Genetic Ascension

Chapter 2102: Depths of Hell

Sylas entered Faneleiʼs private seclusion quarters. He wasnʼt sure what he expected to find there, but it was actually quite beautiful.

A faint scent of flowery perfumes hung in the air, epoxy and glass with lilies and lotuses of pink, white, and violets embedded within them lining the walls and separating out various living spaces. But the central core of everything was the flowing water and pathways of stone that were perfectly polished and shaped.

By the time you got to Faneleiʼs strength, a lot of experts spent most of their time in seclusion. Maybe things would be different on higher planes of existence, but here, where the path to the S-tier was all but severed, the only choice they had was silence and hope, stretching out time for as long as they could.

Of course, maybe there would be better odds if they went out and risked their lives, but there would also be better odds of immediate death.

The equation wasnʼt always a matter of cowardice, though. The Legends of Clans, Sects, Guilds, or organizations, were all the pillars and backbones of their alliances. It was hard to justify the selfishness it would take to act upon something like that.

”Here.” Sylas said, handing Fanelei the Madness Key that had part of her soul trapped within.

Fanelei didnʼt dare to take it. Her hand shook, hovering in the air, but not quite closing the rest of the distance. If she touched it now, she wasnʼt actually sure what would happen.

Failure to become a True Disciple as someone who followed the Path of Madness should mean death. The only exception to this seemed to be if a Virtue was grasped. When that happened, everyone else just lost access to their Path, but it didnʼt need to cause unnecessary deaths.

However, normally speaking, the Disciples of a Madness would be pitted against one another until just one was left. This was why the Rat and Wrath had been ”chosen”.

The details of this were still a blur for Sylas on that front, but it didnʼt matter much for right now. He would find out soon enough how Wrath and the Rat of all people had managed to become True Disciples.

The oddest part about that was how unkillable the Rat seemed to be. He just kept popping up over and over again, even when Sylas thought he was trapped.

Sylas was 100% sure the Rat had appeared in the attack on the Sanctum. In fact, he had been fighting one of the 713th Emperors, the Ape Emperor. This didnʼt quite add up.

”Take it.” Sylas said.

Fanelei gritted her teeth, her hand moving across the air as though pulled by chains. She took a strong grip of the Madness Key, holding onto it almost too tightly.

Her body shook from head to toe as though something that was always meant to be hers had returned home. For a moment, there was relief, calm, and silence.

But then her heart skipped a beat. It felt like her Will was yanked out of her body for a moment before slamming back down into her heart. An outline of her body flashed around herself and then she felt blankness.

Then nothing but pain.

Veins of red and black crawled up her arm and made it to her throat before she could even resist.

She screamed, the pressure of it alone sending Sylas several steps back.

A wall of Will appeared around Sylas as he tried his best to block it, but Fanelei was truly too powerful. That scream alone had shattered his eardrums, his body feeling like it was on the verge of fragmenting like glass.

Sylas had expected this somewhat. There was a small chance that Fanelei would be fine, and he had hoped for it, but he always knew that if they were going to do something like this, there would be a price to pay.

Fanelei had taken from Madness and now she wanted to claw back from it. Whether the Madness Lineage had fallen or not, this wasnʼt something that she could do just because she wanted to.

However, Sylas wasnʼt going to let her go through it alone.

His hand pulled across the air, fighting against the harsh winds. He could see Fanelei trying to fight back against the black veins crawling up her throat, but they latched on like the claws of a demon trying to drag her down.

”NO!”

A portal appeared beneath her as though pulling her to the depths of hell.

That was when Sylasʼ hand finally managed to grasp at the air, forming a fist that fought against the winds and summoning his scythe.

Chi.

The wall of wind shattered, the scythe sparking with lines of black lightning as the world was forced into an unearthly state of obedience.

Sylas lunged forward, grabbing Faneleiʼs hand as the last of her head was swallowed into the portal. His veins bulged across his jaw as he pulled up.

But very quickly, he realized that this wasnʼt the sort of power they could fight back against.

ʼOkay.ʼ Sylas thought coldly.

With that thought, he stopped fighting and was pulled down right with Fanelei, everything falling to darkness.

Behind him, the portal closed and the room fell to complete silence as though nothing at all had happened.

While chaos was brewing, Sylas and Fanelei seemed to have disappeared from the world.

…

Sylas couldnʼt remember the last time he hadnʼt landed on his feet. His ability to orient his body and control it was practically second to none at this point.

But that didnʼt stop him from face planting into the ground as though a powerful palm had slapped him down from above.

Sylasʼ gaze grew a steely cold and his Will flashed. The palm, or whatever it was, shattered, and he managed to slowly pull himself up to his feet.

ʼWhere did she go?ʼ Sylas thought, his eyes narrowing.

He didnʼt see Fanelei anywhere, nor did he feel her. But what he saw…