Genetic Ascension

The searing pain in Sylas' shoulder couldn't seem to reach his mind at all. His vision looked glazed over as he saw more red than anything else, but his mind was more focused on the fear erupting from deep within him.

He hated the feeling. He hated the feeling of helplessness, but there was no escaping it. It was everywhere he looked, suffocating and ubiquitous.

The worst part was that he knew why he couldn't shake it off.

Maybe there was something external triggering these emotions, but he knew deep inside... that they were real.

There was a gap between what was truly resolved and what was suppressed. Sylas' solution to his plight was to become strong, but was he strong yet?

Even if he one day became invincible on Earth, what about in their solar system? What about their quadrant? Their galaxy? Their galaxy cluster? Beyond?

Would he ever be able to get rid of this feeling of inadequacy until he was unbothered and unaffected by the threat anyone in existence could provide?

What sort of life was that?

THWACK!

Sylas tried to dodge again, but he ended up diving into the path of an arrow instead of away.

This one was luckily a glancing blow that stuck so heavily into the tree behind him that the tail of the arrow whipped back and forth viciously, but that didn't stop a deep gash from appearing in his quad. It looked like it was only another inch or two from unearthing bone. The pain finally seemed to reach Sylas this time as his vision cleared slightly.

No, it wasn't the pain. It was a change to the cadence of his Luck's warnings. There was a new danger pinging him.

This awoke Sylas slightly as his mind felt the new stimulus. He tried to grasp this light at the end of the tunnel, but the feelings of fear came swifter and harsher.

'Am I really going to die here?'

The thought reverberated like a rock through into a large, empty corridor. It rebounded and echoed, bouncing around his skull as it made its presence known and forced itself into his reality.

A flicker of light pierced through the blurriness of Sylas' vision.

He stumbled to the side out of instinct, the whizzing of a spear vibrating his eardrum as it sliced by his head. A new feeling of heat burned the side of Sylas' face as he became vaguely aware that someone had almost cut his ear in two.

"Die!"

Linzie's voice roared.

'Die?'

Time slowed for Sylas.

He felt that scent of death more clearly now than even that day in the volcano. He couldn't see properly, he knew he was being attacked, but there was nothing he could do about it.

That feeling of helplessness was even more severe now than it ever had been before. Everything vanished and he felt like he was standing in an abyss of endless darkness.

A droplet of water fell from an undetectable ceiling, rippling across the surface of the water he seemed to be standing on, but couldn't quite make out either.

'Too weak... so... so... so... weak...'

A voice that sounded like it came from a throat filled with gravel echoed out.

Somehow, it felt like the Greed Seed and not like the Greed Seed at all. Subconsciously, Sylas understood.

This voice didn't come from the Greed Seed. But the origins of the two... were quite similar. Sylas understood that this voice was actually him. A part that he had buried... born that day he faced his death for the first time and the reaction that he had to it.

Since then, it had been lingering in him, reminding him of his inferiority, his weakness, his unworthiness of his own confidence and arrogance.

Deep down, he was the man that feared death... feared the ultimate loss of control that it represented.

Feeling it, Sylas found himself calming.

"You're right..."

These were the only words he said because there was nothing else to be said.

He was weak.

The gravel-filled voice began to laugh. It laughed and laughed, pouring a blackness out from within it and toward Sylas. The pure, reflective glass-like flame that was Sylas' Sparked Will became corrupted.

There was a flash of blackness in Sylas' eyes, one that tainted the pure green of his irises, and in an instant, something that he hadn't been able to understand at all solidified in his mind.

His strength didn't seem to change at all, and yet everything changed.

Sylas' mind snapped back to reality and the blurry layers of his vision fused into a single solid image...

Just in time to see a spear aiming for the space right between his brows, whistling wind howling around it.

BANG!

The spear ran right through Sylas' forehead, but Linzie couldn't celebrate before Sylas' body became a burst of Glass sand.

Sylas' body reformed behind Linzie, sending out a fist of Aetherflow as he rapidly retreated. All the wounds he had suffered began to make their presence known, but he wasn't slow in his actions at all.

A fierce desire for survival bloomed within his heart, and the fear that bloomed within him seemed to become like a burning light that tore through the effects of the Domain.

His head snapped in a certain direction and he finally laid eyes on the Fire Monkeys. For the first time, they looked like something more than a blur of red in his eyes.

PUCHI!

A blade of glass tore one right in two.

What chance did they stand against him with Glass Monkey Slayer active?

A path was opened up behind him as he continued to accelerate backward. Linzie suffered a point-blank blow to her back. The reflection of her armor's defense deflected the blow, but she was still sent flying, crashing through a relatively thin tree.

Sylas didn't linger, pivoting and accelerating into the distance. His visualization had finally started to work again and he knew that he couldn't afford to be surrounded here.

But at the same time, there was a circulating energy in the depths of his right hand.

The Blackened Claw.

For some reason... Sylas felt like he had a perfect comprehension of Demonic Runes now.

SHIIIIING!

Three black claws extended from his hand as the Demonic Treasure was successfully repaired.