Genetic Ascension

Chapter 603: Useless [Bonus]

An Enlightened Rune.

The Rune shone, illuminating the space. The pyramid trembled and quaked. The movement beneath their feet was so fierce that Alex and the others even began to somewhat fear for their lives.

Even with their Levels, they weren’t capable of weathering the collapse of a structure this big. They would surely die.

However, at that moment, the lines in this world of black mirrors began to glow more and more brightly, moving and shaping around them until the pinecone and eye became so bright that they could be picked up by even the more unobservant of individuals.

And then, they vanished.

…

“NO!”

Standing in the middle of a puzzle, a furious roar echoed.

This wasn’t the only location that such a roar resonated. They had spent days inside of this pyramid, scraping by from challenge to challenge. The idea that they would lose out at the last moment was more infuriating than they could put into words.

…

In a world of floating ice shards, Lauren looked up and blinked with surprise.

‘Someone… was faster than me?’

She seemed to be genuinely surprised. She had gotten here late, but she didn’t think that she would be outpaced.

“What is it, Lauren?”

The question had only just come from a young man by her side before the rumbling commenced. Then, everyone’s expression changed just the same.

Of them all, only Lauren seemed to remain calm.

When Sylas first met her, his evaluation of her was that she was a calm, secretary of a CEO type. He noted that she had the air to be a CEO herself if it wasn’t for the fact that she was so soft-spoken.

But it seemed that now that she was no longer pretending, she lived up to the potential that Sylas thought she had.

Her short-cut dirty blond hair, tanned skin, and sharp gaze made for a formidable presence.

“We need to leave.”

“But—.”

“Someone succeeded before us.”

The expressions of those around changed, and they quickly put two and two together.

“Then…”

“Mountains.”

Lauren gave them a look and a single word, but that seemed to reveal everything they needed to know.

Indeed… there was more than one.

They had missed this cycle, but that didn’t mean that they would miss out on the next.

And when that time came, she would have to see who had managed to outpace her like this.

…

Sylas’ vision cleared, and what he saw left him shaken.

He stood on a small platform not even wide enough for him to stand at shoulder width. This might have been fine if not for the fact he was standing amidst the clouds with nothing more than this small piece of limestone separating him from a fall to perpetual doom.

However, it was quite easy to get over this, not because he had any sort of confidence in surviving such a fall if the peacock couldn’t be summoned for unknown reasons, but because he was looking ahead at what seemed to be the chest of a statue too enormous to fathom.

He craned his neck upward to try and see its face, but it was too high up and shrouded by clouds. Much the same, when he looked downward, he couldn’t even see where its feet connected with the ground.

The scale of this statue made the mountains of Earth feel inconsequential. Even the feeling that it was so close and looming was nothing more than an illusion. Sylas felt like he would likely have to run for hours, maybe even days from his current location just to touch its surface.

And something told him that even if he could, he probably shouldn’t.

There was this heart-shuddering aura about this statue, the kind that exuded a presence that made it unapproachable, untouchable, something that shouldn’t be blasphemed…

Will.

Sylas realized that maybe if a normal person was standing here, they would just find the statue to be shockingly large. But only someone who had trained their Will to his current point could truly feel the weight of what they were witnessing.

‘Just what is this place?’

Sylas took a breath, realizing all too late that he hadn’t taken one in a while. The pressure on his chest made it difficult for him to take a second, but he forced his body to comply, closing his eyes to try and regain his composure.

Finally, he opened them, ripping his gaze away from the statue ahead to look at his surroundings. He found that Alex and the others were here as well, floating on their own platforms.

However, nothing was happening. It was like they were summoned here only to be stranded.

Sylas frowned after several seconds had ticked by. If there was a puzzle to be found, he was pretty sure that he would have already done so. But there was nothing at all.

It just wanted them to…

Wait.

But time was the resource that Sylas had the least of. He had already lost seven months of it; he couldn’t afford to lose any more.

Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be anything that he could do.

Sylas looked down and then tried to summon the peacock. A bit to his surprise, he succeeded.

He didn’t know why, but for some reason, he felt very constrained here as though his every movement was being suppressed in some way. He really hadn’t expected it to succeed.

The wooden branch unwound from his arm and formed the flapping wings of the peacock. But Sylas’ expression changed immediately.

With quick reactions, he summoned the peacock back, reaching forward and grabbing its branch before it could plummet.

‘It can’t fly here…’

His instincts had been telling him that it was too easy, but now it was confirmed.

Was he just supposed to stand here? How long could he even stand on a small platform before fatigue got to him? Two or three days at most?

Sylas’ brain was working on overdrive in an attempt to find a path out, but no matter what he tried…

Everything was useless.