Genetic Ascension

Sylas was inwardly shocked by his conclusion, trying to understand why he was so certain without being able to see his stats. But in the end, he could only chalk it up to his new perception.

Right now, they were in the city that Lucius had set up within the Paradise Portal.

The situation around the portal itself was quite distorted and odd. That was because by now, it had already consumed the land and swallowed up the entirety of Paradise.

If Sylas had to guess, the government may have never stepped foot here at all. Considering how much trouble the Grimblades went through to get this disk, it had to be exceptionally rare. If he put himself in the position of the government, it was obviously far more important to protect the main cities as opposed to small towns like this one.

To make room for the portal, many things had been expelled and rearranged, and the townsfolk were essentially forcefully conscripted to Lucius' efforts.

Though, as one of the three candidates hand-selected by the Grimblades, these conscripted citizens were likely far more in awe and very thankful for Lucius' intervention. They had no idea they were being used as pawns and rather felt that they were lucky to survive.

Of course, that wouldn't be the case for everyone, but Sylas had only been away for less than a week, and yet everything was already running smoothly.

This was all to say that there was more than enough Aether around now for Sylas to finally feel the full brunt of his new Enchanted Scribe ability.

It seemed that being able to see, feel, and innately understand the runes of the world came with more benefits than he thought. Although it was vague, he could see some of the runes that made up Lucius' strength, and they were enough to make him supremely serious.

Sylas had a feeling that the Level 9 strength of an existence like Lucius wasn't normal by any stretch of the imagination. If he was correct, it was likely that whether it was Lucius, Astrid, or Malachi, or any one of the other monsters from those hidden families, they had probably spent quite a long time at Level 0 as well.

Ultimately, he had inexplicably lost three months of time. Who knew what they could accomplish in that time?

"I'm not sure," Sylas eventually replied. "There was an odd distortion and I was trapped in a world of lava. I only managed to escape after finding the disk."

Lucius' gaze flickered, but eventually he nodded. "I understand. Have a good rest, then. There will be other problems to deal with soon and it seems like you've been through a lot."

Sylas nodded and turned to leave, finding accommodations prepared just for him.

...

"What do you think?" Lucius spoke a long while after Sylas left.

Bloom appeared and looked toward where Sylas had left, confusion coloring her eyes as well.

"I'm not sure. He doesn't seem to be lying, and his Favorability hasn't changed or fluctuated in these last few days, so he's never wavered. But he's unlikely to be telling the whole truth either, and considering he managed to make it back on his own while the city was likely on full alert is its own shocking matter.

"Either his strength is far greater than what he's shown, or his means are more mysterious. There doesn't seem to be another explanation. The government isn't so incompetent."

"Find out what happened."

Bloom nodded as though it wasn't much of an issue to find such high-class information.

"Also… what of the other matter?" Lucius asked before Bloom could leave.

Bloom took a breath. "The System City isn't an easy place to investigate. We've sent three, and all three have died. I don't believe there would be much of a difference if I went personally."

Lucius sneered. "These people really treat our world like it's their own personal backyard. I swear I'll raze that city to the ground."

Bloom fell into silence as Lucius' gaze flashed with fury. But soon, the heir candidate had calmed, sitting back down behind his desk.

"In that case, we'll play their games. If we control all of the cities in this region and stifle access to this System City, I wonder how they'll react.

"They're limited by the system even more than we are. They are limited in what they can do. They want to benefit under my nose? Over my dead body."

He spoke these words calmly and without the slightest fluctuation.

Bloom hesitated, wanting to say something, but ultimately sighed.

These thoughts were the same that many had had before. But how could it be possible to control so many people without outright tyranny?

And if you told the people why they should mistrust the System Cities, those as smart as Sylas would begin to wonder why you knew this and soon put two and two together.

Didn't all of this knowledge come from gatekeeping the truth of the world from others for hundreds of years?

Still, Bloom understood why the government, Legacy, and the families had all made the same decision.

The thoughts of the people were hard to control. Who knew how many organizations and hidden factions had popped up just thanks to the Trial, how many more would have appeared if they had been open with all of their knowledge?

But was it truly the right path?

Bloom didn't know. It could only be said that there were downsides to both, and because so many unknown variables had appeared this time, even ending the Trial early, all of their carefully laid out plans had to be thrown out of the window.

Maybe no one would know the answer to this question until the Seventh Summoning came to an end.

"Start the sweep. I want to know about every portal to appear in this region. We will take control of them all.

"Not a single drop of water will be allowed through."

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