At this moment, Silas's hallucination was filled with two insane entities.
Judging by their spiritual position, the twin-headed flourishing tree against the cosmic backdrop was clearly far more exalted.
However, it seemed too distant, and appeared to be separated by a transparent barrier that prevented its influence from reaching him.
Instead, the thing beneath it, which seemed like its fetus, posed a far greater threat to Silas.
"Damn it..."
Blood streamed from all of Silas's features.
Those two arms, which seemed to be a conglomeration of the world's most evil things, gripped him tightly, forcibly cramming countless pieces of mad and twisted knowledge into him.
The Mother Tree of Desire, "God's Spawn," Suah... He quickly learned much forbidden knowledge.
So this was the evil god worshiped by the "Naturism Sect," and "God's Spawn" Suah was the child it had borne... No, this can't continue!
Feeling his spirit being continuously eroded, Silas immediately began to resist.
Though what he saw was a hallucination, this contamination was absolutely real!
As for how to resist, naturally it was...
"Whoosh!"
An illusory sound of ocean tides rang out in an instant, overflowing from within Silas's body and instantly breaking apart the two arms binding him!
The seawater was deep and dark, as if containing all colors and possibilities, reversing to stain those two sin-laden arms!
"▇▇▇..."
The twisted monster began to tremble, emitting sounds impossible for human language to comprehend.
It suddenly retracted its arms. Its already chaotic body suddenly dispersed like thick fog and boiled like water, clearly in extreme agony.
"Whoosh..."
The seawater surged, filling the world. Silas had no intention of letting it escape.
He manipulated the waters, continuing to launch attacks, battering its filthy form.
"▇▇▇▇▇..."
The monster grew more agonized, curling into a ball, losing all fixed form. T
he flourishing tree behind it trembled as well. The starry sky dimmed, and everything began to recede, turning pale...
Silas awoke from the hallucination.
"Captain? Captain!"
He heard Anderson's shouts, seemingly from a great distance.
What's going on? Don't people know to come closer when calling someone?
Silas instinctively tried to open his eyes, only to discover he had no body at all. He was spread across the deck in the form of a pool of flesh and blood. No wonder Anderson was standing so far away.
"Swoosh!"
He retracted the flesh and blood, reassembling himself, and covered his body with a robe of crimson.
"Captain, are you alright!"
Anderson and the others stood far away at the stern. Seeing him restore his body, they breathed a long sigh of relief.
"I knew it. It's just an evil god. There's no way it could erode you..."
You certainly have a lot of confidence in me...
Silas smiled wryly and straightened his clothes.
Looking back, there were some tar-like deep black residues on the deck, as if they'd been scorched, emitting foul-smelling white smoke.
"What happened here?"
He pointed at the pool of black residue and asked, "Did any of you see that symbol?"
The crew gradually gathered closer. Hearing his question, they all seemed somewhat confused.
"What symbol?"
Anderson asked in return.
"The symbol that Uruk's blood mist turned into after he died."
"Uruk didn't turn into blood mist. After you cut him in half, Captain, he was still standing there.
But before you regained consciousness, he suddenly started screaming, then burned to ashes." Anderson answered earnestly.
"We only concluded you might be okay after we saw him burn to ashes."
So it had been a hallucination from that point on?
This symbol wasn't meant for everyone to see. It was targeted specifically at me.
Silas's heart grew somewhat heavy. The Mother Tree of Desire and the Naturism Sect, when exactly did they start targeting him?
He'd have to be more careful from now on.
Thinking this, he casually picked up the milky-white die from the deck.
When he touched it, the die trembled slightly, as if afraid of him, and rolled over to show 5 dots facing up.
Hm?
Silas paused slightly.
What's this about? Where's that malice you had before?
Didn't you just roll me a 1, trying to get me killed? Why are you being obedient now?
After brief consideration, he roughly guessed the reason.
It was probably because of that ocean tide he'd projected.
That was a peculiar existence capable of resisting a true god's erosion and defeating "God's Spawn's" contamination, with an extremely high spiritual position.
Previously, those living Beyonder items had all appeared extremely fearful after encountering him.
That this die could persist until he projected that power was already quite remarkable.
"So what exactly is this damned thing?"
Silas looked up and asked Roy King.
"It's a living Beyonder item."
The extremely youthful-looking Roy King was pulling his fat disciple's ear, answering with a serious expression.
"The die's number represents the holder's degree of luck. Six is extremely fortunate, while one brings life-threatening misfortune... Councilor Ricciardo has a way to seal it again."
Silas could sense he was holding something back in his words, but didn't press further, simply nodding.
"Fine. Until we return to Oravi Island, I'll hold onto it."
"...Alright."
Roy King naturally couldn't refuse. With his abilities, keeping this die would only get him slowly killed.
"Do you know about the Naturism Sect on Oravi Island?"
Silas continued asking.
"I do."
Roy King nodded, his expression showing slight disgust.
"Like the Rose School of Thought, they worship the evil god Mother Tree of Desire..."
Through Roy King's brief introduction, Silas roughly understood that part of the Rose School of Thought believed in the Primordial Moon, while another part believed in the Mother Tree of Desire, and sometimes the two were conflated.
"God's Spawn" Suah was the current leader of the Rose School of Thought, a Sequence 1 angel on earth.
Supposedly, it was the child of the evil god Mother Tree of Desire.
Mm, that matches what I saw in the hallucination.
Silas thought to himself.
He roughly guessed that the symbol came from the Mother Tree of Desire.
Suah might have tried to erode and control him through this medium. It just hadn't expected to be counterattacked and could only retreat.
According to Roy King, Suah was born through peculiar means by a deity, and thus its spiritual state was very poor. It didn't often appear in the real world.
So now there's another evil god to watch out for. Whatever, I've already offended enough enemies.
Silas could only sneer inwardly, then stood up.
"I'm fine now."
He said calmly to the sailors.
"Set sail. Back to Oravi Island. Also, you all did excellent work this time. We can celebrate tonight."
"Yeah!"
Hearing this, the sailors immediately erupted in cheers.
They scattered excitedly, returning to their posts. The entire fleet began heading toward Oravi Island. They'd probably reach it after one more night.
"Anderson, Walter, you few come with me."
Silas said to those Beyonders, leading them to his captain's cabin.
The mission was complete. It was time to give his subordinates some rewards.