increasingly feeble until he was completely imprisoned, utterly unable to defy Silas's will.
How ironic—the "Shepherd" had actually become a "sheep."
"Grazing" could fix three of a sheep's abilities. Without hesitation, Silas chose "Grazing," Flesh Magic, and Shadow Magic—the Beyonder abilities corresponding to Sequences 5, 6, and 7 of the Secrets Suppliant pathway.
He wanted to test whether a Shepherd grazing a Shepherd was feasible.
---
After successfully fixing the three abilities, Silas immediately began his attempt with eager anticipation.
"Graze!"
Within his body, Mr. A's soul began to shriek in agony, forced to activate the ability.
Silas immediately sensed that his soul had formed a deeper connection with the other's soul, and he could now perceive the sheep souls within Mr. A's spirit body!
A Shepherd could also drive another Shepherd!
The nesting had succeeded!
"Pain Witch, Devil, Baron of Corruption, Recorder, Wind-blessed, Nightmare, Magistrate..."
Silas carefully sensed the seven sheep souls belonging to Mr. A, attempting to extract the corresponding intelligence and abilities from them. After he had completely grasped all the information about Mr. A's sheep souls, he couldn't help but feel astonished.
Such high quality!
Apart from the Pain Witch being a Sequence 5 Beyonder characteristic and the Nightmare being a Sequence 7 characteristic, the other Beyonder abilities were basically all Sequence 6, and all very useful. Especially the Recorder—this was a Sequence 6 Beyonder of the Apprentice pathway, possessing the powerful ability called "Recording."
The Recorder could use a phantom tome to record Beyonder abilities witnessed firsthand and use them again. This usage was one-time, and the power was somewhat diminished.
It sounded like this might be inferior to "Grazing." However, the power of "Recording" lay in the fact that one only needed to personally witness the target using the ability to record it. Moreover, it could be recorded and saved multiple times, and could even record Beyonder abilities of far higher Sequences than oneself—though the probability of successful recording wasn't high.
Specifically, three Sequence 4 Beyonder abilities could be recorded, eight Sequence 6 and Sequence 5 Beyonder abilities could be recorded at half their original effectiveness, and twenty Sequence 7 to Sequence 9 abilities could be recorded at close to their original effectiveness.
At this moment, within the Recorder's soul, there were no demigod-level Beyonder abilities at all. There were several Sequence 6 and Sequence 5 Beyonder abilities, including "Travel." As for Sequence 7 to 9, there were basically none either. After all, Mr. A himself was a Shepherd, and Sequence 7 to 9 rarely had particularly powerful abilities.
Besides the Recorder, another sheep worth mentioning was the "Baron of Corruption."
This was Sequence 6 of the "Lawyer" pathway, possessing the three abilities of "Distortion," "Bribery," and "Corruption," able to shift the battle in one's favor by altering the rules.
"It feels a lot like that Grade 1 Sealed Artifact from Port Enmat, the Staff of Chaos."
Silas recalled and thought to himself, "They should be from the same pathway."
In any case, Mr. A had indeed given him a very pleasant surprise. Except for the "Devil," which overlapped with the sheep he had already grazed, the remaining six souls were all very useful.
"That Devil's soul can be released, and the corresponding Beyonder characteristic can be sold..."
Thinking this, he waved his hand and collected all the Beyonder characteristics on the altar.
Tomorrow was Monday—time to attend the "Tarot Club" organized by Mr. Fool. Although he hadn't met the other members, since they had been chosen by Mr. Fool, they should all be no ordinary Beyonders.
Perhaps he could obtain the potion formula for Sequence 4 Black Knight from them...
Silas thought this as he descended the altar and came to the center of the temple.
"Swish!"
He drew a ritual dagger, cut his finger, dripped blood on the corpses on the ground, and simultaneously activated Flesh Magic.
"Ugh..."
The corpses began to change accordingly. The surface of the originally charred bodies writhed incessantly, flesh breaking through the shells, growing new skin to cover the wounds. The Rose Bishop who had been cut in half also stood up, reassembling his own body...
All the cultists once again recovered normal appearances externally, though their gazes were somewhat stiff and dull.
They had been made into flesh puppets by Silas.
"Continue your previous actions."
Silas commanded the puppets, "Bring in those believers, the other members who weren't present today... pull them all in, then eliminate them. Understand?"
The Aurora Order naturally had more than just this one stronghold and these few members. He planned to thoroughly eliminate this force, but couldn't expose himself too early and alert the enemy.
The puppets nodded stiffly, indicating they understood.
To ordinary people, they might seem somewhat strange. But the Aurora Order itself was a group of madmen—even if they behaved a bit oddly, to their internal personnel, there was nothing to question. He would use flesh puppets to gradually replace all the members of the Aurora Order in Backlund. By the time the remaining minority of members discovered the problem, everything would already be too late.
"Oh right, there's also that Beyonder gathering hosted by Mr. A."
Silas dug through Mr. A's memories, learned of his daily activities, and muttered to himself, "That works too. I'll reluctantly disguise myself as Mr. A for now and take his place in organizing the gathering..."
After considering all this clearly, Silas turned and walked toward the ascending stairs.
That group of flesh puppets respectfully followed behind him, hiding their faces beneath their hoods, clustering around him like his most loyal servants.
---
A Shepherd can graze another Shepherd. After grazing, it's equivalent to expansion. This is a setting personally provided by Cuttlefish.
Additionally, Mr. A's sheep also reference the original content from the book.