Genetic Ascension

Chapter 1848: The First Race

The Rat quickly ripped his hand back, accelerating back before he came to a slow stop. He barely realized that he was surrounded by an odd darkness illuminated only by the road he stood on.

Sylas, though, stood in the same spot without moving. He didn't seem to care much about following after the Rat.

Standing in silence, he monitored the Rat as though he was observing an ant squirm.

"What did you do?" The Rat's head snapped toward Sylas, much of his visage still covered by his hood. But his eyes... they were clear and looked like pools of endless blood. "Where is this?"

Sylas didn't answer. If he didn't need to talk, he certainly wouldn't-not to the likes of this person.

Instead, he raised a finger.

Danger warnings pulsed in the Rat's mind, but it was already too late.

The sound of a slap echoed through the darkness. The Rat spun like a spinning top, his hood falling from his head.

What was left was a disheveled old man that looked to be the pinnacle of all that was gross and vindictive.

His head was as wrinkled as a mole rat's face, his head a sparse collection of hair. A single tooth gripped his lip when he pressed them into a thin line, burying the absolute fury he was feeling.

PA.

He spun the other way.

"YOU-!"

The Rat lunged, only for a powerful current to slam down from above with the weight of a mountain. He was smashed onto the ocean floor.

He coughed up mouthfuls of blood, and finally, Sylas walked forward. Crouching down, Sylas palmed the Rat's head, not bothering to try and grab at what sparse hair there was.

Standing up, Sylas began to drag him.

The Rat struggled, trying to pull free, but nothing he did seemed to matter in the slightest. It was like billions upon billions upon billions of tons of force were pressing down on every square inch of his body with perfect symmetry.

He simply didn't stand a single chance.

Soon, Sylas stood before six familiar statues... the First Race of Earth... the Clypsians... the Dogons... the Dinos... the Great Apes... the Humans... "This is it! This is it!" The Rat screeched like a madman, his eyes bleeding with Greed. He had been looking for this for so long. To think that Sylas would take him here... He was so consumed by his Greed that he didn't seem to notice at all that he still couldn't move a single inch.

However, much like Sylas the first time, the Rat could only see a shadow shrouding the First Race.

The current Sylas, though... was seeing something very different.

He was staring right at...

A Human.

It was a man with a face that perfectly reflected his own. The only difference was that unlike Sylas' olive skin, this man had skin as dark as night and eyes as proud as stars, and hair that flowed like the clouds in both essence and color.

Even with his senses, it was hard for Sylas to tell if he was imagining it or not... but he could swear this man looked exactly like him.

But when he blinked, he looked like his father. And then he blinked again, and he could swear he saw his grandfather, and then Archibald. Every time he lost the slightest hint of focus, the statue reflected the image of another Human Male.

And then it reflected no image at all, a blank slate, perfect and ready to be drawn upon at any moment.

Maybe that was perfectly appropriate for this Race. After all, wasn't that what happened with Professor Fembroise?

She spent a moment inside of Gogo's mouth during the latter's evolution, and she immediately mapped onto it.

However, this wasn't some sort of shapeshifting Race. That was too shallow.

No... they really were Humans. But they were Humans in the truest essence of the word.

The Human Race was the one that appeared the most frequently in the universe, the one whose template was repeated the most often, the one that convergent evolution drew on again and again.

Why?

Because they were the most adaptable.

The First Race of Earth was the truest essence of the Human Race. The most intelligent, the most adaptable, the perfect specimen.

The creation the universe most needed to form... so much so it had tried so very many iterations and had yet only formed just a single one.

The First Race. The Only Race. The only one that mattered.

They were the reason Earth was so vehemently targeted, the reason so many risked so many resources, so much time, such a great effort.

For them.

And they were just... Human.

And Sylas would be even more perfect than they were.

"Earth isn't without protection." Sylas spoke as though he wasn't speaking to anyone in particular. It was like he was speaking out his thoughts aloud. "Especially not against those so foolish."

The Rat couldn't have been more idiotic. He had tied himself to the one thing that left him without escape or

recourse.

Unless a City reached a certain level, or there were a special set of conditions met, it couldn't be left. The higher Grade the City, the more stringent the requirements.

Cassarae had been able to leave Casstle Main for two reasons. First, it was only a Common City. Second, Earth had been in a special situation with the Summoning. Because Earth hadn't fully integrated into the universe, the restrictions were more limited. And finally, a higher-order City Stele had given her a pass-that being the Petals of the Seeing Thorn.

But...

Not only was the Lost City of Greed a Gold City, Earth had just fully integrated into the universe, and what the Rat hadn't realized was... That the Lost City of Greed was the center of a formation that encompassed the whole of Earth.

This meant three first important things.

First, the First Race had been so powerful that they managed to claim a Gold City during their Summoning despite being a new Race without the slightest hint of a foundation.

Second, the Rat was now tied to this city, unable to leave.

And third...