Genetic Ascension

Sylas walked forward in silence.

Was it a foolish choice to come here today?

Maybe to others.

In reality, Sylas was a man who had always prided himself on preparation, on discipline, on refining his every action so that things would always work out perfectly for him.

The fact of the matter was that he had already prepared for the worst-case scenario. After the Trial, he had had no chance to do so because he didn't understand the depths of the Grimblades family. Even now, he was sure that they had trump cards he couldn't fathom...

But what he also knew was that they had no ability to bring them out right now. If they could have, they would have already.

The moment he saw the quality of the barrier they used to protect themselves, he understood that he had more than a slight chance today.

If Lucius thought he just came here on a whim... he was sorely mistaken.

The real reason he hadn't wanted to execute an exit plan until now were for two main reasons.

First, he didn't have an easy method of bringing his family away. And second... he didn't want to fall out with the Grimblade family just yet.

He had too many enemies around him. Even if the Grimblades weren't necessarily allies with him, one less enemy was still better than none.

However, after his interaction with Mortimer, he had a good understanding of the kind of man he was. If the opportunity presented itself... Mortimer wouldn't hesitate to take his head. Such an ally, he might as well not have at all. His hostility was much better hidden than Lucius', but it was precisely because of that that it was the most fearsome.

He had already not wanted to leave his family here. Although they hadn't said a word about their troubles during Sylas' visit, how intelligent was he?

How could he not see his sister had stayed home on a weekday instead of going to school? How could he not see that she didn't have any friends to talk to and rely upon?

How could he not see that his parents were spinning their wheels trying to make it in this new society? That they felt left behind and unable to catch up?

How could he not see the pride in his grandfather's eyes, the hope... not in the fact he had returned to the family that rejected his wife, but in that he had a grandson that was rapidly

Growing?

From the beginning, his grandfather hadn't wanted to return to the Grimblades for the sake of this family and what it represented.

He wanted to return for the sake of giving his descendants a chance.

And now, he was hoping, praying that Sylas would grow faster so that he would be able to protect them all while he shouldered the weight he could.

Sylas could see through all of that, but he had buried it, suppressed it, feeling that it wasn't the right time, that there was a more perfect, more opportune moment waiting for him in the future.

But enough was enough.

BANG!

A violent, tempestuous aura surged out from Sylas, a rotating storm of snowy blades slicing the air around him apart.

Sylas raised a palm and pushed out.

Lucius' eyes opened wide as he found himself standing completely alone.

The guards around him felt as though a sledgehammer had ripped into their chests. A telekinesis with a weight of over 500 pounds slamming into them with Physical of over 2000. SHIIING!

Lucius quickly unsheathed his sword, his Will pulsing around him in a preventative defense. "You have no idea what you're doing." Lucius growled. He raised his great sword, facing off against Sylas.

Years of training pumped through his veins and made his blade far steadier than his heart. Sylas didn't reply, a Demonic Will stirring in his eyes.

Right now, there was nothing he wanted to see more than Lucius' head on a pike.

Sylas took a step, his heel flexing up from the ground as his quad seemed to double in size.

He shot forward with such Speed that the snow that once covered the tarmac was blasted into the air, becoming a part of the blades that spun around Sylas.

For the past day, Sylas had been fighting in an area that heavily suppressed his Aether. But now...

It was the direct opposite.

This was his domain.

BANG!

Lucius swung his sword down, but Sylas' fist only came into brief contact with it before it was sent flying back.

A second fist descended, crashing right onto Lucius' chest.

Sylas didn't give him even the room to breathe and one would have thought that Lucius was

An untrained amateur. The gap between their Physical stats was so vast that Sylas didn't even waste his Wisdom to scan Lucius in the first place.

It was entirely beneath him.

CRACK.

Sylas drove a fist right into Lucius' gut, shattering his Aether skin. His torso flexed and his hips dropped into a crossing elbow that shattered Lucius' cheek bone just as easily.

More and more defensive items bloomed out from Lucius' repertoire, quickly replenishing the ones that he had lost, but Sylas' momentum was relentless.

One action flowed into the next, and as though he was undergoing a baptism of catharsis, his Demonic Will was only growing stronger as well.

It was as though it could finally taste satisfaction. It had only been satiated for a small while when Sylas made the choice to come here and kill Lucius. But now it was well and truly

Feasting.

Rather than Sylas losing more of his mind, he became shockingly focused.

His fists followed his legs and his legs followed his palms. He swapped from one style to the next until Lucius looked like nothing more than a punching bag.

CRACK.

PUCHI.

Lucius coughed up a mouthful of blood, his body slamming into a helicopter.

BOOM!

The flight craft went up in flames, its propellers twisting beyond recognition.

Lucius launched himself out, his body littered with wounds, but his armor just barely holding on. The cracks on it began to fuse, and now, one of his hands gripped onto a cube tightly. With a roar that could only have come from a man who had lost his mind, a jarbled echo produced from a shattered face and jaw, Lucius poured all the Aether he had into the cube.

Sylas paused as he realized something.

Lucius, carrying the eyes of a wild beast, continued to roar. But then...

CRACK.

It was a sound that had filled this battlefield more than once already, so much so that even

Lucius almost ignored it...

Until the cube in his hand crumbled apart.

Lucius' roar froze and he looked at the cube as though he had lost his soul.

It shouldn't be like this... where was the trump card that Nathan promised him? Did he lie to

Him?

Sylas walked forward and pulled on Lucius' hand as though the other didn't even have a blade in it. He took the bits and pieces of the cube that remained, staring at it for a moment before

Tossing it to the side.

"No... haha..." Lucius chuckled bitterly. "... he didn't lie to me... you're just... a monster..."

Without a word, Sylas drove a fist right through Lucius' gut, shattering what remained of his

Armor and grabbing a hold of his spine from the front.

With a heartless tug, he ripped it out.