Taking advantage of their close proximity, Lanevus suddenly straightened his upper body, thrusting his bulging belly toward Silas.
Through the skin of his belly, a protrusion the size of a baby's palm emerged.
The palm pointed at Silas, its five fingers closing together.
"Ugh!"
Silas's entire body shuddered violently.
The moment he saw that hand, it was as if some peculiar connection had formed inside his body, resonating with all his flesh and blood, trying to seize control of his body.
"Whoosh..."
However, Silas had been prepared. An illusory tide flowed downward through his body, and control of all his flesh and blood was instantly reclaimed.
From the outside, he only swayed slightly before steadying himself again.
"How is that possible? You actually..."
The smile on Lanevus's face hadn't even fully formed before it was quickly replaced by shock.
Silas looked at him coldly and raised the silver-white "Luck" revolver toward his head.
"Bang!"
A shot rang out.
The pistol bullet carried powerful kinetic energy and struck Lanevus's forehead precisely.
But the bullet only spun against his forehead, producing white smoke, unable to drill into his brain.
"Hehe..."
Lanevus leaped up from the ground.
The wound on his thigh had already healed, and countless protruding small tumors had emerged all over his body.
These tumors were extremely hard; even a pistol bullet couldn't penetrate them!
After serving as the vessel for an evil god's offspring for so long, his body had undergone a mutation.
Lanevus's face was covered with tumors as he stared at Silas while cocking his head to listen.
"...So that's it. You're actually a rebel who doesn't believe in the True Creator. You're clearly a Shepherd, yet you have no reverence for Him..."
Lanevus seemed to have heard something from his child and immediately discovered what made Silas different. He shouted viciously and madly:
"Do you think that means my child has no way to deal with you?"
Silas looked at him coldly.
His body suddenly swelled, transforming from a normal build into a giant nearly four to five meters tall.
Goat-like horns grew from both sides of his head, covered with arcane patterns, and bat-like wings sprouted from his back.
Many ghostly blue fireballs appeared around him, and the stench of the sewer air became mixed with the smell of sulfur.
"Demonification"!
Fortunately, Backlund's sewers were tall enough; otherwise, the demon Silas had become wouldn't even be able to stand upright.
But even so, if he straightened his body slightly, his head might hit the bricks at the top.
"Very good. Since you're not planning to spare me, then go die!"
Lanevus shouted crazily, and the white bone spurs on his right hand grew several more inches, becoming even sharper.
"Swish!"
His movements suddenly became swift.
In an instant, he nimbly flashed behind Silas's massive body, the bone-formed hand blade stabbing toward his abdomen.
Silas turned his head to look at him, and a flash of light suddenly appeared in his crimson eyes.
Interrogator, "Psychic Piercing"!
That illusory tide allowed him to shepherd multiple souls simultaneously without switching!
"Ahhh!"
Lanevus clutched his head and screamed, his voice shrill, as if he had suffered tremendous damage on the spiritual level.
Although the tumors all over his body were solid, they couldn't resist attacks targeting the spirit.
"Whoosh..."
While Lanevus was screaming in agony with his head in his hands, Silas opened his right hand, and blazing lava poured from his palm.
The scorching lava flowed, quickly forming a longsword burning with ghostly blue flames.
He gripped the sword and thrust it straight toward Lanevus's bulging abdomen.
He was going to use the lava longsword to pierce through both Lanevus and his so-called child!
"Pssht!"
The lava longsword was sharp and scorching. The tumors on Lanevus's body couldn't block it at all.
Silas didn't even feel any resistance as he easily pierced through his body!
However, just as the lava longsword was about to stab through, Lanevus's originally bulging belly suddenly moved.
The bulge migrated across his body, actually moving upward to Lanevus's chest. When the lava longsword pierced through, his abdomen had already become flat.
The divine offspring had not been harmed!
"Cough, cough..."
Although his abdomen had been pierced through, a body already soaked in divinity wouldn't be destroyed so easily.
Lanevus's body hung on the lava greatsword. He looked up at the giant Silas and smiled maliciously. "Blasphemous Shepherd... I'll make sure you can't access your flock..."
"Sshk!"
He quickly reached his hand into his own eye socket and viciously gouged out one of his eyeballs. With a "splat," he crushed the eyeball directly!
What was he trying to do?
Silas's heart trembled. He was about to swing the lava longsword and throw Lanevus to the ground, but just then...
"Wahhh..."
A loud baby's wail suddenly echoed through the dark sewer.
The crying seemed to carry terrible magic, plunging everything around it into madness.
Although Silas had the illusory tide protecting his spirit, the cry was so close and so piercing that it still shook his spirit!
Damn it!
Silas clutched his head and forcibly stirred the tide, making the sound of the tide even louder to offset the influence of the crying.
But his spirituality was consumed faster as a result. He had to kill Lanevus quickly!
While he was affected by the crying, it gave Lanevus the perfect opportunity.
Light blue fluid and tissue oozed from between his fingers.
A shocking bloody hole remained on Lanevus's face, yet he was still smiling with loving madness, invoking the True Creator's honorific name in ancient Hermes:
"The Lord who created everything..."
"...Thou who blasphemes the Son of God and defies the Holy Father shall be punished!"
He quickly finished reciting the entire ancient Hermes incantation, and his right hand, which gripped the crushed eyeball, suddenly emanated a foul and terrifying, profound aura.
Just as Silas regained his senses and raised his head, Lanevus had already thrown that mass onto him!
"Thud..."
Silas only felt an abnormally cold aura drill through his skin into his body.
This aura seemed to contain peculiar spirituality, rapidly passing through his body tissues and stopping at the places inside him where the "sheep" souls were stored.
This is bad!
He instinctively sensed something wrong and was about to use the illusory tide to dispel it, but the cold aura immediately dispersed, seeping into all the dwelling places of his "sheep" souls!
"Hmmm..."
The cold aura spread out, deeply merging into his flesh and blood. At the deepest part of the aura, it released an indescribable trace of divinity!
"...The Lord calls to this city, and those with wisdom will surely fear His name. Hear who has ordained the punishment of the rod..."
In some lofty and profound place, the mighty inverted giant opened His eyes.
His gaze crossed infinite barriers and descended into this dark, cramped basement. He saw that His offspring was under attack by someone.
Silas's consciousness blurred for a moment, as if he heard angry ravings echoing in his mind.
When he became clear-headed again, he was shocked to discover that he had already released his demonification state.
That cold and terrifying, holy yet foul aura faintly permeated his body, making those sheep souls tremble. No matter how Silas called to them, they refused to come out!
He could no longer shepherd!
"Hehe..."
Silas heard Lanevus's twisted laughter from across the way. He stared at Silas with malice, and the wound in his abdomen was slowly healing.