Klein collapsed into his chair, using divination to immerse himself in a dreamlike state, communing with his spiritual intuition.
It didn't take long before he woke from the dream, his expression grave as he looked at the other two.
"You found a lead?"
Silas asked.
"Yes."
Klein rubbed his temples, organizing his thoughts.
"His name is Jason Beria. He's from the Beria family, one of the three great demon families.
He currently lives in Backlund, and his cover identity is that of a banker."
The Beria family?
Silas thought for a moment, feeling like he might have seen that name in the Nighthawks' internal documents.
At the same time, he couldn't help but reflect on how the other party had told him he was from the Nois family.
That had clearly been a lie.
"In the Fourth Epoch, worshipers of demons established a loose organization called the 'Blood Worship Cult.'
Among them, three great demon families stood out: the Nois, the Andariel, and the Beria.
They worshiped an evil god called the 'Dark Side of the Universe,' believing Him to be the master of the abyss."
Isengard spoke at length, explaining to the two of them. He seemed to have an instinct for sharing knowledge with others.
"All right, let's hear him out first."
Silas said to him.
"Oh, sorry. My old habit kicked in."
Isengard smiled slightly, then turned back to Klein.
So Klein continued, "His purpose, as expected, wasn't to avenge his dog.
It was to create a disturbance, divert the attention of official Beyonders, and then take the opportunity to assassinate Duke Negan!"
As soon as the words left his mouth, the other two in the living room froze.
Duke Negan, the older brother of the current Prime Minister, Lord Agushid Negan, and the primary supporter of the Conservative Party!
This was actually an incident involving the upper echelons of the nation?
"I remember Duke Negan was targeted for assassination once before.
That time it was carried out by one of the pirate admirals, 'Hurricane Lieutenant General' Qilangos," Isengard said in a heavy tone.
"For these assassinations to happen in succession like this shows just how persistent they are!"
That was certainly true.
The struggles between the powerful are really fraught with danger, Silas thought to himself.
He heard Isengard continue asking, "So who's behind all this?"
Klein's eyes flickered for a moment before he shook his head, seemingly indicating he didn't know either.
In truth, he had vaguely heard a blurred phrase in the other party's dream:
The Twilight Hermit Order.
But after learning this name, his spiritual intuition had gone into a frenzy, warning him not to casually speak the name aloud, as if merely saying it would cause something terrible to happen.
I feel like I've seen something similar in Emperor Roselle's diary.
That gathering he mentioned, the one whose "name cannot even be mentioned," could that be this "Twilight Hermit Order"?
Klein speculated inwardly, but outwardly only said, "I'm sorry. Those things seem to be too deeply hidden. With my abilities, I can't find out."
"Heh heh, want to know?"
At that moment, the soul gripped in Silas's hand suddenly laughed maliciously. "This is all the choice of the era. They are..."
This is bad!
I can't let him say it!
Klein panicked internally and was about to stop him when he saw:
"Crack."
Before the demon could finish, Silas flipped his palm and swallowed it into his own body.
"...Why didn't you wait for him to tell us the lead?"
Isengard asked, both surprised and regretful.
"Not listening to a demon's honeyed words is common sense, isn't it?"
Silas said casually.
He manipulated the struggling soul within his body, finally imprisoning it in the last vacant position inside himself.
The Shepherd's seven grazing slots were now completely full.
If there were new, more suitable lambs, he would have to replace the existing ones.
After all, these lambs' souls were gradually wearing away with his use.
If he kept using them, sooner or later their souls would completely dissipate and he wouldn't be able to command them anymore.
But all that was for later. What he needed to consider now was which three abilities of this demon to preserve.
Silas communed spiritually with the "Desire Apostle," and then discovered that a demon who had advanced to Desire Apostle had precisely three newly added abilities.
First, Desire Mastery.
A Desire Apostle could utilize and manipulate others' emotions and desires.
When the target experienced significant psychological fluctuations, the apostle could seize the opportunity and plant an explosive seed, either controlling the target, inducing them to fall into depravity, causing their bodily functions to overload, or making them take extreme actions in their confusion.
This was probably what they meant by the saying that anger gives the devil inside your heart an opening.
Second, Mental Impact.
A Desire Apostle could ignite the two curved demon horns on their head and forcibly impact the target's psyche, making them unavoidably generate emotions.
The impact Silas had suffered earlier came from this very ability.
As for the third ability, it was called Desire Incarnation.
Specifically, it was that state Silas had seen before, where the body was wrapped in black liquid.
That liquid contained the most intense and extreme emotions, and could interfere with others, reduce damage, conceal one's tracks, enable silent infiltration, and so on.
Silas had already grazed a Sequence 6 demon, so he didn't need to agonize over what to keep.
He directly fixed all three abilities and preserved them within his body.
After completing all this, he opened his eyes to find Isengard once again watching the entire grazing process with a serious expression.
Behind him, Klein was tentatively extending his hand to play with the little black cat, who merely gazed down at him with blue eyes, not even twitching its tail.
You two are way too relaxed, Silas couldn't help thinking.
"Ding-dong, ding-dong..."
Just then, the doorbell rang outside the living room.
The three walked out of the living room. Through the door, Silas sensed several Beyonder auras outside.
There were quite a few, but they were basically just Sequence 7 and Sequence 8.
"Looks like the Machinery Hivemind people have arrived," Isengard said to Silas. "Need help leaving? Without them noticing, I mean."
"It's fine."
Silas said calmly, gesturing for Klein to open the door.
Then the golden light in his eyes flared up once more. Invisibly, something seemed to change.
The detectives all ignored him. Even though he stood before them, he couldn't draw their attention.
The Spectator pathway Sequence 6 Beyonder ability: Psychological Invisibility!
Though it was called invisibility, it was more like becoming a blind spot in others' psychology, making it difficult for them to perceive him.
"Hello, Mr. Moriarty."
Just as he finished these preparations, Klein had already opened the door.
Standing outside were several unfamiliar people.
The man in the lead had hard, angular features on his face, but a head of wild, curly hair.
In his hand, he held a silver mirror with strange patterns.
Each end of the mirror was decorated with a black gemstone, like the eyes of the mirror.
From the marks on it, this mirror appeared to be quite ancient.