Genetic Ascension

Chapter 2350 Shift

At that very instant, the bridge stabilized.

Those already fighting across it reacted first, many of them stumbling or snapping their attention downward as the violent tremors beneath their feet suddenly disappeared. For one brief moment, a large portion of the battlefield thought the entire structure was collapsing, only for the opposite to happen as fractured sections fused together, warped stretches straightened, and the unstable void surrounding it settled into a smooth, perfected path.

Very few understood what had happened, and fewer still thought to look toward the distant figure hanging high above them like little more than a dot against the starry skies. Sylas didn't give them much time to wonder, though, because one of his hands remained tucked into his pocket while the other lifted, his index finger pointing downward.

Then he pressed.

An enormous finger of reflective emerald formed above the battlefield.

Normally, a manifestation of Will like this would have been translucent, something half-there and half-imagined, but Sylas' Will had grown so dense that the finger looked almost physical. Every crease, joint, and contour carried weight, and if not for the impossible emerald color and the Runes swimming faintly beneath its surface, one might have mistaken it for the hand of some colossal existence reaching down from above.

BOOM.

The bridge barely swayed beneath the impact.

That stability only made the result worse for the army of Serpentes caught underneath it, because there was nowhere for the force to escape and nothing beneath them to give way. Hundreds vanished beneath a single press, not even blood or fragments of flesh remaining behind, as though they had simply been erased from the bridge entirely.

Countless gazes snapped upward.

Sylas didn't seem to notice.

His finger rose again, another emerald manifestation gathering above a different section of the battlefield before descending under the same casual motion. He raised it once more after that, pressed again, and continued with the same steady rhythm as though he were tapping insects from a table rather than slaughtering the finest young warriors of another Heaven.

Every time he moved, Serpentes died by the hundreds.

Simply appearing on this battlefield required confidence that bordered on arrogance, because the incomplete bridge and the void surrounding it had already eliminated the weak before the fighting even began.

Those who weren't genuinely among the best of their generation were often stronger existences exploiting loopholes in the Heaven System, which meant that even the cheaters standing here were monsters compared to ordinary members of their tiers.

Sylas treated all of them the same.

C-tier geniuses, restrained B-tiers, hidden A-tiers, superior bloodlines and ancient foundations all disappeared beneath those fingers without distinction. From where Sylas stood, there seemed to be very little difference between them and the ants he had once crushed on lower Planes.

Most of the Beast Heaven didn't recognize his face. Neither did most of the Skai Heaven.

Yet when Sylas' Will continued blooming across the battlefield, forming emerald fingers that pressed down again and again, something strange happened. His name seemed to emerge from the pressure itself, not spoken through sound, but whispered directly into the understanding of every Will that came into contact with his own.

Grimblade.

Eyes widened across both sides.

This was him.

The man who had triggered the Heavens Clash, the existence whose actions had somehow drawn down the anger of a God strongly enough to place the Karma of an entire Heaven on the line. What none of them could understand was how Sylas' Will had become so powerful that his name could be felt from its presence alone.

Vaelith was usually the center of attention wherever she went, so accustomed to eyes turning toward her that she rarely acknowledged it anymore. Right now, she was too stunned to realize that almost no one was looking at her despite the fact she stood only a short distance from Sylas. Her golden third eye remained open as she watched another emerald finger descend, her thoughts struggling to keep pace with what she was witnessing.

BOOM.

Another section of Beast Heaven warriors disappeared.

Then another.

And another.

The shift in Karma became noticeable almost immediately, an invisible current moving through the battlefield as Beast Heaven deaths accumulated far faster than anyone had expected possible. Momentum gathered around Sylas with every strike, but the response felt far too immediate for the number of lives he had taken, especially considering the sheer scale of the Heavens Clash.

'He's so strong...'

Dry Mouth, Sarethvane, and Iskaleth had the same thought at the same time.

All three had fought Sylas in their own ways, and those encounters had left them with the impression that although he was stronger, the distance wasn't so impossible that it couldn't someday be crossed. Watching him now made that belief feel embarrassing, because not once during the Quicktime Event where they met had Sylas ever truly been in danger.

C-tiers simply couldn't threaten him.

The stranger question was why Sylas alone was shifting the Karma of the battle so strongly.

He had killed thousands, but this was a war between Heavens, with trillions upon trillions of C-tiers theoretically available to participate. Serpentes dominated the battlefield right now, but the Beast Heaven contained countless other Beast Races, many of which had simply chosen not to stick their necks out over Gentrixaul's rage.

If the balance truly began shifting against them, those Races would eventually intervene. Why would they allow their Heaven's Karma to be crippled because of the hatred of one Serpentes God?

The system should have understood that. The universe should have understood it as well.

And yet the pressure continued gathering around Sylas, the shift becoming stronger with every emerald finger that descended from above.

It was almost as though Sylas was forcing the universe to crown him.

He had made his presence known, and now the Beast Heaven was being given a choice. If they didn't want their Karma permanently crippled, then they needed to send far more than this, because at the current pace there was no reason for the Heavens Clash to last anywhere near a month.

As for why, it was only because Sylas Grimblade had arrived in his own timely fashion.

Roars began filling the battlefield.

Far in the distance, silver scales reflected polished pink, starry blue, and soft lavender as a translucent pair of koi-like wings slowed in the air. Selythra Mesmeryx turned her head toward the source of the shifting Karma, her wandering attention finally sharpening.

"Found him..."