Genetic Ascension

Fowler was definitely correct. This was the daughter of the Thorn Matriarch, Matriarch Viridorn.

When her daughter completely came into view, one could see that patented hair of vines and flowers, a thorn crown of gold wrapping around her head and hands. She looked ike if a flower of untold beauty bloomed into the form of a gorgeous young woman. Much like her mother, she was well-endowed to the point it felt outrageous, almost as though it was a miracle a waist so small managed to hold up her upper half at all. Yet, her dress barely cupped them as though they could fall out with just the slightest sway of her body. As close as it was, though, it showed no real signs of happening.

Where the young Matriarch Viridorn’s daughter’s crown of golden thorns met the fair skin of her forehead, the same blood droplets formed into complex Runes. However, they were much less complex and shimmering than her mother’s were.

This made sense, of course. Saryah Viridorn was only in the D-tier, while her mother had long reached the C-tier. The gap between them was enormous.

Surprisingly, though… despite being a C-tier himself, Fowler seemed to become extremely reserved quite quickly.

In his time, Fowler had gathered a great deal of knowledge, including knowledge that wouldn’t be common in this corner of the universe, all toward the purpose of completing his magnum opus.

The irony was that Sylas completed his own and gained the Primus Luminaria Contested Title long before he did. Or maybe it was lucky for Fowler that he had yet to succeed… Otherwise, Sylas would have stolen not just one Contested Title from him, but two.

This aside, the point was that while Cassarae hadn’t been able to find any information on the Race of the Viridorns, Fowler had heard some snippets. Fresh chapters posted on novel⦿fire.net

According to Cassarae’s understanding, the Viridorn Clan—small as their presence was in this Sector—was at worst a D-Grade Race. She speculated that they might be a B- Grade Race, but the problem was that she couldn’t understand why such a Race would appear in their Sector.

The Milky Way Sector might have been powerful to the Sylas and Cassarae of the past, but these days their weakness was quite obvious to them.

The strongest prominent Race in the Sector were the Leava Clan, and they were considered a C-Grade Race. They weren’t a C+ Race, and C+ had been the minimum requirement for joining the expedition of the Tower of Champions.

Yet, even as a D-Grade Race, Sylas alone had been able to become the Primus Imperium of this Sector.

The gap between C+ and B-Grade was enormous, let alone C-Grade and B-Grade. That was why Cassarae only had a hunch and never confirmed anything.

The Petals of the Seeing Thorn were naturally hands-off and very covert usually. The Viridorns were even more so. Plus, unlike Sylas, Cassarae’s senses weren’t nearly sharp enough to decipher such things on her own.

Fowler knew, however, that the Viridorns weren’t just a B-Grade Race… They were a B+ Race. As were the Thryskai Main Mortal Clans. In fact, Fowler knew for certain that there were some Thryskai only limited by Title, and not substance.

The Thryskai were a complicated Race separated into three tiers: their Mortal Clans, their Demi-God Clans, and their God Clans. Within each division, there were complex layers as well.

Many Mortal Thryskai were actually C-Grade in Race. Some especially distant branches were even approaching D-Grade, like the ones Sylas had met in the Milky Way Galaxy. Near the top, though, everything changed. Even the weakest Thryskai that could hold the Kaelthar name was a C+. As for their very best? They were all B-Grade.

However, the Kaelthar were at the very bottom of the Thryskai Mortal Clans vying for the new Demi-God position. Among the others… there were B+ Thryskai so powerful that they might as well have been A-Grade in their Race Title, only held back by the seven Demi-God Clans above them.

The Viridorn weren’t nearly as powerful as these Mortal Thryskai Clans. However, they were still a B+ Race themselves. The power at their fingertips wasn’t small, and Fowler had it on good authority that they were the true rulers of the Petals of the Seeing Thorn, as neutral and “friendly’ as the organization seemed to be.

It was said that it was the ancestors of the Viridorn that learned how to harvest the Seeing Thorn, harvesting the power of this world-destroying B-Grade Race for themselves.

On the surface, the Viridorn seemed like any other number of Races that had affinities for plants, Wood Aether, and things of the like. But Fowler knew that this was the furthest thing from the truth.

They were blood-sucking vampires.

The blood on their foreheads looked like their own, and they were. The problem was that they weren’t a symptom of self-harm, but instead a result of the exact opposite. Every blood mark was another victim.

To form just a single droplet required the death of millions.

Millions.

The exact number was entirely based on talent alone. The more talented a Viridorn you were, the more Kills it took to form a single droplet, and Saryah was the best of the best. Even with her projection so blurred by distance, and then further obscured by her own power, Fowler could still make out dozens of drops. By his calculations from observing the complex Runes, each one represented what amounted to 27 million or so deaths.

In total, she had almost a billion kills under her belt.

Her thorns only recognized those at or near her level. She wasn’t massacring women, children, and the elderly. She was fighting peers on her level and wiping the floor with them.

And every time she did so, her bloodline distilled their bloodlines, washing away their impurities and taking the strongest aspects of them before matching them to her own bloodline, strengthening their own aspects by stealing from other Races.

The Viridorn were simply their family name.

To the universe, they were once known as the Bloody Butchers.