Genetic Ascension

The Monkey King's staff suddenly swung up to meet Sylas' own.

In that moment, one could have almost said that the two of them had swapped bodies. During their first battle, it was the Monkey King with the wild grin and oppressive, unbridled style, while Sylas was the one with the cold glare and focused gaze.

This time, it was the complete opposite.

Sylas relocated like the wind. The echo of his first strike had hardly landed when he comboed into a second and a third.

He suddenly kicked out as a fourth strike, the first three having been blocked by the flickering afterimages of the Monkey King's staff. It hardly felt like the staff was trackable, moving so fast through the air it never stayed in the same spot for more than a fraction of a second.

But Sylas' mind seemed ten steps ahead. His scythe swirled and moved in rotating hard winds that sliced through the void of space, mixing a flurry of feints and strikes that were nigh impossible to follow.

He matched the Monkey King's superior speed and agility with a skill that seemed beyond what a human should have been able to manage.

And when his foot stomped out and collided with the Monkey King's chest to his bulging eyes' horror, it felt like it was a kick that could have never been dodged in the first place.

BOOM. freёwebnovel.com

Air currents blasted out from the Monkey King's back, the force of the blow deforming his rib cage so much just the echo of the snap and pop kicked up winds that could have leveled mountains.

Sylas didn't manage to slam through the Monkey King's body, but it didn't matter, not when he was already gearing up his fifth strike, then his sixth and seventh.

Sylas' momentum grew, his Will spilling out into the world in endless, undying torrents. He surged ahead, his eyes darting around as though he was fighting dozens of enemies at once instead of just one.

But in reality, he was accounting for the shifting Runes in the air, the twinkling currents of the Aether, the vibrating solar winds themselves. There was no variable he wasn't accounting for, no calculation that was beyond his means to grasp.

Infinite. His mind felt infinite, endless, unmovable and undeniable.

Unfathomable.

Fathomless.

Chi. Chi. Chi. Chi. Chi.

Ribbons of blood were cut out of the Monkey King's body. He stumbled back again and again, his hand-like feet planting harder and harder with every hurried and stumbling retreat.

A line of blood was cut out of his cheek, then his shoulder. The scythe hooked to his back, pulling forth like he was about to be yanked off a stage, when in reality such a strike landing would have undoubtedly split him in two.

It was like the Monkey King had completely lost his creativity in battle. He was too predictable, too readable. His strength and raw speed were so far beyond Sylas' own, and yet it didn't seem to matter at all.

An emerald glow coated Sylas' body, a golden radiance spilling out from its cracks almost like it didn't just want to be a simple green any longer.

And hidden within that gold, a crackling array of colors seemed hidden even further beneath.

Every shift and change that came from Sylas caused a ripple through his Will itself, and in response, he only seemed to become faster.

Sparks of lightning spontaneously formed around Sylas, surging and combining, splitting and multiplying.

A dome of control formed around him. He hadn't summoned his Hibernation Realm through his Luminar Dominion, much the same way as he hadn't used Gogo, or used the Ruby Ouroboros.

There was a difference between himself and the Monkey King, and that was something that he would show the latter now for no other reason than to prove a point.

He, Sylas Grimblade, had no need for the help of others, and if he had such a starting position and lost to someone who started so much further beneath him… He would rather kill himself than do any of this.

BOOM.

Chi. Chi. Chi.

Sylas' palm slammed against the Monkey King's chest. His scythe spun in his other hand, knowing he wouldn't have the angle, he slammed the butt against the side of the Monkey King's head instead.

His foot pressed down to the ground, shaking the world and driving his spinning momentum to a sudden stop.

His other foot swept behind him. It almost looked like he was taking an arching step back, but instead, his scythe swung out to the other side, both completing a half moon until they took a strong stance to the back of his body.

Sylas roared and he swung his scythe forward.

All the spontaneously forming lightning around him seemed to come together, surging and layering into one pulsing radiance of emerald and violet so pure and solid it didn't even look like crackling lightning anymore.

Instead, it almost looked as though Sylas had sent a blade flying forward almost like a starship cutting through the void.

It didn't give off the slightest fluctuation, not revealing even a hint of the fact it had been formed from the most volatile Aether in all of existence.

Sylas had reached a level of control that was simply unfathomable. It was so unfathomable that it had been given a name on the God Plane, so rare it was even on the Demi-God Plane that such a name could have only come from a level beyond.

It was a name Sylas didn't know now, nor did he care to know.

It was entirely irrelevant.

The only name that mattered…

Was his own.

Chi.

The blade split the Monkey King in two and a shockwave of erupting Will filled the skies.

Chi. Chi. Chi.

Sparks of lightning formed around the Monkey King's waist and hip. He viewed down at his severed body, his expression unreadable.

Sylas exhaled a breath, sparking lines of fire exuding from their corners.

"I wonder…" the Monkey King said softly. "… How much longer can you keep this up?"

He raised his staff and slammed down.

Sylas felt his head gripped by a fist.