Genetic Ascension

Chapter 2383: Her Job [Bonus]

[Bonus thanks to Chronotitan <3]

Nosphaleen watched the rainbow-colored clouds gather around the risen Beast Emperor Sanctum for several breaths before turning toward Sylas. The pressure rolling off the mountain range had changed again, becoming strangely orderly despite the chaos surrounding it, and she could feel enough of the shift to understand that whatever came next was about to begin.

Her fingers tightened around Sylas’ arm before she looked up at him.

"I want to go."

Sylas turned his gaze toward her and slowly shook his head. "Not this time."

Nosphaleen frowned and tugged on his arm, the motion carrying more pleading than she would have admitted aloud. She had only just gotten him back, only just been allowed to stand beside him again without that oppressive fog hanging over her mind, and the idea of immediately being left behind sat poorly with her.

Sylas didn’t react to the tug, his attention already returning to the distant mountain range.

The Beast Emperor Sanctum had become almost difficult to look at directly, its peaks hidden beneath layers of rainbow clouds that pulsed in time with the Will spreading outward from within.

Sylas followed those invisible currents with his eyes, watching how they gathered, separated, and bent toward several distant points before finally speaking. "This won’t be a free-for-all."

Nosphaleen’s grip loosened slightly.

"The Will here is only being pulled in a few directions, and I can feel exactly five of them." Sylas’ gaze remained fixed on the Sanctum while the currents shifted again, confirming what he had already understood. "If you go in, you’ll either be swept toward one of the other four, or you’ll be pulled into mine, and right now I want to go alone."

Nosphaleen pursed her lips, though there wasn’t much left to argue against after hearing that. More importantly, she had already suspected this would happen from the moment Sylas smiled earlier.

She sighed and finally released his hand, forcing herself to accept what she had already known.

Vaelith watched the exchange from the side with a thoughtful expression, but her attention had shifted more toward Sylas than Nosphaleen. The confidence in his words bothered her in a way she couldn’t quite explain, not due to arrogance, but due to how matter-of-factly he spoke about things that even the elders of her Clan would hesitate to declare with certainty.

Sylas sounded as though he could see the future itself, yet Fate wasn’t something one simply stared through whenever they felt like it.

What Vaelith didn’t understand was that Sylas had no interest in reading Fate at all. He was simply calling things as he felt them.

His perception of Will had changed too much recently for the old boundaries to matter in the same way, and what seemed mysterious to Vaelith looked almost embarrassingly obvious from Sylas’ perspective.

The five directions weren’t predictions, nor were they some hazy possibility hidden inside a stream of Fate, they were simply the strongest flows of Will present around the Sanctum right now.

Sylas handed control of the Hollow Ship over to Nosphaleen without further explanation, and she accepted it with another reluctant sigh. He stepped toward the edge of the vessel, but before he could leave, Yamero appeared beside him with an expression that suggested he had already decided he was coming.

Sylas glanced at him once and said nothing. This matter was closely tied to Yamero in ways neither of them could ignore. The battlefield they were about to enter was the latter’s home.

Space folded around them, and the two disappeared.

For several seconds, only Nosphaleen and Vaelith remained standing near the front of the Hollow Ship, surrounded by the low hum of formations and the distant pulse of rainbow Will. Nosphaleen kept her attention on the place Sylas had vanished from until she eventually felt someone looking at her, and when she turned, she found Vaelith wearing an almost irritatingly pleasant smile.

Nosphaleen’s expression remained unchanged.

Vaelith chuckled.

"You know what’s interesting?" She leaned lightly against the railing while studying Nosphaleen without any attempt to hide it. "You’d think a man like Sylas would have very famous beauties around him, but somehow I’ve never heard of you."

Nosphaleen looked at her for a moment before answering. "Probably for the same reason I’ve never heard of you."

Vaelith laughed, genuinely amused this time. "Touché."

The smile remained on her face as she turned her gaze back toward the Beast Emperor Sanctum, though there was something more pointed hidden beneath it now. "Still, the moment men get a second, they start thinking they can have a million."

Nosphaleen frowned.

She wasn’t sure why Vaelith had suddenly started speaking as though she belonged in the same category, especially when it was obvious with a glance that Sylas hadn’t chosen her.

Nosphaleen knew Sylas far too well to mistake simple proximity for affection, and whatever relationship existed between the two of them wasn’t remotely the same thing as what she had with him.

Vaelith caught the look and waved one hand. "Oh, I’m not talking about me."

Nosphaleen’s frown eased only slightly.

"But I’m sure you’ll see who I’m talking about soon enough." Vaelith’s smile widened in a way Nosphaleen immediately disliked. "Actually, I’m pretty sure there are two."

Nosphaleen’s gaze sharpened.

Vaelith looked as though she was enjoying herself far too much now. "How many does that make for Sylas?"

Nosphaleen didn’t answer.

She had no intention of giving Vaelith the satisfaction, especially when the woman was clearly poking at her for entertainment. More importantly, Nosphaleen knew Sylas well enough to understand that he wouldn’t keep someone this irritating around without a reason.

Her eyes narrowed slightly as she looked Vaelith over again. There had to be a reason she was still here.

And if Sylas had left Vaelith on the Hollow Ship while he disappeared into whatever chaos was waiting inside the Beast Emperor Sanctum, then maybe Nosphaleen already understood what her role was supposed to be.

Someone needed to watch the Thryskai.

Nosphaleen turned back toward the controls of the Hollow Ship, though she kept Vaelith comfortably within the edge of her perception.

That was fine. She could do that.