Genetic Ascension

Iskaleth's gaze remained fixed on Sarethvane for several long moments, but her thoughts had already moved elsewhere.

Why did Sylas need Contracts at all?

The question felt obvious once it formed. From everything she had seen, he barely used them.

Gogo was the clearest example. In the past, Sylas had avoided relying on him because he hadn't been strong enough to guarantee his safety, and sending out a Serpentes with a Legendary Lineage would have drawn too much attention anyway.

But even after Sylas became strong enough to protect him to some extent, Gogo still rarely appeared in battle. Sylas preferred fighting alone, preferred relying on his own hands and his own understanding rather than building a fighting style around others.

That made the sudden expansion of his Contracts strange. He could have killed Iskaleth, he could have killed Sarethvane, and Dry Mouth had hardly seemed useful enough to demand preservation either. Yet he had taken all three, and now he was wasting precious time personally training them when an entire Heaven-scale battlefield was waiting elsewhere.

That was when the answer clicked. They were tools.

Not in the simple sense of weapons Sylas intended to point at his enemies, but tools meant to help him carve out a path where he eventually wouldn't need to rely on anything else at all.

"The System..." Iskaleth whispered.

Vipermancy had come to Sylas at a point when he needed every advantage he could get. He hadn't even grasped Rune Mastery back then, his methods of survival were limited, and the Profession had effectively been thrust into his hands before he possessed the ability to choose something better for himself.

Since then, though, he had constantly been pushing against the boundaries of what was given to him, strengthening himself while cutting away dependence piece by piece.

The irony was that Vipermancy remained one of his greatest powers even now, arguably standing alongside his Rune Mastery in importance, but that probably only made the restraint more obvious to him.

Iskaleth looked toward Sarethvane, then briefly toward where Dry Mouth would have been inside Sylas' Hibernation Realm.

The three of them were conduits, bridges.

Their growth would allow Sylas to push Vipermancy further, clear whatever markers the Profession demanded of him, and eventually use the strength it gave him to move beyond the framework that created it in the first place. That was why simply following Sylas' orders couldn't be enough.

If he told them exactly what to do every time, then whatever progress they made would still belong to his guidance, and by extension the guidance of the system. But if they learned to take the hints he gave them, combine their own abilities, and force themselves through barriers they otherwise never would have challenged...

The result would be something else entirely. Something perhaps strong enough to matter even against a Fate Dragon.

Iskaleth's eyes flashed.

"Kill me."

Sarethvane stared at her.

Then his expression twisted with anger. "Are you insane?"

He had assumed their earlier confrontation had pushed her over the edge, that she had finally decided to settle the matter with violence rather than wait for Sylas' timer to kill them both.

Hadn't he already said killing her was supposed to be the absolute last resort?

What neither of them noticed was that Sylas had opened his eyes.

For the first time since entering meditation, his attention shifted toward someone else.

Iskaleth didn't see it. Her focus had narrowed completely.

"Don't misunderstand me," she spoke, her voice firm. "Bring out your coffins and kill me."

Sarethvane's eyes narrowed.

"I figured out a path forward. You said Living Will obscures what Dead Will reveals. Fine. Then strip the Living Will away."

Sarethvane went still.

"Kill me slowly enough that my Living Will begins to collapse while my Dead Will takes its place. Push me until more than ninety percent of what remains is Dead Will, then hold me there."

Iskaleth's breathing remained steady now.

"At the edge of true death, before my Will disperses completely, use your senses. Find whatever thread connects me to the Fate Dragon, or whatever secret is buried deeply enough that my Living Will has been hiding it."

Sarethvane frowned. Theoretically, it could work.

His coffins carried Death Will he had borrowed, accumulated, and refined over time. He had always used it to manipulate remnants, suppress the dead, or control what lingered after life ended, but suppression could be turned inward as well.

If he handled it correctly, he could extend the transition between life and death, slowing the moment when Iskaleth's Living Will vanished entirely.

But that didn't make the plan sane.

"You understand how easy it would be for this to go wrong?"

"Stop being weak."

Sarethvane's brow twitched.

Iskaleth stared him down. "Which one of us is the woman here?"

Sarethvane made a strange expression.

"The strongest person I've ever known was my mother."

Iskaleth blinked.

For several seconds, neither of them spoke. Then she coughed awkwardly.

She had forgotten she wasn't dealing with Dry Mouth. That meat head would have swallowed the provocation whole and probably injured himself trying to prove some idiotic point.

"Forget I said that."

Sarethvane continued looking at her.

"Just do it."

His expression hardened. Eventually, he drew in a slow breath.

"Fine."

Iskaleth's body tensed.

Sarethvane moved and his tail thrust forward in a blur, ripping clean through Iskaleth's body.

Blood erupted into the air.

Iskaleth's eyes widened, pain crashing through her before her massive Serpentes frame buckled.

Sarethvane didn't dare to waste anymore time. His coffins appeared around him.

One after another, they manifested around him, heavy lids trembling as Death Will seeped into the space between them. The atmosphere changed immediately, becoming cold and suffocating as the boundary between life and death began to blur.

Sarethvane's pupils narrowed. He had never done this before.

But one thought remained impossible to ignore.

If he failed... Sylas probably wouldn't mind letting Iskaleth breathe her last.

Sarethvane's Will surged. He had to succeed. His pride was too great to take on the burden of killing someone who didn't deserve it.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!