Genetic Ascension

Sarethvane felt the victories before he saw them.

Iskaleth’s opponent had fallen, Dry Mouth’s had followed soon after, and yet Varkesh continued slipping through the spaces between his coffins with an ease that was beginning to irritate him.

Every time Sarethvane believed he had closed the last path, the Ashen White Serpentes seemed to disappear from one position and reappear somewhere else, eight wings flickering while black fire forced another coffin into stone and ash.

Sarethvane twisted his enormous body and smashed his tail through the space Varkesh had just occupied, but the strike met nothing before a burst of petrifying flame crashed into his scales from the side.

Three coffins immediately moved into formation around him, their lids opening as Dead Will poured outward and forced the black flame to slow, but Varkesh had already vanished again. He wasn’t simply fast, and treating him like an opponent who moved through ordinary space was exactly why Sarethvane kept missing.

His eyes narrowed.

The realization came together piece by piece as he stopped chasing Varkesh’s movements and began feeling what was absent instead. The resemblance to Sylas’ Hollow Wing wasn’t limited to appearance, because Varkesh’s existence seemed to flicker between space and time, reducing himself toward a kind of emptiness whenever the world tried to pin him down.

Sarethvane had been attempting to read him and counter whatever he chose to do, which meant Varkesh was always the one deciding what shape their battle took. That wasn’t enough anymore. If Sarethvane wanted to win, then understanding another person’s reality meant nothing unless his own Living Will was strong enough to impose a different one over the world.

His coffins stopped pursuing Varkesh.

They rearranged themselves.

Six spread outward, three shifted above, while two more sank beneath the battlefield until only the tops of their lids remained visible, each position forming a piece of a larger structure. Dead Will no longer flooded outward indiscriminately, but moved according to Sarethvane’s command, joining the coffins into a formation that made the region around him feel heavier with every passing moment.

Varkesh appeared at his flank and breathed black flame.

Sarethvane lunged straight through it.

His scales petrified along one side before a coffin slammed into Varkesh like a thrown mountain, crushing one set of wings and sending him tumbling across the bridge. Sarethvane followed with his entire serpentine body, jaws snapping down hard enough to tear away flesh before Varkesh flickered toward emptiness again.

This time, the formation moved with him.

Every coffin shifted at once, sealing one direction after another while Sarethvane’s Will filled the spaces between them. Varkesh disappeared, but there was nowhere left for that absence to become freedom.

The Hollow was no longer Varkesh.

The Hollow was Sarethvane himself.

When he commanded the Will of the Dead, he was immovable, because every coffin carried a Will that had already endured the end of life. When he commanded the Will of the Living, his own Will, then there was no reason he should accept defeat from anyone standing beneath Sylas.

Varkesh erupted from nothingness directly above him.

Sarethvane’s tail struck first.

BOOM.

The Ashen White Serpentes crashed downward, only for two coffins to collide with him from opposite sides before he could recover, crushing his wings inward. A third struck from above while Sarethvane surged forward beneath it, coiling around Varkesh’s body and tightening until scales cracked beneath the pressure.

Varkesh roared and released another torrent of black flame, but the formation rotated around Sarethvane and redirected the path of his own charge. He released Varkesh for a fraction of a second, allowing the flame to pass through empty space before another coffin smashed the Serpentes back toward him.

Sarethvane’s jaws closed around Varkesh’s neck, and he tore through it with a bloody vigor.

The body went limp.

One final coffin opened beneath the falling corpse, swallowing Varkesh whole before its lid slammed shut with enough force to shake the surrounding bridge. Sarethvane threw his head back and roared, the other coffins circling him as the sound rolled across the battlefield.

It hadn’t been long since Sylas appeared.

In that short span, one of the Beast Heaven’s Serpentes Races had been crippled, while his three Contracts had each killed one of the strongest geniuses sent forward to meet them. Sylas watched them from above and gave a small nod. All three had reached something different without simply following the path Vipermancy had laid out for them.

That was exactly what he wanted.

Dry Mouth had found his own interpretation of the void, Iskaleth had changed how she interacted with Fate and reality, while Sarethvane had begun blending the Will of the Dead with the Living Will he imposed himself. The deviations were significant enough that Sylas was fairly certain Vipermancy could evolve again at almost any moment now.

He waved a hand and all three disappeared into his Hibernation World.

Sylas’ attention shifted away from them almost immediately, because there was still one matter he liked far less.

Nosphaleen hadn’t appeared.

Even after he crushed Selythra, butchered tens of thousands of Mesmeryx, and openly threatened to wipe out her people, she still hadn’t shown herself. There was only one reasonable conclusion left.

She wasn’t coming.

"Hm."

Sylas nodded to himself.

It seemed he would have to teach her obedience personally.

He took a step.

The distance across the bridge vanished beneath him, and when his foot came down again, he stood at the entrance to the Beast Heaven itself. Endless stars stretched beyond him, distant galaxies turning through cosmic phenomena that felt familiar enough to recognize and yet subtly wrong in ways that reminded him he was looking into an entirely different Heaven.

Behind him, Vaelith’s eyes widened.

She hurriedly fastened a treasure to her wings as Sylas continued forward, the artifact flaring to life just so she could keep pace. "Sylas, you..."

Madman. He was a complete madman.

Sylas didn’t answer.

He stepped into the Beast Heaven.

At that instant, a notification rang across every corner of the Heavens Clash.

--

[Participant Sylas Grimblade has entered the Beast Heaven.]

[Special Bounty Activated.]

[The death of Sylas Grimblade will award 100x the total points he has accumulated.]

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