Genetic Ascension

Chapter 2086: The Impossible [Bonus]

[Bonus thanks to Chronotitan :)]

Sylas didn't breathe at this point. The world howled around him instead.

He clashed with a puppet in a dance of blades. His body completely lacked any sort of flesh, muscle, or sinew, but it didn't matter. His telekinesis coated his body, his Will blazing in an inferno of its own creation.

His scythe met the crossed short throwing knives of the puppet. It wielded them like claws and he wielded his blade like a guillotine.

He slid back, before his bony feet flexed, erupting with strength. The world was pulled into the quagmire of his Will, his telekinesis martial arts ripping away at the layers of control the space had even over him until he pulled on the amount of strength he thought he deserved.

BANG.

Forced to separate from the puppet again, a glow of life danced in Sylas' eyes, fogs of chaos radiating from him in waves.

His teeth rattled in a wide grin.

BANG.

He accelerated, the world cracking beneath his feet. His weight increased, space folding in on itself as he bulldozed right into the puppet, slicing it to pieces.

Flecks of Will broke from his body. He no longer bled, and his bone was all that was left of him, but his Will itself still took severe damage every time.

The weight of every battle only grew greater, but he could finally see the top, finally see where it would end.

His hair had long been burnt away. In its place, foggy streaks of black and white were left, his eyes radiating in similar orbs.

Sylas didn't feel like he was fighting against his limits. He was fighting to erase the frustration in his heart.

The matters with Nosphaleen hadn't become his new memory of the volcano, but only because she was alive. If she really was dead and there was no bringing her back, what exactly would he do then?

There were so many pressures on his shoulders, so many chances to make a mistake, if he failed in his first true challenge since he had made his promise to never make another… Then what would his word count for?

Chi.

Another puppet took shape and Sylas was already moving.

The puppet's hand suddenly expanded, blotting out the skies as it swatted down. The complex gears that formed its body shook and it finally seemed to be breaking free of its usual constraints.

Sylas' bony jaw rattled beneath the wind pressure. If his eyes had still been there, they would have lit up.

This was exactly what he was waiting for.

So many of the puppet's mechanisms were a mystery to him, impossible to read or understand. This forced change… it wouldn't be able to hide from him even if it wanted to.

BANG. BANG. BANG.

…

Juxi and the others were completely numb. Every time they thought Sylas would fall, he would continue, even to the point he was little more than a walking, running, slashing skeleton.

They had never seen anyone just continue despite being so heavily injured. Could this even count as mere injury any longer?

Alpine was gritting his teeth, his jaw clenched so tightly he had long cracked several of them. He didn't understand Sylas at all.

This wasn't supposed to be possible. The only way the puppet wouldn't have adapted to Sylas already was because Sylas' abilities were too complex and wide in scope to fully digest even with accelerated adaptation.

But that was only Alpine's own one-sided speculation. He didn't even know if he could take this to be the truth.

There were many solutions posited to defeat the Zeus Puppets, but the only viable strategy was the one they had spoken of earlier: taking it slow and making the puppet think it was a spar.

Outside of this one that was widely accepted by everyone, there were many other small pockets and theories, but these only had 10% consensus, if that.

There was even an insane school of thought that suggested if there was some theoretical genius with a faster adaptation ability than the puppets, then they could surely succeed.

But it was simply impossible for flesh and blood to be so great. The Zeus Puppets were beyond the laws of reason. Even S-tiers feared the highest end ones, let alone them.

What was the most fearsome about the Zeus Puppets wasn't just their ability to adapt, but the fact they were capable of fighting above their tier level.

They were able to read and react to the world so well that B-tier Zeus Puppets often defeated A-tier ones, and despite the unfathomable gap, A-tier ones often defeated S-tier ones.

At the same level, they were invincible. Even at a tier, sometimes even two below, they were truly strong.

Sylas was already just an E-tier to begin with, how could he—.

Alpine completely froze. "… He is an E-tier…"

In everything happening, this was completely lost in the shuffle. Even the strength Sylas was exhibiting now was unfathomable to them.

It was almost impossible to sense properly what was happening on the stairs. Alpine believed that it was probably a form of protection. If it was too easy to sense exactly what was happening on the stairs, then the vice versa would also be true and the puppet would be able to extend its scope to sense them as well.

At that point, no one would survive.

But because of that, it had been too easy to forget this most obvious truth…

Sylas was already doing the impossible.

What level of talent did it take to be an E-tier who could crush C-tiers?

He was already the level of freak the Zeus Puppets were.

No, he was far worse.

Because he was crushing even them.

And every battle he went through, he improved further.

Sylas' Will became like wiry tendrils, wrapping around his body as though to mimic tendons, and then muscle, and then flesh.

His laughter filled the skies as he smashed through another puppet, his roar manifesting in waves of manifested Will that crushed everything in its path.

At some unknown point…

He actually stepped onto the last stair.