Genetic Ascension

Chapter 2004: Churn

What do you want? Why are you saying all of this?" Riqo finally squeezed out the words.

He didn't want to admit it, but he didn't have any cards in this situation. The man he was facing was on another level.

The more he stared at Sylas, the more he felt like he was coming to a single conclusion...

He was untouchable in the Mortal Realm.

It was an answer that didn't make any sense to him at all. Logically, Sylas should still be killable. Without the support of those Ancestral Wills and that formation, a B-tier should be able to kill him.

But what Riqo had realized was that even that thought alone, the fact he was hedging so much, adding so many caveats... That was exactly what made Sylas such an anomaly.

A Legend followed after him, waiting on hand and foot as though she had nothing better to do with her time.

This man... he was in the same category as Rhykan. Trying to measure him by a normal set of logic would only lose them their lives and cause them to suffer. There was nothing else here for them other than death.

But... if Sylas really was like Rhykan, then the only reason he could ever have to speak this much was because there was a point to it.

"Let's battle." Sylas declared in reply.

Riqo stiffened.

Had he been wrong? Did he overthink things?

"The two of you. At once."

A retainer took a step forward and Sylas' scythe flickered. A line of blood slipped through reality and the retainer shuddered, coughing once. His nose fell into two pieces, blooming like a flower along with his lips.

But the cut wasn't deep enough to truly bisect him.

Sylas didn't even look at the man, his focus still on both Riqo and Ziel. Then, he tapped a foot.

The world warped and changed.

The pressure of Sylas' Rune Suppression formation vanished and the two Thryskai heirs felt as though they could finally breathe.

Had Sylas just... removed his greatest advantage?

The two of them looked toward one another, not understanding what was happening until they felt a powerful Will descend that ripped them right back into reality.

[Rigodon'til Buri (CCC+)]

[Level: 200]

[Physical: 371,222,383]

[Mental: 402,311,729]

[Will: 477,772,988]

[Ziel Finondri Sona (CCC+)]

[Level: 200]

[Physical: 399,882,187]

[Mental: 399,722,889]

[Will: 498,612,961]

Sylas raised his Grim Blade and its narrow butt dinged against the ground as though a hammer to a bell.

"I swear upon the stars that I will not change the rules of this domain until a victor is decided in this battle."

The skies rumbled.

Ziel and Riqo both shook.

Did he just...?

They couldn't believe it. Sylas had thrown away his best advantage and forced himself into a battle against the two of them without the slightest care for anything else.

Did he not value his life?

And yet, despite the thought, neither of them could seem to muster up the urge to attack.

It was lucky for them, then, that Sylas made the effort for them.

In a flicker, Sylas had already vanished, appearing before them both and swiping the Grim Blade through the void of the world.

Danger tingled at the back of their necks, but they found the attack to be incredibly slow.

That didn't stop their caution.

Riqo's body exploded not in gore, but instead in size. His belly rounded, his cheeks enlarged, and his singular chin became what looked to be at least three.

And yet, instead of just being obese, he looked like a tank, a monstrous warrior worthy of the hammer twice the size of his rotund body.

Ziel was instantly covered head to toe in an armor of dancing flames. Countless currents formed around him and his Skai Eye opened instantly, forcing them into his command.

All of their senses seemed to be screaming that Sylas was a pitiful bug they could squash with a single stomp of their feet.

And yet all of their instincts screamed differently, their bodies acting as though they had met the greatest threat of their lifetimes.

Riqo's hammer descended to meet where he thought Sylas' scythe would cross, and Ziel explosively retreated, explosions erupting in his wake as he waved a hand, sending out streams of fire where he thought Sylas would be.

Space distorted, bent, and compressed around Riqo's hammer. It was such a huge object, and yet in the Mesh of Reality it had somehow become thinner than the edge of the universe's sharpest blade.

Ziel's flames were more than met the eye as well. They looked no different from normal fire on the surface, just hot and nothing else. And yet, Sylas could see the distortions, the way the atoms themselves were being spliced apart and spontaneously sent into a state of fission... but even more shockingly how many of them were forced to collide in forces of the most stable sort of fusion Sylas had ever seen.

This was what he wanted to see. He wanted to know what the best of the best of the Mortal Realm was truly capable of.

And Riqo and Ziel hadn't disappointed him. Not yet.

Sylas met Riqo's blow head on and the Grim Blade shattered to pieces. Using the momentum, Sylas' body shifted and he accelerated out of the path of Ziel's flames.

He reached out a palm to empty space and grasped at air, forming a new Grim Blade before turning around and slashing down with all his might.

BOOM.

A fire that had spontaneously formed from Ziel's abilities was sliced in two, but not before the Grim Blade shattered once again.

The flames burnt Sylas' skin, turning it a furious shade of red. Blisters and bubbling flesh began to ooze off him, the scent of burning human filling the air.

Riqo and Ziel both frowned. Sylas was, indeed, as weak as they thought. But despite that, he had somehow also

survived.

Sylas reached out a hand, slowly forming the Grim Blade for the third time. It seemed that he was going to have to truly form it in earnest this time.

The skies churned.