Genetic Ascension

Chapter 1231  Golden Champion

Sylas had guessed that the Gold Lineage the Golden Grove descended from, or was formed from the dregs of, was related to Demons, and likely Demon fighting in some way.

But this was still beyond his expectations. It wasn't the raw facts of it, but the scope of it.

The only way one could seal away an S-Grade Race like this was to likewise be one. There was no other way.

But in that case, it made sense if the Demons ended up losing, but not if the ones that defeated them were also decimated. Why would the winners end up in such a sorry state that they could be bullied by a Demi-God Thryskai?

Of course, that wasn't to say a Demi-God Thryskai was just some sort of scrub anyone could deal with. But they certainly weren't an S-Grade Race.

Unfortunately… it didn't seem the Duchess had those answers. In fact, Sylas very much doubted anyone did anymore.

Sylas simply didn't believe that the Golden Grove had just managed to hold this shocking secret all to themselves for so long. Sylas even got the impression from the Demi-God Thryskai that he was still probing and didn't even quite know exactly what he was looking for either.

If Sylas was correct… well, the best way to bury something you didn't want known was to forget it yourself. Maybe the true secrets of this place wouldn't reveal themselves until someone could actually clear this realm.

'No. Even then… I highly doubt that it's so simple…'

Sylas' thinking speed was fast, so he pretty much wrapped up everything before a full three seconds passed. Even so, he realized quite quickly that the Duchess had been silent for too long.

She was scanning his face as though looking for a reaction to something she was saying, but what she was looking for she didn't find. Other than slight changes in Sylas' eyes, she hardly got anything at all.

"… I guess it is hard to fathom what that could mean. Even I don't know what it means to have the potential of an S-Grade Race inside of me. I already feel quite powerful and do not know what being any more powerful could feel like."

'Do you think the Wheel of Fortune would recognize my defeating them as defeating an S-Grade genius?' Sylas asked the Madness Key.

Once again, the little girl answered without even bothering to ask for a fee, as though what Sylas was asking wasn't even worth it.

'Of course not, you idiot. The Wheel of Fortune isn't something that can be tricked. It can calculate your role in the defeat of someone. Let's say it really did recognize the Sanguara before you as she would have been in her prime, what good would that do you? 99% of the credit would go to the one capable of suppressing them to this point. In fact, that would be being generous.'

Sylas already knew the answer to the question before he asked. The real reason he wanted to ask wasn't for the question itself, but what the little girl could imply in her words.

'In her prime… hm…' Sylas thought to himself, ignoring the little girl's rambling.

That had confirmed it. The Sanguara were, indeed, an S-Grade Race suppressed to the status of a D-Grade one just a foot out of the C-Grade.

These weren't just legends at all the Duchess knew of—they were the truth.

"You mean to say that finding this golden pillar is a key to ascending? Ascending to what? How?"

"No. Not the golden pillar, but the Golden Champion themselves. Their bodies are the link to the worlds and their stages.

"According to our legends, we were locked in the Nine Levels of Hell, suppressed beneath eight restrictions. Our true bodies are suspended in the ninth, while our minds are split between the other eight.

"Depending on the strength of the Golden Champion that enters, we will appear in the corresponding Hell level to do battle with them. Should we win, the shackles of those worlds will be broken."

Sylas raised an eyebrow. "The way you initially spoke of them, it sounded like there was a step-by-step ascension to every tier beyond. Now it's random?"

"The legends are muddled. But both are still true. In fact, we are split into two factions because of it.

"There is one faction that wants to go all out to kill the Golden Champion, and the other that wants to allow them their victory, helping nourish them to the S-Grade before we can put up one last effort to defeat them and escape."

Sylas found that all of this was getting convoluted, almost as though the Duchess was speaking of things she assumed he should understand, but he very much didn't.

These so-called Nine Levels of Hell, the relationship between them, the "chains" involved and how they were tying them down…

"The foundation of it is simple. The only way to release our true bodies is to remove either all eight shackles or just the S-Grade ones.

"The first method, all eight, requires hoping Golden Champions appear at every tier on their own. The second method hopes to nurture a single Golden Champion to move through all the ranks on their own.

"The trouble with the second method is that there is no guarantee that it will work. Sure, the S-Grade shackles are the most poignant, but there's no telling if destroying it alone will be enough to imbalance the entire sealed world.

"And the trouble with the first method…"

"There's no telling when a Golden Champion will appear. But there's also no guarantee that a Golden Champion too weak to defeat you all at E-tier would ever make it to S-tier in the first place."

"Yes."

Sylas had found the crux of the dilemma. However… he didn't seem to have seen any dissent at all. Could it be that there was another group of Demons in this world?

"My Sanguara Clan only wants to take the opportunities right in front of us and reap the rewards for doing so. While being trapped here is a curse, it also has a benefit… we've learned to refine our strength in the E-tier beyond what even our ancestors were capable of.

"Our raw power might be inferior, but our knowledge, our control, our scope of understanding is on another level entirely.

"And the rewards for killing a Golden Champion matched with this knowledge?

"It could make you an absolute monster."

The Duchess' eyes twinkled, her hand reaching forward to caress Sylas' forearm.