Genetic Ascension

Chapter 2511 Very Different

Alex looked over the five descendants sitting around the table. His gaze moved between their representatives, then came back to Fanelei with a more and more complicated expression.

He had been perfectly happy to use her against the A-tiers. However, two of the followers these people had brought back were S-tiers, and neither of them looked like they'd gotten there through ordinary means.

More importantly, these five were willing to show off followers this valuable in a preliminary assessment. That suggested they had even more impressive cards they hadn't played yet.

Unfortunately, Fanelei didn't seem very interested in his concerns.

"Well? Are you going to tell them, or should I?"

Alex coughed and turned to the woman on the throne with an apologetic smile.

"Great Grandmother, my companion here seems to think a round robin would be a little too time-consuming. She's offering to fight all five representatives at once, assuming that wouldn't violate the spirit of the assessment."

The woman's swirling black eyes moved to Fanelei. After a moment of thought, an amused smile spread across her face.

"How interesting. I don't have any objections, but the other five participants Will have to agree. After all, if she wins, it would count as five victories for you, and I imagine they wouldn't appreciate losing their qualifications over a decision they had no say in."

The five descendants traded glances. The discussion that followed was a lot shorter than Alex expected.

They had seen what Fanelei did at the harbor. Even so, nothing they'd seen suggested she could close the gap between A-tier and S-tier, let alone beat five opponents working together.

One of them chuckled.

"If she's so eager to die, I don't see why we should stop her."

The others agreed. Though, Alex noticed that two of them were being a lot more careful than the rest.

They were studying Fanelei's face, looking for any sign that she was bluffng. But the woman hadn't even bothered to look their way.

"Very well."

The woman on the throne raised a hand, and the enormous hall began to change. The table they were sitting around disappeared.

At first, it looked like a transparent barrier had appeared around the middle of the room, separating the five representatives from the descendants who had brought them. However, as the barrier spread outward, the space inside it started stretching. The few dozen meters from one side of the hall to the other slowly became several kilometers.

It kept going until the battlefield had enough room for even S-tier existences to cut loose without being cramped. Meanwhile, the spectators stayed behind a protective barrier that kept them safe from whatever happened inside.

Interestingly enough, the tower itself didn't change.

Alex could still see its walls in the distance. The space inside them had grown to an almost ridiculous size, yet the walls themselves weren't affected by the spatial fluctuations at all. Considering how strong the Nethum were, he doubted even the two S-tiers could leave a mark on them.

Fanelei stepped onto the battlefield without hesitating, as calm as ever. Her eyes had been sharply assessing her targets from the very start, and she had seen through many of them already.

The first three representatives came from the Sage and Cryst Heavens. All of them were A-tiers who had risen out of the Demi-God Planes of their own Heavens.

The two Sage Heaven geniuses had extraordinarily Sharp Wills. They could perceive the surrounding Mesh well enough to spot relationships most Rune Masters wouldn't even know were there.

The Cryst Heaven representative was a lot more specialized. His crystalline body let him compress Aether so efficiently that every movement he made carried an almost suffocating weight.

However, Fanelei's attention stayed on the two S-tiers.

The Beast Heaven representative stood nearly 3 meters tall, his enormous body carrying two headse one human and one belonging to a lion. It was a rather grotesque arrangement. Still, Fanelei could sense that the man's Genes had somehow struck a perfect balance between human intelligence and beastly instinct.

The other S-tier was a woman from the Mesmer Heaven. She looked far more ordinary, except for the brilliant crystal set into the middle of her forehead.

There was something strange about the Will around that crystal. Fanelei couldn't put her finger on what it was, but the fluctuations alone were curious enough on their own.

Fanelei glanced over all five of them and smiled.

"Whenever you're ready."

The three A-tiers moved first, and Alex quickly realized their confidence wasn't entirely misplaced.

The two Sage Heaven representatives didn't just build formations to restrict Fanelei's movement. They picked out the relationships between her Will and the Mesh around herr then started building Runes that interfered with those relationships before she could properly set them up.

At the same time, the Cryst Heaven genius gathered an enormous amount of Aether into a spear. He compressed it through layer after layer, until it was dense enough that most A-tiers would have struggled to survive it.

It was an excellent combination, especially once the Sage Heaven geniuses started adjusting their formations to follow the shifts in Fanelei's Will.

They weren't trying to overpower her. They were cutting down her options, one by one, until the Cryst Heaven representative could land the finishing blow.

Unfortunately for them, Fanelei had spent several lifetimes dealing with people who thought complicated techniques alone were enough to beat her.

She raised a hand, and the enormous spear started coming apart before it could reach her.

The Cryst Heaven genius frowned and poured more Aether in to compensate. Instead of stabilizing his formation, though, the extra energy only made it collapse faster.

Fanelei's smile widened.

The Drain.

It was an ability she'd developed in her second life, when she turned her back on the deprivation of her first and went to the opposite extreme. Instead of denying herself everything, she had started consuming whatever she came across, absorbing its energy to strengthen her own foundations.

However, what she was using now was very different from what she'd had back then.