His memories from right after waking were fuzzy; Silas could barely recall them anymore.
He only remembered the world twisting and churning in chaos, terrible whispers affecting him.
He couldn't move, carried on his sister Cecilia's shoulder as she walked through dark streets.
Once he'd regained a bit more clarity, Silas discovered he was already in Backlund.
According to his sister, the Nighthawks had declared him dead and even held a funeral.
But his sister had actually dug up the grave, opened the coffin, and hauled him back out.
As for the mastermind behind it all, Silas only remembered the person's face, but had no idea who they were or what purpose drove them to do all this.
Whenever he thought of Dunn and Klein, who had died because of this, and how he himself had been manipulated to this point, rage boiled up inside him.
He absolutely had to drag that bastard out and kill them!
But before that, Silas needed to solve his own problems first.
With that thought, he looked down at the straitjacket he was wearing.
The garment was made of sturdy white cloth, bound with many tough black leather straps, each fitted with buckles.
If all these buckles were fastened, Silas would barely be able to move.
All of this was to prevent him from thrashing around and hurting himself when his consciousness became confused.
That's right, Silas's mental state wasn't very stable right now.
His current situation was complicated. The good news was that he'd become a Sequence 5 Shepherd.
The bad news was that, due to skipping sequences in his advancement, he now had a massive backlog of undigested potion accumulated in his body, causing him to frequently exist in a semi-mad state.
However, thanks to the phantom tide of waves within him and regular infusions of flesh and blood, he wouldn't lose control just yet.
Besides that, Silas's financial situation wasn't great either.
He'd lost all his Beyonder items, his job with the Nighthawks, and that property in Tingen.
Three Beyonder items and a piece of property! Just thinking about it made his heart ache.
But toward his sister, who had given up all of this to bring him to Backlund, Silas felt no blame whatsoever.
"Returning from the dead" was too shocking, too world-shaking, something typically described as the power of the divine.
If Silas stupidly returned to the Church, what awaited him certainly wouldn't be any kind of happy ending.
Not to mention he'd already become Sequence 5, having traveled further and further down the dangerous Beyonder pathway of the Secrets Suppliant.
So their best choice was to hide their identities, move somewhere else, and start fresh.
"At least we're free now, right, Cecilia?"
He asked his sister with a smile.
Backlund was a massive metropolis with a huge population and far more opportunities.
"Right, right."
The young woman wiped the blood from the corners of his mouth with a towel.
"I'll go pack our things. We'd better leave quickly before anyone reports us."
With that, she headed upstairs.
"Got it."
Silas replied, then sat alone in the living room, continuing to think things through.
There were roughly a few problems that needed solving right now.
First was the semi-mad state caused by the potion.
Because the potion he'd consumed contained mixed lower-sequence potions, he now had three portions of potion to digest: Sequence 7 Shadow Ascetic, Sequence 6 Rose Bishop, and Sequence 5 Shepherd.
The names and abilities of these sequences had been obtained from Ma'am M back during his time in Tingen.
Second, after arriving in this new environment, he was completely unfamiliar with the local Beyonder circles and needed to join similar gatherings as soon as possible.
That way he could obtain various information and Beyonder materials.
Finally, aside from the semi-madness caused by the potion, he had another small mental issue, which was...
In his field of vision, the figure of a woman suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
Red hair, golden eyes, dressed in white robes, her face beautiful yet eerily seductive.
Though the room was dark, she appeared incredibly clear, as if light was shining on her alone.
"Why won't you disappear?"
Silas said through gritted teeth.
Ma'am M looked at Silas and smiled gently, but said nothing.
Silas leaped up, grabbed a dinner knife from the table, and casually stabbed it into her heart.
His movements were so fluid, as natural as picking up a glass to take a sip of water or scratching his own face; just that matter-of-fact.
Warm blood quickly flowed down the knife onto his hand and arm.
Ma'am M's face showed an anguished expression before she fell backward.
She made no sound as she hit the ground.
Silas blinked and found himself alone in the living room. He was still holding the dinner knife, but there was no trace of blood on his hand or arm.
"Brother?"
He saw his sister peek down from upstairs, looking at him with concern.
"Are you having hallucinations again?"
"I'm fine."
Silas smiled. "Killing her over and over is actually pretty stress-relieving."
Ever since waking up, he'd been seeing hallucinations of Ma'am M from time to time.
She wouldn't speak, others couldn't see or touch her; only he could make contact.
Even though Silas had killed her over and over, she kept appearing.
"Then let's not move tomorrow. We should go back to the psychiatric hospital for a follow-up first."
The young woman upstairs shook her head.
"I feel like this is a mysticism thing. Finding a psychiatrist won't help."
"We should still try. Let's attempt multiple approaches."
"Fine, fine."
Silas waved his hand dismissively. "Cecilia, you should go back inside. Don't fall."
After brushing off his sister, he slowly sat back on the sofa.
Apart from a whole pile of troublesome matters, the only good news was that he'd become a Sequence 5 Shepherd, gaining the powerful ability of "grazing," along with the Sequence 7 shadow abilities and Sequence 6 flesh magic.
Sitting on the sofa, Silas closed his eyes and sensed the "sheep" within his body.
A Sequence 5 Shepherd could graze a total of seven souls.
Possibly because his spirituality was unstable when he died, most of the "sheep" that had been grazed in the original potion had broken free, leaving only two souls still inside his body.
One was the soul of a Pyromaniac, while the other soul was rather strange, buried deep within his flesh and blood, unable to respond and impossible to expel.
Is it because I was forcibly advanced, causing problems with my body?
Silas suspected that remnant soul was the reason Ma'am M kept appearing in his hallucinations.
However, she was at most just a fragment of a soul.
Once he finished digesting his potion and his condition stabilized, perhaps he'd be able to deal with it.
Compared to that, he currently had five empty slots. He wondered where he could find lucky Beyonders to capture and graze.
This was where the Shepherd's power lay: freely combining grazed abilities until forming powerful coordinated attacks.
In any case, the urgent priorities were digesting the potion, finding Beyonder groups and circles, and then...
Just then.
The world slowly began to grow chaotic.
Everything in the room started distorting, insane whispers came from dark corners, beginning to resonate with the restless potion inside his body.
Here it comes again!
"Cecilia!"
Silas immediately shouted loudly, calling his sister down from upstairs. With her help, he fastened the restraints on his straitjacket.
Then, he once again plunged into the mad illusions.