Genetic Ascension

Chapter 2437: Two

Caelum was becoming more troublesome with every exchange.

The crude Space he had stolen only minutes ago was already settling into his Rune Path, not because he had suddenly understood Fathomless Spacetime, but because Greed refused to accept that something Sylas possessed could remain beyond him.

Time repeated every formation Sylas created, Order broke those repetitions into pieces, and the influence of Scurrying Madness consumed whatever fragments Caelum managed to understand before forcing them back together inside his own domain.

Sylas shifted between three folds of Space as golden mechanisms closed around him, only for Caelum to predict the final destination and arrive there first. A hand wrapped in compressed Time reached for Sylas’ throat, forcing him to reverse the relative positions of two nearby Strokes and twist the attack into empty space before Caelum could drain anything from him.

The man was learning quickly. But more importantly, Scurrying Madness was giving him everything he needed to continue learning.

Another chain snapped in the distance as the cyborg Rat pulled one leg free, the enormous limb crashing against the floor behind the doors and sending a tremor through Hell. Only a handful of restraints remained around its torso and opposite limb now, while enough Greed poured from its body to make even Fanelei’s Aether fluctuate.

Cheri had stopped asking Sylas to leave, she had apparently realized it wouldn’t matter.

Sylas had known the danger before Scurrying Madness broke its first chain, and yet he had remained anyway. He had seen S-tiers before, enough that he trusted the uncomfortable sensation telling him the creature behind those doors stood above them, but leaving now would mean abandoning the reason he had come to Hell in the first place.

Sylas redirected another of Caelum’s formations, watching the man greedily pull apart the residue instead of allowing it to disperse. The situation surrounding Scurrying Madness explained why the Rat had wanted him here, but it didn’t explain why Slithering Madness had.

There was no reason to assume the two were the same.

Sylas trusted his sense for Will more than he trusted most things, especially after everything that had happened with his Eternal Will and Rune Mastery. Someone could disguise their appearance, aura, Genes, perhaps even their soul under the right circumstances, but perfectly reproducing a Will Sylas had already personally interacted with was another matter.

He didn’t believe Scurrying Madness had fooled him. Which meant there were two different intentions operating here.

Scurrying wanted his Virtue of Greed, while Slithering wanted his help.

Caelum had arrived carrying technology tied directly to Scurrying’s prison at almost exactly the same time Slithering reached out to Sylas, and believing those two things were unrelated would have required a level of optimism Sylas had never possessed.

Someone else was involved.

Sylas had been waiting for that someone to appear.

Caelum’s domain erupted again as Greed stripped another section of Hell bare, pulling Aether and residual Will into the golden mechanisms surrounding him. Space folded inside those formations in increasingly stable patterns, and when Sylas attempted to separate them, Caelum used Time to restore the stolen structure before Order forced it back into place.

Scurrying Madness roared behind him and tore another arm free.

The remaining chains stretched taut across the enormous metallic body, the heart of the original Scorpion hammering between black ribs as though attempting to tear itself out. Greed flooded outward in another wave, and Caelum’s strength surged with it until his domain crashed against Sylas’ with enough force to send emerald fractures racing through several formations.

Then everything above them went silent.

Sylas looked up.

A cloaked figure stood in the air.

There had been no portal, no distortion of Space, and not even the smallest displacement of Aether that Sylas could detect. One moment the space above the battlefield had been empty, and the next there was simply someone standing there with a dark shroud falling around his body.

Scurrying Madness reacted immediately.

Its metallic head snapped upward and a roar erupted from between its jaws, Greed condensing with enough weight that sections of Hell collapsed around the doors. The hatred contained in that sound was different from what Scurrying had directed toward Sylas, lacking the desire to possess and carrying something much closer to the memory of a very old grievance.

The cloaked figure didn’t look at it.

His attention settled on Sylas instead.

Caelum rushed forward in the same instant, his mind too far gone to care about the new arrival, but a slight movement from above caused his entire golden domain to freeze.

There was no Rune Sylas could see and no obvious application of Will. Caelum simply stopped as though every system responsible for carrying out his next action had been denied permission to continue.

Sylas’ gaze sharpened.

The Professor tilted his head slightly beneath the hood.

"So this was your plan?"

Scurrying Madness pulled against another chain behind him, but the Professor continued to ignore it.

"You were waiting for me to appear, hoping I would deal with our little Rat problem while you slipped away to help Slithering Madness?"

Sylas said nothing.

The Professor gave a soft laugh.

"Don’t look so surprised. I sensed Slithering’s little attempt the moment it reached you. I simply allowed it to continue because I was curious."

His head tilted another fraction.

"I wanted to see who Five was."

Something in Sylas’ gaze changed.

"I never had the chance to meet Four, unfortunately. One of my experiments ended up killing Four before they could properly grow."

He paused as though considering the memory, then gave a small shrug beneath the cloak.

"Whoopsies."

Another chain snapped behind him.

The Professor finally lowered himself a few meters, stopping between Sylas and the roaring Scurrying Madness as though neither represented enough danger to concern him.

"It’s nice to meet you, Sylas."

A hand emerged from beneath the cloak.

"I am Two."

His fingers shifted toward the broken prison behind him.

"Your little plans are quite cute."