Chapter 2162: Intertwined

Genetic Ascension

Gogo slithered up behind Sylas, the Duchess still on his head. He peered over the railing, extending out quite far before suddenly shooting back.

A protective golden coating stopped the Duchess from flying away as a beam of light cut upward and nearly took Gogo's head off.

Sylas' eyes narrowed. Given the power of that beam, it should have been much faster than that. The only reason it wasn't was because… well, it was almost like it was just slow enough for Gogo to dodge, like it was a warning rather than an actual attempt on Gogo's life.

That didn't make much sense.

This wasn't a Dungeon, it was a Split Realm. This meant that everything in here should have been far more realistic to real life rather than just a set challenge they had to clear.

If that stone was the Monkey King's egg like Sylas assumed it was, there was exactly zero reason why the defensive mechanisms here should show such kindness. It should have taken Gogo much more than that to dodge.

Gogo groaned, half in dissatisfaction and half in apology, both to Sylas and the Duchess.

Sylas didn't reply, his thoughts focused on trying to figure out what was going on.

He stretched out a hand and a similar beam of light shot up. He pulled back, dodging out of the way and shaking his head.

It was just as expected. That beam was enough to wipe out anything that touched it, but it was moving so slowly that it didn't matter. The speed of it also adjusted just now. It was slightly faster for him than it had been for Gogo.

Sylas put his hand out and then pulled it back. Then he did the same for his head.

'I see…'

The beams adjusted depending on what part of his body he had stuck out as well. The beam for his hand was much faster than the beam for his head.

These beams, of course, weren't exactly slow. If he lagged a bit, he would be dead.

Sylas flipped over a palm. The dagger he had formed of his Will vanished, replaced by a random one he took out from his Madness Key.

He took a step and then hurled it with as much power as he could without using his telekinesis. It whizzed through the air and appeared before the stone in the blink of an eye.

Nothing happened. No beams formed, and the dagger reflected off the body of the stone, spiralling into the darkness below until it vanished.

'Nothing.'

Sylas frowned.

That light was too powerful, and from what he could tell, its speed increased infinitely. If he threw something with his Will attached to it, the backlash would travel through and he would die even with Infinite Will—the black light was that powerful.

However, without his Will, there was no way he could throw something with enough force to do any real damage at all.

Sylas looked toward the other balconies.

They had just been through the palace. There had only been one entrance, and one path. There had been no options to turn or anything, so where did these other balconies come from? Could he have missed an entrance?

No, that was impossible.

He had destroyed the foundational formation that formed the palace. In doing so, he understood the ins and outs of the palace perfectly. That formation had woven into the very fabric of the palace itself, it was impossible for there to be anything here he didn't see before. Unless… 'It's connected to the other Split Realms.'

Sylas' eyes narrowed.

This was a problem, but he had already been ready for something like this to happen. He knew from the very beginning that this Split Realm couldn't have been normal.

The real issue was that he thought he would have had more room to make a change at this point, but there wasn't any easy solution.

Going outside wouldn't change anything. He could leap to the other balconies without dying. He couldn't affect the stone with any ease, and he didn't know if doing anything to the stone would even change or fix anything.

Sylas stood in silence, realizing he probably didn't have much time.

'Blood. The stone. Demons…'

The obvious connection between all of these was that the Golden Race wanted to take advantage of this to harvest the blood of those that entered.

However, there were still too many holes in that.

How was the Monkey King related to all of that?

'Golden…'

Sylas' pupils constricted. It was such an obvious thing he had overlooked it. Where did the Golden aspects of the Golden Race come from? And was it also related to the fact that the Monkey King was likewise golden?

Could it be that the goal of the Golden Race hadn't just been to combine the Real Plane and Demonic Planes, but the Humanoids, Demons, and Beasts into one?

Sylas' gaze flickered. The Unitaur… they were already a cross of man and beast, weren't they?

Were these just coincidences? Connections he was making that were ultimately meaningless? Or was there something here?

Sylas stepped to the edge of the railing, placing his hands down on it.

The Duchess almost subconsciously told him to be careful before she luckily managed to stop herself before she was embarrassed again.

Sylas' gaze flickered wildly and then he asked a pivotal question.

"Duchess."

"Hm?" the Duchess was startled out of her fantasies.

"What purpose did your people seek to enter the Split Realm for?"

The Duchess blinked. "… We believe that it is related to the birth of the Madness System. We believed that if we could understand it, then we might be able to stop it from collapsing, or at least gain an advantage related to it during its last moments."

Sylas' pupils constricted into pinholes.

It was just as he was thinking. The birth of the Monkey King was directly aligned with the creation of the Madness System. But in that case, if the Monkey King was so intertwined with the Madness System, and the Golden Race was so intertwined with the Monkey King… Why the hell were they on the Demi-God Plane right now?

When Sylas first appeared here, he was surprised that the Golden Race was only a Demi-God Race. He had always assumed they were Gods.

What if he was right from the very beginning?