Silas left one person alive.
Although he could obtain information by channeling corpses, he happened to have the "Suggester's Mirror" on him, which could be used to hypnotize the living.
Using both methods together would achieve the best results.
The believer had just regained consciousness from his stupor when a golden, vertical-pupiled eye appeared in his blurry vision.
After locking gazes with the eye for a moment, his expression quickly became dazed and submissive.
"Who are you?"
Silas asked.
"The Lord's lamb."
That form of address confirmed it was indeed the Aurora Order.
"What are you doing here?"
"Following Mr. A's orders to find the Lord's progeny."
The Lord's progeny, Lanevus?
Silas frowned slightly.
Given Lanevus's condition, the fact that he could stay hidden in Backlund all this time meant the Aurora Order must have helped conceal him.
Taking it further, Lanevus was very likely imprisoned by them.
After all, Lanevus was currently carrying the True Creator's progeny. For him, this child was a terrifying burden.
The moment it was born might very well bring him death. He'd want it gone if he could.
And the Aurora Order naturally craved the Lord's progeny's arrival. They absolutely wouldn't give Lanevus the chance to "abort" it.
In other words, Lanevus escaped?
The Aurora Order really was useless, letting a pregnant man escape like that.
Silas thought with some irritation.
Lanevus himself was already an extremely unstable seed, and now he'd broken free from control.
Who knew what terrible things he might do.
He grabbed the believer and continued questioning, wanting to figure out the details of Lanevus's escape.
But this believer appeared to be just a low-level member and didn't know much.
"Forget it then. I'll try channeling."
Silas drew his ritual dagger and stood up, surveying the other corpses.
Cecilia killed them so cleanly and efficiently.
He muttered to himself. Such decisive movements showed she was already quite practiced.
She must have digested the "Assassin" potion, right?
Why did she lie to me and say she hadn't?
Silas glanced at his sister.
She was supporting the petite woman and standing beside the nervous brown-haired lady. She held a dagger with a slight smile, which only made the woman appear more uneasy.
I'll ask her when we get back.
Silas withdrew his gaze and began channeling through ritual.
These people had just died, and the spirituality in their bodies was still very fresh.
Silas created a wall of spirituality, lit two candles (one representing himself, one representing the deity), then sprinkled powders of moon flower and night vanilla, and dripped in deep sleep flower essential oil.
He had purchased all these materials from the Chubby Apothecary's herb shop.
"O Evernight Goddess, nobler than the stars, more eternal than eternity."
"You are the Crimson Lord, You are the Mother of Concealment, the Empress of Calamity, the Lord of Rest and Silence."
He offered a prayer to the Evernight Goddess.
Although praying to the True Creator would be more convenient, these people were the True Creator's believers, and the clue Silas sought was His progeny. No matter how he thought about it, the True Creator couldn't possibly give him answers. If he actually prayed to Him, he might even incur punishment.
"I pray for the power of night."
"I pray for the power of concealment."
"I pray that You allow me to communicate with this cultist's spirituality."
Accompanied by Silas's recitation, a silent and profound power quietly descended, seemingly gathering the residual spirituality from the corpse and pouring it all into Silas's mind.
Soon, Silas fell into a peculiar dream.
He saw that in a pitch-black basement, a group of believers wearing classical robes knelt devoutly on the ground.
Opposite them stood a black-robed man. His face was hidden under a hood, revealing only an elegantly curved chin.
"Lanevus, the vessel of the Lord's progeny, has escaped."
The black-robed man's cold voice carried madness.
"Go find him and bring him back."
"Yes, Mr. A."
The believers chorused in unison.
Mr. A?
I've heard that name somewhere before. He's the Aurora Order's person in charge in Backlund, right?
Silas thought to himself.
Now he was absolutely certain that Lanevus had indeed escaped from the Aurora Order's grasp.
Just then, he suddenly noticed that the hooded man abruptly looked up and stared right at him.
Looked right at him!
He saw that beneath the hood was a face so handsome it seemed almost feminine in its delicacy, except this face was currently full of malice and hatred, with terrible red light flickering in the depths of its eyes.
The dream began to crumble. Some kind of crisis warning caused Silas to suddenly awaken.
He saw that all the corpses on the ground, including the one he'd left alive, were rapidly swelling, swelling!
Flesh bombs!
"Get back!"
Silas shouted, not hesitating to slash open his wrist with the dagger.
"Splurt!"
A large amount of fresh blood splashed down like rain, dousing each corpse.
"Stop!"
At the same time, Silas activated flesh magic, forcibly halting the bombs' detonation.
The corpses' swelling stopped abruptly, but soon the flesh began slowly expanding again, showing signs of resistance.
Damn it, that guy's flesh magic seems stronger than mine.
Silas cursed inwardly, but his advantage was being closer to these corpses. So he slashed his wrist open again, spilling more blood in large amounts.
"Praise the Lord!"
He even offered the True Creator a compliment, and only then did he overpower the other party's force.
"Whoosh..."
The corpses stopped swelling and rapidly deflated, turning into foul-smelling puddles of blood covering the ground.
Silas then lifted a nearby manhole cover, controlling the blood to flow inside, leaving not a trace at the scene.
After dealing with all this, he turned back around.
He saw the woman's face full of surprise.
"You're a Beyonder of the Secrets Suppliant pathway?"
She asked.
"Yes."
"You... don't believe in the True Creator, do you?"
"Why would I believe in a raving lunatic?"
Silas said without courtesy.
"Your companion has been cursed with flesh magic. I'm a professional and can save her. How about this, let's bring her back to our place first, and I'll treat her properly."
It seems this is the person! Mr. Fool didn't deceive me!
Fors couldn't help but breathe a huge sigh of relief. She hadn't expected that before even reaching his house, she'd be rescued on the road.
This was actually better, because if she'd shown up at his door, he would definitely ask how she knew about this place, but Mr. Fool didn't allow her to reveal His name.
Strange, why couldn't she reveal it? Wasn't he Mr. Fool's devotee?
Fors only thought about it casually, then saw that he had already started walking ahead, and hurried to catch up.
Sure enough, she hadn't guessed wrong. The group eventually arrived in front of 8 Howes Street, precisely the address Mr. Fool had provided her.
"I forgot to mention, I'm a healer in the East Borough. My name is Kafka Anderson, and this is my sister, Cecilia."
The handsome, powerful Beyonder said.
"I'm Fors Wall, and this is my friend, Xio Derecha."
Fors committed these two names to memory and followed them into the house, her mood quickly lifting.
Xio's injuries were finally going to be healed!