"Spirit and Number made flesh,
Wellspring of all knowledge,
The Hidden Sage who dwells upon the wastes."
The moment Silas finished reciting the Hidden Sage's honorific name, a mysterious presence descended abruptly.
Evil gods certainly had better customer service than the orthodox deities.
It would be even better if they didn't hunger for the souls of those who prayed to Them.
Silas heard a voice whispering in his ear.
At first, the sound was like mosquitoes gathering near his ear, producing a faint buzzing.
But soon, these mosquitoes began swarming in formation, and the noise grew to match a roar.
Countless voices mixed together, yet each one remained impossibly clear, comprehensible, understandable.
These voices carried knowledge.
Simply listening to any single voice would grant a certain amount of information.
But when such knowledge was gathered in massive quantities, as if congealing into solid chunks being forced into his brain, the experience became unbearable.
Silas felt his mind being rapidly filled with knowledge and information.
Suddenly, sensing something, he looked down at the back of his hand. The eyeball pattern without eyelashes that he had carved with his dagger had somehow come alive.
The pattern formed by the wound was moving across his skin, like a real eyeball!
The cold, emotionless eye rotated until it found Silas's gaze, then stopped and stared directly into his eyes.
"Boom!"
The instant their gazes met, blood immediately flowed from Silas's nose and eyes.
Enduring the pain, he continued reciting his prayer to the eyeball:
"Great Sage, honored Teacher! I beseech You for strength."
"I pray that You grant me the power to change my circumstances."
"Grant me the power to save Your innocent believers, the power to restrain evil enemies."
Silas was basically repeating to the Hidden Sage what he had said to the Goddess.
The eyeball without eyelashes stared at him emotionlessly, without response.
Just as Silas thought he was going to fail again, he saw the eye rapidly turn blood red.
Then, a massive amount of knowledge appeared from the invisible void, rushing to squeeze into Silas's head!
"Ah!"
Silas cried out in pain and collapsed to his knees.
Information, endless information, burrowed into Silas's brain like living creatures seeking a host, greedily occupying every one of his cells.
The Hidden Sage was like an obsessive yet generous mad teacher, directly and brutally prying open the student's skull to pour in excessive amounts of knowledge!
But among all this knowledge, was there what Silas wanted?
Who knew.
"Creak..."
This was the sound of Silas's fingernails scraping against the floor.
He felt like he was about to be overwhelmed, his consciousness drowning in endless knowledge, like a small boat drifting on a storm-tossed sea, tiny and fragile.
Knowledge greedily gnawed at his sanity, and terrible pain swept over him.
His fingernails were bloody and raw, his nails thickening abnormally, his ears elongating like trumpets.
"Whoosh..."
Until the illusory sound of ocean waves rose, and his cheat arrived to protect his mind.
With that wave sound, the previously unrestrained flow of knowledge suddenly froze, then its speed slowed.
Though it was still pouring in heavily, making his head feel like it would split, it had reached a bearable level.
Silas could finally shift his attention to analyzing this information. He sifted through it, trying to find what he needed.
The black threads before his eyes slowly receded. Time was running out.
"Found it!"
Finally, Silas found what he needed among the knowledge granted by the Hidden Sage!
He had indeed responded to Silas's prayer and granted him the knowledge he sought.
But this knowledge was buried in a sea of information.
An ordinary Beyonder simply couldn't last until the ritual ended; they would either open their consciousness and let Him transform them or lose control and become a monster.
Evil gods really were twisted.
"Swish!"
After obtaining the knowledge, Silas didn't dare delay.
He immediately picked up his dagger and pressed it against the back of his hand.
Gritting his teeth, he carved away a layer of skin and flesh containing the cold-eyed pattern!
"Plop."
The bloody piece of skin fell to the ground. Silas picked up the silver dagger and carved Hermes text and strange patterns into the flesh.
The Hidden Sage's power flowed through the dagger into it.
When he completed the final stroke, the piece of flesh glowed with black light and rapidly shrank, transforming into a flesh-colored charm.
The charm was roughly coin-sized and had a flexible, elastic texture when picked up.
This was one of the powers granted to Silas by the Hidden Sage.
Once activated and hitting an enemy, the target would be noticed by the Hidden Sage, hear His teachings, and be force-fed massive amounts of knowledge.
For a Beyonder, such an infusion would absolutely constitute a massive shock, enough to cause them to lose control.
Silas named this charm "The Sage's Enlightenment."
He picked up the charm and thought for a moment, unsure where to hide it.
After all, Ms. M was constantly monitoring him, and if it was accidentally discovered, that would be bad.
Just then, inspiration struck. He pressed the human-skin charm onto the back of his hand where he had carved away a layer of flesh.
As the wound rapidly healed, the charm was buried beneath his skin.
This was perfect. It was completely undetectable, though using it would require wounding himself again.
After finishing all this, the Hidden Sage's power had mostly dissipated.
While the black threads were still present, Silas quickly cleaned up the scene.
Just as he finished, the last few black threads wrapped around his head slowly retreated behind the Chanis Gate.
The time free from surveillance had ended.
Silas thought with some regret.
Just then, several threads seemed to be severed, drifting out from the door and wrapping around his fingers, transforming into a black ring.
What was this?
Looking at the ring, Silas's spiritual intuition told him that using it would grant him another brief period free from Ms. M's surveillance.
Was this the Goddess giving me another chance?
I need to carefully consider when to use it.
Silas didn't plan to use this ring to call Captain for help, because the Goddess's attitude was already very clear.
Even if the Captain sent a telegram to the Holy Cathedral, aid might not come.
Or even if aid came and eliminated Ms. M, Silas himself would be arrested for judgment and purified directly.
All the other black threads retreated behind the Chanis Gate, and the black iron door slowly closed.
Silas sat back in his chair. From the corner of his eye, he noticed that the previously suppressed blood mist was floating again, and the translucent eyeballs and ears had once more connected to his vision.
But now, seeing them again, Silas felt less worried and more confident.
Because he now had another trump card.