Genetic Ascension

Chapter 1941: Curtain of Crimson

Nosphaleen fought and struggled, pushing again and again to the point blood poured from her ears, nose, and even her eyes. But nothing changed.

The power of a God was too great.

Had Sylas really had something like that in his mind? How was he even able to stand for so long?

The thoughts of Sylas made Nosphaleen start to weep.

She truly couldnʼt remember the last time she had cried. Growing up in a dungeon as the pawn of the Sylphs, grinding everyday for a hope at revenge against those that had done her wrong, tears wasnʼt something she had had the right to shed.

If she cried, who would cry for the Ancestors that fell before her? The Clypsians who would never see the light of the sun or feel the soothing chill of the ocean?

But right this moment, a dam she couldnʼt even begin to control broke. It shattered her very being and shuddered through her Will.

And then she screamed.

Reality found itself bending and twisting, a power an E-tier should have never had erupting from her. She pulled, and pulled, and pulled on her Mesmeryx Bloodline, hoping to bend illusion to reality just enough, just enough to reverse what was happening here, just enough to bring her Sylas back to her.

But that fraction of a moment, that most subtle of pauses fragmented mere split seconds after.

Something within her broke once more and a barrier she had tried to crawl her way past crushed her from above.

Her skin exploded in a rain of blood, her bones shattering one after another. Genes within her constricted and corroded, some being loops in chains that went beyond the bounds of time and space.

She would have fallen if not for the bindings of the Hydra keeping her in place.

And right then, just when she thought she had lost, just when she felt that there was nothing left for her in this world and that everything she had would be taken away... She felt a hand land on her shoulder.

The hand was nothing but skeleton. It oozed of an emerald gold aura, but there was no flesh or sinew in sight.

When Nosphaleen used what little energy she had left to barely look up, she found a skeletal head looking back at her much the same way. It too, had no flesh, no sinew, no sign of life other than the orbs of dancing fire and flame that hovered in its sockets.

And yet, Nosphaleen knew. She knew exactly who it was she was looking at.

”Sy... las...?” the words were squeezed out with what effort she had left. As though a light at the end of the tunnel she grasped at them, trying to hold them strong but feeling them slip right through her fingers.

The world seemed to fade and vanish, leaving nothing but the skeleton with a floating curled serpent at his ear and a scythe casually resting between the crook of his wrist and his shoulder.

The face was not there, but the general air of unbotheredness, of casual indifference, could have only ever come from just a single person, just one man.

Sylas Grimblade.

For a long while, Sylas just stood there, gazing at Nosphaleen. And then he looked away, his eyes landing on the enormous body of black roaring into the skies.

It was so powerful he couldnʼt even look at it directly. It was little more than a shadow even to his eyes, but a shadow that made a statement that shook the world.

Those horns that pierced the veil of the skies especially.

Tall and proud, they protruded from Gogoʼs head and caused the clouds to churn and lightning to pulse in weaving strikes.

Sylas didnʼt seem intent on making a move at all, and when Nosphaleen tried to find where his body had been just moments ago, she found, to her astonishment, that it wasnʼt there.

That was when it clicked for her. This wasnʼt some projection or fusion. This was Sylas. This was Sylas in the flesh.

But... how?

Despite not understanding, Nosphaleen found herself becoming many times calmer. Although she still couldnʼt move, it didnʼt matter anymore to her. In fact, kneeling there, blood and tears streaking her face, her Will torn to tatters and her body on the verge of dying itself, she smiled.

She smiled the sweetest smile she maybe ever had in her life, a smile that could have made birds sing and butterflies break free of their cocoons, a smile that outshone the sun and twinkled more than the stars in the clearest of night skies.

Silly her. She couldnʼt believe she contemplated that Sylas had died.

Sylas would have never summoned a weapon so early for no reason. So why had he suddenly summoned the Grim Blade just to walk out of his own Hibernation Realm?

Inviting a lion into your own den was certainly a recipe for disaster. Sylas had hoped to use the Hydra in the long term, but dealing with the Pride of a God, especially one that had lost not long ago in such terrible fashion, wasnʼt simple.

How could a God ever fall in line and listen to the words of a Mortal? The Hydra would have always rather died than see such an end result. At least that was what it had said.

Instead, though, it seemed it had only jumped out of Sylasʼ mind after it realized it had a path out thanks to Gogo.

Another coward. Another person who liked the aesthetic of Pride without truly understanding what it meant to be Prideful.

One might wonder why it was that of all the creatures Sylas could have chosen, he decided on the Ruby Finger Serpent to become the basis of his new Ruby Ouroboros Serpentes.

The answer was singular.

Stat asymmetry.

”Since you would rather die than follow me, I will grant you death, then.” Sylas said coldly, taking a single step and raising his scythe. ”Bloodburn.”

Chi.

Sylas vanished. In his wake, the world split in two under the weight of a curtain of crimson.