Genetic Ascension

Chapter 1935: Wasting Time (5)

Sylas looked up at it, but it felt like he was hardly the one doing so at all. By all logical reason, his Will should have overwhelmed the Ruby Finger Serpent; the gap between them was unfathomable.

Yet, the desires of the Ruby Finger Serpent were so strong that Sylas found himself losing himself a bit. He wasn't just Sylas anymore, he was also the Ruby Finger Serpent.

He could feel all of its hopes, all of its grievances, its very hatred for the lightning above. That hatred was instinctual, buried deep within its bones. There was no real understanding of it, no real manifestation of intelligence or thought that surrounded it.

And yet, that hatred was no less visceral.

Watching the bolt come down toward him, piercing right through his Hibernation Realm as though it wasn't truly a secret, private space at all, Sylas seemed lost in a daze.

He didn't move, his body having shrunk to the small, infantile nature of the Ruby Finger Serpent, and as did his thoughts.

'Is this... the ceiling?' Sylas thought, his crimson eyes glazed over.

"Hey?" the Hydra called out. "Hey, are you going to do something? HEY!"

Sylas didn't seem to hear the Hydra at all. In one moment the lightning had flashed in the skies, and in the next, it was already upon him.

It was then that Sylas seemed to finally wake up, the slightest hint of light flashing in his eyes.

"Piss off."

The arc just about to pierce right through his tiny forehead was suddenly blocked by a crystal of Glass. It jumped across in arcs, following a line of crystals out of Sylas' path until it slammed against the ground behind him.

He had already expected the Heaven System to get mad because he was also relying on the Gluttony Sin, so he was ready for this. But this lightning felt different from usual, almost as though he was staring at the ceiling of the world again.

"What are you doing? This isn't how you deal with Chaos Lightning. You face it head on, or it'll just keep coming. Prove yourself!" the Hydra roared in Sylas' ears and something seemed to click for him.

A second bolt came down, and then a third in quick succession. There was hardly a gap between them, and they seemed prepared to rip him to shreds.

Sylas could have done it again, he knew he could have. This lightning felt imposing, but it was almost like a paper tiger to him. It might have been extremely dangerous to an F-tier, but he was no F-tier anymore, and his Will was already firmly within the Demi-God Ranks.

But that wasn't what the Hydra said to do.

Sylas let them hit the Ruby Finger Serpent's body.

It was ripped to shreds in an instant, lightning of white, gold, and black suffocating its crimson color.

But just when it seemed on the verge of collapse, the rolling waves of the Hibernation Realm's healing activated, bathing over it and healing it to full health... Only for the third bolt to descend.

More were coming, each one more savage and unrelenting than the last, and with every one that struck down, the feelings of the Ruby Finger Serpent seemed to fester and boil over.

Sylas did nothing at all, just letting it happen. But as though affected by Sylas' Pride, the Ruby Finger Serpent only grew more and more obstinate the more it suffered.

Nature or nurture. It was a question that the philosophers and biologists of Earth had debated over for countless generations. How much of who you were was based on the blood rolling through your body versus how much of it was dependent on how you grew up?

Maybe Sylas didn't give enough credit to his parents for who he was today, because watching the growth of the Ruby Finger Serpent in real time, he felt like he was watching it become something it could be proud of.

Or was he?

This Pride had always been inside the Ruby Finger Serpent. It just needed a nudge to truly awaken it. But even so, wasn't that still a point for nurture?

If Pride was a Virtue, part of the very essence of living itself, everyone had Pride in some shape or form.

Then was it just a difference of how much it took to awaken a person's Pride?

Gogo watched on from the distance, his golden eyes staring intently at the lightning forming in the skies. Watching a little crimson construct come back from the brink of death again and again, he couldn't help but feel a part of him boiling with the raging anticipation of it all.

He was so much larger than the Ruby Finger Serpent, but he had yet to reach the pinnacle of his own Pride. He wasn't sure what he was missing... But at that moment, Gogo began to wonder if he had been wrong. Was he wrong to try and follow Sylas' example, to try and reflect the sort of Pride his master had?

He wasn't so sure anymore.

The Monkey King had reached the pinnacle but he certainly had another form of Pride completely different from Sylas' own. Who was to say that there were only two Paths? What if there was a third? A fourth? An infinite many for an infinite number of souls?

But Gogo didn't know what his own Path of Pride should be. What exactly was his Dao? Did Sylas even know his own properly?

Was it women? No, not really, he just decided he desired the Azurex on a whim. Was it to be like Sylas? He didn't know if he wanted that either; he was much more happy-go-lucky than Sylas was. He didn't want Pride dictating every single one of his actions like it seemed to for Sylas.

Was it for his Race? To revive them? To strive for that end goal?

Maybe...

But honestly, even though some of his Ancestral memories had awakened, he wasn't entirely sure if that was what he wanted his purpose to be.

Was his scope maybe too narrow?

Honestly... he just didn't want to go back to being so weak and helpless again.

The moment Gogo had the thought, it was like something within him resonated.