Genetic Ascension

Chapter 2302: Drained

Orokhun arrived in a place surrounded by fog in the far-off distance. But where he stood, there was a grand city that left him shell-shocked. Was that… a Legendary City? He could feel the aura radiating off of it in waves.

That was the first thing he noticed. The second thing he noticed was that his Will was still in chains. He had been completely subdued, and he couldn't believe it. He had spent his life fighting back against those that wanted to hold him down, only for this to happen.

He came up off the ground, his tail flexing and his head raising up high.

"I'll tear the—"

His lip twitched, his words coming to a sudden stop.

Roughly forty meters to his left, a serpent the color of polished grey slate had been twisted into a pretzel.

A pretzel… literally.

His body was pulled into loops, his tail pulled through them and his head resting at the top like a neat little bow. What was maybe just as odd were the coffins neatly stacked to the side as though someone was keeping them safe for him.

Orokhun knew that face. He had a history with that face, a rivalry even. Was it a rivalry he lost every time? Sure. But it was a rivalry in his head nonetheless, and he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"...Sarethvane?"

"Don't."

"What did—"

"Don't." Sarethvane said again.

Dry Mouth's lips trembled, and he looked up at the being hovering over Sarethvane.

It was a snake, a Serpentes just like them. That much was certain enough, but it wasn't made of scale or flesh. It was formed of Runes and space, thousands of them, sliding over and through one another in the shape of a body. But somehow he felt so very substantial and real nonetheless.

He oddly wore a pair of glasses, and he was reading a book half the size of a city.

Orokhun's mouth twitched again.

The glasses tipped down. Two eyes came over the top of them and settled on him, unhurried. Yamero didn't say anything. He looked at Orokhun, and then he looked at the pretzel he was sitting on, and then he looked back at Orokhun.

Orokhun's jaw set. The threat was implicit and didn't need to be repeated.

But he had killed the strongest of the Vah. He had left a mountain of corpses in his wake just to avenge his brother. He had murdered an entire planet with his breath just for a chance to grasp Gentrixaul's opportunity. He wouldn't just— Something golden touched the back of his neck.

He turned very slowly, only to realize that nothing was touching him at all. Instead, that gaze was just that heavy.

There was a mound of black scales reclining across the far end of the realm, one enormous head propped on a coil of body, watching him with two eyes that seemed barely open and languid in their laziness.

Orokhun was large. He was among the largest of the Vah in a hundred generations, and he had never once in his life had to look up at another Serpentes around his strength level.

He could have sworn that a moment ago, that shape had been a mountain range on the horizon. In fact, that mountain was one he had planned to raze to the ground in his rampage.

When had it become a—

His bloodline ran cold.

It went past his scales and into his marrow, into the bestial, ancestral part of him that was moments from prostrating on the ground in a way it hadn't even in front of Gentrixaul.

That was almost certainly because Gentrixaul hadn't been present in anything more than a sliver of a Will, but the truth was before them nonetheless.

He had smelled old blood before, in dungeons, some ancient inheritances, some he had entered, some he was too smart to. But nothing so perfect, nothing so up close, nothing so near and so very true… Behave.

The word wasn't spoken, it was implied just like Yamero's threat had been, but it was very much real.

Orokhun gulped.

He turned back around, cleared his throat, and arranged his face into the warmest smile he could manage with a snake's face.

"Dearest elder," he said to the snake with the glasses, "do you need your feet rubbed?"

Yamero looked at him.

They were Serpentes.

They didn't have feet.

"Don't," Sarethvane said, from underneath.

He sounded like a broken record. Or maybe just a broken Serpentes.

**

Sylas continued his killing spree.

They weren't weak, at least not compared to C-tiers. That wasn't it. But every last one of them was a C-tier Demi-God nonetheless. That was the cap of the Quicktime Event.

Not one of them had come close to threatening his life. Not one had made him consider the possibility.

What was going on? Did Gentrixaul truly believe a Sector's worth of C-tiers would be enough? Could a God be so stupid? Or did he just not understand the sort of enemy he had made for himself?

Or had the killing never been the point at all? Was there another person? Did he have a master plan?

Sylas turned his scythe once in his hand.

He had been walking instead of using Beacon precisely because he was waiting to see who else would move. He had assumed it would be a person. A Clan, a Race, someone or something looking for a God's favor, or maybe someone just trying to get revenge on him.

But nothing came.

Then, as though to answer his thoughts, the Heavens shook.

It came from everywhere at once, a low grinding weight that pressed down through the void and made the light of distant stars stretch, almost as though the compression was pushing them further away.

Then, over it, high and bright and endless, the sound of glass shattering echoed in sheet after sheet, running out across the sky in every direction.

—

[Quicktime Event Triggered]

[Heavens Clash]

[Level Recommended: ???]

[Description: Since the first Heavens were first raised, a race of comprehension has been their calling. The Beast Heaven has always answered with Constitution as their champion, tempering flesh until the world itself breaks upon it. The Skai Heaven has always answered with Will, forging a self so complete that flesh becomes an afterthought. Two answers. One sky. Only one may keep its Karma.] [Event Type: Domination]

[Clear Requirements]

[Whichever Heaven holds the superior kill count at the close of one month shall receive plentiful rewards] [Whichever Heaven falls short shall have its Karma crippled by the victor]