Genetic Ascension

What sort of conviction did it take to behead yourself? Sylas had simply never seen such a brutal suicide. Though his expression was indifferent and his heartbeat was steady, he still felt that maybe he had been too quick to speak before.

These Demons were truly something else entirely.

It seemed like a simple thing. It wasn't impossible to believe that there could be a culture in the universe that was similar in this way—that had nothing to do with Demons at all.

But it wasn't just the action of killing himself that Sylas was holding onto…

There was no reluctance.

That was the main dividing factor.

Even if there was another culture out there like this, they would have done it for the sake of protecting their family, or maybe in hopes of avoiding torture that would break them beyond their limits.

This pig Demon, however… had killed himself like it was a normal day at the office, like it was no different from turning in something to the copy room or shredding classified documents.

If Sylas thought back even further, the fear that the fishermen had felt for him wasn't really fear for their lives. They had just seen someone stronger and were bowing to prove that they understood the hierarchy between them.

These Demons…

Their sense of self-preservation was near zero. They had no bottom line, even for themselves.

While they experienced pain, emotion, and things of the sort, it was twisted by the counterbalance of just how indifferent they were to life.

Any regard or hope they had to preserve what life they did have would be unlikely to be related to their want to continue living at all. Instead, they would be driven by something else entirely…

What that something was—maybe that would depend. Maybe that was what differentiated Demons from one another.

The attendee looked down with wide eyes, especially as Sylas bent down to pick up the head before him.

With a sharp claw, Sylas filleted the pig Demon's cheek off, Fire Runes taking shape. However, after a moment, he seemed to realize that his Fire affinity, and his Runes themselves, were far too weak to cook the skin of a Level 83 Demon with such high Constitution, so he just directly swallowed the piece of pig Demon instead.

[Primal Gut] stirred, and explosions of power erupted throughout Sylas' body, the flesh and blood taking several churning gasps through his digestive tract before it was finally ground to dust.

Sylas found that his body had instantly grown more powerful—and not just by a small margin either. The power packed into the bodies of these Demons was unlike anything he had ever seen before.

With a casual flick, Sylas put the body into the Madness Key.

As far as he was concerned, there was little difference between eating this man and beasts. In this world where true sentience was so common, anyone drawing such an arbitrary line was just clinging to false ideals of morality.

Sylas had never been such a person.

Legacy was right. He was a Lawful Neutral person. He would follow rules when they were set in place so long as everyone else was pigeonholed by the same guardrails.

But this world wasn't such a place. Which was why his Chaotic Spin was so important.

He would do whatever he needed to do to get ahead.

In this world of Demons? He felt no more out of place than any other new world he had stepped on… that being not at all.

With a casual flick of his hand, he put the pig Demon corpse away, standing to his full height. One could have never guessed by the look on his face that he had just done something so bloody.

The little girl, though, had a different reaction as the attendee shook.

"You finally look a little bit like a Gluttony Disciple. Not bad. Not bad."

Sylas ignored her, staring at the attendee as though waiting for him to do something.

"I… I'll be right back!"

The attendee rushed off again, realizing that he would need to go and find a second in command.

It wasn't long before another pig Demon came rushing out, this one with skin that was far closer to a leathery black than an off-whitish pink. He was older, and his steps were more labored, but he was just as big, and the dock swayed just as much.

"Noble Demon." The new pig Demon bowed. "I've heard of my former superior's transgressions and am willing to step in to help."

Sylas just looked at him and didn't reply.

The new pig Demon looked down at the splattered blood and lack of a corpse and felt a hint of a shiver before he began to speak faster.

"This mistake is a transgression of our Barbed Chains Fishery. However, the timing of Noble Demon is a bit… unfortunate. Of course, this isn't Noble Demon's fault, and this one is not trying to blame you. Instead, it is a problem of circumstance.

"Not long ago, the Young Miss of our Barbed Chain Gang recently visited and left with the Head of our Fishery on a trip. They've been away for long enough to worry, but not long enough to report the incident. And unfortunately, the one Demon capable of making a decision foolishly chose to offend Noble Demon, so there is no one left capable of righting this wrong."

"Where did they go?" Sylas asked coolly.

This intrigued him. What could the Young Miss of an organization need with the head of one of their father's underlings?

It was like a multi-billion, or even trillion-dollar conglomerate's heiress suddenly coming down to have lunch with one of the leaders of their many franchises.

No, it was worse than that, because it sounded like… she needed the Head of the Fishery's help?

Why was that? This was a thread to pull on for sure.

"This…" the brown pig Demon hesitated, a cold sweat breaking out on his back.

Sylas immediately understood why.

They had found him out at sea, and he had almost been attacked and captured as a result. The goal of the Young Miss was certainly in the sea as well, or else why would she need the Fishery?

From what Sylas could tell, even their small fishing boats were quite powerful, let alone their larger vessels, while this ocean seemed perpetually volatile.

What would someone with a modicum of intelligence conclude from this?

Obviously, the brown pig Demon thought that Sylas' goal in being out there was the exact same as the Young Miss'. Now, he was being forced to choose between offending Sylas now, or the Young Miss later.

Sylas, however, didn't care about his plight. He just took a step forward.

His stature was shorter than that of the brown pig Demon by quite a substantial margin, and their Levels gap was even wider than their height difference.

But at that moment, it didn't seem to mean much of anything at all. Sylas was in control of this situation, as he had always been.

Then, the brown pig Demon made the decision Sylas expected. One problem at a time—living for the now.

"Noble Demon… it's like this…"