Genetic Ascension

Chapter 703: Free

Sylas' telekinesis gained form and substance to it, his Will reflecting across the air like sparkling shards of glass as the Snail Queen's own Will bent and bowed against it.

He felt every moment of the Snail Queen's telekinesis bending to his Will, and then he felt it shatter.

Judging by the Snail Queen's stats, Sylas knew better than anyone else that it was facing great trouble right now. Its Charisma was overwhelming, but its Will was almost a mere fourth of it.

The imbalance between the two stats meant that the Snail Queen's telekinesis might be strong, and with its Comprehension, it was almost certainly more than a match for most others...

But in front of Sylas, who had Nosphaleen's Charisma to supplement himself, it was too imbalanced to do much of anything.

The hollow echo of the snail's howl resonated through the air as a painful backlash hit it. Sylas could even see faint lines of ice and poison Runes appearing in the depths of its eyes as it struggled to shrug it off.

This was the first time Sylas had seen someone's telekinesis shatter as though it was a Skill, but he hadn't even met more than a couple telekinesis wielders to begin with. It was only natural he learn new things in the midst of one of his first all-out battles against a fellow expert.

None of this slowed Sylas down in the slightest. The moment he saw the chance, he took it.

As the Basilisk King swung out another tail, swatting the next surge of the army from closing in, Sylas' Aether surged.

By now, thanks to, his Will had already recovered from the Glass Monkey battle. And now, he was peeling away even more of it.

With Madness activated, his Will was over 9000, and he sacrificed over 3000 of it in a single breath.

[Your Will has been tainted]

[-600 Will (Temporary)]

Sylas felt his mind almost split in two beneath a shearing pain, but at that moment, a Demonic energy surged up.

Fear. Angst. Doubt.

Negative emotions that had been constantly lingering in the back of his mind since he entered this Domain surged forward and began to fill more and more of his mind.

Sylas realized then that it wasn't that his Will was too weak to deal with this assault on his mind, but rather that it was precisely because his Will was so powerful that he had managed to hang on at all.

A new sort of imbalance rampaged through Sylas' heart, but he pushed through, casting.

An icy, humanoid figure ejected itself from Sylas' forehead, charging through the air and toward the howling Snail Queen.

The Snail Queen seemed to realize that something was wrong, but the moment it urged its Will to purge the assault on its psyche, another attack came.

The Frosted Nightmare avatar dove into the Snail Queen's head and it froze for a moment.

At that instant of time, Sylas could already feel that the Snail Queen was about to shatter his Frosted Nightmare Skill...

But not before his true goal was achieved.

The Domain high in the skies finally shattered. But more importantly than that...

The Fire Monkeys, Fire Rhinos, and Fire Wolves jolted. Their focused eyes glazing over for a moment before they regained a different sort of clarity, one that was far less controlled... The Snail Queen had lost the control it had over its army.

"Go." Sylas growled through the pain, leaping up to land on the Basilisk King's bowed head.

The Basilisk King didn't need to hear another word. It slapped its tail against the ground, jetting forward.

Sylas bent forward, balancing on the balls of his feet and one hand as he raised his Scorpion Warlord tail high in the skies.

CHING! CHING! CHING!

The crackle of ice echoed as a drill of Glass began to form around the tip of Sylas' tail. It doubled in size three times over until it was over a meter in length and half a meter at its very thickest.

Runes danced across its surface, and though they were only 40 Foundation Runes, the power they exuded shook the skies.

The Scorpion Warlord Tail had one main ability... and that was to raise all Poison-based Runes to Breath Mastery. Meaning, Sylas could use this to mitigate the weakness of his lack of Mature Aether.

CHING!

Mist danced across the formation of the Glass drill. The reflective lights of the red-gold atmosphere danced across its surface as it began to rotate.

And then Sylas' tail flexed and whipped out.

The drill shot through the air as the Basilisk King rushed past the screeching Snail Queen.

The Mature Aether in the air surged toward the spinning drill. It was an almost beautiful sight as the mist was pulled toward its body, sending spiraling swirls of frosty blue churning through the air.

BANG!

The drill collided with the Snail Queen's head, but Sylas didn't even check to see the result. He and the Basilisk King had already pushed through, vanishing into the Portal.

The pain in Sylas' head was pulsing, but the moment he entered the Portal, the assault of the Snail Queen on his mind vanished in a puff of smoke.

Despite the Domain having been shattered earlier, the Snail Queen's Charisma alone was so oppressive that it came with a passive pressure on his mind.

Now, however... he was free.

Or so he thought.

Returning to this location hit him in ways he never expected it to. Maybe if his Will hadn't suffered a temporary -600 buff, it wouldn't have felt like this, but there was no use in considering such a thing.

Sylas gritted his teeth, grabbing his head with a hand as he tried to focus. He repeated the same mantras he usually did. The importance of discipline, the importance of self-control.

A maddened cackle echoed in his ears, reverberating endlessly. He felt as though a hand was tightening around his throat.