Genetic Ascension

Chapter 2109: The Hollow...

Sylas' eyes narrowed.

If Fanelei had Infinite Will, this would be a lot easier. But she didn't. She didn't even have Fragmented Infinite Will. Instead, she had Enlightened Will.

It was quite powerful, especially on a Legend, but it was too far shy of Sylas' own. The pain of stretching out a non-Infinite Will like this was truly terrible.

If she didn't have more than one, she would truly be killing herself right now. And honestly, Sylas wasn't convinced that that wasn't exactly what was happening.

But it gave him an idea as well. He dismissed it, shaking his head.

'Not necessary. I can already perfectly control my own Genes, there is no need to stretch out my own Will like this. This is a method that will work perfectly for Analei and Analei alone.'

Sylas didn't seem to realize just how ridiculous it was that he had even come up with such an idea. The power of a Rune Creator was unfathomable, but the power of a Rune Creator who truly understood Will Manifestation and had studied many corpses by now was even more so.

The idea didn't come to Sylas because he had deduced it or even thought very deeply about it. It came from an intuition that only experts had when they had been around a topic enough.

He felt that it could work because his mind told him it likely could. Then he retroactively performed the necessary calculations.

And now that he was watching it in real time, he knew that he was right.

As Fanelei stretched the soul of her first life thin, the Foundations it was tied to began to open up and Sylas could sense more and more of her with greater clarity.

Sylas stopped thinking abstractly and began to truly comprehend Fanelei's Path.

The more Sylas focused, the more he could see it.

"The Hollow…" he whispered.

Fanelei shook, but this time for a very different reason. It was like she was hearing a name she had always known but hadn't put into words until this moment.

This was the name of the Path she followed in her first life, and it was one of the ones she was proudest of because of the courage it took to execute.

She had cut herself off from her Genes, her Talent, and even used much of what Will remained to suppress the remaining characteristics of her Analei Race.

It obviously still existed because after she died, she managed to revive.

She starved herself in that life. She ate no meat, no vegetables. She had nothing but water and Aether from the moment she was old enough to make her decision.

She trained herself through Deprivation, making her body needy, greedy for more, and yet not giving it.

In that life, she hadn't managed to make it all the way to the A-tier, but she was close, reaching the B-tier ultimately before she died in a Dungeon trying and failing to save her husband.

That life, she had had nothing but that love alone. She had no talent, no weapons, she used no treasures at all. She fed on nothing but power and had felt true deprivation.

But sometimes she wondered if that love was her mistake. If she had never experienced it, maybe she would have gone further, and maybe she would have never experienced pain at all… The memories seemed to give Fanelei a boost. She took hold of her second life's soul and yanked as hard as she could, another roar leaving her.

"The Drain…" Sylas said absentmindedly.

Fanelei shook again.

In this life, she was the opposite. She was a parasite in the purest sense of the word. She took from everything she came across, ripping them to pieces, shredding them to pieces and taking them for herself.

But this wasn't an ability drain, she took what she could, distilling it into energy, just to feed herself. What she lacked in the first life, she took. And this time, rather than suppressing her bloodline, she leaned into it.

It was almost an oxymoron. The Analei weren't supposed to have a path, they could do anything, become anything, living seven lives to experience all they could.

But that was exactly what Fanelei had distilled down to its very essence…

That greed… that Gluttony… that insatiable desire to experience everything and have everything.

She blurred the lines between the two Sins and leaned into the latter, wanting for everything and demanding everything.

In this life… she managed to become a Legend.

Fanelei screamed as she pulled on her third soul. It felt like she was encroaching closer to death, every painful tug leaving less and less of her Foundation.

She had never realized until now just how much her Foundation was simply her Will and soul itself.

"The Vessel…" Sylas whispered.

In this life, she had taken The Drain a step further. She didn't just take energy, she took Genes, she took Bloodlines, she shredded them apart, taking what she wanted for herself and leaving behind what she didn't care for.

Fanelei screamed.

"The Convert…"

In this life, she didn't just take bits and pieces, she took and forced them to conform, morphing and twisting things until what didn't quite fit was forced to.

Fanelei screamed.

"The Mirror…"

In this life, she took metaphysically. She used her Will as a scry, copying, reflecting, and taking without physically doing so. She honed what she already had, becoming more efficient, sharper, stronger.

Fanelei shuddered, her throat too torn apart even to scream any longer.

"The Tyrant…"

This life, Fanelei took the Madness Key for herself. She was ready to take it all, she felt like she had a stronger comprehension of Gluttony than anyone else.

Unfortunately for her… her path had become too muddied by Greed and the pain of loss that came with it.

Her husband. Gone.

Her children. Gone.

Many of her grandchildren. Gone.

She could never truly sink into Gluttony because the things she wanted most…

She couldn't have.

In her third life, she reached the B-tier. In her fourth, she became a Legend. In her fifth, she reached the B-tier once again.

In her sixth, she barely managed to reach the pinnacle of the C-tier before she lost her life.