Genetic Ascension

Chapter 1310: Firecracker [Bonus]

[Bonus Chapter Thanks to Chronotitan <3]

Sylas’ eyes flashed open. The dome above him was a faint golden hue, lines of violet being etched across it.

His hands shot up to his chest, thinking he’d grasp at air, only to find that the Madness Key really was still there.

It didn’t take him long to recall what happened and the situation that he was in now. Not to mention, he noticed that the Scorned Wraps were also still present.

Honestly, he had no idea how they had done it, but they always seemed capable of bending reality around themselves. At the very least, even that middle-aged man didn’t seem to have noticed what happened.

Sylas pulled himself to the edge of the bed he sat on, and the world around him swayed. It wasn’t because he was dizzy, but instead because it was like the Runes were shifting and changing as the world bent and twisted.

In one moment, he had felt like he was lying on a luxurious bed in a palace of violet-gold, and in the next moment, he was sitting on a cot in a straw hut.

Though he described it as such, the room was clean and smelled of fresh rainwater and grass. There wasn’t a single bug in sight, almost as though it was taken from an idealized vision of what nature should be instead of what it truly was.

Sylas sat there for a while, loose linen boxers being his only hint of clothing.

There was no rage in him anymore, nor was there any despair. But the fact there wasn’t made him question things as he recalled.

In those moments… it was like his True Pride Seed and the others had rushed to hide. And without them, it was like his sense of self had crumbled.

’No…’

It was deeper than that.

The surface answer was that without his Pride Seed, his Pride crumbled too easily. But that wasn’t exactly what happened.

His True Pride Seed and his Pride were one and the same now. The latter birthed the former, and it was what allowed the existence of him as a True Vessel of Sin.

When his Seeds went away, they weren’t just taking themselves away, but also taking a part of himself. That made his mind more fragile.

That was all to say that… he and his Seeds were practically one and the same now. There was no easy way to separate them, as he had already noticed under the effects of Taboo Bond.

Sylas looked down at his hand. It looked much the same, as though nothing at all had changed, and yet everything had.

Slowly, he stood to his feet and opened up the hut’s door.

A wall of wind hit him—nothing harsh, but most definitely enough to blow his hair back. Out in the distance, there was a large horizon stretching far in meandering curves of thick greenery.

The sun peeked over the horizon, and when Sylas looked to his side, he found someone unfamiliar sitting on a rock nearby.

The young man had spikes coming down along his back and out of his cheeks. They seemed flexible and loose enough to blow in the wind, and yet somehow also rigid enough that you wouldn’t want to touch them with a ten-foot pole.

The Poison Aether that hung in the air was thick and heavy, and even with his resistances, Sylas held his breath and closed his pores, feeling that another sniff might end his life.

“Whoops, sorry about that. I’m used to being the weakest here, but between you and little sis, I guess I’ve got to rein that in now. You can call me Khan. I’m master’s second disciple.” The young man smiled.

Sylas looked at him for a moment, noticing the greens that should have been the whites of his eyes and those golden irises that hovered within. There was something densely dangerous about this man, but maybe that was the case for most D-tiers to him.

Unfortunately, as close as Khan was to the C-tier, he was still ultimately a D-tier. Sylas could resist his presence quite well.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Sylas Grimblade. As for which disciple number I am, I think it’s fourth, but I’ve never confirmed.”

Khan blinked as though surprised that Sylas could speak at all.

“How interesting. You’re like a perfect copy of master, aren’t you. Not unlike that bastard Ekear, who only knows how to pretend but is a real ball of fluff.”

Sylas didn’t respond, just looking back out to the sea of trees again. It was odd—he hadn’t thought about exactly what to do yet, but maybe he should. He was wasting time.

“I heard that you caused quite some commotion this time. It’s been a while since I’ve seen master so angry, he almost charged up those steps again. I had to call in gramps, otherwise he would’ve gotten himself killed.”

“Gramps?” Sylas asked, not looking Khan’s way.

“Yeah. That’s what we call master’s master. Though, we hadn’t actually seen him in a while before today. It seems the mess this time is quite big. The Core Sanctum was up in arms too.”

“Is that so?” Sylas continued to look out onto the rising sun. He didn’t think it was actually that big of a deal at all. Wasn’t this just life?

The strong took what they wanted, when they wanted. The fact he was alive was probably gift enough to them.

Khan laughed. “You really are like master. It’ll take more than that to get you angry, huh? Either that, or you’re already so furious that you still haven’t decided how you want to deal with this situation. Is that it?”

The laughter echoed across the tall mountain, feeding into the winds and carrying it further.

“But now I’m really interested. You know, little sis has a pretty hot temper too—that’s why she’s not even here right now. Having a second firecracker will be fun. I’ve been bored out of my mind here. Tell me, what are you going to do?”

Sylas didn’t answer immediately, his gaze still on the rising sun. And then a new Armor began to form on his body, shingle by shingle. The Scorpion Warlord Armor at 100% Mastery.

“Kill.”

Sylas said simply, a new Unique Gene hovering into existence before him.

—

[F-Grade Gold Gene Detected]