Genetic Ascension

Chapter 2366: No One

Sylas remained silent while the two finished speaking, his gaze resting on the enormous ancestral projection with the same cold patience he had shown throughout the battle.

The younger God, Orithrael, lifted his head as the figure of his ancestor descended farther, and the two presences began to overlap until emerald-gold feathers spread through one another and the ancient projection fused directly into the body of its descendant.

The change wasn’t merely one of aura, because every Rune across Orithrael’s feathers deepened, violet facets darkened, and something ancient settled behind his eyes.

”My name is Thaeloryn, little mortal, and the blood flowing through this descendant of mine belongs to the Heavenly Serpent Race.” The voice came from Orithrael’s body now, but something older layered beneath every word and caused the skies to bend with each syllable. ”Among Serpentes, there is no nobler lineage, whether you search among those who live now or those whose names have already been lost to history.”

Thaeloryn spread Orithrael’s wings, and the countless natural Heaven Runes across his feathers expanded outward until they covered the atmosphere like an enormous invisible net.

”Other Beasts require the recognition of the system, fortunate mutations, Overlord Race status, or whatever other little titles existence chooses to bestow upon them, but we have never needed such things. With the system or without it, recognized or rejected, we will stand above them because that is our right.”

His gaze fell toward Sylas with something close to amusement, as though the very idea of needing to explain such a thing was beneath him.

”I can feel what you are doing, even if I don’t know the names you’ve given those little Professions of yours. One claims dominion over Serpentes, while another allows you to dissect the Genes of the living and the dead through those seals, and both are impressive achievements for someone who climbed from the Mortal Plane.”

Thaeloryn chuckled as the Runes across Orithrael’s body pulsed in response to his Will.

”Your Rune Mastery is even more remarkable, but therein lies the difference between us, because what you must comprehend through effort, we understand naturally. Then, when a Heavenly Serpent chooses to step beyond instinct and actually comprehend what has always belonged to us, that natural advantage becomes something creatures beneath us have no hope of matching.”

The skies rippled around him without the slightest movement of his hands, wind sharpening into blades, light changing direction, and pressure gathering into structures too intricate to have been consciously built in such a short span of time. Thaeloryn seemed pleased with his own explanation, pausing before another soft laugh escaped him.

”Forgive me, I tend to speak too much when something catches my interest. I expected this foolish descendant of mine to let me kill you outright, but since he insists on taking your head himself someday, I suppose I’ll have to restrain myself.”

The pressure surrounding Sylas continued climbing as Thaeloryn’s tone became almost conversational again.

”Still, you should understand what sort of trouble you’ve chosen to invite before I leave, so consider what comes next a lesson.”

On the distant moon, Vaelith had forgotten to blink, and even Yamero’s usual amusement had vanished as he stared toward the Mesmeryx world with narrowed Rune-built eyes.

A God projecting some power downward was one thing, but Thaeloryn wasn’t merely sending an attack through the boundary between Planes, he was actively fusing with Orithrael and using him as a vessel during a Quicktime Event that explicitly restricted participants to Level 200.

The longer Yamero watched, the less sense the situation made.

”That shouldn’t be possible,” Yamero muttered, his gaze never leaving the enormous Rune network spreading around Orithrael. ”If interference at this level was allowed, Gentrixaul would have done it already.”

Vaelith looked down at him, only for Yamero’s expression to shift as something finally clicked into place.

”Ah... that’s disgusting.” He leaned forward slightly, studying the interaction between the Heaven Runes and the surrounding reality before continuing, ”They’re making their own rules.”

Yamero’s scholarly interest overcame his concern for a moment as he tracked the formation more closely.

”Those natural Heaven Runes aren’t just controlling the environment, they’re carving out a region of reality where the Heavenly Serpents’ own rules are being treated as valid. They aren’t breaking the system’s restrictions head-on, they’re building a space where those restrictions apply differently, which might make them one of the best Races in existence at cheating the system.”

Vaelith looked back toward Sylas, but neither of them had any idea how he intended to answer something like this.

Thaeloryn’s presence continued pressing downward, the skies bending beneath the authority of an existence that had no business exerting this much power on the Demi-God Plane.

Then Sylas finally spoke.

”No one in this world can stop me from killing who I want to kill.”

Thaeloryn’s smile froze as a roaring hurricane of emerald erupted within Sylas’ eyes, the layered Runes of his irises rotating so quickly that their boundaries began to blur.

Thaeloryn had been wrong about one thing, because Sylas didn’t possess two Professions of consequence, he possessed three, and the third had always been waiting within the dual nature of Runeweaver.

The Weaving Irises took Runes that should have required careful construction and bound them together at impossible speeds, allowing Sylas to create vast meshes and formations without sacrificing precision.

The Unravelling Pupils served the opposite purpose, stripping Runes down toward their barest components and peeling away layers of complexity until only the fundamental pieces remained.

Sylas had used that ability countless times before, but his newly evolved eyes, Fathomless Rune Mastery, and Eternal Will had transformed what it meant to truly unravel something.

When his pupils dilated and the Death Seal formed within them, the authorities of Reaper Sealwright and Runeweaver overlapped directly for the first time.

The Death Seal rotated inside the darkness of Sylas’ pupils while the Unravelling Pupils locked onto the ancient structure Thaeloryn had used to descend. His eyes trembled beneath the strain as dead Genes, inherited Runes, ancestral Will, and the reverse scale binding them all together separated into distinct layers before his gaze.

Thaeloryn’s expression changed at once as he finally realized Sylas wasn’t trying to resist his descent at all, but was instead dissecting the mechanism that allowed it to exist.

”What are—”

BOOM.

The reverse scale exploded as its ancient Runes unraveled from the inside outward, one section collapsing into another while the Death Seal seized the dead ancestral Genes supporting the entire manifestation.

Thaeloryn’s projection distorted violently, his connection to Orithrael shredding before either God could react, and the younger Heavenly Serpent shrieked as a hole erupted through the center of his body.

Blood and emerald-gold feathers exploded across the skies while Thaeloryn’s vast presence vanished as though someone had cut the thread holding it to the Demi-God Plane.

Orithrael’s body went limp and began falling toward the ruined lands below, but Sylas reached out with his telekinesis and caught a single feather before he could disappear into the distance.

The Heavenly Serpent stopped in midair, his entire enormous body hanging helplessly from that one point beneath Sylas’ control, while silence settled across the Mesmeryx world.