Chapter 2496: Harem

Sylas found his sister sitting cross-legged in the middle of a room, her attention fixed on an orb floating above her palm.

Elara was already 19 years old. She had grown into a beautiful young lady, but there were still traces of the mischievous little girl Sylas remembered.

Even with her brows furrowed in concentration, the slight curl at the corners of her lips made her look like she was plotting something that would inevitably give someone else a headache.

Sylas watched her for a moment before his gaze sharpened.

She was actually B-tier.

That was quite impressive, especially considering how little time had passed since the Summoning. Then again, with the changes to the Grimblade Bloodline, it would’ve been more surprising if she hadn’t reached this point by now.

The benefits of his most recent evolution should have been especially large. The Dragon and Phoenix foundations had lifted their Bloodline far beyond anything it had once been.

As his closest blood relative aside from his parents, Elara should have gained enormously from that.

However, Sylas didn’t care much about her Tier. What mattered more was how much of that potential she’d actually managed to dig out.

There was a world of difference between having extraordinary Genes and knowing how to use them. In fact, Sylas had spent much of his life beating opponents who had advantages they’d never bothered to properly understand.

He had no intention of letting his sister become one of those fools.

His gaze shifted to the orb.

Elara’s Rune Mastery had always followed a rather peculiar Path, one that Sylas would never have considered for himself.

Her fascination with organic creation had started with something as ridiculous as wanting to summon cakes out of thin air. Over time, though, it had grown into something far deeper.

When he last checked on her progress, her control over flesh and the Runes underneath it was already extraordinary.

Now, the orb above her palm held an entire network of organic structures. Each one grew, divided and collapsed, only to be rebuilt into something else.

Sylas didn’t disturb her. He just stood there and watched.

One hour passed, then another, and then a whole day. Elara stayed focused on her work, adjusting her fingers every so often as the structure inside the orb changed, but she never once looked his way.

Sylas didn’t move, either. By the third day, he had a fairly thorough understanding of what his sister was trying to do.

There were still parts of her Path he couldn’t replicate perfectly without fundamentally changing his own approach to Rune Creation. Though, that was exactly what made it interesting.

Unfortunately, there were also several shortcomings.

Elara was leaning too heavily on the natural advantages of her Bloodline. The results were impressive, but Sylas couldn’t help but wonder whether she had really pushed herself as far as she could go.

Then, after 3 full days, the orb finally disappeared.

Elara blinked, stretched her arms above her head, and turned toward him.

The moment their eyes met, her face soured.

"What the hell are you still doing standing around here?"

Sylas looked at her.

"Don’t you have somewhere to be? Cassarae is waiting for you, you know. Go away."

Sylas didn’t respond.

Elara glared at him for several seconds. The longer he went without defending himself, the more irritated she looked.

"What? Did you forget how to speak after three years? Or are you just planning on standing there until I die of old age?"

The silence dragged on for a long while.

Then, Sylas finally opened his mouth. "Let’s go spar."

Elara’s eyes narrowed.

For a moment, she looked almost offended by the suggestion. Then, that familiar mischievous glint came back into her eyes.

"What? You’re not afraid of getting your ass kicked?"

Sylas took a step and vanished.

Elara stared at the empty space where he’d been standing, then clicked her tongue.

"Asshole."

**

By the time Sylas appeared high above Sky Roaming, Elara was already waiting for him.

She cracked her knuckles and rolled her shoulders as the surrounding Aether began answering her Will.

"Don’t blink."

Elara disappeared.

A fraction of a second later, she was right in front of Sylas, her fist driving toward his stomach with enough force to shatter the air around it.

Sylas’ eyes narrowed.

A feint. He didn’t bother to move.

Just as he expected, Elara pulled her fist back. The instant she did, her shin rocketed upward between his legs.

BANG!

The sudden acceleration split the wind with a sharp echo.

Sylas vanished. However, when he reappeared several meters away, Elara’s leg was somehow still between his own.

His eyes narrowed further. But, he still didn’t move.

Another Elara appeared behind him and swept her leg up toward the same target. Two more emerged beneath him, their fists driving toward his groin from different angles.

Four attacks, all aimed at the same unfortunate spot. It seemed his little sister wasn’t all that interested in him being able to give her nieces and nephews in the future.

More importantly, every single one of these Elaras was real. There were no illusions hiding the attacks. These weren’t ordinary clones running on a portion of the original’s strength, either.

Sylas could sense the complete organic structure inside each body, their flesh and Genes rebuilt through a level of Rune Mastery that even many C-tier geniuses of the God Plane would struggle to understand.

His sister had taken her Path quite a bit further than he’d expected.

BOOM!

Sylas struck downward with his palm, intercepting the first attack and using the resulting force to redirect the other three.

CRACK!

His forearm fractured.

Sylas glanced at the injury, then turned his attention back to Elara.

All 4 copies grinned at the same time.

"Oh? What’s wrong, big bro? Getting old?"

The Elaras attacked again.

This time, Sylas didn’t retreat. He shifted his position just enough to meet each attack as it came, his palms striking against fists, elbows and knees.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Every collision sent violent ripples through the sky.

The problem wasn’t just that Elara was enormously strong. Her flesh was constantly changing, too.

Every time Sylas blocked an attack, the muscles in her limbs reorganized themselves, generating force through structures that hadn’t existed a moment earlier.

Even her bones could shift their density and arrangement. Strikes that should have been ordinary became far more dangerous as a result.

On top of that, whenever he damaged one of her bodies, the surrounding Runes immediately started replacing the lost flesh.

Infinite flesh regeneration.

So, she had kept developing that side of her Path as well.

A fist struck his shoulder and tore through the surrounding Aether. The joint cracked under the impact.

Sylas caught the next blow with his injured arm. He let another fracture spread through the bone, then redirected the attack into one of Elara’s other bodies.

She didn’t seem very happy about that.

"Stop standing there and fight me properly!"

A kick slammed into his ribs, followed by a palm that sent him flying several dozen meters back.

Sylas steadied himself without his expression changing in the slightest. He could have ended the fight at any moment. However, that wouldn’t have accomplished much.

He had already started picking out several flaws in his sister’s control. She clearly had plenty of room to improve, but he wasn’t in the mood to explain any of that to her in.

Not to mention, it was becoming more and more obvious that this had very little to do with sparring.

"Do you have any idea how annoying you are?!"

Elara appeared above him, her heel crashing down.

Sylas raised an arm to block.

BOOM!

"You can’t just disappear for three years because you feel like it!"

Another Elara came at him from his blind spot. Her fist slammed into his abdomen before he could finish redirecting the first blow.

"Do you think the rest of us just sit around waiting for you to decide we’re worth your time?!"

Sylas’ expression didn’t change.

Elara’s attacks only grew more violent.

"I should’ve gotten pregnant while you were gone! Then when you finally came back, I could’ve made you guess who the father was! Let’s see how you like having no idea what the hell is going on!"

Her fist smashed into his forearm, sending another fracture through the already damaged bone.

"And don’t think I won’t do it, either!"

Sylas looked at her calmly. If anything, that only made her angrier.

"I swear to God, Sylas Grimblade, if you disappear for another three years without saying a word, you’re going to come home and find me with my own fucking harem of concubines!"