Genetic Ascension

Chapter 2493 Shut Up [Bonus]

[Bonus thanks to TheGhanianPrince <3]

A silence fell over the laboratory after Alex finished speaking, his final words seeming to linger in the air for a moment after even he ran out of things to say.

Sylas looked at him With the same unreadable expression he had worn since returning to Earth. He had learned quite a bit from this conversation, far more than he originally expected, but there was one detail that still didn't make much sense to him.

"What compels you to return?"

Alex blinked, then released a chuckle.

"Gene Lock. I mentioned it already, didn't I?"

Sylas didn't respond, but he understood.

The Gene Lock didn'tjust serve as a means of returning a Nethum descendant's memories once they had reached a certain level of evolution. It was a chain as well, one that ensured that no matter how far these descendants traveled, they would eventually have to return to the Clan that had produced them.

It made perfect sense. The Nethum had spent countless generations developing their Bloodline, and although scattering their children across different worlds was an effective method of forcing evolution, it also came With considerable risks.

What if those descendants never returned? What if they settled down, established families of their own, and allowed their Genes to spread throughout the various Heavens?

Across enough generations, those Genes would inevitably mutate and weaken, but that didn't necessarily make them less dangerous. Mutations could reveal weaknesses that the Nethum had spent countless years concealing, and even if they didn't, allowing other Clans to freely study their Bloodline would be foolish.

The Nethum would never allow such a thing, which meant their Gene Locks almost certainly carried consequences for those Who refused the call to return. In fact, the conclusion was obvious enough that Sylas should have been able to deduce it without asking.

Alex seemed to realize this as well, because his expression changed when he noticed that Sylas was still looking at him.

"Listen, Sylas, buddy, OI' pal, you wouldn't dissect me, right?" He raised both hands, an awkward smile spreading across his face. "I mean, we've known each other for a while now. We've been through some shit together. You wouldn't just open me up to figure out how my Gene Lock works, would you?"

Sylas continued looking at him without saying a word.

Alex's lip twitched. "Come on, man. At least give me something here."

After a long while, Sylas finally parted his lips.

"No. Your Genes would be too mutated."

Alex released a breath of relief, although he didn't miss the fact that Sylas had rejected the idea on practical grounds rather than anything resembling friendship.

"Well, that's comforting. I guess I'll take what I can—

Pfft.

A warm splash of blood struck Alex across the face.

He froze, his first instinct being to look down at his chest, half expecting to find a hole where his heart should have been.

There was certainly a hole. It just wasn't in him.

Alex's lip twitched again as he raised his head, only to find Cheri staring down at her own chest With an expression of complete disbelief.

A neat opening had appeared through her torso, the surrounding flesh already beginning to collapse as whatever force Sylas had used continued destroying the structures within it. Her hands rose toward the wound, but before her fingers could reach it, her legs began to give way.

Alex looked from Cheri to Sylas.

"That's cold-blooded..."

His voice trailed off, but Sylas didn't seem to care in the slightest.

Cheri managed a single cough, blood spilling from her lips as she attempted to say something. Perhaps she wanted to ask why, or perhaps she had finally understood the significance of the name Sylas had asked her about earlier.

Whatever it was, she never had the opportunity to speak. Her eyes lost their focus, and her body collapsed.

Alex sighed before wiping the blood from his face, his expression settling into something that suggested he had already accepted what had happened. He was used to Sylas by this point.

Nathan, however, wasn't.

He stood beside one of the laboratory's worktables, his gaze fixed upon Cheri's corpse as though he was struggling to reconcile what he had just witnessed With the person he had come to know.

It wasn't as though they had known her for particularly long. She had only stopped sulking around in the shadows after Sylas returned from Hell, and although Sylas had spent a considerable amount of time handling the Creation Tower's challenges, only a few weeks had passed.

But a few weeks was still enough to develop a certain understanding of someone, certainly enough that seeing them killed without warning or explanation wasn't something Nathan could simply ignore.

He had worked beside Cheri, spoken With her, and watched her gradually become more comfortable around the laboratory. Whatever secrets she might have been keeping, she hadn't seemed like someone Who deserved to die simply because the information contained within her body had become useful.

Nathan's expression tightened, but then he felt Alexis gaze.

He turned, only to find that the familiar, perpetually amused expression had disappeared from the man's face.

Nathan had known Alex long enough to understand just how unusual that was. The man could find something to joke about in practically any situation, and even when faced With people Who could kill him With a thought, he rarely seemed capable of taking anything seriously.

But now there wasn't the slightest hint of a smile on his face.

Alex didn't say a word, yet the warning was clear enough.

Shut up.

Whatever Nathan was thinking, whatever conclusions he was beginning to draw, he needed to keep them to himself.

This wasn't the time to question Sylas Grimblade, and it certainly wasn't the time to demand an explanation for something he had already decided to do.

Nathan understood the implications. The problem was that understanding didn't make him feel any better about it.

Sylas spared neither of them a glance. From his perspective, the matter was simple enough.

He had already seen Cheri's true surname long before this conversation, and although she possessed no knowledge of the Nethum Clan herself, that didn't change what existed within her Genes.

Cheri Nethum.

Unlike Alex, she possessed a considerably purer representation of the Bloodline Sylas wanted to study. Whatever secrets the Nethum had embedded within their descendants, there was a far greater chance of finding them in her body than in someone whose lineage had been complicated by Demonic Genes.

Originally, Sylas had seen some value in keeping her around. She possessed knowledge of the Genesis Concord, could assist With matters on the Demi-God Plane, and had enough talent to become useful With the proper resources. But the circumstances had changed.

He could reach the Nethum through Alex, and the information Cheri possessed was no longer particularly valuable. Keeping her alive offered him little that he couldn't obtain elsewhere, while studying her Genes might allow him to uncover something he needed immediately.

Sylas raised a hand and the Omnimous responded to his Will, emerging from the equipment Alex had been working With before unfolding into its familiar intricate structure.

There had been a time when Sylas relied heavily upon the knowledge contained within it, and although he had ultimately chosen to place it in Alexis hands, he hadn't forgotten the advantages its methods could provide.

During his breakthrough With Reaper Sealwright, when Call of the Titan had threatened to overwhelm his mind, he had used the technological foundations he learned from the Omnimous to create an entirely different approach to comprehension.

His secondary brains had allowed him to examine numerous possible solutions simultaneously, discarding failed conclusions until he could identify the precise relationships he needed. Combined With his Rune Mastery, that approach had also allowed him to survive a tribulation that should have destroyed him. Those principles were exactly what he had relied upon when he called forth the Omnimous to help him when he faced off against the ceiling.

But the most valuable lesson had been understanding that the Omnimous didn't View existence through Runes alone.

It understood particles, their spins, and the physical structures underlying the very Genes Sylas wanted to examine. And now his mental capacity had grown far beyond what it had been back then.

Did Sylas expect to uncover every secret of the Nethum Clan through Cheri's corpse alone? Of course not.

A Clan capable of dominating an entire Heaven wouldn't be foolish enough to store all its secrets within the body of a single descendant, especially not one Who seemed on the lower end of their talents. Cheri hadn't even evolved enough to awaken her memories in the first place.

But Sylas didn't need everything. He only needed enough to begin.

The Omnimous continued unfolding as Sylas' Will settled over Cheri's corpse, and the laboratory fell into silence once more.