Genetic Ascension

Chapter 2050: A Challenge

Sylas looked at Hell deeply.

Was that really the only reason? He couldn’t see another reason why Hell would do something like this.

That piece of ore wasn’t normal. If it was just about size, Sylas could have probably chopped off something from the bottom of the mountain. But that ore was pure and pristine in the most perfect of ways. It was the truest essence of what could be taken from the mountain.

There was no doubt that it was extraordinarily valuable.

Sylas could see it in the depths of Hell’s eyes. He was telling the truth.

His path was one that a lot of people looked down on. Whether it was because of his cooperation with Demons or his eating of flesh, all people felt was disgust.

However, Sylas didn’t care what the Hell path was. He felt no worse about Hell than he did Heaven or Fathomless.

All three of them were in his way, and he would deal with all three the same way should they choose to stand against him instead of with him.

Hell could see that, and he appreciated it.

“Of course, if you get a little stronger and deal with the annoyances of the Heaven and Fathomless Clans for me as well, that would be great too.”

Though Hell said this, Sylas could also feel that it was just that. He was just saying it with no deeper meaning.

He didn’t mean that at all, it was like he didn’t want Sylas to think he had any other intentions.

After a long while, Sylas slowly nodded. Then, he turned to leave.

Hell began to laugh. It was really a shame that Sylas was the same stubborn sort that he was.

If he was a little bit more flexible, the Hell Path would be open to him.

But the irony was that if Sylas ever chose to change, then by definition the Hell Path would never be for him… After all, there was nothing left to Hell but a dead end. It was the final destination, the ultimate sturdiness, a rock that stood through the eternity of time.

Immortal in its infinite nature.

“Hell is the strongest path there is.” Hell remarked calmly. “One day we will fight and this will become clear to you. It is a shame that we were not born in the same era. Otherwise, maybe you might stand a chance.”

After speaking these words, Hell slowly closed his eyes, returning to his slumber, a smile curling his lips.

“Also, I must thank you for this splendid Overlord status. It would have been a real hassle to get it otherwise. Receive my thanks well.”

Sylas pressed a palm against the enormous boulder that stood even taller than himself. Even with his head stretched straight up, he couldn’t quite see its peak. It was just a little bit over his line of sight from this vantage point.

It must have weighed an impossible to calculate amount. Somehow, the weight felt finite and definable, and yet the mass was infinite. Yet, just as contradictorily, rather than falling through every piece of land it rested on, it reached a perfect balance that left it unmoved.

‘This is…’

Seeing such a pure kernel of the ore, Sylas realized why it was that this ore was so compatible with the Hell Path.

It was the physical embodiment of homeostasis and equilibrium. It was as infinite as it needed to be to maintain perfect stillness.

And that must be why it was such a good foundational material for building the Genesis Forge.

Forcing evolution in Race was something that should take generations to trigger, slow and steady progress upward. But the Genesis Forge accelerated it forward, knocking that equilibrium off balance.

The body was actually quite good at maintaining its own baseline. Fighting back against things in the environment and maintaining this as status quo was probably the most basic definition of what a body-or rather the living- were meant to be capable of doing.

When this ore was present, rather than the homeostasis of the body being the baseline, this ore became the new baseline instead. It had a far larger range of adaptation than the usual body did… After all, it was as infinite as it needed to be.

‘This ore…’

Rubbing his hand across its surface, Sylas felt nothing special at all. It was like it was a normal rock. But the more he probed it with his senses, the deeper it went.

It was simply endless.

However, the less you wanted it to be.

Sylas’ claws flashed and he squeezed down, cutting into the ore like butter. Then, using his new grip, he lifted it up as though it weighed as light as a feather.

Without another word, he began to carry it away, the laughter of Hell filling the skies.

To Sylas, this was the power of the Fathomless. To make even the ore most known for its sturdiness across the cosmos bend to his whims.

But did Hell see it that way?

Of course not.

BOOM.

Sylas dropped the ore outside of Castle Main, a familiar illusory, and yet so very real mountain still stood there, looming.

Nothing seemed to have changed, and it was almost like no time had passed at all.

The location of Earth he had been in was very much real, but it was hidden within Earth’s crust. In fact, there was very likely more than one region exactly like that, places that held pockets of the potential Earth once had explored to its logical conclusion in these millions of years.

It proved one thing. Earth was a planet with so much potential it had managed to spontaneously form Demi-Gods on its own without the Demi-God Realm.

This probably meant that the division between Mortal, Demi-God, and God wasn’t as clean as people liked to pretend. Though that had been obvious to Sylas the moment he realized one didn’t have to be in the A-Grade to be a Demi-God.

However, now, Sylas was facing a exceptionally real dilemma.

There was a powerhouse he couldn’t defeat hidden in his world, and more on their way right this moment.

While he had to prep for that inevitable coming war, there was another war on the horizon for the fate of the Mortal Realm itself.

If he had really left the Mortal Realm at a time like this, where would Earth be?

Sylas didn’t believe that it was a coincidence he had unearthed this secret of decoys right now, no matter how much Heaven and Fathomless played the role of hapless, caught off guard Ancestors with no control over the situation.

This was a Race of people who had managed to survive impossible odds to make it this far. The only thing he had done that actually surprised them was make it to Hell.

The rest of it? They were only putting on an act.

And then there was maybe the most pressing problem to him of it all.

Nosphaleen.

Where was she? What did the Professors want with her? And if there was some grand conspiracy, why would they let him know she was alive in the first place? Were they just so sure he would figure it out?

Sylas felt his blood boiling, a faint light of excitement in his eyes.

He couldn’t remember the last time he had felt this way.

Finally. A challenge he wasn’t absolutely sure he could win.