Genetic Ascension

Chapter 2244: First Place

Wrenlow felt his face deform, his cheek crack and split beneath the pressure. The power behind the fist was more substantial than any he had felt. It wasn't necessarily strength, but it was almost like… it would become exactly as powerful as it needed to be to bring him to his knees.

It felt like he was trapped in a race against someone at a leisurely pace. Every time he thought he could push the pace by them, they would just calmly hit another gear as though they had an endless reserve to pull from.

It was a heavy sort of oppression that he couldn't even begin to describe, and somehow, because of it, the fraction of an instant where knuckles met his face was extended into long seconds.

BANG.

He crashed heavily to the ground.

Sylas rose in the skies, blood leaking out of his belly, but his eyes blazing with crackling emerald.

He didn't even follow up with the pink haired man, he didn't care about Wrenlow in the slightest. He could tell that Wrenlow seemed to have a problem with him for another reason.

Whatever that reason was, Sylas didn't care at all. Whether it was just because he had harmed Kaeloth, or something else, it didn't matter.

Kaeloth ripped free of Sylas' Will during the latter's distraction. He stood, a bit shaken and disheveled. However, just as he was about to attack—.

"Stop."

The pair of voices were eerily calm, so much so that Kaeloth thought of simply directly ignoring them. But for some reason, when his body made a move to act, he was anchored back down in place.

It wasn't a power landing on him, oddly enough. It was more like the instincts buried deep within him felt fear that his conscious mind couldn't even register.

His face paled and he looked up to find that there were two old men walking across the skies. When he felt the aura of their robes, his face paled even further.

That… those were A-tier Rune Creators.

Kaeloth had never even seen one in person. He didn't even know they existed.

He didn't understand why such a being would even appear now? Were his senses fooling him?

Sylas looked at their robes calmly, and then up to their faces. These two were, unsurprisingly, Oura and Tera, but Sylas had never seen them before.

What he more so wanted to know was why he was interfering. They were Heaven and Hell Creators respectively. He didn't have any relationship with them, and since he was a Fathomless Rune Creator, there was no reason for them to care about him either.

There was presumably good reason the tower divided people up as it did.

Almost as though on cue for his thoughts, a small bronze cube descended from the skies.

Oura and Tera paused, and then even smiled as they turned all their attention toward Sylas. That box would only appear for one reason.

The tower was granting someone a ranking.

And if the tower was granting Sylas a ranking now, it couldn't possibly be a coincidence. He should be the one with the Creation of Key. He should be the very one that Shah had tried to scry and failed.

This must mean that Sylas had only just finished his exam.

The cube stopped before Sylas' face and then unfurled, until flashing echoes of a light stopped to reveal a robe.

Swirling currents danced all over its surface, but the color… it carried an edging to it that shouldn't have been there.

The hems and the edges of the sleeves were embroidered in a rosy sort of gold that shimmered just a bit brighter than copper.

The eyes of the two old men narrowed.

Sylas grabbed the robe out of the skies, looked at it, and then stored it. He had no desire to wear it. He had his own style.

"Young one, might I see that robe more closely?" Old Man Tera asked with a slight smile.

Sylas looked at the man for a moment. Then, said something surprising.

"I would prefer not to."

Tera's gaze flickered. He didn't expect that response. No one did, for that matter.

It was quite shocking for someone as weak as Sylas to make that sort of choice in this situation.

Oura chuckled before Tera could think of a response.

"The youth today are truly bold. You were like that in your younger days too, now weren't you, Tera? Be kind to the boy in your response."

"Do I look so petty? The robes aren't mine. If you ask a question with a yes or no answer, you should expect the possibility of a no in response." Tera chuckled himself.

"How mature of you. I hope I won't find the boy in a back alley dead somewhere, then."

Tera glared at Oura. "I'm not so arrogant," he turned back to Sylas, "killing has always been impossible in the Creation World."

"Then I hope I won't find him basically crippled in a back alley, then."

Tera shook his head, giving up on speaking with Oura. The two chatted like a true pair of old men without a care in the world.

"I, for one, am far less interested in the robes, and far more interested in the badge you used just now," Oura continued. "Will you show us that?"

"No." Sylas replied just as simply.

Oura chuckled as though he expected this response as well.

"Karma, I've heard she's lovely," Tera said with a smile. "But, I too, am more interested in that badge. Would you say no thrice in a row?"

"Yes." Sylas said just as indifferently.

The two old men laughed uproariously. They seemed to really be cracking up, their amusement filling the air in spades.

"I'm not sure what's so amusing." Sylas continued just as calmly. "I wonder if the tower would take kindly to a pair of B-tier Rune Creators pretending to be A-tier ones."

The old men abruptly stopped laughing.

"Or maybe it would kill you for the fact you're not supposed to be here in the first place first?"