Genetic Ascension

The clicking of Cassarae’s boots echoed through the halls. But her gait was calm, and almost heavy, not because she was dragging her feet, but because the sword she carried wherever she went only seemed to grow heavier with time.

Unlike Sylas, she wasn’t restricted in the treasures she could use. And because of that, she had long delved into the world of treasures and their use in bolstering strength.

Of course, a lot of these things required money—money that she hadn’t actually had much of…

Until now.

Even so, she had carried the same sword that she had from the very start of the trial, never making any attempt to change it. And the longer it spent with her, the sharper, heavier, and more sentient it seemed to grow.

It responded to her emotions, suppressing the world around and carrying with it the confidence that she carried.

And it was with its suppressed howls that she pressed her palm forward, pushing the doors ahead aside with both palms.

She took another step and suddenly she was falling down from the skies. As though she had stepped out of a castle flying high in the skies, clouds whizzed by and rushing spirits of water pelted against her skin as though trying to needle through her and into her heart.

But her expression didn’t change even a single time.

This wasn’t because she had grown powerful enough to ignore a fall from such a height. Quite frankly, even a D-tier wouldn’t be unscathed from such a fall, especially considering the Grade of the Planet they were on.

The real reason she was unmoved was because her Will saw through it all.

She only blinked once, and suddenly the sensation of falling was replaced by solid ground.

Her military-style outfit had vanished, replaced by familiar disciple robes. They clung to her wide hips, her back exposed to reveal the beautiful tattoo of a thorned rose. Or, rather, it would have… had her sword not been there to block the view.

Of course, that wasn’t because of Sylas. This was her choice. Definitely.

A small smile tugged at the corner of Cassarae’s lips as she pressed down with her bare feet, a rose appearing beneath her feet.

She was somewhat absentminded, as though she didn’t know that she had been called here for a sanctionable offense, like there weren’t powerhouses up to the C-tier, each on their own floating roses, looking toward her.

She was lost in her memories before she snorted and cursed in her mind.

‘That bastard. I forgot to teach him a lesson.’

She had gotten caught up in Sylas’ pace again and had spent more time having sex with him than punishing him for what he had done.

‘Whatever. I’ll let it go for now since he reacted appropriately. But if he does it again, I really will cut it off.’

Finally reaching this conclusion, Cassarae looked up.

High above the rest, three floating roses stood above all the others. She knew the one in the middle. This was the Matriarch of the Milky Way Branch’s Petals of the Seeing Thorn. She had hair of vines and delicate green skin. Her breasts were outrageously large even to Cassarae, who had always thought herself to be quite well-endowed. And then there were the thorns of gold that formed scales on her fair hands and the simple crown that wrapped around her head.

What looked like droplets of blood dripped down from where this crown of thorns touched her fair skin, but this was just an illusion. Those blood droplets were actually complex Runes.

This Race… it wasn’t one that Cassarae was familiar with and didn’t seem to have a prominent presence in the Milky Way Sector.

But what was clear was that they were powerful. From Cassarae’s estimates, they were at worst D-Grade, and that was just being cautious in her assessments. Part of her wanted to believe that this was a B-Grade Race, but it just didn’t make much sense for a B-Grade Race to appear in such a branch here.

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This woman was Matriarch Viridorn. This was all Cassarae knew them by—the so-called Viridorn Clan and its temptresses.

The bitch—as Cassarae could only call her—was Matriarch Viridorn’s daughter and seemed to be the wife of a particular great genius of the Thryskai, the heir-apparent from Cassarae’s understanding.

The two older women by Matriarch Viridorn’s side were the Grand Thorns of the branch.

The Matriarch of a Petals of the Seeing Thorn branch could be elected for any number of reasons. Strength was just one factor, whereas wit, contribution, and intelligence were certainly others. There were Thorn Matriarchs out there that had been elected purely because they had been granted the Primus Dominus Contested Title like Sylas had been.

However, Grand Thorns were the true muscle.

Thorn Matriarchs were sometimes stronger than Grand Thorns, but what was undisputed was that Grand Thorns were easily amongst the top five to ten strongest individuals in an entire branch.

Grand Thorn Rosalyth had a very familiar set of four blade-like limbs extending from her lower back…

A member of the Venom Clan.

Grand Thorn Briarose had a reflective light in her eyes, dotted mirrors that looked like an array of rainbow-colored kaleidoscopes tracing along her cheeks and the backs of her hands… the same patterns reflecting in the depths of her eyes.

A member of the Leava Clan.

It could be said that just by virtue of this alone, Cassarae certainly had her back against the wall.

Without even the matter being revealed, there were too many who believed Sylas was the new Primus Dominus at this point, giving him not just one Contested Title, but two, in addition to an unheard-of Conquest Title.

That meant that the odds Grand Thorn Briarose would have her own ingrained biases against Cassarae already—something Cassarae had unfortunately not accounted for until now because Sylas didn’t seem to like to tell her about any of these things.

And then there was the true enemy here, the Thorn Matriarch Viridorn.

Cassarae had essentially spit in the face of her ambitions.

And now, she was here, at the mercy of them all.

Yet… her expression was unmoved by it all.