Genetic Ascension

Sylas felt the Will long before he saw it. He was still hyper-focused on dodging when he felt the waves of… endlessness.

The moment he did, his eyes glazed over, his mind entering a state of epiphany and enlightenment that almost got him killed… Almost.

A rain droplet fell from the skies and crashed against him, but the space around him also seemed to extend into infinity. As the droplet accelerated faster and faster, it only seemed to fail to get closer to Sylas all the while—until it practically stopped moving entirely a full meter from Sylas’ head.

Sylas stood there in a daze, his Wil rippling.

Infinity…”

How had he not realized it before?

The laws of the universe, the fundamental realities that dictated everything and all, were built on certain constants that, if contradicted, could break everything they had come to know as humanoids.

He was so focused on how those rules were broken at a quantum level that he had forgotten to see things from a macro level.

Understanding how physical laws changed on the level of particles would undoubtedly bring his Rune Mastery to a shocking level. But why had he not focused nearly enough on how his Spacetime affinities and Progenitor Flame abilities could be used on a macro scale?

In realty, it looked as though he was already doing that. He was shrinking space beneath his feet, warping his own perception of time to accelerate his thoughts, he was even Chrono and Spatial Casting. In fact, when he combined them, using his Archon Casting, he could warp reality around his opponent, making them think up was down and down was up.

In fact, that was how he had defeated the E-tier genius of the Kaelthar during their duel. But to Sylas, this had still felt a bit empty. It hadn’t improved his battle prowess as much as he wanted it to. He still felt like there was more potential to be unearthed, and maybe that was the real reason he kept using his Rune Mastery so much more than his other Skills, even though the latter needed to be improved as well.

The moment he felt the concentrated Will of the Ancient Boros Hydra, though, it was like something had clicked inside of him.

Maybe the most important constant in the entire universe was the speed of light. Breaking it would break causality itself. It would require infinite energy, create infinite mass… it could slow down time and speed it up—all relatively speaking, of course. These were the rules as Sylas knew them as a mortal. But as an F-tier, things were slightly different. As an E-tier, they would be even just a bit more different than that. And as a D-tier… so on, and so forth.

But if Sylas understood these fundamental underlying principles in a world of F-Grade Runes like this one, there was absolutely no reason he shouldn’t be invincible.

Why should any one of these people be capable of touching him?

Infinity?

That was entirely under his control.

Archon Casting took the form of a tesseract, a fourth-dimensional construct. But from the perspective of a third-dimensional being, it was almighty, infinite, untouchable. By comparison, from the perspective of a fourth-dimensional being, the third dimension was as finite and easy to manipulate as a sheet of paper.

Sylas’ eyes slowly regained their focus, and his Will began to multiply.

Once over, then twice, then thrice.

They were more layered and more real than anything the Boros could manage. That was because Sylas wasn’t really splitting his Will at all. He didn’t need to divide it and grow it; he was infinite in the eyes of those of this third dimension.

And so was his Rune Mastery.

Sylas reached out and clenched, the sphere of water accelerating toward him shattering. But rather than becoming piercing droplets of rain, it instead divided into Runes.

[Title Upgraded]

[A Marked Will > An Infinite Will]

[222]

[222]

[222]

[Anomaly detected]

[Willborne Charisma has shattered for unknown reasons]

(Calculating…)

[Willborne Charisma has shattered for unknown reasons]

(Calculating…)

The messages repeated again and again as though the system was glitching and didn’t understand what was happening.

Sylas completely ignored the messages. There was no point in paying attention to them. He was well aware that this was temporary.

This was something he could only accomplish in a world fully formed of Runes he had the ability to read, suppress, and completely comprehend.

Here… he was a God.

The Runes of the Rain God were completely seen through by Sylas, and he rotated his clenched wrist. His eyes flashed and Runeweaver pooled together.

The droplet became a javelin that formed in the air, whole and complete, rippling with the waters of the world in a beautiful sort of reflective art.

Sylas slowly opened his now downward-facing palm and pressed down.

The javelin shuddered just once before it shot off in a blazing arc of blue, moving so fast it didn’t even leave afterimages in its wake.

Chi. Chi. Chi. Chi. Chi.

It ripped through one giant after another, and it wasn’t until all within an entire kilometer range were dead that a sonic wave hit them all at once.

BOOM.

They all exploded at once.

(Calculating…)

[Redundant Error. Calculation Impossible]

[The system has taken a keen interest in you, System Rebel] —

[Title Changed]

[System Rebel > System Chosen]

[From Rebel to Chosen, and from watched to priority. The system is unable to understand you and has now taken keen interest in your path forward. May your strength continue to impress] [+1000 Luck]

[+100% Luck]

[System Reward]

[System Reward]

Sylas felt as though his mind had imploded. All at once, his Luck shot up to over 2000, and the world responded in kind.

Normally, Sylas might wait to check what these rewards were, but he didn’t have the luxury. He immediately opened them both at once, and when he did, his eyes couldn’t help but narrow.

[Title Changed]

[Milky Way Progeny > Milky Way Progenitor]