After successfully grazing the Shaman King in the pale world, Silas returned to reality.
"Your Excellency Ishmael."
The Red Gloves immediately gathered around him.
"Mm."
Silas raised a hand and tossed a mangled mass of flesh onto the ground. The corpse shimmered with multicolored light as various spirituality-rich materials began separating from it. Without a doubt, it was the corpse of Kisma, the Saint of Darkness.
The Red Gloves erupted into an uproar.
"This is..."
"That demigod?"
They exchanged astonished remarks, looking at the corpse and then back at Silas, their eyes filled with both respect and awe.
As an operational unit representing the Church's combat strength, they had always respected power above all else.
Not only was this newly appointed deacon exceptionally good at teaching them how to deal with cultists, he was also terrifyingly powerful himself. He had only recently become a senior deacon, yet he had already killed two Sequence 4 cultists in a row.
Sequence 4.
Those were demigods!
Even as elites from the Church in the capital, they had never experienced anything this thrilling before.
"Bring the corpse and the separated Beyonder characteristics back. Handle them according to procedure."
After issuing the order, Silas asked, "What about the other believers?"
"They've all been dealt with. Most were killed, and a small number were captured alive." Soest walked over, looking slightly embarrassed. "Only Mr. X himself nearly got away."
"Nearly?"
"Yes. We failed to kill him in time. Once the effects of your ritual wore off, he used Traveling to slip through the spirit world and vanish. We thought he'd escaped, but then we found his corpse not far from here."
As Soest spoke, he led Silas forward.
Before long, they reached the entrance to a dark alley. Daly and Leonard stood there with several others, looking unsettled as they guarded the scene. When the two approached, the guards saluted and stepped aside.
Silas looked into the alley.
Mr. X's headless corpse lay faceup in a pool of blood, his death both gruesome and horrifying.
Klein did a pretty good job.
That was Silas's private thought, but out loud he only asked, "Who killed him? Were you able to track them?"
"There are traces of anti-divination measures at the scene. None of our people could divine any clues," Leonard replied.
"Mr. X's soul has completely dissipated, so spirit channeling is out of the question too." Daly frowned. "My gut tells me his spirit body was forcibly extracted by someone."
Good guess. He was probably grazed.
One glance was all Silas needed. The lingering sinister aura on the corpse felt unmistakably familiar; it was exactly the kind of vile touch characteristic of his own Pathway.
Right, Klein mentioned he'd gotten a glove carrying a Shepherd's characteristic off Mr. Azik...
"Both the deceased's Beyonder characteristics and his mystical items are gone. Given that, he may have been ambushed and robbed."
Silas spoke calmly. "Handle the scene first. I'll see if I can turn up anything."
Of course, that was just an excuse.
His real purpose was to slip away and meet up with Klein.
"Your Excellency, do you need help?" Leonard asked.
"No. There's not much you could do here anyway."
Silas shook his head.
Once he'd separated from the others, he made his way to the spot he and Klein had agreed on: Hyde Park, two streets over. Evening was settling in, and the park was nearly empty. A secluded corner sat especially quiet, with nothing but a bare bench surrounded by thick vegetation.
"Klein?"
Silas couldn't see his fellow transmigrator, but he could clearly sense his presence.
"Mm. I'm here."
Klein's low voice came from behind a large tree across from the bench.
Hm?
Strange. Why was this guy hiding behind a tree instead of coming out?
"Are you all right?" Silas asked.
"I'm fine..."
There was a faint tremor in Klein's voice.
Something was wrong.
"Then why won't you come out?"
Silas finally couldn't hold back any longer. He couldn't sense any sign of Klein losing control or slipping toward madness, but Klein was stubbornly refusing to show his face, and that alone was enough to worry him.
He started walking toward the tree as he spoke.
"I'm fine. I'm really fine! Don't come over!"
Klein's voice turned noticeably panicked. "Just give me a few more minutes..."
And he still had the nerve to claim nothing was wrong?
Whoosh.
Silas's figure blurred, and in an instant he was standing behind the tree.
Fully on guard, he looked sternly at what awaited him there...
A trembling Klein?
His fellow transmigrator's body showed no abnormalities, and his spirituality read completely normal.
For some reason, though, Klein had suddenly turned extremely timid. The moment he saw Silas's face, open fear crossed his expression, and he sprang back with agility far beyond an ordinary person's, ducking behind the trunk again.
"I told you not to come over..."
He called out from the other side of the tree.
"What exactly is going on?"
Silas found the whole thing both bizarre and more than a little funny.
After some persistent questioning, Klein finally explained.
It turned out to be a side effect of a mystical item.
Before leaving the Sonia Sea, he'd run into Anderson, Silas's first mate. Through Anderson's connections, he'd gotten his hands on a powerful offensive weapon, a revolver called Death Knell.
The weapon could unleash devastating attacks, but every time it was used, it left behind a weakness that hadn't existed before, a fear of some particular thing, lasting six hours.
When he'd gone up against Mr. X, Klein had used Death Knell to make sure he killed him in one strike.
Unfortunately, the weakness he'd developed this time around was...
Men.
That was why the sight of Silas had frightened him so badly. Even hearing Silas's voice or looking at his face was enough to shake his resolve.
"You could've said something sooner!"
Silas didn't know whether to laugh or feel sorry for him. "If it's just psychological, I can treat it."
Afterward, he drew on the Spectator Pathway abilities carried by Sea Tide to ease Klein's mental state, and Klein finally returned to normal.
"Whew... That was embarrassing."
Once he'd calmed down, Klein gave an awkward smile.
The two of them went on to exchange information and confirm the results of the battle. Nearly every member of the Aurora Order had been dealt with, save for the one who'd escaped using Traveling right at the start.
"My messenger is following her. She won't get away."
Silas unconsciously rubbed the anchor mark on his arm. "I can sense she's quite calm right now. The situation should already be under control."
"Can you tell where she is?"
Klein waved the human-skin glove in his hand, eager. "I can take you there with Traveling."
Having just grazed Mr. X, he was already itching to try it again.