Genetic Ascension

Chapter 1927: No Phoenix

Every color in the Mancer Scape just felt brighter, more vibrant, almost as though life carried more weight than anywhere else. When there was a powerful creature nearby, this feeling only seemed more exaggerated.

Gogo could feel a wariness for what was ahead, but as sharp as an A-tier beastʼs perception should be, it didnʼt react to them.

No. That wasnʼt what was happening at all.

Gogoʼs expression changed in very human-like ways. The A-tier seemed restrained by something, hesitant, even.

The A-tier had yet to even appear. It was impossible to tell whether it was a fish creature, a serpent, or even a bird that somehow liked to sink its body into deep waters.

But what was clear was that its aura was quickly receding, pulling back further and further until it vanished entirely.

Gogo was even more baffled. What was there to fear here, exactly?

”Youʼre using me.” The Hydra scowled in Sylasʼ mind, but Sylas was too focused on not dying to care about anything else.

He didnʼt even need to actively use the Hydra. Its existence was enough.

The creatures here were, in a lot of ways, just constructs and couldnʼt quite be considered to be true living beings. They represented the Wills of creatures that had once existed or currently did exist, but they werenʼt exactly those creatures.

The secrets of the Mancer Scape were something that Sylas didnʼt quite understand, something that just might be part of the rewards he would receive should he manage to successfully clear this Mirror Dungeon.

That aside, though, there were probably even certain aspects of this fragmented world that made these Beast Constructs even more odd than normal.

Regardless, this series of matters made these beasts incredibly sensitive to Wills, even more so than the usual beast. So when they sensed even lingering attachments to a True God Beast, they wanted absolutely nothing to do with them.

In this world, these creatures fought with their Wills, often being absorbed by other creatures. Their greatest kryptonite was a Will stronger than theirs, even if it was just by perception.

And Sylas was banking on exactly that.

Well, he was also banking on the fact this space was so flexible that he could escape whenever he needed to should things go wrong.

Sylas pulled himself off of Gogo with his telekinesis, drifting toward the lake of gold.

While everyone was distracted by the creatures of the Mancer Scape, they had forgotten one very important thing that Sylas knew all too well.

ʼOpen a Portal to the Mancer Scape, a virtual world that carries the Essence of Path of the Mancer beasts, creatures, and spirits...ʼ

That was the description of the Mancer Scape Token he had received almost a lifetime ago, it felt.

It was true that these beasts represented the Wills of the Beasts they were constructs of, but it wasnʼt just a matter of Will. In fact, that was almost secondary to this space.

The reason why everything felt so bright, so vibrant, was because it was all formed of the purest, most distilled and filtered Aether. These creatures didnʼt just represent strong Beast Wills, but they also represented true Mancer Paths.

The start of Sylasʼ Glassvolt came from a creature of the Mancer Scape, and this gold lake had had some of the strongest concentration of vitality, life, and healing that he had ever seen.

Normally, Sylas would ignore it because it wasnʼt directly related to any one of his individual paths. But right now, he needed something capable of healing him. And whatever could heal him had to be strong enough to expunge the aura of an S-tier from his body.

This was the only chance he had.

Sylasʼ feet dipped into the pool of gold and he immediately felt his heart constrict.

It had nothing to do with the pool of vitality, and everything to do with the A-tier creature hidden within. It was a warning.

As scared as the creature was of the Hydra, the aura of the latter was incredibly faint, and clearly not enough to convince a creature of the A-tier that it was ready and willing to attack at any time.

The A-tier was still exercising caution, but it wasnʼt a fool. It thought that, at most, Sylas had some connection with the True God Beast. That was definitely enough to be wary, but a cornered animal would inevitably bite back.

Sylas understood all of this.

He didnʼt care.

He continued to walk into the large pool of golden waters, step by step, without a single pause. All the while, he made no effort to hide the fact he was aware of the A-tierʼs presence.

He had seen Legends before. He had been in the belly of a True God Beast that had defeated and eaten the True God Beast the A-tier feared so much.

Sylasʼ bravado wasnʼt faked, and the A-tier could feel that.

Sylasʼ head was submerged and he dismissed Gogo into the Hibernation Realm entirely.

Without his eyes, Sylas couldnʼt see a single thing. However, if he had been able to, he would have found himself to be a speck of dust before a creature who, while not nearly as large as the World Serpent, was truly of a caliber all to its own in this Mancer Scape.

It was, indeed, an odd bird. It almost looked like a phoenix, the way the waters churned and smoked around its form looking like flickering flames.

It was no phoenix. Its feathers were metallic and hard, its beak sharp and curved like that of a falcon or an eagle.

As it rose in those golden waters, its wings spread far and wide, Sylas was barely half as tall as just one of its eyes.

And yet, Sylas took a seat right there, even with the creature looming over him, entering a deep state of meditation as Maddened Enlightenment took root.

Sylas exhaled, hard and fast, his body shuddering.

A sliver of an S-tierʼs Will was ripped out of him.