Genetic Ascension

Chapter 1260: One Chance [Bonus]

Sylas stood there, watching as the remains of the Duchess’ body slowly tried to reform.

The fact it could even make this attempt was clear proof of the sort of strength True Blood gave her. Her energy stores were practically all depleted, but her True Blood was gathering Aether from the surroundings as a supplement.

Unfortunately for her, the regeneration was far too slow. From Sylas’ calculations, if he left her be, it would take almost three hours for her to come together again.

He hadn’t done much other than Weave the spatial nodes and Runes in front of the Duchess’ body to the nodes behind her. It just took a shifting of the formation.

The difficulty was in containing power that breached the C-tier with Runes of the E-tier. However, while the Duchess had the raw power, her control was wild and practically nonexistent, and she lacked the actual substance of a C-tier existence.

This made her power far easier to disperse and divert.

He slowly looked up toward the battles ahead. The unnamed Sanguara had already suffered four lethal blows he had quickly regenerated from, but it was clear and obvious that he was finished.

By comparison, the Archer wasn’t faring much better.

Sylas had sent two after the unknown because he didn’t know the latter’s ability. But he was far more familiar with the Archer, and thus knew how to counter him. He gave the Demonic Red Emperor commands from time to time, directing it until the Archer was suffocated.

Twisting lines of space and time threw them off time and time again.

BANG!BANG!BANG!

Every resounding strike was another lethal crushing. A shattered head, a ruptured heart, a crushed body and spirit.

Sylas wanted to see... see how far they could go.

So he stood there, watching, unmoving, unfeeling. It almost reminded him of the dream he had as a child, dissecting corpses before him until he could understand them.

He obviously knew that that dream was nothing more than a projection of what his body had been doing under the influence of the Greed Seed’s corruption. But it also represented a deep part of Sylas—a Greed to know all there was and comprehend what he couldn’t understand...

So long as the world allowed him to do so.

He walked forward slowly, crouching down into the puddle of blood that had once been the Duchess. This pool should have been blown everywhere considering the power of the strike the Duchess had thrown, but instead, it was controlled by Sylas.

He didn’t want her thrown everywhere just yet.

Slowly, he could feel out the Will she had. In this sort of fragile state, it was almost too easy to oppress and change it. It had no real form or substance, just acting on instinct.

But that wasn’t the fault of the Unique Gene powering this. It was the fault of the Duchess for having such a weak Will to begin with.

If it was Sylas in this state with Sanguara blood, let alone being so weak, he could probably use his Will to speed up the Aether collection process and even lull an enemy into a false sense of security, luring them to use a Will attack and countering.

After fighting the Prince, though, Sylas knew that the Duchess wasn’t the best of the Sanguara by a long shot. If not for her time with him, she would have never awakened True Blood to begin with.

And now... she’d be a nice vessel for his future plans. As for what those were, once again, only Sylas seemed to know.

As he had expected from the start, the moment he stepped onto this Golden Battlefield, the battle was as good as over.

There wasn’t much to be surprised about.

”Cocky asshole,” the little girl muttered.

Sylas didn’t reply, looking up as a swirling mass of gold appeared. As the Archer and unnamed Sanguara breathed out their last, the quasi system seemed to have finally registered his win.

It was time to leave here.

Originally, he had thought he would gain here, but he didn’t expect it to be so much. He had Old Brama to thank, at least in part.

But that would depend on whether or not the old man had managed to live through what had undoubtedly been a grueling last few days.

Sylas vanished with Megean in his arms.

**

”STAND DOWN, BRAMA!”

The furious roars continued to echo, but Old Brama stood in place like he had the entire time, mechanical parts and gadgets forming an exoskeleton around him. His aura was dim, but the fierceness in his eyes was much the same.

What the Golden Grove didn’t know was that the real reason he had poured so many resources into Andromeda was because he knew that clearing the Secret Realm had become impossible. The quasi system was too twisted and flawed. Over so many years, the challenge had only become more impossible.

However, these fools kept believing the ancestors to be infallible, as though there had ever been a perfect being formed.

It was no coincidence Andromeda used Time and Space. Why would Old Brama craft something no one had an affinity with for no reason? It was no wonder everyone around him thought him to be a fool who only knew how to waste resources.

Because of this choice, he had lost all the reputation he had taken a lifetime to build up.

But Sylas was his light at the end of the tunnel. If there was anyone that could make it through without Andromeda, it was him.

Unfortunately, because his funding was cut off, he never had the chance to refine Andromeda to the point that it was portable. Of course, he didn’t know that Sylas couldn’t use Andromeda like that even if he wanted to.

For everyone else, Old Brama was the old fool revealing the deepest secrets of their organization to just anyone.

To Old Brama... this was the last chance their Gold Lineage had to return to its previous glory and the only chance his granddaughter had of returning alive.

He refused to take a single step back, even if it cost him his life.