Chapter 2498: Earned the Right

Sylas reached down and lifted his sister’s face, wiping away the tears that had gathered on her cheeks.

Elara looked up at him with red eyes, her lips still trembling a little. Before she could say anything, though, Sylas spoke first.

"You’ve improved too quickly."

Elara blinked. She clearly hadn’t expected those to be the next words out of his mouth, but Sylas kept going before she could complain.

"Unless you reach A-tier Rune Creation, don’t even think about stepping into the A-tier."

His sister’s expression changed. Whether it was from embarrassment or irritation was hard to say.

During their fight, Sylas had noticed something he hadn’t paid much attention to when he first arrived. Elara wasn’t just B-tier. She had already reached Level 250, the very peak of the Tier, and was only a single breakthrough away from the A-tier.

At the rate she’d been improving, Sylas doubted it would take her more than another month or two to cross that line. In fact, if he factored in the benefits of the Grimblade Bloodline and how fast those benefits kept compounding? There was a good chance she would reach S-tier within another decade.

The talent of the Grimblades had reached an almost ridiculous level, and Elara was an extraordinary genius even without those advantages.

The Dragon and Phoenix foundations Sylas had built into their Bloodline only made that more obvious. At 19 years old, she was achieving things most people could spend countless lifetimes chasing without success.

However, that was exactly the problem.

Sylas had seen enough of the Real World’s so-called geniuses to know how dangerous it was to let extraordinary talent stand in for comprehension.

His sister was advancing faster than her Rune Path could properly keep up with. For now, she had enough talent to cover the gap, but it would only become more of a problem the higher she climbed. He had no intention of letting her become another fool whose arrogance rested on a foundation she had never properly examined.

Elara lowered her gaze.

She already understood what he was saying. In fact, Sylas suspected she had understood it long before he ever brought it up. Though, knowing something and having the patience to act on it were two very different things.

With Sylas busy, she had started to feel that protecting their family should fall on her shoulders. Their parents were getting stronger, and their grandfather was pursuing his own extraordinary Path. Even so, she was still the one most capable of following in Sylas’ footsteps.

Unfortunately for her, their circumstances were completely different. Elara had been a minor when the Summoning began, which meant she never even had the chance to enter the Tutorial.

After the Summoning, their parents had been understandably unwilling to let their daughter throw herself into the same life-or-death situations Sylas seemed to stumble into almost every other day.

Sylas couldn’t blame them for that. But, it had opened up a considerable gap between him and his sister.

How many of his greatest breakthroughs had come when he was pushed into a corner, forced to grasp something beyond his limits because the only other option was death? How many times had he rebuilt the foundations of his Path after running into an opponent who exposed weaknesses he hadn’t even known he had?

Elara had never gotten the chance to experience any of that. Sylas would have preferred that she never needed to. Still, it meant she had to make up for it in other ways.

Luckily, she already had one.

"Use the Creation Tower, stay with Grandfather, and learn slowly. Sometimes carrying the weight of countless lives means making the difficult decision to do what you don’t want to do."

Elara pursed her lips.

She had access to the Creation Tower whenever she wanted. Now that Sylas had established his dominion over the Skai Heaven’s Towers, there was no reason she couldn’t use its resources to develop her Path without worrying about outside interference.

However, Elara had always been stubborn. She was set on forging a Path entirely her own, and that made her reluctant to lean too heavily on anyone else’s methods.

She wanted to be like her brother. Someone who could flip conventional understanding on its head and create something nobody else had ever thought possible.

What she hadn’t quite appreciated was just how much Sylas had learned from others along the way.

Their grandfather was a perfect example.

Magnus had developed his own understanding of Rune Creation through a completely different Path. Sylas had long since recognized that there were things he could learn from the old man that he would struggle to discover on his own.

Elara could get the same thing out of that relationship. But, only if she was willing to accept that learning from someone else didn’t make her own accomplishments any less impressive.

She snorted, the sound mixing with an undignified sniffle as she wiped away the last of her tears.

"That’s rich coming from you. You’d never follow your own advice."

Sylas looked at her calmly. "That’s because I’ve earned the right."

Elara’s expression stiffened.

Sylas wasn’t trying to insult her, and he didn’t see any reason to soften the truth, either.

He had earned the right to make certain decisions because he had the strength, comprehension and experience to carry their consequences.

His sister didn’t.

"If you want to be like me, you’ll have to mature."

Elara lowered her head. Her fingers tightened around the fabric of his shirt for a moment before loosening again.

"But if you don’t want to mature, that’s fine too. You can continue being my little sister for as long as you want."

She looked up at him.

"Whenever that time comes, I’ll always hold up the sky."

For once, Elara didn’t have a clever comeback.

Sylas ran a hand over her hair, then turned and left, letting his sister stay up in the skies for as long as she needed.

**

Sylas returned to the courtyard and collected Nosphaleen and Xarvenya. Then, he crossed the distance between Sky Roaming and Earth in a single step.

The two women followed without asking any questions. A moment later, the three of them appeared inside a laboratory that had changed quite a bit over the last 3 years.

Sylas had spent that time studying Cheri’s Genes. As for Alex? He had hardly been sitting idle himself.

The laboratory was filled with instruments that blended the principles of the Omnimous with the technological foundations Alex had been building since the Summoning.

Several enormous formations covered the walls, their Runes constantly shifting as they processed information. Smaller devices floated through the air, running experiments without anyone needing to watch over them.

Alex was sitting in the middle of it all, looking like he’d just woken up from a particularly uncomfortable nap.

When Sylas appeared, he looked up with a grumble, then stretched his arms over his head and let out a long yawn.

"Is it time already?"

Sylas didn’t reply.

Alex looked at him for a moment and sighed. The resignation didn’t last very long, though.

His gaze moved to Nosphaleen and Xarvenya, then back to Sylas, and a grin started spreading across his face.

"Actually, you know what? This is the best possible outcome. With you around, I won’t have to worry about those Nethum bastards shoving probes up my ass to figure out where my parents went."

He leaned back in his chair, looking quite pleased with himself.

"I’ll just hide behind you. You can deal with all the annoying stuff, and I’ll be the handsome, charming sidekick who contributes absolutely nothing to the dangerous parts of the mission. Perfect arrangement, if you ask me."

Sylas looked at him calmly. "You’ll be the leader of this mission, and I your follower."

Alex’s grin froze.

"... What?"

"You’re the member of the Nethum Clan. Whatever plans you had to make this work, it’s time for you to bring them out."

Alex stared at Sylas, waiting for some sign that he was joking.

When none came, the corner of his lip began to twitch.

’He can’t be serious, right?’

For the last 3 years, Alex had assumed Sylas was putting together some ridiculous plan to deal with the Nethum Clan.

After all, what else would take 3 whole years of dissecting one of their descendants? Especially for someone who could usually solve impossible problems in a few hours?

Yet, now Sylas was standing in front of him, looking like he expected Alex to handle everything.

What the hell had this bastard been doing for the last 3 years?