Genetic Ascension

Chapter 1777: Time

Sylas began to delicately forge again. He didn't feel that his first creation was perfect enough. At best, it was a proof of concept, but there were better ways.

Trying to layer out something as complex as the brain in a form as small as a pin came with its own difficulties, as one might expect. Sylas had done it with a version of electrolysis, which was basically the practice of using liquid and electrical pulses to decompose chemicals-in layman's terms.

It was a similar process to what was used to plate metals like gold.

Essentially, Sylas had formed a circuit programmed with pulses that controlled a liquid vat with the particles in such a way that it could perfectly replicate his brain by depositing said particles in just the right way.

But, like he had said, it was just a proof of concept. Electrolysis wasn't nearly good enough for a process like this. It wasn't precise enough.

Well... that wasn't exactly true. The Omnimous already felt like this method would work. Sylas just wasn't satisfied.

With this process, so long as he made a second, he probably had better than 80% odds of success with A-Grade Medley. But Sylas felt like he had suddenly had a watershed moment.

Electrolysis was a middleman he didn't need. Instead of programming a circuit to control the pulses, why not just use the circuit itself?

Batteries were exceptionally interesting things. A version of electrolysis was used in rechargeable batteries in order to reset them.

If you thought about it, batteries worked by just allowing particles of one charge to swim toward particles of an opposite charge.

Sylas was using a process that mirrored this in order to plate a map of his brain, but what if he forgot about the liquid and used the process of the circuit itself?

By cutting out the middleman, he would streamline the process a great deal.

There was another reason Sylas was thinking of batteries, though.

He didn't want the external projections of his brain to be entangled with something permanent. He wanted these secondary brains to be used up like batteries.

This was for two purposes.

The first was the Omni Barriers. In this case, the first three-the Barrier of Complexity, Coordination, and Noise- would be especially potent here.

As neurons were firing and constant changes were being made as Sylas learned new things, the patterns in the secondary brains would be constantly changing as well. If he wasn't careful, he would find his own brain entangled with something that had fundamentally changed beyond recognition.

At that point, he would be crippling himself instead of helping himself.

If the secondary brains were designed to be used up like batteries, they would "run out" of energy before they could mutate enough to cause problems. Then Sylas could just entangle with another one and continue the process.

The second reason was A-Grade Medley.

While Sylas wanted these secondary brains to be external to him so that A-Grade Medley could more easily influence them, this would likewise add layers of complexity.

A-Grade Medley essentially borrowed from the world around a weaker individual as though they were a Progenitor, but on a much larger and stronger scale.

Sylas' Progenitor status would never make him as strong as an A-tier.

This aside, when A-Grade Medley was in action like this, the ways the universe could influence his secondary brains were likewise too numerous.

Rather than trying to workshop and create the perfect technology to deal with all of these problems, Sylas found the perfect shortcut instead.

If he wanted to perfect this technology, he would need to cross at least the fourth Barrier-Causality. He didn't have the time for that.

This solution was exactly what he needed.

But it was also why he needed the plating to be more precise.

Sylas went through one circuit iteration after another. Every single one of them worked better than the last, and each one was perfect enough to work on its own. But he still didn't seem satisfied, as though he was still chasing something.

He destroyed them again and again, sparks of electricity practically running through his hair by the time he was finished.

'This is it.'

Sylas was no longer staring at a pin. In fact, it had grown to an entire box. Within this box, there were hundreds of pins.

By automating the process of his circuit-making, it was trivial to mass produce these pins that would become his secondary brain.

Sylas raised a hand and pressed it to the box. He felt a hum, and the world sang around him.

Slowly, he closed his eyes as his Will pressed down again like it had before. Each strand flowed to each individual pin, and it suddenly felt as though Sylas had thousands of extra brains-and yet just a single one at the same time.

His Infinite Will bloomed, and he really felt it for the first time.

If someone else attempted to use this method from a state beneath Infinite Will, they would be very limited in the number of secondary brains they could use. But Sylas was not.

The trouble was that while Sylas could connect to all of the brains, he wasn't able to use them all effectively. He only had so many thoughts to process as an F-tier. In fact, even a second brain was too much... he didn't need it. He couldn't think fast enough to make use of it unless he used his time affinity.

And even then, he might only get to a third or a fourth...

But that was exactly what he wanted.

'It's time.'

There was no need for rest. A-Grade Medley would deal with that.

Sylas' aura surged, and crackles of lightning rushed from the obelisk.

Call of the Titan appeared and was crushed beneath his Will, pouring toward a single target...

Reaper Sealwright.

A dome high above the universe Sylas hadn't even known existed cracked, a familiar rainbow-colored Will descending.

Sylas didn't wait, activating A-Grade Medley with a blow of a whistle.

He acted none too soon, because the instant there was one surge, it was met by another.

Unfortunately, there was one thing Sylas couldn't have known. Even now, his experience was far too limited.

How could A-Grade Medley work to properly communicate with the universe on his behalf... when the Will of the Titans had descended?