Genetic Ascension

[Bonus chapter thanks to chronotitan. What you guys didn't know is that he suffers from chronic erectile dysfunction and flexes his wealth here to compensate. You're welcome, chrono <3]

Nyssa's eyes blazed with fury. "You're putting us all at risk! He's one person. Do you think he's invincible?!"

Cassarae blinked for a moment as though she were really trying to think about the answer to that question.

"… Probably," she said after a while.

Nyssa was speechless. That was the most serious response Cassarae had ever given her to anything.

At that moment, a group of men walked by, their eyes ogling.

Cassarae's head snapped over. "Look for one more second and I'll gouge your eyes out. How about it?"

The men were startled for a moment, clearly not used to anyone from the Petals of the Seeing Thorn being so aggressive. Even the married ones were usually quite inviting and docile. They were an organization that built their strength based on networking, so people skills were always at the top of their list of priorities.

Clearly, Cassarae didn't get the memo.

Feeling flustered, they scurried away.

Cassarae scoffed and then went back to Nyssa. Then, she scanned the worried expressions that Megean and Lorien sported. Other than Olivia, it could be said that they were all feeling antsy.

They had been given a pretty straightforward mission, and it was a great opportunity at that. The one who had given them this mission also put a lot of trust in them—not to mention had helped them quite a bit.

It felt more than a little… icky to just betray Wei only because… Sylas hated the Thryskai?

That was it?

They didn't even know anything else.

Sylas had never told Cassarae he joined the Beast Warlord Sanctum; he didn't even tell her that he had become the disciple of someone quite powerful.

Cassarae could probably guess the former based on the fact she had a much better understanding of the Sector now and Sylas had drawn his own version of the Serpent Warlord Armor for her. But the latter? She could never guess that.

That was to say, she had no idea what Sylas' current standing in the Beast Warlord Sanctum was. In fact, the last time she had seen him, he hadn't even joined yet. So she didn't even know if he was there yet or not.

It seemed like an act of complete madness to take a gamble like this one.

Their mission had been more than a little important. They were meant to go to the Zether Clan in an adjacent Sector. This Zether Clan was the Mortal Thryskai Clan closest to their Sector's Kaelthar Clan.

The goal was to coordinate with the Petals of the Seeing Thorn branch in that Sector, selling false information that would mislead the Zether about the situation going on here.

Since the Zether Clan's branch hadn't married any Seeing Thorn disciples, their relationship with the Petals of the Seeing Thorn was a lot looser. As such, the smart move was to bet on the Kaelthar.

It was simple enough. But it was because it was simple that the plan could be easily thwarted.

No one knew better than the Zether that the Kaelthar had married quite a few of their important members to the Seeing Thorn. That was actually precisely why a group of F-tiers had been sent.

The game of influence was a long-ranging one and had to be played like a game of chess.

If the Zether knew that their organization might try to mislead them, how should the Petals of the Seeing Thorn approach the situation?

The obvious decision was to target the vulnerable—young Zether who could easily have the wool pulled over their eyes by beautiful women.

Also, because they were just F-tiers, the fact that they were from the Kaelthar's Sector wouldn't be as obvious as if they had sent someone far more powerful.

Cassarae and the others had also only just joined. They didn't have any high-profile official missions under their belts, so they were even less likely to be known.

Their task was simply to spread misinformation, allowing the young geniuses of the Zether to latch onto this information and have it steadily move up the ranks.

Should the opportunity present itself, they were to take even more aggressive action—namely, killing and framing the powers in the Zether Sector, throwing them into chaos and forcing more aggressive forms of action.

But, when Cassarae got the mission, she considered it for only a moment before deciding against following instructions. In fact, she instead acted quite directly to obstruct the other groups that had been sent, killing several in cold blood before coming back as though nothing had happened.

Technically speaking, she wasn't even meant to be back here just yet. But she had to be, if she wanted to see if this gamble would work out or not.

If she just stayed in the Zether Sector, then it would only be a matter of time before the Petals of the Seeing Thorn found out exactly what had happened and punished her for it.

But she had returned to the center of it all instead, to a place she had heard through the grapevine was about to become quite lively.

It was a choice that was nothing short of suicidal. It was no wonder Megean, Lorien, and Nyssa were practically losing their minds with worry.

She was essentially trying to force the hand of the Petals of the Seeing Thorn to bet on one Sylas instead of an entire Thryskai Mortal Clan vying to become a Demi-God Clan.

It was worse than asinine. If the Head of their branch came down and smote her to ash, no one would be surprised in the slightest.

But here she was anyway, because she had a feeling that something quite lively was about to happen.

She had also come with quite a number of cards to play herself.

The only one who didn't look at her like she was crazy was Olivia. That was in part because Olivia's understanding of the wider universe was still more limited than theirs was. But there was another reason…

She knew what had happened on Earth, and they didn't.

Maybe if Megean hadn't been unconscious all the while, she'd know better too.

"Let's go."