Genetic Ascension novel Chapter 2427

Chapter 2427: Time

Sylas looked from the heart in his hand toward the remaining two Silvers, then took a step in their direction. He had no particular interest in them, but leaving enemies alive beside him when killing them would cost almost nothing didn’t make much sense either.

Caelum moved before he could take a second step.

A thin golden Rune appeared beneath Sylas’ foot, so simple that anyone else might have dismissed it as incomplete. But Sylas stopped, his Will brushing across the surface before sinking deeper, and what he found beneath made his attention sharpen.

Dozens of smaller structures had been buried inside it.

Some accelerated time by fractions of a second, others slowed it, while several existed only to change how those first layers would be interpreted. One Rune concealed another, that one concealed three more, and beneath all of them sat a formation whose only purpose seemed to be altering the timing of Caelum’s next movement by a small fraction.

Sylas understood the reason almost immediately.

Time was too obvious when used directly.

Speed something up, slow it down, stop it, rewind it. Every action exposed its intention too cleanly, which meant a competent Rune Master would always know where to begin dismantling it.

So Caelum hid simple actions beneath other simple actions until the whole became complicated.

Emerald light flickered through Sylas’ eyes as his own Runes formed, peeling apart one of Caelum’s outer layers while deliberately allowing another to complete. Caelum responded before Sylas finished, adjusting three formations at once, and Sylas was forced to change the meaning of his counter midway through its construction.

Neither of them seemed truly intent on attacking, and yet every exchange was steeped in countless unforetold dangers.

Every Rune was a question meant to force a particular answer, and every answer concealed another intention beneath it. Sylas would allow an apparent weakness to remain, Caelum would press it, and three steps later it would become clear that both of them had been aiming at something else entirely.

It reminded Sylas of chess, though even that comparison was somewhat lacking. At least a chessboard stayed still.

Here, the pieces changed function while moving, the board expanded beneath them, and even a discarded move could return several exchanges later if enough time had been folded around it.

A golden formation slowed the space around Sylas, so he folded another Rune through it and redirected the effect toward a group of failed Madness Candidates charging from the side. They nearly froze in place, only for Caelum to accelerate the same region a moment later and send them crashing together hard enough that several bodies tore apart.

Neither of them cared. The dead were only more variables.

One Madness Disciple crossed another golden Rune and aged several thousand years before its second foot touched the ground, flesh shrinking against bone until the body collapsed into dust. Another became trapped in one of Sylas’ loops and repeated the same movement so many times that its own Aether circulation tore itself apart.

Behind Sylas, Fanelei and Cheri had long since stopped trying to follow.

He had sealed them inside a stable pocket almost absentmindedly, while Caelum had done the same for the two remaining Silvers. Neither group dared to move beyond the boundaries, which was sensible enough considering even Sylas had to keep adjusting his understanding of what Caelum was doing.

The battlefield spread outward.

Kilometers became hundreds, then thousands, and every increase forced them to account for more bodies, more loose Aether, more existing Runes, more changing terrain and more overlapping sections of time.

That was when Sylas began to lose interest.

Caelum was good. At their Tier, he was probably the best Rune Master Sylas had ever fought.

His Runes wasted almost nothing, his timing was excellent, and even his mistakes tended to be deliberate. Twice Sylas saw openings that would have ended almost anyone else, only to realize Caelum had left them there intentionally and was already waiting for the response.

But after enough exchanges, the same strength started irritating Sylas.

Caelum was too clean. Too ordered.

Every sequence began broad, layered itself through misdirection, then narrowed toward the most efficient resolution. He changed details constantly, but the structure underneath never changed.

Once Sylas saw that, the rest became tedious.

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