Genetic Ascension

Chapter 2023: Fried Brain

Before, Cassarae had almost been afraid to ask. She had definitely sensed it before, but a part of her didn't want to hear the answer. If Sylas had really cheated on her again, she didn't know what she would do.

Would she really cut him off right there? Her pride would definitely make her, but how would her heart react then?

She remembered how long it had taken her to get over Sylas the first time. And honestly, considering how easily she had fallen back into his embrace, she didn't know if she could look herself in the mirror and say that she had ever truly done that.

Maybe rather than getting over Sylas, she had grown numb to the memory. Well, as numb as you could get when you cried every time you mentioned it.

There were still portions of that time that she had never spoken to anyone about. Even when she ended up injured, she told her parents and the school that it was the boy Sylas had almost killed. That was about the only way Sylas didn't end up in a facility for what he had done that day.

As for the boy, she never pressed charges, so other than getting expelled, nothing else happened to him. But as far as Cassarae was concerned, he deserved that much anyway. Who was he to go around spreading rumors about her?

After so very long, Cassarae was truly feeling like herself again. She was ready to hear whatever the answer was and she would react accordingly.

"... A necessary evil?" Sylas eventually said.

Cassarae raised an eyebrow. "Speak, Sylas Brown."

A slight quirk of a smile pulled at Sylas' lip. So, he finally explained. Honestly, he wasn't actually worried that this would lead to a problem this time.

"... So basically..." Cassarae's eyes narrowed. "You're telling me you went and forced that demon bitch into marriage like you did me? Are you tired of your balls, Sylas Brown? Are you wishing that maybe you lost one or both of them?"

Sylas didn't reply, but his smile became a little wider.

"Why the hell are you chuckling it up? You think I won't do it?"

Sylas shook his head.

Cassarae seemed to deflate. Not in a sad way, but in a she really couldn't be bothered to care way.

"Fine, fine. You're right, I really can't be bothered to care right now."

"Oh? You're okay with me having more than one wife now?"

"Are you trying to test my patience?" Cassarae's eyes narrowed.

Sylas smiled and didn't say much else.

As well as Cassarae understood him, he felt that he understood her well enough as well.

If their relationship hadn't been so rocky, she would have been fine with him using the Lust Seed like he had. In fact, she might have even been okay with Nosphaleen assuming there was a very clear division between their standing.

What would have pissed her off was if Sylas tried to act as though another woman was just as important as she was. But using one as a glorified fleshlight or having a concubine wasn't something she'd bat an eye at.

Part of that was because of how Cassarae herself saw the world, and another part of that was because she recognized that the sort of mountain she had to climb to be with the real Sylas wasn't something that others could easily make it through. And even if they did, that didn't mean that Sylas would reciprocate their feelings in the same way.

In a lot of ways, she was fine with giving Sylas such a long leash because she knew that Sylas probably wouldn't even use it.

It was just a shame it had taken them so much to get here.

"So what's the plan, exactly?" she said. "You think that there's some S-tier version of this woman in the deeper layers of the Layered Dungeon, and what? You're investing early?"

She was partially joking, but another part of her was actually confused.

Sylas wasn't exactly the sort to rely on others. He wasn't the "coalition building" type. If he was, he would invest far more on Earth than he was.

Sylas was definitely more of the one-man army sort.

"The Golden Battlefield is interesting. I have a feeling that the Demon Races the Golden Races selected weren't picked at random. I even wonder sometimes if the Demon World has a piece that they're missing to complete things."

"Didn't it work already? Isn't that why Old Brama isn't... well, old anymore?"

"Yes." Sylas nodded. "But the main goal of the battlefield wasn't just reversing issues and undoing them, it's about finding a way to combine the Paths of the Real Plane and the Demonic Plane. There might be something I'm missing."

Cassarae nodded. "But you're not going back there already. Where are you going now?"

Sylas fell into silence. She could usually tell when something was off, she just hadn't said anything until now.

"I'm going to the Demi-God Realm."

"Already?" Cassarae asked with a serious expression.

"Elara... she..." Sylas' voice trailed off.

Cassarae blinked in surprise and then her heart skipped a beat. Sylas couldn't mean―?

Looking at the flickering emotion hidden beneath Sylas' indifference, she could feel the stormy waves coming from him so very clearly.

"Sylas."

Cassarae grabbed the sides of Sylas' face.

"You're not going."

Sylas frowned.

"Don't give me that look. Elara isn't stupid. She can take care of herself."

"She's 15 years old." Sylas said, a hint of cold in his voice.

"You say that like it matters. Even if she was 115 years old you would still be doing the same thing."

Sylas' frown deepened.

"She will be fine. I guarantee it. If she dies, I will die."

Sylas didn't want that, and Cassarae knew that. But it was the only thing she could say.

There were very few things that made Sylas' brain click off and stop functioning properly, and his little sister was definitely one of them.

Logically, he knew how clever she was, how she was practically a mini him.

In action, though, he could never really release those reins.

"ELARA!" Cassarae called out.

A little head poked out from the stairs soon after.

"Come here." Cassarae said with a smile. "Why don't you help me explain to your brother here how broken you would have to be to be on the Demi-God Plane and yet have a strand of Will that still works here?"

Sylas' pupils constricted into pinholes. He hadn't even reflected of that.