Genetic Ascension novel Chapter 2418

Chapter 2418: Hell (2)

Sylas had barely stepped through the portal when the obsidian beneath his feet began to tremble, the vibration spreading outward until loose fragments of black stone bounced across the ground. Waterfalls of lava spilled from cliffs in the distance while sulfur burned at the inside of his nose, and although the Hell around him looked much as he remembered it, there was something in the air that felt distinctly wrong.

The trembling continued to grow until the horizon itself seemed to move, and only then did Sylas realize that what he was looking at wasn’t part of the landscape. A sea of rats poured across the obsidian plains in such numbers that the ground vanished beneath them, their bodies ranging from the size of ordinary animals to enormous beasts large enough to blot out sections of the lava-lit horizon.

Sylas frowned as his Runeweaver Eyes activated, layer after layer of information unfolding across his vision while the swarm continued its charge. Their Tiers didn’t seem finite, and even with his eyes having improved so much, every time he thought he had reached the limit of one beast another layer of strength seemed to appear beneath it.

That alone would have been troublesome, but it wasn’t what caught Sylas’ attention most as the Greed Seed within him began to pulse. The rats were all radiating the same aura, an overwhelming Greed that sharpened the closer they came, and yet rather than recognizing Sylas as the representative of its Virtue, they became even more excited when they sensed him.

Their mouths opened wider, saliva spilling between yellowed teeth while their claws tore deep grooves into the obsidian. Sylas could feel their intent clearly enough to understand that they didn’t simply want to kill him, they wanted to devour the Greed within him and use it to perfect their own path.

Perhaps the distinction came from the origin of his Seed. Sylas’ Greed had been born from the original Scorpion, while these beasts obviously stood beneath the Rat, and if the paths were divided more deeply than he understood, then his Virtue might look like an opportunity they would never receive again.

Whatever the answer, Hell was in worse condition than Sylas expected.

Slithering Madness had reached out to him for help, but Sylas hadn’t imagined that the moment he arrived he would find an endless horde whose strength couldn’t even be properly measured. If this was what the outskirts looked like, he wasn’t entirely sure what Slithering Madness expected him to accomplish deeper inside.

Sylas’ Will shifted as the Void folded around his Greed Seed, hiding it beneath a layer of nothingness until even he could barely sense the aura anymore. The reaction from below was immediate, thousands of rats stumbling over one another as heads snapped from side to side, their earlier certainty vanishing the moment the thing they had been chasing disappeared.

Their confusion didn’t last long, though, as their noses twitched and their gazes returned to Sylas, Fanelei, and Cheri. Even without the Greed Seed attracting them, there were still three living bodies standing directly ahead. Fresh meat was more than enough reason to keep charging.

Sylas saw no reason to waste time fighting them.

The Genesis Forge Ore appeared in his palm as he poured his Will into it, allowing the principles of Hell Rune Creation buried within the material to resonate with the world around them. Space bent around Sylas and the two women as that resonance spread, and before the front line of rats could reach them, the three disappeared from where they stood.

They reappeared high above the swarm, though it wasn’t quite as simple as teleporting into the sky. Sylas had used the relationship between the Genesis Forge Ore and Hell itself to shift them into a nearby layer of space, leaving them visible from below while placing a separation between them that the beasts couldn’t easily cross.

Cheri released a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding as she looked down at the mass beneath them. She had tried to judge the rats through Will rather than the system, but that had somehow been worse. Every creature she focused on seemed exactly as strong as it needed to be to kill her.

She couldn’t understand how someone was supposed to fight an enemy like that when measuring it only caused the answer to change.

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