Genetic Ascension

Chapter 2160: Watch

Gogo slithered onto the ground, raising his head up high as they followed into the dark palace. A flourishing of torchlight lit the surroundings, a rush of wind following every torch light.

WHOOSH. WHOOSH. WHOOSH.

A long hallway opened up before them, an occurrence that could only be said to be odd. Usually, after such a grand entrance, there would be a grand sight to behold. Maybe a wide set of double stairs, maybe a chandelier hanging from the ceiling formed of metric tons of glass and lights, maybe a view to a throne room and royalty.

But there was none of that here. There was simply a long hallway lined with torches that illuminated things faintly.

BOOM.

And when they finished crossing the threshold, the heavy doors slammed behind them.

The Duchess flinched and then her embarrassment became worse. As low as her head had been before, she lowered it even further, wanting to find a hole to bury herself in.

Sylas gave her a glance, but didn't say anything.

This version of the Duchess was truly much less mature. Despite being separated into striated versions of herself, the F-, E-, and D-tier versions of the Duchess, as well as all the others, had still had a more elevated sort of calm to them. Despite the memories she had experienced during her life being mostly suppressed, she still retained the grit that came with them.

This version of the Duchess hadn't experienced any of those things yet, and presumably had been protected by her father and brother all the way to this point.

This was definitely a bit odd. From what Sylas understood about Demon culture, there was no such soft edge to them. But clearly, for whatever reason, the Duchess was an exception and didn't know how to face the world properly.

Her power had just grown exponentially, but she could barely display a fraction of it. The only reason Sylas had said she could beat someone with half her raw strength was because most people didn't have the skill he had.

In reality, if it was a decent genius, they could probably beat her with a tenth the raw strength. As for Sylas, he felt like even if he had a hundredth of her raw strength it would be quite easy to defeat her.

Right about now, that wasn't too far from the truth, and their battle had ended quite handily in his favor.

A Sanguara with their True Blood awakened was a real force to be reckoned with, but the Duchess had to be partially knocked out for her to put any sort of fight up against him. She had a lot to learn before she became the woman he knew.

But the problem was she wasn't a child. From what he could tell after being around her a while, she had probably experienced at least 50 to 60 years of life or so.

She had to grow up.

If this was the future, Sylas wouldn't care. He would be there.

But soon, he would have to leave this place to return to the future. Meaning, between now and then, she would be on her own. She couldn't be this weak then.

However, Sylas also couldn't risk his placement in the Split Realm to train her up either.

'Then let's do it that way.'

Sylas put his scythe away.

"Gogo. Just watch for now."

Gogo looked toward Sylas, flashed a hint of disappointment, but then nodded.

Sylas took the Duchess' waist, catching her off guard. She squealed a bit and was about to fight back before Sylas appeared on Gogo's head, left her there, and then returned to the ground.

"Focus on your senses and learn from what I do." Sylas said. "You're free to unearth your own interpretations from it, or use it to commune with and understand your bloodline more."

The Duchess blinked in confusion, but Sylas had already shot forward.

The torches blinked and suddenly a monk appeared before them. Well, if a monkey could be a monk, that is.

This golden monkey carried a staff with a bulbous head and rings of gold clattering around. Every echo sent a pulse into the surroundings as though some form of sonar.

The flames reflected milky white eyes. It seemed it was blind, thus the sonar.

But that blindness didn't seem to affect the monkey at all.

Its staff shot at Sylas' head, its jingle changing mid-strike. A concussive blow landed on Sylas, his senses shifting and becoming disoriented beneath the waves of sound.

Sylas' Will broke past it, divying the blow amongst countless branching paths. The world that had snapped out of focus for him snapped back into it. He seamlessly dodged the swinging staff, side-stepping and erupting with a punch at the monkey's liver.

He leapt back lightly, dodging a follow-up attack and giving the swinging staff a quick jab.

The monkey had already been trying to slow it down, but Sylas' input sent it sailing over its target, not to mention throwing off the unique resonance of the chime it tried to time.

Sylas took a step forward and kicked at the monkey's inside thigh.

Its knee buckled as Sylas pulled his leg back and stepped forward with the other, hooking his foot around the golden monkey's ankle and elbowing at its chest and head at the same time.

The monkey's head spun to one side as it tumbled back, the back of its skull slamming into the marbled ground.

Sylas raised a foot and stomped a heel down, squelching its head into a meaty paste.

Calmly, he reached down and picked up the staff, looking at it for a moment and then jingling it. After understanding something, he tossed it to the side and looked up toward the Duchess who was in a complete daze.

This time, her daze wasn't due to shock. A line of telekinetic Will linked them.

Every shift in martial form Sylas made was reflected in her twitching muscles. The difference was that her nerves didn't fire completely.

He was going to fast-track her training by controlling her muscle memory, something he could do quite easily thanks to the fact his Will was already in her body as her husband.

'Next.'

If he wanted to be first, he was going to have to kick it up a notch.

Sylas shot forward.