Genetic Ascension

Chapter 1843: Let Them Come [Bonus]

BOOM.

Xalorʼs body went limp again, his body barely staying in the air because Sylas caught the armor by its collar.

What was left of him looked like the pinnacle of savagery. All that was left of his armor was the chest protector, his arms, and one partially reformed leg hanging out naked.

It was hard not to see the parallels. Just a moment ago, Sylas had lost all of his limbs, only for Xalor to suffer a worse fate.

The difference?

Sylas had actually managed to take his head this time.

The armors of the Angels and Valentrix were surely top-level items. Making them explode like Sylas had so many other treasures before was extremely difficult. The higher level the treasure, the more impossible such a thing was.

Making a treasure explode required targeting individual Runes and specific weaknesses. But even if you had the skill to find those weaknesses, most high-level treasures had those weaknesses well protected such that they couldnʼt be easily accessed by an enemy in the midst of battle.

The better the weapon, the harder it was to find this weakness, and the harder it was to actually take advantage of that weakness.

It was unfortunate, then, that Sylas had eaten Xalorʼs great sword, then used Mixed Chaotic Arts and [Primal Gut] to both devour and consume the very essence of the Runes that formed it.

The moment he understood the philosophy of the treasures, not only was targeting the treasures built with the same philosophies far easier... But so was understanding every one of Xalorʼs attack patterns.

”Go ahead.” Sylas said coolly. ”Recover again.”

He spoke to Xalorʼs corpse like it was alive. But while Xalor himself was dead, the energy around him was very much not. It was still acting independently, still trying to act and change.

It wasnʼt willing to give up. Xalor was the bridge that made all of this possible. So long as it remained attached to Xalor, it could continue to act, it could continue to strengthen Xalor and power him.

But there wasnʼt much room left to improve Xalor. The latter was already approaching the very limits of what was allowed beneath Demi-Godhood. Plus he had external boosts from the bridge and the golden energy.

”I said.” Sylas spoke unhurriedly. ”Recover again.”

The golden energy churned, but this time it didnʼt seem to be out of its own free will.

Xalorʼs neck, or what was left of it, pulsed with wiggling flesh and his head quickly began to reform after that.

Sylas extended his free hand and the two burning brass orbs that had fallen from Xalorʼs skull appeared in his palm. He tossed them into the air and suddenly punched just as Xalorʼs head reformed.

The two original brass orbs and the two newly formed ones smashed into one another with Sylasʼ fist behind them both.

Xalorʼs head exploded again.

Four burning brass orbs formed in the skies.

”Recover again.”

BANG.

”Recover again.”

BANG.

”Recover again.”

BANG.

The world had been in silence for a long while now. And now, the only thing they seemed capable of hearing... again... and again... was Sylasʼ voice.

He looked like a complete mess. His body was covered with his and Xalorʼs blood. His limbs were barely connecting through his body with telekinesis more powerful than it felt any E-tier should have. And yet it didnʼt seem to matter in the slightest.

He forced Xalor to come back to life every time only to shatter his head again. And then again. And then again.

For a moment, they thought he was doing it to collect eyes. But at some point, they filled the skies in such dense numbers that it had long passed the need or the efficacy of it all.

Whatever Sylas needed them for, by the time he absorbed the first few dozen, the effects would already have been at near zero.

Sylas wasnʼt doing it because he needed anything from Xalor.

He was humiliating the Valentrix. Stripping them of their energy because he could. Killing their representative because he could. Speaking out, not because he had to, but because he could.

A devilish aura flourished from him and the golden roads of the Valentrix began to pulse with black.

”You have one chance remaining.”

A voice that wasnʼt Sylasʼ own finally echoed out. It was calm and ancient, all-encompassing and omnipresent. It felt almost like it was a voice pouring out of Sylasʼ pores themselves.

Sylas didnʼt even react like he had heard the words at all.

”Explode.”

The chest plate of Xalorʼs armor erupted, shredding his body to pieces.

”Recover.”

Xalorʼs naked body appeared in the air, dangling by his hair from the tips of Sylasʼ fingers. It was a careless disregard that was impossible to describe in just words alone.

Sylas took a step, appearing across the world before the first small squadron. They didnʼt last a single moment before he took another and vanished again, and then again.

The golden bridges opened to crumble, the Valentrix holding them in place no longer amongst the living.

Sylas appeared above Casstle Main once again, Xalor still dangling from his fingertips.

The eyes in the skies started to burn, large numbers of Runes forming into a complex formation that expanded, and then expanded further.

The golden roads cracked and crumbled.

[Sacred Oculum Transmutation (???) (Secret)]

Sylasʼ head tilted up to the skies and he roared.

Large amounts of energy began to pour toward him in greater and greater quantities.

As expected, by the time he had finished absorbing the first few dozen, and especially after the first hundred, the results were increasingly diminished.

He just didnʼt care.

WHOOSH.

The last of the eyes was swallowed whole and a radiant light came from Sylasʼ pupils.

The abyss faded from his eyes, leaving a pair of icy emerald surrounded by a ring of gold even more prominent

now than it had ever been before.

Earth shook.

Sylas felt that enough time had passed. He felt no need to wait for six more days.

He would complete this Summoning now.

Let them come.

BANG.

He squeezed Xalor to death with a flex of his claws.