Genetic Ascension novel Chapter 2436

Chapter 2436: Run?

Another chain snapped behind the doors, and the pressure rolling through Hell grew heavier with it as Greed pressed against everything within reach. Sylas felt the change before the sound finished traveling, the influence no longer behaving like an aura so much as a demand that everything nearby become something worth possessing.

Caelum took the worst of it, whatever little control he had left snapping after Sylas snatched something he truly wanted. The last traces of white vanishing from his eyes while the mechanical pieces buried within his sockets rotated without any of the control they had shown before.

His golden domain shuddered and then expanded with enough force to push the five Fallen Madness Disciples backward despite how much stronger their resonance had already made them.

Sylas watched without interfering, his attention settling on the distinction between Caelum’s Will and the Greed flooding through him. That distinction was disappearing quickly, Caelum’s obsession with growth and mastery being stripped down into something much simpler until all that seemed to remain was the desire to take whatever existed in front of him.

His fingers closed, and the Rune formations surrounding the five Fallen Madness Disciples changed at once. Order locked their bodies into place while Time stretched the instant around them, delaying their resistance just long enough for something else to begin happening beneath the golden light.

Their flesh greyed first, followed by the Aether trapped inside it, while even their fractured Wills began withering from the edges inward. The five should have been far too powerful for Caelum to erase so casually after their resonance had strengthened them this much, but their strength was disappearing at almost the same speed that their bodies collapsed.

Sylas recognized the principle a moment later.

It was Greed.

He had used the same ability before, though never with this lack of restraint, allowing the Virtue to strip power from the world around him and incorporate what it took into something else. He had even used that principle to strengthen his scythe on occasion, but Caelum wasn’t directing what he stole toward a weapon or a narrow purpose.

He was devouring everything, and it seemed his mind had been corrupted so much that he no longer cared about enraging the Professor he was working under.

The five Fallen Madness Disciples crumbled into ash while streams of warped Will flowed toward Caelum, entering his body alongside the Aether and vitality stripped from them. His frame trembled under the influx before his golden domain erupted again, growing denser and heavier as every stolen fragment was forced into his strength.

The Greed taking root in him wasn’t superior to Sylas’ own in foundation, and if anything, the opposite was true, even despite the fact Sylas wasn’t the best at using the Seed. What made it dangerous was how completely Caelum had surrendered to it, allowing Scurrying Madness to take control of him and to push the ability far beyond anything Sylas would normally consider reasonable.

Another chain groaned behind the doors while Caelum raised his hand, and the golden Runes surrounding Sylas changed in a way they hadn’t once during their earlier battle. Instead of colliding with Sylas’ Spacetime formations, several golden mechanisms attached themselves to the edges and began pulling information from them.

A golden gear caught one emerald Stroke and dragged the moment of its creation backward through Time, replaying the formation over and over. Order immediately began separating each repetition into smaller pieces and arranging them by function, as though Caelum intended to understand Space simply by watching Sylas construct it enough times.

Sylas’ attention sharpened slightly. Caelum was trying to copy his Rune Path.

That was the clearest expression of Greed he had shown yet. Defeating Sylas was no longer enough for him. If Sylas possessed something Caelum lacked, then the influence controlling him seemed incapable of accepting that distinction.

"If you have it..." Caelum’s voice came out strained and rough while another set of golden mechanisms attached themselves to Sylas’ formations. "Why shouldn’t I?"

Sylas changed the Stroke before the next repetition could complete, causing the copied structure to collapse, but Caelum adapted immediately and caught three others instead. Time gave him repeated observations while Order broke those observations apart, and Greed seemed to turn every scrap he understood into something his own Rune Mastery could begin incorporating.

Another web of emerald Strokes spread through Caelum’s domain, and this time the man didn’t destroy all of them. He consumed portions instead, drawing their structure into the golden mechanisms around him until a crude distortion appeared among the Runes. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

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