Genetic Ascension novel Chapter 2317

2317 /2321

That was all Iskaleth needed to say.

Sylas' thoughts collapsed inward so quickly that the answer flashed into existence. The pieces had already been there, scattered between everything he had learned about Dead Will. The persistence of myths, the strange border between Will and Karma, and the way belief could continue accumulating long after the origin of something had vanished.

The instant Iskaleth called Fate Dragons an attempt to forge true Dragons, those pieces slammed together.

"Karma."

Iskaleth's eyes widened.

Her heart trembled hard enough that Sylas could feel the change in her Will without even trying. She had been certain he had never heard of this concept before, and she had every reason to be.

She could see his Fate. More accurately, Sylas was allowing her to see enough of it that the distinction hardly mattered. He hadn't suppressed everything around himself because he was still weighing whether she was worth taking as a Contract, and Iskaleth had understood that much. It was why she had dared to speak so freely in the first place. He was interested, but she hadn't shown him enough yet.

What she misunderstood was what Sylas was measuring.

Her talent didn't matter much to him. No matter how talented she was, she would never be more talented than him. Her intelligence mattered even less. No matter how smart she was, she could never be smarter than he was.

What he wanted was Will. A Backbone and True Pride. Something he couldn't simply reconstruct himself, the only thing he couldn't reconstruct himself.

That was the one thing Sylas still couldn't manufacture, and Iskaleth had yet to realize that this was the only test that truly mattered. All she could do was stare at him, caught between confusion and awe. She had barely explained, but to Sylas the difference didn't matter.

"You have access to one of these Fate Dragons?" Sylas asked calmly. Then his gaze sharpened slightly. "Or, rather, one of the attempts."

Iskaleth swallowed.

"I…" She stopped, took a breath, then forced herself to settle. "I was born in the eye of one by accident. It leaked from a former world, and my birth happened to align with that leakage almost perfectly. I was born blind because of it, but the same event changed my eyes completely."

Sylas listened without interrupting.

"I can sense where it is," she continued. "Not precisely in the same way I see Fate, but there has always been a connection between us. I planned to take it for myself one day when I became strong enough."

Her voice steadied as she spoke, the explanation flowing faster now.

"The last time the World Serpent triggered a Quicktime Event, I tried to forge the Gluttony Seed for exactly that reason. I needed a better method of devouring before I could even attempt to digest the Fate Dragon. Its Karma is too dense. Its Will is too deeply tied to too many things at once. If I tried with my current methods, it would consume me long before I consumed it."

Sylas' gaze remained indifferent.

"But…" Iskaleth's tongue flickered once between her lips. "If it saves my life, you can have it."

Sylas said nothing.

He had already understood most of the structure the moment she confirmed his first guess.

Dragons weren't real.

They were constructs of Dead Will, myths repeated across countless Races and civilizations until the concept itself became heavy enough to affect reality. A Dragon wasn't merely powerful. It represented the pinnacle of power. That distinction mattered because myths had no flesh to limit them, no living Will to contradict what others believed they should be.