Genetic Ascension

Chapter 2238: Doubt

Sylas just stood there, listening to Vaelith speak, and thinking that she was speaking far too much… again.

But when he looked past her toward the golden walls, he saw something oddly interesting. This room blocked their sight from going on, but didn't stop others from looking in.

Had she spoken those words purposely, knowing others would hear? Probably not. Considering her disposition, if she wanted to make trouble for him, she would do it herself.

She was speaking simply because she was annoyed by his earlier reaction. But regardless of the reason, there was no doubt that she had made his life several times more difficult now.

What did it matter, though?

He turned his attention away from the wall and just calmly met her gaze, his expression so unreadable one would have thought he was deaf.

The air between them shimmered, the form of a woman in deep slumber descending. It took her a long while before her eyes fluttered open, the illusory form she took shimmering somehow brighter than even the golden wall.

She descended, landing on the ground gently.

Her gaze landed on Vaelith first, and her expressionless visage deepened into a smile. However, before she could speak, her lagging senses seemed to catch wind that Vaelith wasn't the only one here.

Her head tilted to the side in confusion and she turned to face Sylas. She blinked, looking at Sylas up and down, then she frowned and tilted her head to the other side.

"Is this body your own?" she asked.

Sylas stared at the woman. She had an innocent beauty to her that belied her true age. This was a woman that must have seen countless eras, countless wars, countless hardship. And yet she carried with her the innocence of a child.

"It is." Sylas said.

"Is that so…" her voice trailed off almost as though she didn't believe Sylas.

Unlike Vaelith, she couldn't just tell that Sylas' Will was powerful, she could feel its level.

True Infinite Will as a D-tier?

Impossible.

It was more likely that someone had snatched the body of a youth and then come here.

Funny enough, that had almost happened in Sylas' presence once before. But that was an attempt to take over Gogo's body, not his own.

Either way, the innocent seemed to feel far more of a pull toward Vaelith. Vaelith understood her path. A powerful Will wasn't enough to take on her Rune Path, you needed exceptional Will control, and Sylas' was far too wild.

Ironically enough, because Sylas' Will was so powerful in such a weak body, unless he had Charisma capable of matching it, he could never control so much Will.

Giving him her inheritance would be like handing a power tool to a child.

Unfortunately, she was bound to the laws of the tower and couldn't break them as she saw fit. How long had it been since she last awakened? It must be quite desperate for the Creation of Key for it to go so far… In that case, she could only allow Sylas and Vaelith to fight for it in fair combat. And by that… she meant through their comprehension abilities.

"I will give you both three tests. So long as there is a winner for each one, the first to two victories will be granted my inheritance. Your first test will begin now."

She waved a hand and a square appeared in front of the both of them.

Quickly, this square was filled in with an array of colors that painted a gorgeous landscape. It was a process that took a full three hours to complete, every meticulous stroke adding to the realism until it felt like less of a painting and more like one could step through the square into a completely new world.

Yet, the strokes of the brush weren't slow nor calm. It felt like it moved at the speed of light itself, arching, curving, twisting with a naked sort of abandon.

The motions felt no less natural than the painting, and yet it never did anything more than a single sweep every time, and never did it cross more than a millimeter across the canvas.

And the instant the last stroke concluded…

The enormous square fell and then shattered to pieces, vanishing into motes of light.

Soon, a new square formed in its place and a brush appeared to hover before both Sylas and Vaelith.

"Your task is to replicate the painting. The time you take is irrelevant in this test. Only accuracy will be taken into account. However, there is a 24 hour time limit. Should both of you take longer than this, accuracy will be measured on a percentage basis."

Sylas reached forward and took the brush. He looked at it for a moment.

He didn't need to look up to know that Vaelith had already begun.

It was an interesting feeling to be looked down upon. Usually, Sylas didn't really feel it because the idea of someone being better than him was patently ridiculous.

Vaelith, though, at least in the present, might legitimately be.

But what was particularly amusing about this test was that this had nothing to do with Rune Mastery, what Vaelith might have actually had a chance at.

This woman, whatever her name and title was, was looking for someone with compatibility with her inheritance. The thing was that Sylas didn't really have interest in taking on someone else's mantle, he just wanted to learn what he could learn from it to reforge his own.

But if all she wanted to do was test spatial awareness… she was going to be very, very disappointed.

Sylas was the child with a sense of geometry so strong he deduced the map of the Mountains of Giza from a paper of scribbles.

When it came to visual acuity, understanding of space and its relation to itself, or anything even tangentially related, Sylas' talent for it was simply off the scale. It couldn't be measured.

So much so that Legacy itself relied on a child to solve a mystery they couldn't themselves.

What sort of test could this possibly be for him?

Sylas grabbed the end of the brush with a fist and ripped all the fine hairs out.