Genetic Ascension

There were people that came to Sylas’ mind immediately. One of whom he had met personally, and the other of whom he had only felt the Will of.

Both of these people could crush him with a single thought, but one had feared the retaliation of the system and, as such, didn’t act, while the other had been too far away from him at the time.

This first person he thought of was the only Demi-God Thryskai he had ever met, a truly powerful man beyond reason. Even now, Sylas could recall how he stood in the skies above the Golden Grove as though he was some sort of angel descending from the clouds.

Back then, this Demi-God Thryskai had been trying to pressure the Golden Grove of all things, and it was because of this that Sylas was actually so interested in the secret realm of the Golden Grove to begin with.

Unfortunately, that realm—while it had helped him substantially increase his comprehension of space and time, and likewise resulted in laying the foundation that formed his current Archon Casting Path—had left him with more questions than answers.

However… Sylas didn’t believe it was this man.

Whoever this individual was, they were very covert and scheming. They had a delicate touch and intelligence enough to evade even Sylas’ perception.

Maybe Sylas had too high of an opinion of himself, and there was no doubt that many would agree. But the one thing Sylas was certain about was the fact that this Demi-God Thryskai had used methods far too crude to possibly be the person he was looking for.

Sylas was just the disciple of Gralith, an in-name disciple at that at the time, and he had been able to bend the Golden Grove to his Will.

Of course, that was also because of a unique combination of factors. But Sylas simply didn’t believe that anyone with that sort of intelligence would be unable to get what they wanted out of the Golden Grove… especially while having such great personal power.

The only explanation outside of just not being all that intelligent was that their schemes were deeper than Sylas knew once again. But as of now, Sylas didn’t have any evidence of that.

Then there was the second person…

The Rat.

Sylas had learned of this person in several ways. First, it was through Grin, a government weapon that Sylas killed and a person who had happened to gain the Greed Legacy.

What was interesting about that was that months later, Sylas learned through the little girl that the Greed Legacy was actually already officially taken.

That left a ton of questions, many of which Sylas didn’t even bother asking because he had too little information.

But this Rat… he fit the description perfectly, it seemed. He had all the scheming nature, he was secretive, and he had somehow managed to find and put his imprint on a world that should have been well protected by the system.

On top of that, despite being exposed by Sylas, he had also managed to survive the ire of the system as well. Otherwise, the little girl wouldn’t have said Greed already had an Official Disciple in the first place.

All signs seemed to point toward The Rat.

There was just one problem with that…

The Rat wasn’t a Thryskai.

Sylas had felt The Rat’s Will. He didn’t know enough to know exactly what Race he was, but he knew enough to know he wasn’t a Thryskai.

The obvious answer seemed to be, then, that The Rat was simply using the Purvon as an extension of himself, a pawn, not much unlike the Golden Grove was to Sylas.

Unfortunately, there was an issue with that explanation as well. Several issues, actually.

Why Aki of all people?

Aki was too weak.

Even if one wanted to account for the fact that Aki had been heavily suppressed, forced to use a body that wasn’t his own, all while being even further restricted by Sylas’ Progenitor candidate status on Earth… he was still too weak.

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Israeal, the genius of the Kaelthar that had been sent to snatch the Milky Way’s Luck, had been far more powerful than Aki despite coming from a family which was at the bottom of the barrel of the seven Mortal Thryskai Clans.

One might argue that Aki was chosen specifically because of his weakness. Maybe it was because Aki was such a poor representation of the Purvon Clan that he wasn’t exposed.

And that still very well might be true.

Unfortunately, it didn’t make sense for The Rat specifically.

Why?

That was because if The Rat was so cautious about being exposed, then he wouldn’t have sent his own Will to Earth in the first place. Doing this tied him directly to the machinations and schemes against Earth. This was why Sylas was so certain The Rat had to have been attacked by the system eye as well, even though he wasn’t there personally.

Sylas had no idea just how right he was. In fact, The Rat was still recovering from those heavy injuries even right this moment.

This was all to say that it didn’t make sense that The Rat would both take the shocking risk of sending his own Will, and yet send someone as weak as Aki in hopes of not exposing himself… he was already exposed.

If The Rat could have sent a more powerful Purvon, he would have. But he couldn’t because he wasn’t the puppet master of the Purvon… Someone else was.

Someone even more intelligent than The Rat.

Someone who may very well have been monitoring Aki’s actions, ensuring that the Purvon were never implicated in the first place.

Maybe The Rat was aware of this. Maybe they weren’t.

But Sylas knew that whoever this was, they were a fearsome character.

If they were really from a Mortal Thryskai Clan, they might have had a better starting position than Sylas, but it wasn’t as exaggerated as being from a place like the Emperor Sanctum.

That was to say that this person was quite like Sylas…

Playing on a chessboard much larger than themselves, and yet refusing to be a pawn much the same.

Sylas’ gaze flickered, but he didn’t speak any of these thoughts aloud.