Genetic Ascension

1572 Over

The woman hadn't spoken a single word since they stepped foot into this world. She was almost like a fly on the wall.

She had thought that she was supposed to be Sylas' insurance here that she would be the one to fight the Minotaur King to settle things. She had been convinced that her slavery was the only reason Sylas had taken her in.

Little did she know that Sylas wasn't such a person.

Sylas didn't feel that he was above such an action. But if he didn't need to use someone else, he wouldn't.

As far as he was concerned, someone stupid enough to be caught beneath his thumb was likewise far less competent than himself. If they could fall so easily, then any problems that they would deem to be problems if they were in his shoes... wouldn't by default also be problems for him.

What others saw as problems, he saw as clearly solvable.

She wasn't here to help him. She was here as an information sieve and to witness.

Witness what would happen if she still harbored thoughts of betraying him in the future.

Sylas took Cassarae's hand and stepped forward. In an instant, he flashed forward, appearing before the kneeling Minotaur King. The latter seemed to be struggling, but no matter how hard he did, invisible chains wrapped around him so tightly he could hardly move at all.

Sylas was about to say something when his gaze flickered. He looked over toward Cassarae, who stood there just fine.

"You don't feel dizzy?"

Cassarae blinked. "No?"

Sylas' eyes narrowed, but he didn't say anything more. That was odd. On the way here, through the forest, she looked like she was about to throw up several times.

This teleportation was even more shaky than before because they were in the Demon World, and manipulating the Runes here was very different. The fact Sylas could teleport at all on first entry was nothing short of ridiculous.

Yet, she was fine.

Truly odd.

[Minotaur King (???)]

[Level: 121]

[Physical: 2,171,389]

[Mental: 2,001,777]

[Will: 3,388,799]

Sylas saw through the stats of the Minotaur King and couldn't help but feel quite interested. That was the highest Will he had ever personally seen. He wondered if that was a coincidence or not.

However, seeing the name, he knew that he was more than on the right track about his previous thoughts.

The names of Demons-they were exceptionally powerful. Knowing the name of a Demon was the equivalent of controlling them.

"Minotaur King" wasn't a name. It was a shield.

In the Real World, the suppression on Demons was so great that hiding their True Names was basically not an option. If you wanted to use an army of Demons in the Real World,

it would be like supplying their necks to a chopping block.

But Sylas had noticed something interesting long ago.

The spawned Demons in encampments and cities had names-real names. He could still remember the names of the Gnolls that he had once helped Castle Main survive even

now.

But those weren't real Demons. They were creatures spawned by the system, replicas almost as though to test whether they were worthy enough to join the fight against the Demon World should it come.

Sylas' thoughts also couldn't help but flicker toward Gogo...

Gogo was very much real, but his True Name was hidden. The system saw him as "Basilisk King." That was what he came up as, even though they both knew his True Name now-even though neither could fully pronounce it.

Did that mean that Gogo was a Demon?

Maybe... No, Sylas didn't think so. It was just another branch of his erratic thoughts.

How had Gogo ended up in a Dungeon to begin with? What separated someone like Gogo from the random spawns of the system?

Sylas was beginning to realize that these names were almost like tags, a little warning to let you know that you were facing off against a real threat, one that truly came from the Demon World.

But how did all of this tie in?

Masquerade.

That name was like a beacon to Sylas in the dark. When he saw a human named Masquerade all those months ago, when he was trying to hunt down Professor Fembroise, he had found it all so very odd. There was no way someone's parents named them Masquerade-no last name, no middle name, barely a first name.

But that was when it clicked for him.

If

you wanted to use an army of Demons in the Real World, if you couldn't find a way to hide their names, it would be like sending them off to their deaths.

Every one of these puzzle pieces was unique in the way it fit in, so cleverly slotted that it would have practically been impossible for anyone else to put it together after the fact.

Maybe only those present for the start of the plan would understand it all so thoroughly. But that also meant something else.

The Minotaur King grabbed his head, screaming in pain as blood vessels burst from his eyes.

[Ba'ruk-Thael Mornach'zul Kargathan (DDD+)]

[Level: 121]

[Physical: 20,171,389]

[Mental: 20,001,777]

[Will: 30,388,799]

Sylas' lips parted, and he spoke out the name. Every syllable shook the world, sending Demonic Aether churning.

The Demonic Aether reformed itself into Runes, and these Runes drilled themselves into Ba'ruk's ears, and then his eyes, and then his nose and mouth. It looked almost as though the tadpole-like scribbles were simply trying to find any and every way into the enormous Minotaur King's body.

Sylas saw the minotaur's stats increase once more by a factor of ten, but he didn't even flinch in the slightest.

It was instead the woman to the side that felt like she was trapped in an illusion of her own creation.

This Sylas Grimblade...

Just who had Earth birthed, exactly?

This feeling of smallness, of inadequacy... she had only felt it in front of those people, in front of those Professors that didn't have to walk around on the edge of humanity like the rest of them did... Just who was this man?

Decades of planning... decades that were, in effect, millions upon millions of years to the people of Earth.

Sylas was meant to be nothing more than a blip in that span of time.

'It's all over...' she thought.