Genetic Ascension

[Scorned Wraps (Incomplete Treasure Set)]

[A cursed treasure Scorned by the skies themselves. In its presence, your body cannot be adorned by armor and your hands cannot be graced by weapons. The Madness is relentless and its fury Scorns the world in return] [Curse Status: Cannot be unequipped] [+100% Constitution]

[Ability: Will Extension]

[Ability: Will Hardening]

[Ability: Will Manifestation]

Will Manifestation. It felt so much like his Aetherborne Will, his Elevated Gene Talent. The chains of Sylas’ Scorned Wraps trembled as he had a thought.

Chi.

A blade appeared and sliced through the air, reflecting an emerald green that split the wind and space in two.

Sylas had seen sharp blades before. The blades he could make with his Spatial Casting could only be said to be true works of art. There was little they couldn’t split in two.

And yet, right this moment, he felt like he had never seen a sharper blade. It had the sort of sharpness that made him feel as though he could even split apart the smallest particles in the world.

When Will Extension, Will Hardening, and Will Manifestation came together, Sylas realized that he could actually form physical things with his Will that he wasn’t able to before—like his Will could sustain itself without the need for Aether as a supporting structure.

it suddenly made Aetherborne Will… obsolete.

However, Sylas also realized something else.

t’s… taking pieces of my Will away from me…

This wasn’t a problem when he had Infinite Will. But Sylas had known from the moment he had his breakthrough that his Will wouldn’t remain at this level.

The outside world had too many suppressive effects. If he tried to use this ability in the outside world, he would be permanently shrinking his Will.

If he improved the Grimblade family’s Unique Gene and Will Ability, he might be able to make up for this, but the danger would never disappear.

Sylas also realized something else.

The only reason his Will was so powerful in this world that even splitting atoms—or even the components that made them up—was possible was because his Will was beyond what an F-Grade World could suppress.

But what about in the outside world?

That said… if he combined this with his True Pride Seed in the outside world, in a critical situation, he might be able to levy an attack that even a truly powerful existence might be incapable of blocking.

“They still don’t feel like chains.’

Sylas looked at the chain-wrapped Scorned Wraps, their rattling becoming nothing but background noise to him.

He clenched his fists, clenching his toes until the ground beneath him shattered.

To the side, the little girl sat there, continuing to watch this without quite knowing what to say.

She too felt that something was wrong here… she just didn’t know what it was.

Even so, she didn’t feel like this was a good thing.

Nothing in this world came without a cost. The Scorned Wraps were unlocking abilities now that they shouldn’t. And that could only mean that a deadlock was coming very soon.

She had been through what Sylas was experiencing right now already. She knew better than almost anyone else that there was nothing about the Path of the Madness Disciple that should be so easy.

And clearly, by the fact he had exposed her so easily, Sylas knew this as well.

Sylas took a breath and exhaled.

it was time.

While it seemed like a lot of time had passed since the announcement, his thinking speed was so great that it hadn’t even been a full ten seconds.

They had no chance of catching up to him in such a time frame.

With a step, he entered the second floor.

Sylas didn’t get a chance to see the breadth of the territory he stepped into. There was a blade heading for his head instantly.

However, there was a flash that came from his eyes, a pulse of Will forming a shield before him.

BOOM!

The blade was stopped in its tracks, a rattling surge of wind in all directions causing his eyes to narrow.

At least 200,000 Strength from a casual, unboosted attack…

If Sylas had used Glassvolt Prism Arts, it would have shattered instantaneously. But, using his Scorned Wraps to manifest his Will just now and Harden it, it was like he had instantly formed an impenetrable wall.

Strong. Almost too strong.

Sylas realized that it would be unlikely for this Tower of Champions to provide him with any sort of challenge. If his breakthrough in Rune Mastery put him in a new tier, this sent him into his own stratosphere.

It was worth the upgrade.

Finally, Sylas’ gaze focused on the attacker behind the blow. It was a thing he could only call a frost giant. It had skin of icy blue, a white beard filled with icicles, and the weapon it had just used to attack Sylas was a large hammer with a pickaxe on the back of it. The weapon glowed with an eerie icy white-blue glow, a pulsing wave of Runes swimming within it as though it was hollow.

With a glance, Sylas could tell that these Runes were meant to freeze things on impact. it was a poison.

He couldn’t have been more familiar with this form of poison. After all, this was the form his Glassvolt Rune had started with.

Sylas looked beyond to the landscape of white and blue. It seemed that this floor didn’t wait for him to appear before triggering a Quicktime Event. The threats were more real and weren’t just formed of Runes.

This made them more intelligent.

If Sylas was still the same, it would have been quite the problem. But this time…

His eyes pulsed, his shield of Will pushing the frost giant back.

Confused and shocked by the strength, the creature stumbled back, only for a guillotine of Will to form above its head.

PCHI.

it was sliced in two down the plane of its ears, its body falling into a bloody mass as its inner organs spilled out.