Genetic Ascension

"Birth of the Madness System…" Sylas said slowly.

Then he looked up toward the dome again. The starry skies were all that he could see, the building had pierced through the atmosphere and stood so tall it seemed to make the moon its friend.

Sylas' eyes scanned the stars one by one, trying to see if he could recognize something, and then his heart skipped a beat. Flashing lines of lightning bloomed around his irises, making it look as though the synapses of his brain itself were being reflected through his pupils.

'This is it.'

The map of the Golden Battlefield and the stars high above sat perfectly flush within Sylas' mind.

But why? That was the crux of the question. ƒreewebηoveℓ.com

Sylas looked down, but it was hard to see anything below. The balcony's floor was in the way and for obvious reasons putting your head over the railing was ill advised. If he tried to stand as close to the railing as he could, the distance downward was so far that he would be obscured by either the railing itself or the opposite wall before he made it very far.

Unlike above, which was basically unobscured, down below was not. And Sylas had a feeling that was very purposeful.

'Why would they need me?'

Sylas' eyes narrowed.

It seemed peculiar.

The Golden Race presumably used this Split Realm to create their Golden Battlefield, then they sealed their Demons of choice within, before allowing themselves to fall—or maybe they had no choice but to fall, realizing they couldn't save themselves.

Then that Golden Battlefield eventually made it to Sylas' time, where it was controlled by the dregs that remained of the Golden Race, all to be conquered by Sylas in the end.

What was even more interesting was that they didn't seem surprised at all that Sylas was only in the D-tier, despite the fact he needed to clear the A-tier mutated Dungeon and Golden Battlefield just to make it here.

No. It wasn't just that they weren't surprised, it was almost like they were expecting it from the very beginning.

What were those words that the Supreme Commander had said? Didn't she say that it would be easier for him to clear the Split Realm since he was a lower tier?

'Were they expecting it…? Or did they just not care…?'

They needed him to reach this point? Why?

Why would they…?

Sylas' eyes landed on the stone and suddenly a wild grin spread across his face.

He couldn't control it. Something almost feral was being stoked inside of him, a part of him that reflected a child plucking and pulling at inner organs just to understand a corpse a little bit better mirroring itself toward the outside world.

Curved lines of emerald and gold peeled away from his skin like solar flares, a looming presence around him growing larger, stronger, more menacing in ways that the balcony couldn't seem to withstand.

Gogo shuddered, his slit pupils constricted as his head snapped toward Sylas. He didn't understand what was wrong at all, but he felt a pressure coming from Sylas now that seemed to stretch across both time and space alike, linking the past, the future, and the present in impossible to understand ways.

The only one who didn't shudder was the Duchess herself.

She looked at Sylas' back in a daze, feeling the back was broader and wider than any other she had ever seen. Wider than her brother's, stronger than her father's.

It was a thought that didn't make much sense to her at all.

Her father was an S-tier. Her brother was destined to become an S-tier as well.

The railings creaked beneath the weight of Sylas' clenched fists, shaking as though to take the entire building down with it.

The Duchess felt her bloodline boiling. She quickly turned her head away, her breathing slightly increased in pace.

Slowly, Sylas began to calm. It took much longer than he would have liked to admit, but he stilled the boiling in his heart and the violent, churning air in his lungs.

He exhaled slowly, a turbid flow squeezing out from between his lips.

When he turned to face the Duchess, his cold indifference had already returned.

"This will get dangerous. You will stay by my side. Do you understand?"

The Duchess thought that if she heard something like this from Sylas she would hesitate, that something in her would resist. But her lips parted without her knowledge, her heart speaking through her throat, her words carrying on the flick of her small, pink tongue without the slightest pause.

"Yes." She said softly.

"Good." Sylas nodded, then he turned to Gogo. "I am not sure if I want you to participate in this battle either."

Gogo blinked and then frowned. His and Sylas' thoughts were linked, he felt Sylas' emotion and instinct more deeply than maybe even his women did. This didn't quite make sense based on what he could hear going on in Sylas' mind.

Sylas wasn't saying he didn't need Gogo, he was quite literally saying he didn't know if he wanted Gogo to participate at all.

This wasn't because the danger would be too little, or too great, nor was it because they might run into someone who would recognize Gogo and make things more difficult down the road.

It was purely because Sylas didn't want anyone else's ego and Will getting in the way of his battle.

Gogo knew Sylas too well by this point. For him to be reacting like this, it was either because someone had insulted him, or because someone had challenged him to the point he felt like he had to prove a point.

And Gogo… had very rarely seen Sylas feel the need to prove a point to anyone.

Gogo met Sylas' gaze for a long while, then looked up toward the starry skies. Just what was about to happen, exactly?

At that moment, one of the balcony doors opened and a man handsome beyond words appeared.

His eyes scanned the region and then widened as they landed on the Duchess.

"Sister!"