Genetic Ascension

Philman’s eyes bulged from their sockets as he seemed to grasp Sylas’ meaning.

He opened his mouth and a mournful cry came out, his temper flaring to his head as he exploded.

But his path was blocked by Magnus.

"My grandson, um… doesn’t have the best way with words. Forgive him for my sake and let’s have that talk you wanted to have."

"Get out of my way!" Philman roared.

Blade Aura pulsed around Philman and a sword sheathed to his side rattled in its casing, seemingly about to erupt out on its own.

Magnus’ gaze darkened. "Let’s be clear about something here, elder brother. Don’t think that I’m unaware of the fact your son tried to kill my grandson. Although I haven’t said anything, don’t think that I’m ignorant.

"Drop the distraught father act. If you want to fight, pull out your weapon."

…

Sylas flashed forward, not looking back. He assumed that since a battle hadn’t already erupted between his grandfather and grand uncle, there must have been a reason for that. The most obvious one being that they were evenly matched.

He didn’t know much about the earlier generation. And quite frankly, he didn’t know much about his father’s generation either other than the fact Lucius needed to die. But this much should be a safe assumption.

It was also probably safe to assume that unlike the branch family members, the main members of the Grimblades had been preparing for the Summoning since they could walk.

His grandfather had always been extremely active, participating in half marathons even into his 70s. At first, Sylas just thought he was a health junky and he ended up picking up a lot of his grandfather’s habits as a result.

But now that he thought back… his grandfather was almost certainly preparing for something much larger than himself.

Sylas’ body flashed to a side and he suddenly caught something out of the air.

It was a neck.

A shadow had appeared near his home and was trying to find a method of making their way in. But obviously… they had found themselves blocked by barriers continuously.

Sylas didn’t have a functional understanding of large-scale formations and how they worked. His training in Rune Mastery could be said to be all over the place.

However, what he did have was a great ability to read and copy.

On his last visit here, he had seen the dome of protection around the Grimblade family compound and simply…

Copied it.

It was rudimentary, so simple he hardly needed to think about it. The number of Foundations wasn’t very impressive to begin with.

The only complicated part was figuring out how to turn it off and on without others noticing. So… he decided to not have it turn off at all.

The barrier was continuously active. It was just that he taught his little sister how to flip the Runes just like he had.

Of course, Elara didn’t have the same Rune control he had, so he had to weaken the barrier at certain points he just colloquially called "doors".

Technically speaking, if their enemies found these doors and just focused an attack on them, destroying the barrier would be exceptionally easy.

But how difficult was it to find an invisible door in an invisible barrier? To even begin you’d have to have some level of Rune Mastery to be able to interact with the barrier, and the shadows that were sent didn’t even have Wills of their own, so how could they?

As for where the power was coming from since Sylas had yet to reach Breath Mastery with these Runes, that was even simpler…

The entire Grimblade Family Compound was filled with Aether Stones.

Sylas flickered around the house like a shadow, killing everything in sight.

Until now, he had been quite soft-handed. Maybe it was foolish of him, but he was so focused on Lucius that he didn’t care about ensuring that the others died.

But these people trying to invade his family’s home in order to threaten him…

Unforgivable.

…

The last of the shadows fell, and judging by the silence of the night, the battle between Sylas’ grandfather and grand uncle never erupted.

Sylas let the last corpse drop from his hand, looking up to see his little sister staring down at him from above. Her cheeks were squished up between her palms as she rested her elbows on the ledge. Somehow, she almost looked bored.

Shaking his head, Sylas looked away. It was nice that she could be so casual while others were slaving away on her behalf.

Elara grinned as though she could read Sylas’ thoughts.

"If you’re here, then come out." Sylas said casually.

A figure of Nathan stepped out from behind a tree.

Sylas sent a glance over and shook his head. Unlike Lucius, he could tell immediately.

"Where is your real body?"

The words Nathan had been about to speak froze.

"You haven’t been in the Grimblade Compound in a long while, is that it? I assume that Archibald also isn’t here?" Sylas asked. "No, probably not. He’s definitely here. That man allowed himself to be caught for a reason, which more than likely means that he either needs something from the Grimblades.

"Or…

"That he is a Grimblade."

Sylas looked Nathan up and down as though he was trying to catch something. To his credit, Nathan didn’t show much of a reaction after the first initial wave of surprise.

"How would he be a Grimblade?"

Sylas looked away and toward the moon high in the skies, the blood that caked him reflecting beneath its silvery lights.

"I met a man simply named Masquerade today. No last name. He’s probably dead by now. A traitor through and through. Do you think his parents named him that? I don’t know much about history, but I’m also fairly certain that a name like Grimblade was not common even before the Sixth Summoning."

Nathan fell into silence.

"The little AI you’re working on isn’t bad." Sylas said calmly. "A bit brittle. But I guess Metarock from thousands of years ago probably won’t have much Durability left."

This time, Nathan’s pupils visibly trembled.

He took a deep breath and steadied himself.

"Sylas. This isn’t a battle you have to fight. The Metarock you have would be invaluable—."

The glow in Sylas’ eyes returned with a violent tempest, so bright it nearly outshone the moon.

"The Metarock I have? What gave you the impression of that?"