Genetic Ascension

Chapter 2483 What Have You Done? (2)

Rheosʼ pupils constricted, but before he could process what had happened, another challenge began.

This time, he forced his Will forward the instant the formation appeared, abandoning the measured approach he had used before. He didnʼt care about elegance anymore, nor was he interested in displaying the superiority of his comprehension. He only needed one victory to reverse the momentum and prove that whatever Sylas had done was nothing more than a temporary burst of enlightenment.

Unfortunately, the Rune shattered before his Will could establish even the slightest foothold.

—

[Challenge Complete]

[You Have Lost]

—

”WAIT! YOU CANʼT JUST—”

Another challenge began, and Rheos barely managed to raise his hand before Sylas completed it, his Will passing through the Rune structure with such precision that the entire formation dissolved without the slightest resistance.

The notifications continued appearing, one after another, until Rheos could hardly distinguish where one challenge ended and the next began. At first, he had attempted to analyze Sylasʼ methods, searching for the particular Rune Strokes or conceptual weaknesses that had allowed him to overcome each formation, but the more he observed, the less he understood.

Sylas wasnʼt even using the same method twice.

Sometimes he stabilized the Rune before Rheos could comprehend what had gone wrong with it, while other times he rebuilt the formation from an entirely different foundation, creating something so complete that the challenge recognized his solution before the original structure had finished manifesting.

And then there were the occasions when Sylas simply looked at the Rune and it shattered, something Rheos couldnʼt understand at all.

”How…?”

His voice had become hoarse, and his hands trembled as he attempted to gather the remnants of his Will.

Rheos stumbled backward as another notification announced his defeat, his hands trembling so violently that the Runes gathering around his fingers began falling apart before he could complete them.

His Rune Seed had started to tremble as well, something Sylas had been waiting for since the beginning.

Rheos had spent his life building his comprehension upon the certainty that his understanding of Rune Creation was superior to those beneath him. Even now, he continued attempting to measure everything Sylas did against the standards he had already established, refusing to acknowledge that those standards might be inadequate.

But what happened when those standards failed him?

What happened when every conclusion he reached was proven wrong before he could even finish forming it?

Another challenge began, and Rheos nearly fell to his knees when he realized that Sylas had no intention of stopping.

”Please… I need… I need a moment…”

Sylasʼ expression remained indifferent.

The Rune appeared between them, and rather than immediately destroying it, Sylas finally allowed Rheos enough time to observe his actions.

He reached forward and began weaving a new structure into the formation, his movements slow enough that Rheos could follow the changes being made. At first, the Creator stared in confusion, but as the familiar patterns came into focus, his trembling gradually subsided.

He recognized the Rune Strokes, understood their relationship, and could even follow the logic behind the alterations Sylas was making. For the first time in what felt like an eternity, there was something he understood.

Then Sylas changed a single Stroke.

Rheos froze.

The alteration was so minor that it should have meant nothing. In fact, according to everything he understood about Rune Creation, the formation should have become unstable the moment that Stroke changed.

Instead, it improved.

Rheosʼ mind raced, searching for an explanation, but every path he followed led him back to the same contradiction. That shouldnʼt have worked, unless his understanding of the Rune had been wrong from the very beginning.

The thought was small, almost insignificant, but Sylas felt it the instant it formed.

His gaze sharpened.

Rheosʼ Rune Seed was built upon countless years of accumulated comprehension, every new realization resting upon the foundations laid before it. There was nothing wrong with such a method, but it possessed one fatal weakness, and that was the assumption that those foundations were correct.

The assumption was also that your pride in your methods were warranted no matter who stood before you.

Unfortunately for him: they werenʼt.

Sylasʼ Will moved through the challenge formation, guiding Rheos toward the contradiction without ever forcing the conclusion upon him.

The Creator had to reach it himself, and when he did, the first crack appeared.

”No…”

Rheos shook his head, his eyes widening as the doubt spread through the depths of his Rune Seed.

”No, thatʼs impossible. I know this. I studied this for hundreds of years. I know—”

A crack echoed through the challenge space, and Rheos clutched his chest as the fracture spread through the foundation of his comprehension. Everything he had once accepted without question suddenly demanded an explanation, but the more desperately he searched for answers, the more contradictions he uncovered.

Sylas watched without moving.

Rheos had been so certain of his superiority that he had never considered the possibility of being fundamentally wrong. Now that the question had finally taken root, his own intelligence was doing the rest of the work.

He was dismantling himself.

”No! NO!”

Rheos released a desperate surge of Will, attempting to force the doubt away, but every effort only reminded him of the contradiction he could no longer resolve.

Another crack appeared, followed by several more, until the entire structure of his Rune Seed began collapsing beneath the weight of its own instability.

Then, with a final, resounding shatter, Rheosʼ Rune Seed broke apart.

His body convulsed as the foundation of his Path collapsed, his accumulated Rune Mastery disintegrating alongside the Seed that had supported it for so long. Blood poured from his mouth, and the powerful Will that had once allowed him to stand proudly before Sylas fell apart into scattered fragments.

He collapsed to his knees, staring at his trembling hands as he attempted to gather even the simplest Rune Stroke. However, no matter how desperately he searched for that familiar connection, nothing answered him.

His eyes slowly lifted toward Sylas, carrying a terror that no longer had anything to do with losing a challenge. He understood the gap now with so much certainty, and yet he was unwilling to admit it. Unwilling to admit that Sylas had reconstructed his own Rune Path in mere moments and tweaked just the slightest thing to make him doubt everything he had built.

It was a loss worse than humiliation. It was a loss that could have only had one result.

”You… what have you done…?”

Sylas looked down at him, his expression as indifferent as it had been from the beginning.

”Nothing you didnʼt do to yourself.”

Rheos opened his mouth, but no words came. The last traces of his Will crumbled, and with them, whatever strength had been keeping his failing body alive disappeared.

He fell forward, his forehead striking the ground with a dull thud.

And just like that, Rheos was dead.