Genetic Ascension

[Bonus chapter thanks to Chronotitan <3]

Zolte skidded across the ground, his eyes widening as he felt the waves of danger hit him akin to uppercuts to the gut.

When he finally laid eyes on the enormous lance coming toward him, he couldn’t believe it. How could an F-tier possibly display this kind of might?

‘Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!’ he roared in his mind.

He wasn’t supposed to use his real strength in this battle. He was supposed to be a member of the Bat Lineage, and so long as he remained within certain parameters, they could pretend as though Sylas had just been too weak to force him to use his Bat Lineage Armor.

But if he did nothing now, he would just end up dying, and that wouldn’t be worth it at all.

He knew that this battle was being secretly recorded by Byahmad. Even if he managed to squeak out a victory, it wouldn’t be worth it.

Zolte’s fury billowed out of him. He couldn’t believe he was being pushed this far by an F-tier. He couldn’t remember ever being humiliated like this in his life. Even the F-tier tier ones of the family weren’t capable of this, even those with the noblest Kaelthar bloodlines.

This Sylas Grimblade was too abnormal.

If he would have stood on their side, then it would have been worth it to support and recruit him.

But since he insisted on standing in their way every step of the way, he would have to be killed.

At that moment, the bloody light coming from Zolte’s Skai Eye suddenly solidified. It was all pulled in, and the sight of a pupil lined by the outline of several irises of increasingly red shades formed.

BOOM.

Zolte stood to his feet, and his Halberd Comprehension skyrocketed. All of a sudden, it felt like he was tapping into something far more ancient, a spirit of something powerful and holy hovering at his back—or rather, it would have been holy had it not been so demonic and blood-hungry.

He unleashed a roar and released a torrent of strikes. Each one slammed against the tip of the lance continuously, an avalanche of blows layering one after another in a seamless tsunami.

BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG.

Zolte’s roar grew louder and louder, his horns rising further into the skies as the crimson form behind him solidified.

Linked by their Skai Eyes, they seemed to pour power into one another in a feedback loop, one’s Will flooding the other, while the other’s strength flooded into the next.

BOOM!

The lance shattered into scattered pieces of glass and lightning, but not before Zolte was pushed back several kilometers into the darkness, even falling out of the encirclement of seats.

His hands trembled, charred black as arcs of lightning spontaneously formed on them, continuously damaging his flesh.

He released a haggard breath as flakes of skin fell from his charred hands, his body quickly healing in real time at a speed visible to the naked eye.

His stats continued to increase, but Sylas didn’t move, looking at the spirit form hovering behind him.

‘Interesting.’

The Will was foreign, not of Zolte’s own making. He remembered back in the Milky Way, he had once been accused of copying the Thryskai’s Rune Armor because he had used the Scorpion Warlord Armor.

He had wondered if that was because of what happened with Aki and the Tiger Warlord Armor he had used. He had thought that maybe there would be Thryskai in the Scorpion Lineage, but he didn’t expect that this was the actual answer and the people at the Golden Grove at the time had just been fools.

To conflate these two things…

Read on lig‌ht‌no‌‌vel‌world‌.o‌rg

Sylas would have shaken his head if he cared to.

This was certainly an ability similar to the Sanctum’s, but from what Sylas could tell, it was actually on a whole other level.

Zolte was using the unique ability of his eye to project a version of himself—one extrapolated from his current self. It was a Will that was close to his own, but not quite his own at the same time.

But it was curious because it also seemed to incorporate some of the Wills of others as well, almost like Zolte had cannibalized other powerful warriors to force their futures to become his own as well.

He was essentially bending his forward path not only by unearthing his own potential, but by using the potentials of others to strengthen himself.

And it was all taking the shape of, well… Runes.

A crimson armor clinked into place on Zolte’s body, his aura skyrocketing by leaps and bounds.

It was no wonder he didn’t want to use this armor before. This… was certainly not the Bat Lineage Armor, and every one of them knew it.

Byahmad’s jaw clenched, but he didn’t reprimand Zolte. This was the right choice. It wasn’t the best situation, but losing was even more unacceptable.

Zolte released a steaming breath as a helm snapped over his head, his appearance as a demon warlord completed right before all of their eyes.

It was powerful. Not only was it powerful, but it provided boosts not just to Physical stats, but Mental ones at least. It was at least a difference of 10,000 stat points, and from what Sylas could tell, Zolte still wasn’t going all out quite yet—maybe because he was still arrogant, or maybe because using this ability at a level higher than this required a price he wasn’t willing to pay.

But the answer didn’t really matter to Sylas. It seemed that he would have to try a little harder too, then.

At that moment, wisps of a violet touch of wind began to gather in the air. Zolte had hardly stabilized himself when Sylas’ Will began to solidify further, his aura rising.

Gralith’s eyes finally showed the slightest hint of a fluctuation when he saw this.

Time warped around Sylas, and his eyes flashed, one Rune after another taking shape in a process that was almost agonizingly slow.

Unfortunately for Zolte, he had been sent flying too far away to stop it in time.

Sylas’ E-Grade Scorpion Warlord Armor.