Genetic Ascension

Chapter 2382: Distortions

The Beast Emperor Sanctum spread across the void in a range of mountains so vast that even the Hollow Ship seemed insignificant before it, every peak carrying the pressure of a different Beast Will.

Some rose like hooked claws, others resembled crouching predators or coiled serpents when viewed from the correct angle, and many no longer matched the forms Sylas remembered from the first time he had entered this place.

Months ago, he had reforged the Rune Armors tied to many of these inheritances, and the changes had propagated far beyond what he understood at the time.

Some of the Beast Wills had mutated as a result, their original paths altered by the improvements Sylas had introduced into their Rune structures. He could feel his own imprint scattered throughout the mountain range now, not enough that the Sanctum belonged to him, but enough that portions of it responded to his presence with faint fluctuations of familiarity.

It was an odd feeling, almost as though he had planted seeds here long ago without realizing that one day he would return to find an entire forest had grown around them.

A system notification appeared before his eyes.

[Quicktime Event Mutation Detected]

[Heavens Clash — Phase Two]

300]”> [Level Limit Increased: 200 > 300]

[Event Type Updated: Gated Participation]

[Participation Requirement: 1,000 Confirmed Kills]

[Only qualified participants may compete for the Karma of the Beast Heaven and Skai Heaven during this phase.]

Sylas read the notification once and dismissed it from his attention, since the requirement meant almost nothing to him at this point. He had crossed the threshold long ago, his kill count already having reached a level where another thousand barely registered as a meaningful number, though the change itself confirmed that whatever was happening with the Beast Emperor Sanctum had become part of the Heaven Clash.

The mountain range continued solidifying until the hazy outlines became almost completely real, but instead of settling into the Demi-God Plane like an ordinary rising world, the Beast Emperor Sanctum began doing something else. Sylas felt the shift first through its Runes, then through the Will woven into the space surrounding it, and his eyes narrowed as a second connection formed somewhere far above.

The Sanctum had always been strange. Even while anchored to the Mortal Plane, it contained a secret realm carrying the unmistakable aura of the Demi-God Plane, something that should never have existed so naturally inside a lower Plane.

Sylas had noticed the contradiction long ago and filed it away with the other abnormalities surrounding this place, but now that the Beast Emperor Sanctum had risen into the Demi-God Plane, the same phenomenon was repeating itself. Only this time, the aura came from the God Plane.

The connection strengthened until the entire mountain range trembled, and an invisible pressure spread outward with enough force that even the void surrounding it seemed to flatten.

Sylas’ perception expanded through the disturbance, following the relationships as they formed, and what he found made even him pause for a moment.

The Mortal, Demi-God, and God Planes of the Beast Heaven had suddenly become connected through the Sanctum. And, the same thing was happening on the Skai side.

Six Planes that should have existed beneath entirely different layers of restriction were being dragged toward a common framework, not physically collapsing into one another, but close enough that the distance between them no longer felt absolute.

For the first time, Sylas could sense all six as though they had been forced onto the same playing field.

**

On the God Plane, Thaeloryn opened his eyes.

He sat alone within a vast chamber carved from a material that looked like translucent emerald jade, his enormous serpent form coiled around itself while countless feathered scales rested flat against his body. The moment the six Planes shifted, each of those scales lifted slightly, responding to the change before settling again beneath an oppressive silence.

Thaeloryn didn’t smile. There was no excitement in his expression, nor did murderous intent surge from him despite the opportunity suddenly appearing before his Race. Instead, his thoughts returned to Orithrael and the final moments of his descendant’s life.

He had been there. That fact was what bothered him most.

Thaeloryn had descended through the reverse scale, fused a portion of his Will and ancestral strength with Orithrael, and still failed to change the outcome. He had watched a Mortal tear apart something that should have stood beyond the reach of C-tier existence, watched his own descendant refuse his offer to kill Sylas directly, and then watched Orithrael die before he could correct the mistake himself.

The humiliation ran deeper than his anger. It was easy to blame Sylas, but Thaeloryn had lived too long to hide from the more uncomfortable truth.

He had believed that allowing Orithrael to finish the battle himself would temper the young genius, and somewhere beneath that decision had been the certainty that even if something went wrong, Thaeloryn would still be there to prevent the worst.

He had been wrong.

Now the restrictions between Planes were changing. For another Race, that might have sounded like opportunity.

Thaeloryn only stared into the distance.

If he sent more descendants after Sylas Grimblade, would he be avenging Orithrael, or simply giving Sylas more Heavenly Serpents to kill?

The thought sat heavily in the chamber as Thaeloryn closed his eyes once more.

**

Sylas continued watching the Beast Emperor Sanctum as the connection between the six Planes stabilized.

Nosphaleen stood close enough that her arm brushed his, while Vaelith remained several steps behind them and Yamero leaned against the edge of the Hollow Ship with unusual focus. None of them spoke, since even without Sylas’ new perception, the scale of what had just changed was impossible to miss.

The Beast Emperor Sanctum pulsed again. This time, the system answered immediately.

[Quicktime Event Mutation Detected]

Sylas’ gaze sharpened.

The first line remained suspended before him for several seconds, yet nothing else followed.

Then the entire notification began to distort.