Genetic Ascension

Chapter 2235: Prideful

Sylas had only seen the barest beginnings of the Rune's creation. No, he could barely call it that. He had seen a call of just three Strokes and then it was over.

It was like he had only basically watched the Will Priming alone, and then Vaelith had taken the victory. Let alone using brute force to gain victory, that option wasn't even presented to him.

Granted, Sylas had just decided not to use that method, but it seemed that it was naive of him to even consider it possible.

"It seems that the tower thinks very highly of you. To choose me as your challenger, and to even make the foundation of the duel the very Rune Path that I've been studying for so many years…"

Vaelith's eyes lit with curiosity as she looked at Sylas. As interested as she was before, she was even more so now, almost like she had been still looking through Sylas before, but now she actually was looking at him.

She noticed that Sylas was actually a bit handsome. It was amusing it had taken her so long to notice, but she couldn't remember the last time she cared about the actual appearance of people.

Usually she just saw in blobs of Will and only cared to pay attention enough if the Will was large enough.

While her normal two eyes were open, they might as well be blind. She stared at everything through the slit of her Skai Eye.

Even though she realized this, though, it didn't really change anything about how she saw things. She was more interested in Sylas because of the movements of the tower, not because of anything he had done himself.

If there was anything to be impressed about in regard to Sylas, it was that he seemed to have made it so far despite having such a poor foundation.

That said… she wasn't quite sure yet if that was because his background was so poor or if it was because he was lazy.

As far as she could tell, Sylas was actually quite powerful in bloodline. So, logically, his family should also be powerful. All signs pointed toward laziness, then, and no matter how handsome a man was, she wouldn't be able to see him as anything other than ugly if such a thing was true of him.

But… she could feel Sylas' Will. He was extremely arrogant, but not the sort of "tear your nose away to spite the face" sort of way. It was hard to describe, but his Pride just felt so… pure.

It was definitely annoying to the wrong person, but it was predictable, direct, and repeatable.

The answer was on the tip of Vaelith's tongue, but she couldn't seem to make the final leap as though something was stopping her from doing so.

But what remained the truth were the questions…

Sylas also happened to be from a family that she didn't recognize. Could he be from one of the other Heavens? There were a slowly increasing and troubling number of them.

But if he came from a powerful family of another Heaven, she would still recognize it for the most part.

How could she not know an A-tier Demi-God Family?

Vaelith only became more and more interested the more she thought about it.

And for that matter, for such a prideful man, Sylas didn't show a great reaction to losing either. His Will hardly fluctuated.

That said… he also didn't reply to her, something that Vaelith wasn't very used to. He was so lost in his own thoughts he wasn't paying attention to her at all.

"I can give you the name of the Rune Path if you would like. It should help." She said softly.

Sylas only shook his head but didn't even look up from his thoughts.

The name of a Rune Path carried its Will. It would, indeed, help with understanding. But, Sylas didn't want or need such help.

His mind was replaying the few Strokes there were over and over again, slowly slowing everything down until it was little more than a crawl.

"Time manipulation won't be very effective around me," Vaelith said in the very same gentle tone. "My Elyssadra Clan has the ability to see the future. As much as you slow it down, I can speed it up."

These words made Sylas look up. Not because of the name of the family, or even because of the ability, but because Vaelith was somehow able to tell what was going on in his own head.

Time Dilation shouldn't affect the world at all. In fact, all it did was speed up Sylas' own processing speed for the most part. It used time to do it, but it was self-contained within his body.

How could she tell what was happening in his own head?

Was her sensitivity to frame of references that high?

Sylas didn't reply, turning around and directly leaving.

Vaelith blinked.

Giving up?

She frowned, looking at Sylas' back. It didn't feel like he was giving up at all. He was…

Her eyes widened as she understood. She had said too much.

"This man… is that really possible?"

Somehow, as unlikely as it was, Vaelith was so very certain that that was the answer.

Sylas hadn't known what her family's ability was before. Maybe he only knew that she was of the Thryskai and not exactly which Clan she originated from in the first place.

But, it didn't take a genius to realize that if Vaelith was studying a Path, it existed for the sake of helping her. And if she felt it could help her, then the odds that it was related to a Gene she had, or a special bloodline ability, was exceptionally high.

That was all to say that because Vaelith had explained her Thryskai Clan's abilities, Sylas had deduced the Rune Path she was studying through the few Strokes he saw, and as a result of that, he felt there was no point in continuing.

Vaelith was left speechless. This was already a Rune Path she had been studying. Sylas felt that just understanding it a little bit made the challenge worthless?

How prideful did a man have to be to make such a choice?

Was he not aware of what he was giving up by abandoning the tower's exam like this?