Genetic Ascension

Chapter 1988: Itʼs Coming

Keyesen was so immersed in his own world that he didnʼt notice what was happening in the skies. He didnʼt see Sylas, he didnʼt see his Scorpion Lineageʼs Spirit chained and restricted, and he barely registered that there was a battle.

Maybe to be fair to him, his strength wasnʼt great enough to see what was happening so far above him, and he likely didnʼt even bother to remember Sylasʼ face all that much.

He had heard of Sylas, of course, much like many of the others of the Sanctum had after the fact. But the memories of that day were exceptionally blurry to him because he, quite frankly, hadnʼt bothered to pay much attention.

All of the other stuff was irrelevant to him. The only thing he cared about was waiting for his own evolution to trigger, for his own time to shine to come.

By his side, Deaconʼs sister beamed. She, too, was waiting for the time to come. There was a great discomfort in her heart when she saw and felt the momentum of her cousinʼs breakthrough. However, when she thought about how Keyesen would surely be better than them all, and that she was the woman by his side right now, she couldnʼt help but feel excitement.

Just any moment now. The instant Keyesenʼs breakthrough began, everything that had happened before would be meaningless. She was so focused on this that she hardly paid attention to the Dove Spirit within her stirring as well, and the less attention she paid to it... the less it seemed to respond to her.

Almost as though the purity her Spirit chased after was being turned away, it fell into deeper and deeper waters, vanishing into denser and denser shadows until all that was left was the pride that she had not in herself, but instead in Keyesen.

A pride that was only becoming more and more impatient as the anticipation built up within her.

But even as one breakthrough after another happened, even as the momentum of them began to slow down and the last few trickled in with Kalem being the only one to awaken three Spirits, nothing at all happened for Keyesen.

As time ticked by, he began to feel like something was wrong, and then his heart launched to sink.

If it had been someone else, maybe they would have realized there was an issue long ago. But the self-confidence of Keyesen was built over the course of years.

If he had been born into one of the four main Lineages, he would have been a mainstay no weaker than the strongest of their disciples. The trouble was that he was a Scorpion and not a Lion, Serpent, Whale, or Ape.

Even so, Keyesenʼs reputation had spread far and wide.

In his youth, because he was too overeager and confident, he had absorbed his Scorpion Emperor Gene too early. He had thought that it didnʼt matter all that much, that he could just make up for it in the future.

But at the time, many thought that he had completely ruined himself, that he would not once amount to anything.

And yet, when the time came for him to ascend to the E-tier, while he was a bit weaker than his counterparts, he quickly made up lost ground.

Learning from his own mistakes, he changed things around until he stood near the pinnacle of the disciples. In fact, there was speculation that had he not made the mistake he had in his youth due to his own sheer arrogance, it would be he that was the strongest disciple of The Sanctum rather than a quiet woman by the side.

That woman was of the Whale King Lineage, a silent girl with a pair of glasses that adorned her delicate features. The glasses looked like they had lenses formed of clear strokes of water, and their frames looked almost too large for her face. Yet, it didnʼt mar her beauty.

At that moment, her momentum was the last to slowly calm, and though she didnʼt awaken three Lineages like Kalem had, following her Whale Spirit, it was the Serpentes Spirit that rose.

Of everyone present, she was the only one to form her God Beast Aura with the Auras of not just one, but two of the now three strongest Lineages of the entire Sanctum.

She was a quiet woman without much of a presence. Even with all the chaos around her, she was like a delicate wallflower. Somehow, despite being the only one to awaken two peak Lineages, she was almost entirely missed in the crowd.

It was only Keyesen who was trying to distract himself from the clear problem he was facing that looked toward her, licking his lips a bit before forcing himself to look away.

He really needed this to work.

There were certain women he didnʼt dare to mess with, but if he could just reach his full potential, he would definitely be able to do as he pleased. What would the Whale Emperor do to him? Absolutely nothing.

But time only continued to tick by. And as Persephoneʼs aura, too, began to calm and a silence fell over everything, Keyesen seemed to finally realize something.

His breakthrough wasnʼt coming.

What was going on? How could everyone break through aside from him? He had been the closest, his Spirits were all Scorpions and the synergy between them would have been shocking. He would have been much better than the Gralith of the past.

How was this possible? How could this happen to him of all people?

As he was going stiff, Deaconʼs sister was still blissfully unaware, or maybe that was exactly what she had no choice but to be.

Keyesen had to succeed no matter what. She wouldnʼt be able to take the blow of him not doing so.

It had to work, it just had to. So she only kept smiling, still looking at Keyesen with an expectant gaze.

But the more she did so, the more the searing heat seemed to press right into Keyesenʼs cheeks.

Pa.

Bellaʼs head snapped to a side as Keyesenʼs palm streaked across it, her body falling to the steps below.

She held onto her cheek, shock evident in her eyes.