Genetic Ascension

Chapter 2489 A Rampage

Sylas had already lost count of how many people he had killed, and he had no intention of stopping.

He didn't care where they came from, what Race they belonged to, or how prestigious their names were. In fact, the more he learned about these so-called geniuses, the more disgusted he became With the arrogance they carried.

Every single one of them seemed to believe that they had grasped some fundamental truth about Rune Creation, that the Path they had spent their lives pursuing placed them above everyone else. But from Sylas' perspective, their arrogance was built upon rotting wood and crumbling foundations, and none of them seemed to possess enough self-awareness to recognize it.

What right did they have to look down on anyone, let alone him?

Sylas had never been particularly impressed by the achievements of others, but these people were even more disappointing than he had expected. They had been born With extraordinary advantages, given access to inheritances that countless others could only dream of, and then spent centuries convincing themselves that their accomplishments were the result of some unparalleled brilliance.

And yet, a single contradiction was all it took to destroy them.

Their Rune Paths were narrow, rigid things, built upon the assumption that whatever principle they had chosen to pursue was the correct one. Rather than exploring everything Rune Creation could offer, they had spent their lives reinforcing those assumptions, and the more they succeeded, the less capable they became of acknowledging anything that contradicted them.

Sylas found it almost offensive that such people believed themselves qualified to stand above him.

He allowed each challenger to reveal enough of their Rune Path for him to understand its foundation, then began winning. One challenge became ten, ten became twenty, and With every defeat, he demonstrated another weakness in the comprehension they had once considered infallible.

The most amusing part was that he didn't need to force them to accept anything. He simply solved the Tower's puzzles using methods their Rune Paths couldn't account for, allowing their own intelligence to recognize the implications.

By the time their Rune Seeds began to fracture, most of them had already understood exactly why they were losing.

Sylas didn't grant them an opportunity to recover.

At some point, he was fairly certain that challengers from the God Plane had begun appearing as well. Their Rune Paths possessed somewhat more complicated relationships With the Mesh of Reality, and they could generally endure a few more defeats before the contradictions began affecting their foundations.

But what difference did that make?

A foundation that could withstand twenty challenges instead of ten was still worthless if it collapsed at the twenty-first.

One young God Plane genius began the challenge by constructing a formation across several layers of the Mesh, using an elaborate sequence of Will Priming to stabilize the relationships between them. The manis expression carried the sort of confidence Sylas had grown accustomed to seeing, as though completing such a thing should have been enough to intimidate his opponent.

Sylas watched until he understood the principle, then completed his own puzzle.

[Challenge Complete]

[You Have Lost]

The genius frowned, then lost again, and then again. By the time he understood that Sylas was deliberately demonstrating an alternative foundation to his Rune Path, several fractures had already appeared within his Rune Seed.

Sylas didn't stop.

The corpse disappeared, another challenger appeared, and the process began anew.

There was no satisfaction in watching them die, but neither was there any hesitation. Within the vast expanse of his mind, he continued tracing every possible Clue surrounding the disappearance of his family, and whenever another opponent appeared, he simply devoted enough attention to understanding and destroying them.

Until there was nothing left.

Within the God Plane of the Skai Heaven, seven figures sat around an enormous circular table, their attention focused on the projections hovering above its center.

The atmosphere was considerably different from what it had been not long ago.

Previously, the seven God Thryskai Clan leaders had been discussing what would happen after Sylas Grimblade inevitably lost control of the Creation Tower. Even the most cautious among them had believed that his position was untenable, especially once the powerful Rune Creators of the other Heavens began taking action.

After all, what did it matter if Sylas possessed the Creation of Key? That might have given him an advantage in restoring the Tower, but it didn't mean he possessed the comprehension necessary to defend his position against the greatest geniuses of the Real World.

And yet, the expected notification of his defeat had never arrived, at least not one that was permanent.

"Hets still issuing challenges?"

"Yes. From what we've gathered, he hasn't stopped since the first wave of challengers entered, and the Creation Tower continues to acknowledge his authority."

The man Who had spoken frowned, his fingers tapping against the armrest of his chair.

"That shouldn't be possible. Even if hels stronger than we expected, the challengers from the other Heavens should have already overwhelmed him. Are you telling me none of them have managed to defeat him?"

"Well... itts complicated. But functionally no. Not since that anomaly ended."

Another woman leaned forward.

"There's something else. We've begun receiving reports of deaths, and not just from the Demi-God Plane. Several God Plane Clans have already lost members of their younger generation."

The tapping stopped.

"Deaths? Inside the Creation Tower?"

"Technically, the Tower isn't killing them. Their Rune Seeds are collapsing under the strain of the challenges, and their bodies are being returned to their respective Clans."

"That•s ridiculous. These aren't children taking their first steps into Rune Creation. How could their foundations be so fragile?"

The woman didn't answer immediately, instead waving a hand to bring two new projections into view.

"The first is Edris Qorin of the Cryst Heaven, ranked eighth among the top C-tier Rune Masters of the God Plane. He developed a Rune Path that allowed him to distribute Aether across several interconnected layers of a formation, multiplying its output without sacrificing stability. The Qorin Clan considered him one of their greatest talents in the last hundred thousand years."

The projection displayed a young man whose body was covered in translucent crystalline plates, his expression confident as he worked through an incomplete formation.

Then the image changed.

He was kneeling on the ground, blood pouring from his mouth as cracks spread across his fiesh. His Will fluctuated violently before disappearing, and the final image showed his body twisted upon the fioor of his Clan's ancestral hall.

"The second is Selyth Khoren, ranked fifth. She was also from the Cryst Heaven, though her Rune Path was entirely different. Her Intelligence allowed her to construct several possible solutions simultaneously, using parallel arrangements of Runes to calculate the most efficient outcome before committing to a single formation."

The image of a young woman appeared beside the first, her six fingers moving through the air as several layers of Runes formed around her.

"She was considered one of the most promising Rune Creators of her generation, and there were already predictions that she would eventually enter the top three. Unfortunately, she didn't survive either."

Her projection changed as well, revealing a corpse whose eyes had burst beneath the backlash of her shattered Rune Seed.

For several seconds, none of the seven Clan leaders spoke.

These weren't obscure talents whose names meant nothing outside their own families. Edris and Selyth were geniuses known across the God Plane, existences whose futures had been discussed by powers far beyond the Cryst Heaven itself.

They represented the pinnacle of what the C-tier could achieve, and yet both had died attempting to defeat the same human they had once dismissed as an insignificant Mortal.

"How many more?"

"We haven't confirmed the total. The reports are still arriving, and some Clans are attempting to suppress the news. But the number is already far greater than what l've shown you."

One of the men exhaled, his gaze remaining upon the two corpses.

"lt seems we've underestimated Sylas Grimblade once again."

No one contradicted him.

As much as they had heard about Sylas, and as many extraordinary things as they had personally witnessed, it was diffcult to overcome the impression he had first left upon them.

For the longest time, Sylas Grimblade had been nothing more than an unusually troublesome Mortal, a young man Who somehow continued surviving circumstances that should have killed him. Even when his strength grew to the point that they could no longer dismiss him outright, some part of them continued measuring his achievements against that original impression.

But this was different.

There was no convenient excuse they could use to diminish what was happening. Sylas wasn't relying on the protection of his world, exploiting some peculiar restriction of the Mortal Plane, or taking advantage of opponents Who had underestimated him.

He was defeating the greatest C-tier Rune Masters the God Plane could offer, one after another, and leaving corpses in his wake.

lt was an absolute rampage, as though Sylas Grimblade had decided to smear the God Plane itself With his fury.

And the most disturbing part wasn't even the deaths themselves, lt was the manner in which they occurred.

Every shattered Rune Seed represented a Will that had been driven to abandon the very foundation of its existence. These geniuses weren't being overwhelmed by superior force or destroyed by techniques they couldn't understand.

They were being made to understand.

And With every report that arrived, the seven Thryskai could feel something of the merciless intent behind that process.

Sylas Grimblade wasn't simply winning. He was allowing his opponents to discover the limits of everything they believed in, and then forcing them beyond those limits until there was nothing left of them.

They could feel his fury in the very Will of every death.

Not just they, but the whole of the God Plane.