Genetic Ascension

Chapter 2018: May

Elara suddenly looked very sheepish as she cleared her throat.

”Well... um... about that...”

She scratched at the wound on her cheek and it subtly healed under an influx of Runes. Then she looked out into the distance.

”Nice weather weʼre having. No?”

On the inside of the house, Cassarae suddenly came barrelling down the stairs, huffing for breath as though her stats werenʼt off the charts. She hopped to get a shoe on, gave up, and then tossed it to the side.

Instead, she slammed her foot into a nearby flip flop as she buckled up her pants and slid around a corner and into the kitchen.

Isolde blinked. ”Rae, dear? Why are you in such a hurry?”

Cassarae brought a fist to her mouth and coughed.

”Hello, hello. I overslept.”

She ran to the kitchen and nearly bumped Isolde out of the way. The latter could only blink in confusion and then smile in amusement.

”What is it, Rae? Do you need something?”

”Uh... um...” Cassarae cleared her throat again. ”Right, food, cooking, thing.”

”Use your big girl words.” Paul called out from the dining room.

”FUCK YOU, DAD!” Cassarae slammed a palm over her lips. ”Pretend I didnʼt say that,” she said, smiling a bit sheepishly at Isolde. ”Cooking, how do you do that?”

Isolde blinked again and then burst into laughter.

”Geraldene will get a kick out of this.”

Cassarae hurried to cover Isoldeʼs mouth. ”She can NEVER know about this. Iʼll never hear the end of it.”

Unfortunately, Cassaraeʼs hand didnʼt do much to stop Isoldeʼs laughter.

”Okay, okay. But Sylas has already eaten today.”

Cassaraeʼs shoulders sank and all of a sudden she observed like she was on the verge of tears.

Isolde was speechless. The Cassarae she knew wasnʼt even remotely this sensitive.

”Okay, okay, okay, no need to cry. He eats more than once in a day, itʼs okay.”

As though she had forgotten this fact, Cassarae lit up.

”You donʼt need to worry. Cooking for him isnʼt extremely complicated anyway. His idea of food is quite bland.” Isolde laughed. ”Donʼt tell him I said that.”

Cassarae beamed. ”Yes, right. What do I make?”

”What do you know how to make?”

”Does clicking buttons for a food order count?”

Isolde burst into yet another round of laughter. ”Alright, then weʼll start with something simple.”

Sylas wasnʼt paying attention to what was happening in the house. Using his Visualization to keep constant tabs on a home with his family in it could cause a host of problems for obvious reasons. Instead, he was standing there with his arms folded, looking right at his little sister.

”Alriiiiiiight. Just donʼt tell mom. I was bored out of my mind. Itʼs your fault for leaving me here the whole time. Thereʼs barely even anyone my age-.”

Sylasʼ expression hardly changed.

”ALRIGHT! There are people my age, theyʼre just stupid, okay? None of my friends are here.”

Because of the age range of the Summoning, it could be said that the highest population of people on Earth right now were precisely those around Elaraʼs age.

They were young enough that they didnʼt have the option to join the Tutorial, while old enough that they could just barely protect themselves and manage when chaos befell the rest of the planet.

The idea that she didnʼt have anyone her age around her was asinine.

Castle Main, for all intents and purposes, was practically the capital of the United Coalition of Terranova. Cassarae had wiped out the entire government under Sylasʼ supervision. That was to say that the population of people under their control seemed limited, but it was actually quite a few.

If Sylas wanted, he could have fully corralled them all. But there were still certainly enough youths around Elara for her to make new friends.

The main problem, of course, was that Elara was too much like him. She had formed most of her relationships when she was the most immature and most susceptible to emotion and feelings. Now that she was slowly growing toward adulthood, she couldnʼt form those relationships as easily.

Excuses and exceptions she allowed for people she had known since she was a toddler were very different from what she allowed from people she had only just met in the last few years.

As things stood now, the odds she would find a friend on Earth that would properly stimulate her were next to zero, and though she didnʼt want to admit it... The friends she had known were probably dead.

Even now, both Sylas and Elara alike remembered their last conversation before they left their family home for the Grimblades. Elara had asked him what would become of her friends, and he tried to reassure her.

Unfortunately, Sylas had been lying, and the both of them were well aware of that.

Now, those chickens were coming home to roost.

”Where are you?” Sylas asked.

Elara looked into the distance again. ”Isnʼt that a nice cloud?”

”Where are you.” Sylas asked again.

If she was on Earth, he would have already sensed it. But she wasnʼt. That meant she had left.

”Details... details...” Elara said with a cough.

She had known that the likelihood was that her brother would figure out what was going on. But the problem was that if she avoided him, he would have figured it out even faster.

It was easier to hide from her parents not because they were stupid, but because she could just straight up play the role of angsty teen and ignore them.

But in the case of her brother, he rarely came home and they had always been close. If she avoided him, then it would be like a red flag to everyone that something was wrong.

What she hadnʼt expected was for Sylas to come back home so quickly after the first time. Usually, he would be away for much longer, and that would have given her more than enough time to have her fun and then return.

But now...

”Where are you?” Sylas asked again, his voice growing colder.

Elara shrunk.

”I... may or may not be on the Demi-God Plane...”