Chapter 2459: Evolution [Bonus]

[Bonus thanks to TheHonoredOne69 <3]

Sylas let the Vipermancy screen remain before him while his attention moved past the numbers and into the changes beneath them.

Reaching Level 200 mattered, but only in the most ordinary sense. Vipermancy had finally caught up with his C-tier existence, raising its old limits and dragging abilities that had lagged behind him into a realm where they could be useful again. The more interesting question was what Dragon Will had taught the Profession while it was being forced to accommodate something it should never have been capable of touching.

Vipermancy had always grown through synergy. One Kind For Me understood Serpentes, Were-for-the-Invincible allowed Sylas to cross the boundary between himself and his Contracts, while Taboo Bond reached beneath the surface and manipulated the foundations that made an existence what it was.

Their individual functions had become less distinct with every evolution, and this time that trend had accelerated.

—

[Myriad Intuition (EVOLVED!!!)]

—

The old Intuition had always been one of his most useful abilities, despite how unimpressive it looked on the screen. It allowed him to sense evolutionary directions that should work for his Contracts, sometimes guiding him toward answers he lacked enough information to calculate for himself.

Now, when Sylas focused on the Ruby Ouroboros within his Hibernation Realm, that familiar sensation appeared and immediately stretched outward.

His Voidborn Wisdom followed it beyond the boundaries of this universe and Paths returned from elsewhere.

They weren’t hypothetical possibilities. Myriad Intuition was sensing what the ideal evolutionary path for Ruby would have been had it existed beneath the laws of another universe entirely. One reality favored Eternal Cycle, another pushed Infinite Hunger farther, while others produced answers that couldn’t have naturally emerged beneath the laws surrounding Sylas now.

That alone was useful, but then several paths began overlapping.

Myriad Intuition didn’t require him to choose between them. It could recognize what made one path superior in one area, preserve that strength, then take something else from another universe’s answer and incorporate it as well.

Sylas’ eyes narrowed.

Before, Intuition found the best road available to his Contract. Now it could search across universes for countless best roads, tear away the strongest parts of each, and cobble them together into a path that stood above them all.

That then brought his attention to the first new ability.

—

[Apex Imposition (NEW!!!)]

—

The mechanism was familiar the instant he understood it. The Beast Totem had always carried suppression, but before, that suppression came from the authority of Vipermancy itself. Apex Imposition instead allowed Sylas to nominate one of his Contracts as the summit around which that authority organized itself.

Dragon Will had shown the Profession why such a thing worked.

A Dragon had no need to actually exist for generations of Serpentes to place it above themselves. Enough Will, belief, and Karma could establish a hierarchy first, leaving everything below it to reinforce that hierarchy merely by acknowledging it.

Apex Imposition stole the most useful part of that structure.

If Sylas chose the Ruby Ouroboros, then within the reach of his Beast Totem, other Serpentes would be pressured to recognize Ruby as something above them. Tier and Race Grade wouldn’t disappear, but the natural authority those differences provided would be blunted by a second hierarchy forced over the first. It also had potential to work against more than just Serpentes, though that much wasn’t quite yet so obvious.

That had obvious combat uses, though Sylas found himself more interested in what came next.

—

[Self-Made Myth (NEW!!!)]

—

His thoughts slowed.

A Contract’s victories, the fear it inspired, the reverence directed toward it, the stories others carried away after surviving an encounter with it—those things usually dispersed into countless strands of Karma, attaching themselves to broader bloodlines, Races, Clans, concepts, and whatever else had contributed to the event.

Self-Made Myth gathered a portion of that weight around the Contract itself.

The implications ran much deeper than a simple increase in strength. If enough Karma accumulated, a Contract could begin becoming its own evolutionary reference point rather than continuing to measure itself against whatever ideal its ancestry had placed above it.

For a moment, Sylas thought of Gogo.

The Contract between them was gone, shattered by Gogo’s own choice when he took half of the Fate Dragon and left for the God Realm. At the time, Sylas had understood the distinction clearly enough. Becoming stronger than the ceiling was one thing, but deciding to become a new ceiling was something else entirely.

Self-Made Myth operated on that same principle.

A creature didn’t have to spend eternity becoming a better copy of something that came before it. Given enough accomplishment and enough weight behind its own existence, it could eventually force future generations to measure themselves against it instead.

Sylas moved on.

—

[Total Will Merge (EVOLVED!!!)]

—

The old Total Merge blurred the distinction between Beast Master and Contract until their minds effectively became one. It had power, but Sylas had never liked surrendering options without receiving something worthwhile in exchange, and collapsing two independent bodies into a single point of action wasn’t always advantageous.

That limitation no longer existed.

Total Will Merge could merge the Wills without requiring the bodies to follow. Sylas could take a portion of a Contract’s Will into himself, pour part of his own into the Contract, or establish a complete Will connection while both continued moving independently.

More importantly, Myriad Intuition changed what counted as available Will.

If Sylas perceived an adjacent evolutionary path in which the Ruby Ouroboros had developed a different expression of its Will, Total Will Merge could reach toward that possibility and borrow from it. The result wouldn’t permanently turn Ruby into that alternate version of itself, but for a period of time, it could possess the Will necessary to support abilities or states its current evolution shouldn’t yet be able to sustain.

Then there was the next.

—

[Mythic Fusion (NEW!!!)]

—

Sylas had already done it once without understanding what he was doing. Dragon Will had no flesh to merge with, no Genes to transfer and no living creature at its center, yet Vipermancy had accepted it anyway.

Dead Will could be fused. Conceptual remnants could be fused. Even accumulated belief could potentially be fused, provided it possessed enough cohesion to be recognized as something distinct.

That opened possibilities Sylas couldn’t properly count yet, but it also introduced an obvious problem. Wills weren’t passive energy. Combining several sufficiently powerful ones inside the same vessel was an excellent method of destroying that vessel from within.

Yet, Vipermancy had answered that problem as well.

—

[Will Hierarchy (NEW!!!)]

—

Sylas could designate one Will as the Crown.

Every other Will participating in a Fusion would be forced beneath it, with the Crown determining how the subordinate Wills expressed themselves rather than allowing them to compete as equals. If he poured some remnant of Dragon Will into the Ruby Ouroboros, Ruby’s own Will could remain above it, taking whatever strength was useful while refusing the interpretation attached to the original concept. 𝔣𝖗ⅇℯ

Sylas liked that far more than ordinary Fusion.

Power was useful, but power that knew its place was better.

Only then did his attention move to Taboo Bond, and the disparity immediately caught his attention. One Kind For Me and Were-for-the-Invincible had gained entire branches of possibility, while Taboo Bond had received no new ability at all.

Extricate had simply changed.

—

[Causal Extricate (EVOLVED!!!)]

—

Sylas studied the ability for several seconds before the first layer became clear, followed almost immediately by the second.

Extricate had always operated on what a target was. Causal Extricate could operate on what that target had been and what it could become.

The forward application was straightforward. If Sylas found some insignificant F-tier existence with an extraordinary future, he could reach along that developmental possibility and pull aspects of its later state toward the present, forcefully accelerating something that might otherwise require decades or centuries to become useful.

Most Beast Masters would probably consider that half of the ability priceless.

Sylas almost dismissed it.

Why waste time raising something weak if he could simply take from something strong?

And that was when the reverse application settled fully into place.

If Sylas encountered a foundation too powerful for his current Taboo Bond to touch, he no longer had to accept that limitation. A B-tier Gene had once possessed a C-tier state. A terrifying Will Core had once been weaker. A Race Quintessence capable of crushing his current body had developed through stages before reaching its present form.

Causal Extricate could follow that history backward and take the version Sylas could use.

His gaze sharpened.

He wouldn’t have to wait until he became strong enough for the treasure. He could force the treasure to become weak enough for him.

Sylas finally dismissed the Profession screen and looked toward the pillar of light still tearing through the Heavens, his thoughts lingering on how much had changed from a single foreign influence.

This was everything that had changed with just the presence of Dragon Will. What would happen if Sylas found a way to incorporate Phoenix Will into Vipermancy as well?