Genetic Ascension

BOOM.

The Monkey King's sneer froze. He found his staff was stuck against something. He tried to pull back, but he couldn't.

His senses reached forward only to find a flame and chain covered palm holding against the edge of his pommel.

His staff had grown to at least half the thickness of the moon. There should have been nowhere for Sylas to dodge nearly fast enough. What he didn't expect was for Sylas to just… Block it.

What made even less sense was that Sylas was still just as injured and no more powerful than just a second ago. Even at his peak, as much as his demonic form boosted his Charisma, his raw physical prowess just wasn't there.

This didn't make any—.

A flicker of Runes caught the Monkey King's gaze and his pupils constricted into pinholes, his golden hair standing on end and almost making him look twice as wide as usual.

"There isn't just one way to defeat you." Sylas said calmly. "There are three. Three that I thought of within seven seconds. Unfortunately, there's a problem with all three of those methods.

"None of them are nearly humiliating enough."

The Monkey King was snapped out of his shock by fury.

"What nonsense—."

"I don't really feel a need to prove myself to you." Sylas continued just as calmly. "You're an already-defeated opponent as far as I'm concerned. But I think that if I let this insult go too easily, the ones watching right now would think I'm an easy target, now wouldn't they?"

The Monkey King's pupils constricted even further. His gaze couldn't help but be cast over furtively toward the knight looming over the universe. Unfortunately, no matter how subtle he was, Sylas didn't need to see it to know.

"As if the likes of you could come to control the presence of Champion Will to such an extent without the tacit agreement of those that ride on your head."

The flames on Sylas' hands burned brighter, the chains rattling with more fervor.

A creak filled the universe as though an ancient, hidden door was awakening.

The enormous staff shifted back just the slightest bit and the Monkey King stumbled a step back.

The Monkey King roared, pressing down again with more force, but the staff didn't budge even a single inch. It was like it didn't register his strength output at all. Even when he tried to expand it, it didn't respond. One would have thought it was no longer his weapon.

"Trying to make me decide which sort of Pride I would want to hold onto was amusing." Sylas said, pushing back on the pillar just a little bit more.

The Monkey King stumbled another step back.

"The problem with it is that you actually have to be strong enough to force me to make the decision in the first place. Your Path isn't a crutch for me, it is a tool, a tool I use as I please, no different from Champion Will.

"If you believe that any one of these things is capable of holding me down into perpetuity—."

The Monkey King roared, a Will snatching at where Sylas' heart was. But just as it grew close, it caught fire and was erased to ash.

Pain burned through the Monkey King's body.

"—you are more of a fool than you seem."

Sylas pushed the staff back once more, slowly standing to his feet. His body looked like it was on the verge of collapse, and yet the cold indifference in his eyes burned across time and space.

The Monkey King nearly fell, his roars falling on deaf ears as he was pushed back continuously.

"The Grimblade name isn't something you can impugn upon."

"NO!" The Monkey King finally pieced together what Sylas was doing, but unfortunately for him, it was far too late now.

An armor Sylas hadn't used in so very long began to bloom across his body.

The Monkey King Armor.

However, as its golden flares danced into being, its Runes flashing and blazing, it became quite clear that Sylas wasn't using it for its power.

The chains and flames latched onto the Runes, a burning radiance pooling into it in endless tides and surging tsunamis.

"The thing about relying on others for your power is that it can be so very fragile." Sylas continued calmly. "Forming bridges with those far weaker than yourself, relying on patterns already seen through long ago, flexing strength that you do not have the capacity to understand… "It is almost as foolish as targeting an enemy you cannot comprehend. You don't understand your own limits, and yet deem to place the exceptionally same ones on me. You do not understand spacetime, yet you deem to use it to attack me. You do not understand my Will, yet you believe you can manipulate it. You do not understand the weight of the name Sylas Grimblade, and yet you want to erase it from the world.

"Who exactly do you think you are, Monkey King?"

The weight of Sylas' voice grew heavier and heavier, a lashing whip of heavy, surging winds cutting across time and space as a mountain range from a distant future shimmered into existence.

An image of a past Sylas sitting upon it appeared, and in that moment, the knight who overlooked the universe actually shifted its gaze toward it.

The Sylas of this past stood.

"NO!" The Monkey King roared again.

It was a worthless sentiment.

The Monkey King Mountain glowed and then in a fury, this Sylas slapped a palm down.

BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

The Monkey King of the present coughed up a mouthful of blood, his body shriveling as large amounts of fire launched to spill out from his body. First his mouth, then his nose, then his ears, then his eyes.

He was burning up from the inside out, and as he did so, one Rune on Sylas' body after another was being snuffed out.

Sylas felt the other methods weren't humiliating enough, so he chose another path.

He used the Monkey King's own plan as the avenue for his downfall instead.

"Die." Sylas said coldly.

The difference between himself and the Monkey King was that when he spoke, the outcome was guaranteed.

BANG.