Genetic Ascension

Chapter 1336: Indeed [Bonus]

[Bonus thanks to Eeshoo97 <3]

"Holy shit, did you see that? He’s crazier than me!" Gwenu practically hissed into Khan’s ear as though she was being subtle. But the sound of her hissing was almost as loud as the opening of the ship itself.

Khan wanted to whimper but didn’t have the words. Why did his master let such a loose cannon control things? And why could Sylas order around a C-tier so casually? Did he come from a powerhouse of a family or something? But which family could spare such a powerful C-tier to just wait around on Sylas?

Thinking about Sylas’ strength and feats, though, Khan felt that maybe, to protect such a young man... it was probably worth it.

This actual action, though... that was a different matter entirely.

...

High in the skies, Gralith raised an eyebrow. But after a moment, he understood Sylas’ actions and decided to remain mum and say nothing at all. If the others wanted to complain, they’d have to go through him first.

...

The man blinked, his eyes opening wide. Unfortunately, even that didn’t last long as the light of his life slowly dimmed. Even until his last breath, he couldn’t believe that he had died just like that. He didn’t even get the chance to speak a single word.

Cheers erupted in a chorus. Those that had been hanging around the hub had gotten very annoyed with what was happening, but every time they tried to get close to the ship, they passed out.

All of the teleportation channels, various electronics, and gadgets in the surroundings had stopped working as well. It was like the ship was stealing in broad daylight and they couldn’t do anything but look at it from a distance.

Sylas might have been humiliating some of them just the other day, but setting aside the fact that internal matters were different from external ones, it wasn’t as though Sylas had offended them all.

As for why he had taken such crazy action, none of them thought so deeply. It wasn’t as though the common people cared to consider the inner workings of everything.

All they knew was that they were being humiliated by outsiders and that someone should take action.

Sylas waved a hand and a spatial device on the man’s arm shot to his hand.

"Open it." He handed it to Old Brama. The protections on the ring were within his capabilities to handle, but everyone else didn’t need to know that.

Old Brama obliged, seemingly sighing a breath of relief that Sylas at least had some limits. When he was done, he handed it back. It was a process that took no more than a handful of seconds. Those inside the ship still hadn’t even reacted before Sylas took out what he was looking for.

Pouring his Aether into the device, it pulsed with light and the projection of an image appeared.

"Sharpe, you’re calling much sooner than I expected. Has the situation changed?"

The voice echoed, but Sylas had already tossed the badge forward. It landed in the hole in Sharpe’s chest, the image focusing on the vacant look in his eyes.

The man on the other end fell into silence, looking at the dead man before him for a long while. Unfortunately, the device’s scope was too limited. He couldn’t see the situation around. It was as though whoever killed Sharpe wanted him to wallow in the death for as long as possible.

Without a word, the image cut off and the badge self-destructed.

A barrier appeared around them, projected by Old Brama to protect Sylas from the blast. Unfortunately, Sharpe’s corpse didn’t get the same benefit, being ripped and shredded apart.

The ship, however, was unblemished. It was as though nothing at all had happened.

By now, Old Brama seemed to understand something as well.

Sylas had studied the nuts and bolts of the Rune Mastery of this Sector during his first sessions with Andromeda. Although every power had their own unique languages and approaches, the logic and systems behind it would be relatively uniform.

The problem was that this ship didn’t follow any of the usual logic Sylas was used to. Of course, his talent was still high enough to understand it, but that wasn’t the point.

The real point was that this couldn’t have been a Leava Clan ship. So why had a Leava Clan member stepped out?

There were many possibilities to what could be happening, but there was something very peculiar about the man’s posture.

For one, he was strong—a C-tier. And that led to the second peculiarity: he was actually weak.

Meaning, for a C-tier, he was bottom of the barrel, so much so it only took Brama a breath to kill him.

This wasn’t normal for the Leava Clan, one of the most powerful powers in the Sector.

It smelled of... having one foot out and another in, of being pressured by a stronger power and yet not wanting to offend either side.

So then why would Sylas kill him? Wouldn’t this push the Leava closer to their enemies?

No.

This wasn’t a simple either/or conflict. The Sanctum wasn’t even "one side" of things. They were just one of the many powers in a Sector the Thryskai were trying to rein into their sphere of influence.

While the Leava Clan might be enraged by this, they would also be smart enough to realize something else.

Why would the Thryskai, so great and powerful as they were, put their weak C-tier in danger in the first place? Unless... they were just casually using their people as cannon fodder.

Of course, that wasn’t actually true. They were just using the Leava Clan as a greeter. Disrespectful, sure. But it didn’t cross any huge lines.

Unfortunately for them, Sylas didn’t want to play their games, and now the Leava Clan wouldn’t either, because it was no longer capable of playing both sides while vying for the perfect path of least resistance.

That was to say... Sylas hadn’t even met these visitors yet but had already forced them to suffer a loss that wasn’t easy to swallow. Their chances at using the Leava Clan as their vanguard to ease the blow on them had plummeted to zero.

In all likelihood, the Leava Patriarch was calling back anyone they had sent out right this moment.

’A Dominus Paragon indeed...’ Gralith thought silently.

At that moment, the clicking of shoes echoed through the cheers.