Genetic Ascension

Chapter 1943: Triggered

[Title Upgraded]

[King Slayer > God Slayer]

[Error-Anomaly Detected]

[Title Cannot be Assigned-]

[Error-Anomaly Detected]

[Rebooting. Attempting to Assign Title]

[Error-Anomaly Detected]

>

^

The string of notifications was like an endless descending loop. It felt like the system was continuously trying to do something and yet continuously failing at the same time.

[Title Host, {Sylas Grimblade}, is dead]

[Title Host, {Sylas Grimblade}, cannot receive God Slayer Title]

[Error-Anomaly Detected]

Sylasʼ eyes narrowed. He was obviously not dead. He was standing here free and fine.

But there was also a reason for that. As corrupted as the Hydraʼs mind had become, a God had definite instincts that came as a matter of integral knowledge that werenʼt so easily removed.

To properly illustrate this matter, how many IQ points would a Human of Earth before the Summoning have to lose before they forgot what 1+1 was?

There were certain simple facts, so ingrained into oneʼs understanding of the world, that one would have to lose quite a lot before you reached a point where you no longer understood even that.

As easily as a human would check the box for ”2” in answer to that question, was about as easily as the Hydra could understand the line between life and death and comprehend the relation of Will to it.

Given that, how could the Hydra make the mistake of allowing Sylas to live when it comprehended that it would have to eradicate Sylasʼ Will in order to ensure that he was dead?

Of course, there was a chance that the Hydra was simply arrogant and thought that even if there was a slim chance that Sylas would survive that it would count for nothing... Except that wasnʼt the case at all.

In the short time the Hydra had been following Sylas, it had not only confirmed that he was a Mortal who had somehow mastered True Rune Creation, but it had also seen that Sylas was someone who had come out from the belly of a World Serpent all on his own, stolen from an A-tier as a mere E-tier, and even created a new Race of Serpentes from scratch with his hands alone.

By the end of it, the Hydra wasnʼt questioning whether or not Sylas could rebuild his body in the future, it was questioning if it would ever regain its freedom by the time Sylas had such strengths.

It didnʼt understand that a Sylas who could rebuild a Hydra from scratch would have no need for such a pawn. Or maybe it did and didnʼt want to see such a future nonetheless.

What was certain, though, was that the Hydra had no desire to underestimate Sylas. If it acted to kill him, it would eradicate everything there was.

So how was Sylas alive?

[Bloodburn] wasnʼt a good enough explanation. No matter how severe a wound it could withstand, everything in the world was contingent on Will.

If Sylas truly had his own Will eradicated, then how could he ever have survived?

The answer was simple to Sylas. In fact, he had had two backup plans. One was the scythe resting on his shoulders and the other was the Ruby Ouroboros.

The Grim Blade wasnʼt just a weapon, it was tethered into being with the Life and Death Seal, it was the representation of the Grimblades, their Lineage, and their Ancestor... Sylas himself.

So long as the Grim Blade was intact, it would carry a portion of Sylasʼ Will just the same way the Monkey Kingʼs staff would.

The second backup plan was Semi-Fusion.

The Profession Skill Semi-Fusion allowed Sylas to form a bridge with his contract to borrow one of its skills. It was called Semi-Fusion because a full Fusion wasnʼt needed. Sylas was just borrowing any one aspect of his beasts so they could still be in physical form themselves.

How else would that bridge be formed if not by Will?

While Sylas was borrowing [Bloodburn], a portion of his Will was residing within the Ruby Ouroboros.

The Hydra was so stupid that not just one, but both of these backup plans went right over its head. It didnʼt manage to grasp any one of them.

A large part of that was almost certainly because its intelligence was severely hampered by the continuous destruction of its Will, but that was exactly what Sylas had been banking on from the very start. If he hadnʼt felt that this was possible, he wouldnʼt have let the Hydra linger around for so long in the first place. And, in case he failed to get rid of the Hydra, he would have approached their relationship in a much different sort of way.

But since Sylas had always known heʼd have the upper hand, why the need to care so much about the Hydraʼs face? He didnʼt bother to respect it very much even a single time.

The Hydra was nothing but a loser but it dared to look down on him, the very and only reason it could even continue to breathe in this world.

It was truly a false sense of bravado, a foolish, airheaded, unwarranted and undeserved arrogance.

What did the Hydra have on him outside the luck of its birth into the God Realms?

Not a single thing.

But it seemed that Sylas had executed his plan too well. Even the system seemed to think he was dead.

The question was, was that because his body was still in the process of reforming? Or would the system forever think that he was dead?

And if it was the latter, then what did that mean for his Overlord Status? Would he just not be able to level up the usual way anymore?

Sylasʼ face reformed into form, the muscle and sinew weaving together like sewing lines.

Maybe such a thing was a logical price to pay in exchange for what he had gained. But that still didnʼt sit right with him. He was so close to a flawless victory.

[Title Fusion Triggered]