Chapter 2401: Big Bro

The portal to the God Realm above Sylas snapped closed, and almost at the same moment, a pillar of light erupted from somewhere near the Beast Sanctum, soaring so high into the rainbow skies that there was no corner of the World of Spirits where it couldn’t be seen.

Sylas didn’t need to look to understand what it meant, nor did he need to guess who had reached one of the five paths first, but his gaze still shifted toward the distant pillar as the surrounding geniuses finally seemed to realize that time had never stopped moving simply because they had.

The reaction was immediate, dozens of figures breaking toward the Beast Sanctum at once as the pressure that had immobilized many of them began losing out to desperation. Sylas felt the same urgency without allowing it to control him, but just as he shifted his weight to move, a silver line carved through the space ahead and Tomoe appeared between him and the distant Sanctum once again.

Far away, Meikai Azurex watched the black Fate Dragon fade from the skies, her sapphire-white scales carrying a radiance that made each one resemble a piece of a burning star.

She had sensed Sylas’ Will the moment she entered this place and hadn’t hesitated to follow it, even though the last time she stood before this human had ended with an indignity she still hadn’t managed to swallow.

Their first meeting had been meant to be a formality.

At the time, Sylas had been little more than a foolish human who had somehow ended up controlling a City far beyond what someone of his standing should have possessed, while Meikai had descended as an Azurex heiress with no reason to believe the encounter would become anything memorable.

Instead, she had been beaten beneath the suppression of that world, her life hanging beneath Sylas’ palm until a Serpentes young enough to still be called a child had whimpered and pleaded for her life.

Even now, the memory made heat roll from Meikai’s scales.

Sylas had spared her, Gogo had humiliated her further by nudging against her while she lay defeated, and then that ridiculous serpent had sworn in their ancient tongue that he would claim her through combat within fifty years.

She had left threatening to kill Sylas if they ever met again, yet the deeper humiliation had always been that her survival that day hadn’t belonged to her own strength. That was why she had come the instant she sensed him.

Yet the story Sylas had just painted across the World of Spirits had driven a shadow into her Will before she could even approach, one deeper than the taint that had touched Januar and Tomoe.

It took several breaths before the heat around Meikai became unbearable, silver-blue light erupting from between her scales as she roared and ripped the foreign fear out of herself piece by piece.

Back near Sylas, Tomoe stood in his path with her Executioner’s Blade lowered slightly, and for once the expression on her face carried more solemnity than bloodlust. She had lived for centuries, as had Januar and even Rhykan, and while much of that time had been spent intentionally slowing their advancement to build foundations that couldn’t be repaired later, the comparison still refused to leave her mind.

If they had wanted to rush forward, reaching S-tier within those centuries wouldn’t have been particularly difficult. But Sylas... just felt like he was on another level.

Worse still, Tomoe couldn’t see some enormous legacy propping him up or a bloodline ancient enough to explain the distance he had crossed, yet this twenty-nine-year-old human could still stand shoulder to shoulder with her.

The solemnity in Tomoe’s eyes lasted only a little longer before something far more familiar began bleeding through it, her grip tightening around the Executioner’s Blade as excitement slowly overwhelmed everything else.

Ekear was struggling with a different realization.

He knew more of Sylas’ history than almost everyone here, and none of what had just been revealed should have been completely new to him, yet it had taken Sylas writing those truths across reality for them to finally settle into his understanding. Human, twenty-nine, less than three years, the facts had existed separately in his mind for some time, but he had never truly placed them beside one another and asked what sort of person could make all of them true at once.

His expression twisted slightly as Gralith’s voice surfaced in his memories.

His Master had tried to tell him more than once that Sylas was beyond him, and Ekear had always found some reason not to take those words quite as literally as they were spoken. Even now, with his own origins and true strength, some part of him had continued to believe that Gralith was exaggerating.

The shadow sitting across Ekear’s Will tightened.

He had shattered the fear Sylas’ story created quickly enough, but the fact it had managed to settle there at all left a suffocating feeling behind. Many of the geniuses around them hadn’t been fortunate enough to break free, some still standing motionless as their own Wills painted Sylas into the shape of something they could no longer imagine opposing.

Sylas wasn’t paying attention to any of them.

Tomoe remained across from him, the solemnity in her blood-red eyes almost completely swallowed by anticipation, but before she could raise her blade again, a voice poured down from the faint cracks leading to the God Plane.

"Time and time again, you stand in my way, Sylas Grimblade."

It wasn’t Tomoe’s voice.

Fury rolled down from above with enough pressure to make the remaining cracks spread farther, and Sylas slowly raised his gaze toward them as though he could see the woman standing on the other side. He hadn’t seen her face yet, but he was pretty sure he knew who she was.

"The only person in this world that can write my story is me."

BOOM.

A second pillar of light suddenly erupted in the distance.

"NO!"

The woman’s roar shook the World of Spirits, her fury losing all semblance of control as another one of the five paths disappeared from her grasp.

**

Elara wiggled her hips against the seat beneath her until she found a more comfortable position, then leaned back into the newly claimed throne with a bright smile on her face. The light around her continued surging toward the skies while she looked out over the World of Spirits as though taking a seat meant for the greatest geniuses across several planes had been little more than finding somewhere comfortable to rest.

"See what happens when you listen to me, big bro?" Elara grinned wider, crossing one leg over the other as the throne finished acknowledging her. "You should hire me as a PR manager."

One of the five paths carved open for the interfering Gods had just been taken by Elara Grimblade.

If Sylas, Tomoe, and Januar claimed three of the remaining paths, something that now seemed almost inevitable, then nearly every piece the woman above had arranged would collapse at once.

Her plans were being ruined again. It was almost like she existed purely to roll out the welcome mat for Sylas Grimblade to walk down.