Genetic Ascension

Chapter 2001: Silence [Bonus]

[Bonus thanks to the rich fuck Eeshoo]

Sylasʼ gaze flickered.

There was a fatigue nagging at the corner of his mind, but it felt like ever since he forged Demi-God Will, he had been able to ignore this more and more. It was like he was taking more from the world for himself regardless of how it felt.

The Mortal Realm couldnʼt resist him in the slightest.

He looked down at his Grim Blade, the cracks on it growing faster and faster. It seemed that he was on quite a time crunch. But... Time stopped.

No, it hadnʼt stopped, it just had functionally slowed so much that it might as well have.

From time to time, Sylas would subconsciously use his Progenitor Flame Ability. But as he grew stronger, he relied on it less and less until he had practically not needed to use it at all.

There was something odd about how he saw the world. It was almost like he liked to have as many cards as possible, but then he only used just enough of them to win, almost like he was trying to make every battle as hard as possible on purpose.

Maybe Sylas was consciously aware of this in small part. It was just that he didnʼt care because he never actually forgot about the abilities he had. When it was the right time to use them, he always would.

Like now.

His perception of the world around him slowed to an absolute crawl. It was like he was standing in a world that wasnʼt moving at all. Even the Ancestors above were moving millimeters a minute to him, their breath caught in their throats, their hearts not beating at all.

It was only a change to his perception and not reality, but when you were a Rune Master on his level... there might as well have been no distinction at all.

Sylas observed his Grim Blade in silence, feeling the changes to the Death Seal, and then he slowly nodded.

ʼSo that is your essence.ʼ

His gaze flashed and time suddenly accelerated back up to its normal speed.

In a blaze, a crimson Armor formed around Sylas, its aura descending onto the Grim Blade. In that moment, it stopped shaking entirely, falling into a silent, peaceful lull as though it had found its home.

ʼNot quite. It will sustain like this, but Iʼm still missing a small bit of something.ʼ

Sylas waved a hand and Keyesenʼs blood was torn out of his body.

An amusing memory came to mind. He couldnʼt help but recall the first time he tried to increase the Mastery of his Scorpion Warlord Armor. He had been in the Mountain of Giza Split Realm and ran into a Scorpion King in the desert.

Back then, it was thanks to the Blood Essence of that creature that he had gained an inkling on how to improve his Mastery of the Runes.

He had come an impossibly long way since then, and yet the methods he had crafted back then were very much relevant still.

There was something special about Keyesenʼs bloodline that had helped him to simply form a Virtue Seed like he had. There was no way it should have been so easy.

Pedraeg was right in part. There were just certain things that only foundation could help you with.

The exceptions were those that could take and learn from that foundation without a single care in the world.

Sylasʼ armor shattered.

What the world didnʼt know was that his Taboo Bond Path was restricted to use on E-tiers. And yet, he had somehow just stolen the Blood Essence of a D-tier... much the same way he had snatched a Gene from the living... a protected Gene at that.

The rules before Sylas seemed almost worthless.

And he certainly wasnʼt going to spare any time thinking about them as he used Keyesenʼs Blood Essence to draw an even more perfect and resplendent Scorpion Armor.

The world churned in response.

All this time, people seemed to have forgotten something quite shocking. Because Keyesen had snatched Sylasʼ Scorpion Emperor Gene, the powerful Scorpion Armor Sylas had been using all this time had always been the Scorpion Warlord Armor.

An Armor couldnʼt be formed a second time after the system had already bestowed a Gene. Otherwise, there would be ire to pay.

Now that Sylas had crushed his Scorpion Emperor Gene, though...

He could.

Crimson, violet, and emerald swirled into a single amalgamation.

The world churned and the remnants of the Scorpion Ancestral Spirit began to crawl along the ground. Motes of light combined, fusing into larger and larger tendrils until the very world itself shook on its foundations.

A roar rocked the air, peeling across the skies in endless plumes that suppressed even the clouds, the moon, the stars.

And then another mountain rose, one that seemed prepared to stand on par with the Whale, the Ape, and the Serpent. But then it faintly surpassed them.

It was only just the slightest bit, a minor tweak and change, but it was very much there.

All of a sudden, the Scorpion had become the strongest of them all.

And it was then, only then, that a pillar of light descended from the system and Sylas slowly pressed his Grim Blade to his chest.

He reached forward, taking the Scorpion Emperor Gene and devoured the Virtue of Greed Seed at the very same time.

The moment he had perfectly replicated this Spirit of Greed, he had already successfully embodied its Virtue.

The Seed no longer resisted him and a trifecta formed within Sylasʼ soul.

He closed his eyes and it was like all the commotion of the world fell to silence in response.

It was a true silence.

The stars no longer seemed to twinkle, the moon dulled, the wind ceased its howls. Hearts ground to a stop, breaths hitched in throats, blood ceased to flow.

At the center of it all, a man who stood beyond men, a mortal who stood beyond gods, became an anchor.

And then he opened his eyes and vanished.