East Borough, the apartment Silas rented.
"Emily, sorry, but you'd better step aside."
Silas slid his dagger through the air, creating an invisible spiritual wall, while speaking to his landlady Emily.
His lucid time today happened to coincide with Emily being home.
Since he'd obtained The Fool's honorific name, he planned to try reciting it and establish contact with this existence suspected to be opposed to the True Creator.
This process might be dangerous and wasn't suitable for ordinary people to watch.
"You're going to make a mess in my house again?"
The young landlady asked helplessly.
Because of Silas, the house her parents had left her had already suffered damage several times, from the floor to the wall lamps.
In the end, she'd even gotten somewhat used to it.
"Sorry. If I cause damage to the house, I'll compensate you for it."
Silas said.
"It's fine, use it as you like. You've already helped me so much..."
Emily said. Apart from saving her several times, Silas's daily tutoring had also improved her grades.
He also occasionally guided her sister in cooking, allowing Emily to taste delicious food for the first time.
Their relationship had long since lost its initial stiffness.
Not only that, recently she kept feeling that Silas seemed to have become even more handsome.
When he smiled at her, the young girl's heart couldn't help but skip a beat.
"Thank you very much for your understanding, Miss Emily."
But just then, she felt another gaze fall upon her. Looking up, she met eyes with the third person in the room, Silas's younger sister.
The black-haired, stunningly beautiful girl was smiling at her.
For some reason, Emily sensed vague danger from that incredibly charming smile.
"Anyway, be careful!"
She couldn't help but panic, quickly grabbed her bag, and hurried back to her room, closing the door.
"Brother, do you really have to do this?"
After seeing off the young landlady, the girl beside Silas withdrew her gaze and asked with concern.
Her azure eyes were filled with unease.
"Don't worry, Cecilia. I'll be fine."
Silas chuckled softly. "Your brother here has already dealt with many evil gods... This one's danger level is still uncertain, but no matter what, it can't possibly be more dangerous than those, right?"
After reassuring his sister, he continued using the ritual silver dagger to cut through the air, creating spiritual walls. "However, you'd better stay far away too."
After all, while he could withstand corruption, his sister might be affected.
Only after she obediently moved away did Silas completely seal the last wall, fully isolating himself from the outside world.
He was about to start praying!
"Huff."
Silas took a deep breath and found himself somewhat nervous. Perhaps too much preparation had actually increased his psychological burden.
It's fine. At worst, I'll just get my brain rattled a bit...
He encouraged himself this way and slowly calmed his mindset.
After smiling at his sister outside, he opened his mouth and began calling that Fool's honorific name in Hermes.
Hermes, as a prayer language, had been refined and offered some protection to users, making it perfect for this.
"Whoosh—"
At the same time, the phantom sound of the tide began echoing in his mind, actively summoned by him to protect his psyche.
"The Fool that doesn't belong to this era."
As the first line was spoken, somewhere in the distance, something seemed to be leveraged.
"The mysterious ruler above the gray fog."
An indescribable existence was resonating with his spirituality through the spirit world.
Hmm, seems okay so far.
Not like when calling evil gods' honorific names, with that crazy, terrifying feeling... Silas experienced the changes after calling the honorific name, secretly assessing The Fool's danger level in his mind.
Perhaps it was psychological, but the phantom tide sound in his head seemed to have grown slightly louder.
Since [The Fool] wasn't as frightening as he'd imagined, he relaxed and continued reciting in Hermes:
"The Yellow and Black King who wields good luc—"
"BOOM!"
Before Silas could finish the last line of the honorific name, he heard a thunderous roar from inside his brain.
The sound was heavy and grand, as if trying to shatter his consciousness and drown it in an endless, raging sea.
"Ah!"
He couldn't help but cry out in pain, clutching his head and collapsing to the ground.
His vision had somehow turned completely crimson. Blood burst from his eyes and flowed down his face.
The grand sound violently impacted his brain, giving him an unprecedented experience!
It hurts so much!
What's going on with this Fool?
Silas almost lost consciousness for a moment, only vaguely thinking that other evil gods influenced those who prayed from the very beginning, but this Fool held back maliciously, only going wrong on the last line!
He suddenly noticed something abnormal.
Although the grand sound in his brain was loud, if he listened carefully, it seemed somewhat familiar... like the sound of waves surging and crashing, only much more intense than usual, so intense that he hadn't noticed at first.
That's right, this sound was precisely that phantom tide!
What was harming him wasn't The Fool, but his own golden finger, that phantom tide that had been protecting his spirit since his transmigration, preventing him from being corrupted by evil gods!
Silas was shocked and alarmed.
The tide sound was violently resisting his action, showing strong rejection toward that Fool!
Moreover, it wasn't just rejection.
The tide was also surging forward and extending, as if trying to follow the invisible connection and rush toward The Fool's side, establishing a deeper connection there...
Rejection, fusion—two completely contradictory feelings appeared simultaneously in the phantom tide.
This twisted and paradoxical strange sensation astonished Silas greatly.
What the hell is this?
This Fool is way too dangerous!
He had no choice but to stop calling the other party's honorific name, then forcibly controlled the phantom tide in his brain, making it stop surging and return to its original void.
After an unknown amount of time, the tide sound gradually subsided, and the pain in Silas's brain also gradually eased.
He looked up and suddenly saw that outside the spiritual wall, his sister had already rushed over with a dagger, as if preparing to force her way in.
"I'm fine!"
Silas quickly waved his hand, calming her down before she could pierce through the wall and break in.
Seeing that his demeanor was relatively normal, she relaxed a bit, but still held the dagger without any intention of leaving.
What just happened?
Silas stood up from the floor and casually wiped the blood from his face.
Since his transmigration, this tide sound had been protecting him.
This was the first time such a situation had occurred—not only did the tide fail to protect him, it actually tried its hardest to prevent his connection with The Fool.
Well, "prevent" wasn't quite accurate.
Anyway, it was very strange—rejection and opposition, yet also devouring and fusion...
What exactly is the relationship between that Mr. Fool and the phantom tide within him?