Genetic Ascension

Chapter 1708 Quick

The goading and prodding of the system seemed purposeful almost to the point of being comedic. But this comedy to the layman was exactly the sort of tragic, thinly veiled façade that had the entire Seeing Eye Guild in an uproar... if you could call a silent boiling an uproar.

It felt like, from a state where the city boiled, it fell into a complete quiet instead.

Sylas was quite used to the feeling of constant gazes on him. The things he did, and the rules he broke, tended to have that effect on people. But there was something particularly different about this time.

The feeling was almost as though he had walked into someone's family gathering, ruined their dinner, and dug up elderly wounds that they had kept buried in their hearts for a time that could only be counted in generations.

Whatever it was Sylas had done, it would change the course of these horizons in a way none of them could fathom. It was a sinking feeling in their gut that made them realize that things were spiraling out of control, the culprit was right in front of them, and yet there was nothing at all that they could do about it.

What should they do with that feeling?

However, as lost as they were in their own thoughts, wondering how this would impact their own futures and how much their own lives would change, what they hadn't considered for even a single moment was the sort of pressure that was on the young man every single one of them was looking at right this moment.

And why would it cross their minds? All of them just wanted Sylas to disappear, and yet all they received in return was that very same stone-cold look, unbothered by them and their thoughts, so unfettered and casual one could never imagine that he had seen the notification at all.

Then he turned and walked into the Seeing Eye Guild, ignoring their guards and strolling in as though it was his guild by birthright.

How things would end today would decide not just the life and death of individuals, but entire families and sweeping populations of people-both expert and irrelevant alike.

Yet all Sylas did was find a spacious spot in the main lobby of the guild and take a seat in silent meditation, his eyes closing as his breathing entered a calm rhythm.

A meeting of the Ancestors of the Seeing Eye Guild had never been called so fast before. In fact, to say that it was called was little more than a ridiculous statement.

As though attracted to one another by a magnet of their own creation, they converged and snapped together.

However, as fast as they came together, none of them seemed to be willing to speak. Let alone willing-it was as though they had lost all ability to do so in the first place.

The pressure of the matter was clearly weighing on them. Whether they won or lost, it sensed like they were still losing.

On one side was a Karmic spiral that would leave them with no path of recovery for at least the next decade or two, and the other was offending the overlord Race of not a world, but the entire Heaven.

Some of them thought of losing on purpose just to put the Weaver Guild in the latter predicament. Maybe if the Thryskai hit them hard enough, the playing field would be evened out.

But they knew that this was foolhardy.

This wasn't a binary situation. By now, powers outside of the two guilds had been alerted to what was going on, and each one was probably waiting in the wings for an angle of attack.

No matter which guild suffered the most here, that suffering wouldn't end with just the retaliation of the other-but the entire Mesh of Reality would feel its ripples.

Then what about something in the middle? Something that allowed them to lose, but not too much, while the Weaver Guild gained, but not too much. Or, maybe ideally, the vice versa.

Unfortunately, as often and as habitual as Sylas' lambasting of the system as impotent was getting, the only existences who truly used that moniker and meant it with every fiber of their being were existences like Arcane Madness.

That was to say that there was absolutely zero chance that the system would allow such a middle ground to exist. Maybe if it hadn't been the case that the two guilds had been manipulating the system and restricting its ability to pit them against each other for so long, there might be such a thing to be found. But right now, it was the equivalent of a dam breaking. Even Sylas didn't account for the matter.

It was simply the perfect storm.

So, what could you do in a situation where you couldn't take a step back, but you also couldn't take a step forward? And yet, you had a choice to make no matter what?

"Make it bigger."

The voice came calm and soothing. A middle-aged woman with the faintest crow's feet clinging at the edges of her eyes spoke softly.

"Don't let those sitting on the sidelines have a chance to continue playing both sides. We will rope them into the Quicktime Event. This way, the rearrangement of chaos will have a far larger area to spread."

"No."

The woman had been the first to speak, and the moment such an idea came, many sighed in relief. This felt like the smartest thing to do.

"It's clear that many of you have lost your edge. How long has it been since you've fought a real battle? Since the system has led you by the nose? You look down on it, but are any of you even a fraction as capable as the God that created it?"

The room froze once again.

"A Quicktime Event is, by definition, quick. There is no time to rope in other parties-any attempt to do so will be a default loss. So we have one of two choices: sink or swim against this raging tide."