Genetic Ascension

Chapter 2392: Event Checkpoint [Bonus]

[Bonus thanks to Rikstingray <3]

The first reactions came from the geniuses who had entered the World of Spirits after meeting the thousand-kill requirement, and for several of them, the sight of Tomoe’s transformed body was enough to make their expressions change immediately.

Black lines crawled from the corners of her blood-red eyes, her skin carried the faint grey cast of a Demon, and the Will pouring from her had begun drawing power from the Demonic Plane openly.

Several killing intents flared instinctively, hardened by generations of hatred and fear, but almost all of them faded just as quickly when the owners remembered the scale of the battle unfolding before them.

Wanting to kill a Demon and possessing the ability to interfere were entirely different matters.

Another figure entered the World of Spirits not long afterward, his massive halberd appearing first as Xiburn stepped through the shifting rainbow light. The strongest direct combatant among the younger Thryskai had barely taken in the devastated landscape before his attention locked onto the two figures fighting at its center, and his expression changed the instant he saw Tomoe.

"A Demon?"

The word carried farther than he intended, though neither combatant reacted to it.

Sylas had already noticed the transformation, but the fact Tomoe was a Demon interested him far less than the system’s complete lack of response.

He had a Demonic form of his own and had once assumed such a thing was rare enough that exposing it would immediately invite consequences, yet Tomoe was drawing from the Demonic Plane in front of everyone without the slightest attempt at concealment. More strangely, the system hadn’t issued so much as a warning.

That freedom wasn’t something Sylas possessed. Not to mention the fact he had Earth, the Grimblades, Elara, Cassarae, and too many people whose lives could be made far more difficult if the wrong forces decided his Clan had become an enemy that needed to be erased.

Perhaps there would come a day when Sylas could reveal whatever he wanted and dare the universe to complain, but that day hadn’t arrived yet. For now, entering his Demonic form would create complications he had no interest in managing.

Fortunately, Sylas didn’t believe he needed it.

Tomoe’s blade screamed toward him once again, the world of grey and black expanding with the slash while her hair stabbed into the surrounding landscape and drained even more Aether from it.

Sylas watched the attack approach, his mind catching every shift in her Will and every slight alteration in the resonance she had built specifically to tear through his defenses, then his pupils widened.

Emerald swallowed his irises. The shades within them multiplied until it looked as though entire seas were moving beneath their surface, countless layers of green turning over one another while his Charisma surged against the limits that had contained it until now.

Something inside Sylas cracked apart, and the pressure that followed wasn’t violent so much as absolute, spreading outward in enormous swaths as though a reservoir had finally found somewhere to empty itself.

BOOM.

A crown formed above Sylas’ head.

Lightning erupted around his body and knitted itself into Rune Armor, emerald dominating its surface while amethyst and streaks of black crawled through the cracks between every plate.

The distant roar of Dragons rolled through the sky at the same time that cries of Phoenixes answered from somewhere farther above, their voices overlapping until the World of Spirits trembled beneath the weight of concepts that should never have fit together so cleanly.

Sylas stepped forward and Tomoe’s domain split in two.

Her grey and black world peeled away from the path before him while Sylas’ side exploded into rumbling lightning, the landscape beneath his feet painted in emerald, amethyst, and black.

The division stretched across kilometers almost instantly, creating two worlds that met along an unstable border where neither Will could completely consume the other.

Tomoe’s bloodthirsty grin grew wider.

She attacked.

The first slash crossed the border and dragged grey into Sylas’ world, draining color from the lightning wherever it passed, but his fist arrived a moment later and drove a wave of emerald back through the opening.

Color flooded into Tomoe’s domain in return, breaking her monochrome landscape into veins of bright green and violet before Sword Will closed around them and forced the invasion back.

They clashed again. Each impact inverted another piece of the battlefield.

A punch from Sylas painted a dead hill in emerald fire, only for Tomoe’s returning cut to strip half of it grey. Her sword split a river into two lifeless trenches, then Sylas’ Will swept through the gap and filled both with brilliant currents of gold-green Runes that rushed against the direction the water had once flowed.

The destruction became strangely beautiful.

Their attacks no longer looked like separate techniques thrown by two people standing within the same world. Every motion carried its own environment with it, Tomoe dragging a wasteland of grey and black behind each sweep of her blade while Sylas’ fists pulled storms of colored lightning and roaring Will through the spaces they crossed.

Tomoe danced through the border between their domains, her sword becoming a silver line inside the darkness before splitting into dozens of overlapping cuts.

Sylas stepped through them with his shoulders rolling and his footing constantly shifting, every movement plain enough to resemble a boxer slipping punches until one noticed that each small adjustment redirected the battlefield itself.

A slash passed his ribs and turned three distant mountains grey.

Sylas’ fist followed beneath it.

Tomoe twisted her blade flat and caught the pressure, but the force still drove color through her domain and sent a web of emerald cracks spreading beneath her feet. She laughed as the sword in her hand vibrated, then rotated with the impact and turned the retreat into another cut aimed at Sylas’ neck.

He ducked, shifted his weight onto his forward foot, and punched upward.

Their Wills collided between fist and blade.

The sky above them vanished in a circular void several kilometers across, clouds and light blasted away before the edges filled with alternating streaks of grey and emerald.

Tomoe was driven upward while Sylas sank into the ground, yet neither allowed the separation to last, and both reversed direction before the shockwave had finished expanding.

Xiburn watched from far away with his halberd lowered at his side, no longer thinking about interfering despite the Demon fighting openly before him. He had known Sylas was dangerous after hearing what happened to the Mesmeryx, but seeing him split a domain powered by Demonic Will with his bare hands was something else entirely.

Even the other geniuses arriving around him had fallen silent, their attention fixed on a battle that felt increasingly disconnected from the level restrictions supposedly governing them.

Tomoe’s sword cut downward again.

Sylas met it with his fist.

The line between their domains bent and writhed like their attacks were alive and still constantly changing even while not shifting in the slightest.

Then the entire World of Spirits rumbled.

Neither Sylas nor Tomoe stopped immediately, but the disturbance was too large to ignore for long. Deep at the center of the realm, where the greatest mountain had remained blurred between illusion and reality, the final traces of instability vanished as an enormous palace began solidifying into existence.

Its foundations struck the mountain with a sound that rolled through every corner of the World of Spirits.

Rainbow light erupted upward. Within that light, figures began appearing one after another.

At their front stood Fanelei, and behind her came the others who had risen with the Beast Emperor Sanctum.

--

[Quicktime Event Checkpoint Triggered]

[Throne of Representative Wills]

[Level Recommended: 300]

[Description: The Beast Sanctum has risen, and with its ascension, countless Wills that once stood divided have begun to converge. Five paths now lead toward the heart of the Sanctum, but only those capable of seizing the Fate gathered along the way may reach its core. The time has come to decide who has the right to stand as a Representative of Will.]

[Event Type: Grasping Fate Checkpoints]

[Clear Requirements]

[Reach the core of the Beast Sanctum and claim a Representative Will]"> >[Reach the core of the Beast Sanctum and claim a Representative Will]