Genetic Ascension

Chapter 2448: Unchanged (2)

Sylas looked up at the heart again as the Greed Seed pulsed within him, and the ridiculousness of what he had chosen became clearer rather than less so. Even so, the original Scorpion and Keyesen’s imperfect reconstruction had already shown him the only path that made sense.

He extended a hand and drew blood from the enormous heart, a river of crimson tearing free before his telekinesis compressed it into a dense stream. Rather than absorb any of it, Sylas wrapped the blood in Fathomless Runes and used the original Scorpion as a reference while the Greed Seed acted as a check against every structural change he tested.

If a new arrangement reproduced more of the heart’s complete Will while remaining compatible with the Greed Seed’s successful approximation, Sylas retained it. If the relationship drifted too far from either side, he discarded it, allowing thousands of potential configurations to form and collapse within his mind every few breaths.

The first architecture that survived his tests lasted less than a second before Sylas destroyed it himself.

It still treated him like a Spirit Beast.

That was unacceptable.

The Spirit Beast Race placed Race beneath Beast Will, creating a neutral substrate capable of supporting whichever inherited mode rose above it. Sylas couldn’t use the same arrangement, because placing Dragon and Phoenix directly above his Race would eventually allow one of them to become synonymous with what that Race was.

He needed another layer beneath both.

His own identity had to become the invariant state, the reference configuration every transformation returned to regardless of what happened above it. Not Pride, Greed, Lust, Human Simioid, or even Eternal Will treated as an isolated power, but Sylas Grimblade as the fixed answer around which everything else was allowed to change.

The moment that thought settled, his three Classes responded almost without prompting.

Willborne Crown moved first, its Runes spreading through every Layer of Sylas’ body while establishing authority rather than changing anything directly. It marked every vessel, Gene, organ, and deeper Rune structure as something beneath Sylas’ control, creating the central reference point the Dragon and Phoenix modes would eventually be forced to acknowledge.

Selfwrought Emperor followed by mapping what existed now with merciless precision. Bone density, nerve pathways, blood vessels, organs, Genes, and every Rune hidden within them unfolded before Sylas until his entire body became a structure he could read at once rather than a collection of separate systems.

Normally, Selfwrought Emperor rebuilt him toward the best version of what he already was. This time, Sylas gave it permission to forget that answer.

Pain arrived almost immediately as Rune pathways along his arms split apart, blood lifting into the air beneath telekinetic control before it could fall. His bones cracked deeper within him when the structures dictating their current shape loosened, while Void Sovereign opened controlled gaps between what Sylas had been and what he intended to become.

Selfwrought Emperor rebuilt within those openings, and Willborne Crown decided what changes were permitted to survive.

Sylas coughed blood as the three processes began tearing through him in concert, but his attention remained on the relationship between the Greed Seed and the Scorpion heart. The source and approximation stayed overlaid in his Runeweaver Eyes, allowing him to measure exactly how much variation a Race could endure while still reproducing the Will it was meant to carry.

The first new structures he formed had nothing to do with Dragon or Phoenix. They were empty modes.

That was the most important lesson the Spirit Beast Race had given him, and the one Sylas refused to overlook simply because he now possessed greater Rune Mastery than its ancestors ever had. Capacity had to exist before identity, otherwise whatever Will he introduced first would shape the foundation around itself and contaminate everything that came after.

Sylas carved two enormous resonant frameworks through separate Layers of his body, allowing each to possess its own stable pathways while forcing both to return to the same central reference established by Willborne Crown. They could expand, weaken, evolve, or distort without ever changing the answer to the most important question of what existed beneath them.

Only once that structure stabilized did Sylas allow the first traces of Dragon and Phoenix to enter.

The response was immediate and violent.

The Dragon mode propagated through every connection available to it, forcing nearby Runes toward its interpretation and attempting to turn compatibility into submission. At the same time, the Phoenix mode destabilized its own newly formed pathways, altering relationships almost as soon as Selfwrought Emperor finished rebuilding them.

Blood ran from Sylas’ mouth while his Classes answered in sequence, Selfwrought Emperor repairing what failed, Void Sovereign creating room for necessary change, and Willborne Crown forcing both modes back within the boundaries Sylas had assigned them. Every cycle taught him something new about where the separation failed, and every correction narrowed the number of places either concept could escape through.

Again, his body broke apart and reformed.

Again, the Dragon pushed outward while the Phoenix changed inward.

Again, Sylas forced both to accept the same answer.

The Dragon could dominate everything within the mode Sylas had given it, but no further. The Phoenix could change that mode endlessly if it wished, but it couldn’t alter the foundation that defined who was carrying it.

The cycles continued until the enormous Scorpion heart above him had beaten hundreds of times, each contraction carrying the source pattern Sylas used to measure his progress. By the time the violence inside his body finally slowed, the blood suspended around him had gone still as well.

Sylas opened his eyes.

He looked unchanged.

Inside, however, the Human Simioid foundation no longer sat unquestioned beneath everything he had built, nor did Dragon or Phoenix occupy the place it once held. Beneath his Bloodline, beneath his Virtue Seeds, and beneath the two newly formed resonant structures waiting to be completed, Willborne Crown held one fixed reference that every other configuration was forced to return to.

Sylas Grimblade.

BOOM.