Chapter 2475: Challenge Issued (2)

The challenge space loosened around them once more, but Rheos was already lifting his hand before the edges could dissolve.

"Again. Let’s see if you can at least make the next one interesting."

[Authority Challenge Issued]

The floor locked into place, and a new formation rose between them.

"Ancestor Oura told me not to underestimate you, and I thought I was coming here for some grand battle of Rune Mastery." Rheos shook his head while the Runes finished arranging themselves. "Then you lose before I even have a chance to show you the difference between us."

The new formation was larger than the previous one, dense enough that Rheos finally stopped talking long enough to study it himself.

Rheos looked up after several seconds and gave a short laugh. "You don’t even know where to start, do you? Gros lost to you, so I assumed there had to be something there, but perhaps the Skai Heaven really has fallen far enough that this passes for talent."

Nosphaleen’s head turned toward him, and the concern that had been on her face disappeared behind a flat stare. Rheos noticed and grinned wider, clearly enjoying the idea that he had managed to draw a reaction from someone even if Sylas continued refusing to give him one.

"Don’t look at me like that. I’m not the one losing, and if your Master wants me to stop, all he has to do is win."

Sylas ignored both of them and continued following the situation on Earth. Cassarae’s presence remained intact and Xarvenya had moved, which, for the moment, were the only two facts that mattered more than the growing pressure inside his chest.

Another challenge ended, and Rheos caught the release window before Sylas could leave. The next formation appeared almost immediately after, then another followed that one, each contest ending the same way while Rheos’ early caution steadily disappeared.

His Ancestor had clearly wildly exaggerated the man standing across from him.

[You Have Lost]

"Again. How many does that make now, Sylas?"

[Authority Challenge Issued]

Rheos walked along the edge of the challenge boundary while another set of Runes formed. "Ten? Twelve? I’ve stopped counting, but I suppose you haven’t."

Sylas hadn’t, and that was part of the problem. He knew the exact number of challenges, the amount of time Rheos had kept him trapped here, and how many seconds Tomoe had spent inside Earth’s defenses while Sylas stood solving formations he had no intention of completing.

Each number sat beside a decision that had seemed reasonable when he made it. Tomoe hadn’t revealed the Void during their battle, Earth’s defenses had been strong enough to justify leaving, and losing the Authority Challenge should have released him from the tower under any ordinary interpretation of the rules.

Reasonable. It was all so reasonable.

The word had begun to sound cheap.

His Pride Seed pulsed hard enough that the pressure reached his sternum, and the familiarity of the sensation made Sylas’ attention flick inward for the first time.

After Nosphaleen died, there had been moments when even his heartbeat stopped feeling entirely under his control, his Pride weakening under a standard that Sylas himself had built and refused to lower.

Rheos laughed from across the formation. "Even your slave girl getting nervous now. Maybe someone should have warned her what happens when all that confidence finally meets someone better."

Nosphaleen looked over with the same flat expression as before, but Sylas barely heard the exchange. His Pride had never required him to believe he couldn’t fail. It demanded that once he understood a failure, he become someone who wouldn’t repeat it.

At least that was what his Pride was originally built upon. But after Nosphaleen, he had forced himself to change it, forced himself to twist it into a Pride that couldn’t make mistakes, that couldn’t suffer setbacks, that couldn’t withstand cracks...

Another timer reached zero, and the tower began releasing Sylas once more. Rheos raised his hand once again.

[You Have Lost]

"Again. Perhaps this one will finally teach you where you stand."

[Authority Challenge Issued]

The cycle continued, though Rheos no longer bothered hiding how much he enjoyed it. Every challenge came with another comment about Sylas’ reputation or another laugh at the ease of the victory, while Sylas solved every formation placed in front of him and yet allowed every one of them to fail.

Then Cassarae’s presence changed, and everything inside the Creation Tower vanished from Sylas’ attention at once. One moment the connection remained exactly where it should have been, and the next Tomoe’s Sword Will passed through it and Cassarae’s presence separated from head to toe.

Sylas reached toward Earth through every connection available to him, checking every possibility, every planetary formation, even the remnants of Sword Will still surrounding Cassarae. Every one of those things remained, but none of them altered what his senses had already shown him.

Tomoe had cut his wife in half.

Cassarae had been standing inside Sylas’ world, carrying their child, behind defenses he had personally decided were enough. His fingers closed at his side while his awareness snapped toward Xarvenya, the final layer that should have made every failure before this one irrelevant.

Xarvenya hadn’t moved, and Sylas understood why the instant he found her. Tomoe’s attack had ripped through enough of Earth’s protections to expose Xarvenya to the Heaven System, allowing its authority to descend through the opening before the formation could close again.

Aether reversed through Xarvenya’s body while restraints locked around her Will, leaving her fighting the backlash at the exact moment Cassarae needed her.

Another mistake.

His Pride Seed shuddered.

Sylas stood motionless as every decision lined itself up in his mind with a clarity he no longer wanted. He had missed Tomoe’s Void, trusted Earth’s defenses, assumed losing would release him from the tower, and relied on Xarvenya as the answer if those defenses somehow failed.

Every decision could be defended, and yet... Cassarae was still lying in two pieces.

First Nosphaleen had suffer. And now Cassarae had paid for another one of those failures.

Across from him, Rheos finally noticed the change in Sylas’ expression and took a step closer to the challenge boundary. His smile widened as he mistook Sylas’ silence for the reaction he had been chasing through every loss.

"There it is. I was beginning to wonder how long that arrogance would last, but I suppose even someone like you eventually learns."

Sylas didn’t hear the rest of what Rheos said, while Nosphaleen stopped listening to him entirely.

A thin fracture had appeared across the back of Sylas’ hand, and crimson light seeped through the opening without a drop of blood.

"Master, your hand..." Nosphaleen’s pupils contracted as another fracture crawled from Sylas’ wrist toward his forearm. She took a half-step toward him, then stopped when the pressure spreading from his body pushed against the challenge space.

Rheos was still smiling when a third fracture appeared along Sylas’ neck. "How many losses did it take before you finally understood where you stand? Fifteen? Twenty?"

The smile lasted until another crack traced the edge of Sylas’ jaw, followed by several more that split across his skin and continued through the outline of his form itself. Crimson began seeping from every fracture, filling the spaces between them with a light that grew stronger each time Sylas’ Pride turned back toward the promise he had made after Nosphaleen’s death.

Nosphaleen took one step back, her eyes fixed on Sylas as the pressure continued to rise. Rheos finally stopped speaking when the fractures spread across Sylas’ face and the crimson beneath them brightened again.

Sylas raised his head, and the challenge space groaned around him.

His Pride continued to break.