Genetic Ascension

Chapter 2037: A Beat

Cassarae's heart skipped a beat. For a moment, she couldn't help but have the thought... was that why Sylas was feeling better all of a sudden?

If that was the case, it would hurt a great deal. She knew that the reason Sylas was spiraling was because of Nosphaleen, but she also knew enough about him to know that that wasn't the entire picture. In fact, it was probably only a small piece of it.

But when she remembered this, she unhurriedly exhaled and nodded.

Sylas wasn't the sort to act like this. No, the only things that could move him so far off his baseline were realizations about himself.

Nosphaleen's death had made him look in the mirror in ways that he didn't want to, but now he didn't have to do this. He was sharper than before not because she was alive, but maybe he had even figured out the fact that she was alive at all because he was sharper.

A smile spread across Cassarae's face.

"What happened? How is that possible?" she finally asked.

"I'm not entirely sure," Sylas said. "But it seems to be related to one of the Madness Seeds."

Cassarae frowned. She didn't know a lot about Madness, but what she did know was that Sylas had mentioned there might be some relation with her own path before. They still hadn't quite figured out what the correlation was, but from what they had seen from the All-Seeing Eye, it was impossible that there wasn't a relationship.

The All-Seeing Eye-it had to be remembered-was a remnant of the Legendary System. It was the current system's eye, or the Heavens' Eye, that was locked in battle with it back then.

The only reason Cassarae had been able to reach the full potential of her current Class, and a large part of the reason she was even able to be as powerful as she was, was because her Legendary Class Quest required defeating said Eye.

One might imagine that the rewards Cassarae received for this were shocking in their own right. The only reason that she hadn't been able to tap into that power immediately was because her Race level was far too low. But between the upgrades she thankfully gained from her husband, not to mention the Genes that Sylas was able to craft from thin air, her foundation had steadily grown to the point that it was slowly starting to manifest the true strength of this Class.

Despite the fact Nosphaleen had been holding back, not wanting to disrespect Sylas by using power he had given her to defeat his wife, both Sylas and Cassarae were quite confident that even if she hadn't, the battle would have ended the very same way.

Cassarae was undoubtedly, by this point, the most powerful Level O of the Mortal Realm. If not for Sylas' existence, she would have already taken Primus Imperium for herself.

And it could even be said that the only reason Sylas still held onto the title was because his Rune Mastery was far too broken. Bridging that gap wasn't something that Cassarae could do just yet, even with her Sword Will.

Still, the only reason Cassarae had any of this power, once again, was because the All-Seeing Eye had practically sacrificed itself in the end. And the only reason it would do that is because it wanted to do it for the sake of Cassarae.

But in doing so, it revealed something pretty clear to the husband-wife pair.

The All-Seeing Eye was the overseer of the Legendary Era of the universe's System. That was all to say that the All-Seeing Eye was in its prime when Madness was not only an accepted Path of the universe, but one of the strongest Paths as well.

So in an era where Madness ruled, why was it that there was such a fondness for Cassarae?

There were definitely a lot of tidbits of Madness that Cassarae had, especially related to Wrath. But it didn't quite seem to be exactly like that when you scrutinized it.

The difference wasn't something they knew, but now the connections to Madness just kept stacking up for them relentlessly, and there didn't seem to be anything that they could do about it.

"Someone is controlling her?" Cassarae asked.

"Likely. But whatever they've done to her, it's likewise made her far more powerful. But if she's the representation of Envy right now... I'm not entirely sure how that will manifest."

Logically, given how powerful the presence that Sylas sensed was, it should be the Virtue of Envy.

However, there were dim underpinnings that made Sylas hesitate.

What stood out the most to him was the existence of the Rat and the Boar, two creatures representing sins they should have no business representing.

The trouble with the conclusion that maybe Nosphaleen was being warped was that, as far as Sylas knew, the Crow was the proper representation for Envy.

So there only seemed to be two possibilities. Either Nosphaleen was truly representing the Virtue, or...

They had found a new method of twisting things beyond recognition.

Somehow, Sylas got the feeling that it was the second.

Cassarae nodded solemnly, many of their thoughts being the same without exchanging a word.

"Then what do you want to do?"

"I will go and find her once the time is right."

"And that's what they want you to do?"

"Almost certainly. That's exactly what they want," Sylas said.

Cassarae smiled. There was something about the confidence in Sylas' eyes that put her at ease.

She was worried about Sylas' thoughts and intentions when their relationship was rocky; she also worried about it when his mind wasn't all there and he was drowning in guilt and thoughts of his own weaknesses.

But now, it was different.

Cassarae had always believed in Sylas, but now it was hundreds of times greater than ever before. She truly didn't believe that there was a single thing in existence that could defeat her man.

"Alright. Lead me to Professor Fembroise. It's time I deal with this properly."

Sylas directed the question toward Cassarae, but then his gaze landed on Alex.