Genetic Ascension

Chapter 1854: Okay, Maybe...

"Alright. Then we'll take on this task on your behalf."

Szorn floated over to Isolde a bit reluctantly. But at least when she was observing from afar, this woman seemed far more reasonable than Cassarae. So he could only hope that his days ahead would be better.

Sylas took a seat inside of a room. Well... his room. It had always been set aside for him and immaculately cleaned every day.

Honestly, he didn't really have a place he could call a room or a home these days. He felt more comfortable referring to it as a room in his mind.

Cassarae moved in soon after.

"Are you going to tell me what you did to Szorn?"

Cassarae cleared her throat. "This isn't about me, this is about you. Are you just going to gloss over what happened just now? That was a closer call than you're admitting.

"If not for that, you would never sit on your bed in such a dirty state. Just look at you."

Sylas gazed down at himself. He was, indeed, still a mess. In fact, the scars from where his limbs had been cut off were still there.

For scars to remain even after such strong healing effects were used on him, it could only be said that the weapons of the Angels-and their strength-were truly on an exaggerated level.

But it also told Sylas something else:

There was still a lot of room between himself and the Demi-God Realms.

In order to safely step onto Earth, the one threshold Xalor couldn't cross was the one related to Demi-Godhood, and yet he had still been so expensive.

Of course, Sylas was pretty sure that wasn't all Xalor's own strength. A large part of it was the armor and weapon he wielded. That was what had allowed him to display so much might beneath the Demi-God realms.

But if that was about 90% of it, there was still another 10% sliver in there that intrigued Sylas.

Sylas already knew that his foundation wasn't absolutely perfect. Just the fact he had been forced to progress to Level 50 before he was ready had sealed that deal.

But what Xalor had displayed was still more than Sylas expected to be possible at the Mortal Realms. It meant that there were still secrets out there he didn't understand... Secrets beyond just what lay at the perfection of Void Mastery... a realm he was still chasing, but now had more of an inkling about.

In fact, it was becoming a Progenitor that had opened up Sylas' eyes a bit.

Sylas knew that if he focused on studying his Progenitor status and his oneness with Earth for the next few days... he could successfully comprehend what he had failed to with the Legendary Luck Gene... He just didn't want to.

Sylas didn't like the idea of relying on external things to boost his understanding. If he had to rely on Earth now, what about the next time he reached that hurdle? Would he have to rely on Earth again? And then again beyond that?

Would he maybe need to rely on the galaxy next? Maybe an entire Sector? A Horizon? A Heaven?

Sylas didn't fear the work it might take to become a Progenitor on that level. A challenge would never be anything he feared.

But a Progenitor was ultimately just another system. This time, you were just working from a mainframe formed of a world, or galaxy, or beyond. If there was a beyond, that is. Sylas wasn't sure of that.

In an acute sense, Sylas had no problem relying on a world for a short-term power boost to deal with enemies. It was something he had earned, after all.

But using it for a permanent boost to his comprehension ability? Or using something external as a mainstay of something foundational to his understanding?

It felt wrong.

Was he being stubborn? Maybe.

But his Rune Mastery was the only thing he had never needed help with the only thing he had never needed to improve his foundation for, or elevate his Genes to maximize.

Some of his Genes in the past had been able to help, but they were supplemental. They never actively boosted his understanding. Even Primus Luminaria was something he had only relied on for a boost a single time.

It wasn't something he wanted to make a habit of.

"Are you ignoring me, Sylas Brown?" Cassarae's voice held a dangerous edge to it.

"No differently than you're ignoring my question."

Cassarae scoffed. "I didn't do anything to the little demon. I just had him... sculpt a statue... or two..."

Sylas raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, maybe the statues were... phallic in nature."

Sylas' raised eyebrow didn't lower.

"And... maaaaybe I had him fuse the asses of one or two annoying bitches onto them."

Sylas didn't even know how to react to this.

"Who?"

"Does it matter?"

Judging by Sylas' still-raised eyebrow, Cassarae realized the answer to her question.

"Okay, maybe it was more than two. And I may have gained a reputation for it outside of the Sector. And maaaaaaybe some of the, ahem, victims were on the much... older... looser... wrinklier side of things."

Sylas was speechless.

"Hey, don't give me that look. Some of these people welcome death too easily, or else why would they be bothering me so much? Do they not like their lives? So I just had to make their lives worse than living.

"Szorn is quite good at, ahem... sculpting."

"You're still hiding something," Sylas said after a while.

Cassarae didn't embarrass easily-if at all. This sounded like something she'd be more proud of than anything

else. The idea that she would be scared to talk about it was ridiculous.

"Okay, maybe there was a wrinkly man or two involved, too."

Sylas kept staring at her.

"... And maybe I had... a few of the statues combined into an eternal union of... love..."

Sylas kept staring at her.

"Okay, okay... and maybe some of them were... ahem... related by blood."