Genetic Ascension

Chapter 1876: Unfortunate (2)

It felt like every power Sylas could possibly pull on was snuffed out. Even his Will wasnʼt quite working properly, Maldrithʼs reach feeling almost unfathomable. It was like the Gold Worldʼs Progenitor was on the verge of turning Sylasʼ body itself into a part of the world, thus allowing him to gain control over even it.

Sylas perceived that even his thinking speed had slowed, his Time Progenitor Flame Ability not working with nearly the same level of efficiency. It felt like it took twice the effort to think half as fast as he used to. And because of that, he was slow to react in the worst of circumstances.

He could only watch as the first fist ripped through his chest, intimately feeling his lungs and part of his heart explode within his torso, his ribcage itself turning to ash.

When he felt the fist rip its way back out, crackling pulses of Aether leaving all the more damage as the next one was already on its way, it felt like it was over.

He didnʼt even bother to look over at Fanelei or ask for help. It wouldnʼt make a difference. Even if Fanelei could resist the Progenitor, any delay would end in Sylasʼ death. Bulese was too close.

Plus, this Progenitor was almost certainly an A-tier infinitely close to the S-tier, just like Fanelei was. Even if Fanelei could win a battle on neutral ground-something that was far from certain on the Gold World she didnʼt stand a single chance.

In fact, Fanelei was still in a bit of a daze herself. She hadnʼt made any move to help. She was partly acknowledging Sylasʼ words from before to not interfere unless he explicitly asked, and partly trying to figure out what he wanted to do.

Fanelei had no idea there was a Progenitor on this world, so she wasnʼt actually aware of what had happened. It didnʼt make sense to her that Sylas would go from sheer domination to the situation being so clearly reversed in an instant.

To her, it was either that the two were using a treasure far more powerful than even she had the means to detect- something she thought was impossible—or that Sylas was doing this on purpose.

Why Sylas would be doing this on purpose, she had not a single clue. But he had proven many times before that he did things unfathomable to her.

Progenitors were simply too rare, and as someone who had neither ever met one nor experienced their abilities in real time, Fanelei couldnʼt sense or guess at what was happening... not that being able to do so would have changed anything.

In fact, as an extra hint of precaution, Maldrith had taken extra care to fuse his interference with the presence of the world itself. It felt little different from a breeze in the air or the sway of a current in the ocean.

If Sylas had been a Progenitor himself, and even he could only guess that Maldrith had interfered. He hadnʼt sensed it before it came at all; otherwise, he would have never been so caught off guard.

Even Maldrith had no idea that his covert actions had helped him stall Sylas far more than they had helped him avoid interfering with Fanelei directly.

Right about now, though, Maldrith wasnʼt thinking about this. Instead, he was shaking his head and slowly standing. He realized that after Sylas died, Fanelei might be enraged beyond measure.

To deal with a Legend, he couldnʼt do it from afar so casually. In fact, he didnʼt want to.

It had been too long since he stretched these old bones of his. Fighting Fanelei without the support of his Progenitor status sounded fun.

Blood that had felt stale and dormant in Maldrith for so very long suddenly churned and began to heat up a beat.

ʼHm, maybe there is some good to come out of this, after all.ʼ

Maldrith began to hope that Fanelei came from a truly powerful force. Only that would make all of this worthwhile.

If at least a few of those annoying old fogies didnʼt die, then what would be the point?

It was fine if even he died if there was a great battle in store.

These... didnʼt seem like the thoughts of a man a certain A-tier had described as a pacifist at all...

Maldrith vanished from his mountain of gold.

Sylasʼ Progenitor Flames danced in bronzed light, flickering back and forth as though they might expire at any moment. Pulling on them just the slightest bit allowed him to regain some of his thought speed, but the fist was already there.

There was no dodging it, and without his Will responding to him as well as he wanted it to, he could neither use his telekinesis nor draw Runes. While his Will still had some movement within him, whether it was Rune Mastery or Telekinetic Martial Arts, both required him to impose his Will onto the outside world.

He had thought several times now about how too many of his strongest abilities relied on Will. Now it seemed that he had nothing left to give.

Certainly, that was what everyone believed. It was what Bulese believed too as she punched with all her might, so focused on pressing him into the corner of final death that she stepped over even her brother.

She didnʼt have time to allow Kalem to get up. She wanted Sylas dead, and she wanted him dead now, reacting so quickly that Kalem was still plodding to understand what was happening even as Sylasʼ blood splashed all over him.

Yet, in that moment, that last moment before Buleseʼs fist landed, she seemed to feel Sylasʼ eyes turn to face her.

There was no time for his head to turn, no time for his body to shift, but his eyes... they had time to bore right into hers.

And in that final moment before his death, she seemed to see an abyss staring right back at her.

They didnʼt seem like the eyes of a man who was facing his death at all.

And then her fist landed.