Genetic Ascension novel Chapter 2484

Chapter 2484: The Weight that Matters

Rheos’ mistake was never in his comprehension of Graveweight Hell. The Rune Path itself was quite impressive, and Sylas could appreciate the ingenuity of using conceptual weight to determine the importance of individual Runes within a formation.

The problem was that Rheos had become so obsessed with identifying the perfect anchor that he had forgotten something far more fundamental.

Why did the most important Rune have to remain the most important?

Graveweight Hell worked by assigning conceptual weight to certain Runes, anchoring them to the Mesh of Reality and forcing the surrounding structure to reorganize around them. Rheos had spent hundreds of years refining his ability to identify the most important Rune and use it to stabilize everything else.

But what if the circumstances changed? What if a Rune that had been vital to a formation’s creation became a hindrance to its continued operation? Was the solution to keep increasing its weight, or was it to transfer that significance elsewhere?

To Sylas, the answer was obvious.

He could assign weight just as Rheos could, but he wasn’t limited to doing so only once. Even after a formation had anchored itself to the Mesh of Reality, Sylas could alter the distribution of conceptual weight at will, allowing one Rune to surrender its importance while another assumed it.

Rheos treated conceptual weight as something that had to be established and protected. Sylas treated it as something that could change from one moment to the next, flowing between Runes according to the needs of the formation.

And that was what had ultimately shattered Rheos’ confidence.

It wasn’t that Sylas had demonstrated some incomprehensible technique that Rheos might spend another thousand years studying. He had simply shown that he was better at deciding which Runes deserved weight, and more importantly, when that weight should change.

The worst part was that Rheos understood the difference. He could see what Sylas was doing, could follow the logic behind it, and knew that the fluidity required to accomplish such a thing was something he could never match.

That realization planted the first seed of doubt, and from there, everything Rheos had built began turning against him.

His Graveweight Hell had always relied upon finding the perfect foundation, but what if the foundation he had chosen for his own Rune Path wasn’t perfect at all?

What if he had spent thousands of years anchoring himself to the wrong thing?

By the time Rheos found himself asking those questions, his Rune Seed had already begun to fracture. And once his certainty collapsed, the foundation that depended upon it followed.

**

[A/N: I used Oura yesterday, that was wrong.]

The Tera Clan’s ancestral hall was filled with laughter, several generations of descendants having gathered to celebrate Rheos’ victory.

Even those elders who would normally spend centuries in seclusion had made an appearance, and the discussions had already shifted from whether Rheos would win to what sort of rewards he deserved upon his return.

"Ancestor, shouldn’t we prepare another banquet for Rheos? This victory deserves more than a simple celebration."

"Haha! Of course! We should invite the other branches as well. Let them see what sort of genius our Tera Clan has produced!"

Several elders nodded in agreement, while Ancestor Tera listened from his seat at the head of the hall, occasionally taking a sip of wine.

He had already dismissed the concerns surrounding Rheos’ delayed return. That child had always enjoyed displaying his superiority, and considering how thoroughly he had dominated the earlier challenges, there was no reason to believe anything had changed.

It was at that moment that the space in the center of the hall began to ripple.

The conversations quieted as a familiar teleportation formation appeared, and several descendants rose from their seats with smiles spreading across their faces.

"He’s back! Haha! Rheos, you’ve certainly taken your time. Were you planning to make us wait until the wine ran dry?"

The laughter faded when the golden light disappeared.

Rheos lay face down upon the polished floor, his robes stained with blood and his limbs twisted beneath him without the slightest sign of movement.

For several seconds, nobody approached him, the gathered descendants struggling to reconcile the sight before them with the triumphant return they had been expecting.

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