Genetic Ascension

The Runes were very cleverly hidden. That was because they weren't Runes at all, but rather hidden away in the arrangement of the buildings. It didn't take Sylas long to see through it, but afterward, he had still been confused.

That was because the Runes themselves were nonsense. Normally, Sylas was quite confident in himself to see through them, but this time, even with Rune Essence, he didn't have an idea.

Until it clicked.

Coordinates.

The only reason Sylas was familiar with this was because he had seen similar Runes on his Planar Convergence Gate. They weren't Runes in the usual sense, but rather markers.

What Sylas didn't know was that this was a special Rune language used for teleportation and things of the like. It was a special class of Runes that could only be used by spatial Professions, and unsurprisingly, it was a rare profession.

Still, Sylas had been able to see through them even though he couldn't use them, and as though something was whispering into his ears, he subconsciously knew where the coordinates were directing him to.

He was sure that it was a location on Earth. And the reason he knew that was because it was a very prominent location, one that he had already been to.

The volcano.

If it was just this alone, it would be fine, but then this realization allowed Sylas to understand the rest of the message.

Archibald wanted him to steal something from that location... again. Namely, he needed a large amount of raw materials that were being produced there.

Obviously, Archibald wanted to build something. That was what his Profession was all about.

But he wanted Sylas to risk his life to go and pick up these materials while he was in the shadows pretending to be mysterious.

Sylas had no desire to do this.

He had formed a partnership with the Grimblades, one he had no doubt Mortimer thought he was getting the longer end of the stick on. But he was just getting payment for something he wanted to do already, all while receiving information that would make it far easier to do.

But by comparison, this Archibald was directing him from the shadows to execute things that Sylas had no understanding of.

What reason did he have to trust Archibald? What faith should he have in the idea that this man's plans would work?

Sylas contacted Nathan and said a single word.

"No."

After that, he hung up again and directly entered the Portal to Paradise.

...

The small city was in chaos.

At the start, Lucius had taken over this region entirely on both sides of the Portal. He controlled the small town of Paradise and the entrance to the Portal on the other side as well, forming a city around both barriers.

But with his disappearance, there was no law and order here anymore.

The men, women, and children that had managed to survive the first wave of beasts couldn't manage their way through the second. They were forced to migrate away. ℞ä₦O͍ꞖĚŜ

The only ones left were mostly adventurers. There had been some on the other side as well, it was just that Sylas had directly ignored them. They could have reached him even if they wanted to.

Sylas looked off into the distance, his eyes locking onto the road to Lone Star in the far-off horizon.

Although it seemed that he was about to go and do precisely what Archibald asked of him, the reality was that he wasn't going to Lone Star for Archibald at all.

He was going for Professor Fembroise.

The peacock flapped its wings and a whirlwind kicked up as they shot across the horizon.

...

Sylas had the peacock fly higher and higher into the skies until they were nothing more than a dot from below.

All birds had a limit to the altitude they could withstand, but it was safe to say that Sylas' peacock wasn't a normal bird. Though, the issues of Aether being so sparse up here, and the troubling lack of oxygen, both played a role in the difficulty.

Ultimately, though, Sylas was struggling far more than the peacock. But this was a necessary evil. At least now, he wouldn't have to deal with barricades and other troubles.

Every day, he was proven more and more right about how valuable a flying beast was. Unfortunately, Mature Aether hadn't helped his Symbiote Mount to level up like his beast contracts, for whatever reason.

Sylas had a general understanding of Lone Star's landscape by now and it wasn't long before he was hovering over Carter's home.

Carter was the young man that Sylas had seen thieving when he, Bloom, and Mark first came to Lone Star. Sylas had ended up finding him at a skating park.

Afterward, Sylas saved Professor Fembroise from an attack from Legacy and entrusted her family to Carter.

Sylas had given Cassarae the task of bringing them back, but after seeing the Professor on the list, Sylas knew that he had to come personally. This situation had become far more tricky than he knew.

He didn't outright dismiss the reports of the Grimblades.

When he had last seen Professor Fembroise, she was grieving over the loss of her son and had a great deal of pent-up anger toward the government. She believed that if they had gotten warnings first, this would have never happened.

This was the reason she had joined Sylas in the first place.

But then Sylas disappeared for months. It wasn't even fair of him to expect her to wait all the time without even knowing if he was dead or alive.

Even if she gained access to a Nexus and learned about him through those channels, she would have no reason to believe that he still had her in mind. Or even if she did, she might think that he was in too much danger to consider her at the moment.

If Legacy wanted her... then others certainly would.

And therein lay the problem.

'As expected, she's not there.'

Sylas hovered high over the house, but he didn't panic. That was because the report the Grimblades had given him had already confirmed that.

In which case...

He knew exactly where she was.

But he would need the night before confirming that.

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