Chapter 2515: Too Many Secrets

Nosphaleen sat beside Xarvenya, her gaze resting on Sylas as the young man stayed perfectly still in the middle of the chamber.

Almost 3 weeks had passed since they left Earth, and in all that time, Sylas had barely moved. The enormous strain he’d put on his mind over the last 3 years was still taking its toll.

Nosphaleen could sense that his condition was getting better. Even so, she knew better than to interrupt him before he was ready.

Of course, Sylas wasn’t the one she was worried about. If anything, the woman sitting next to her concerned her more.

Xarvenya was a Demon. She had lived in the Real World long enough to understand some of its rules, but her situation was still very different from that of ordinary inhabitants.

The System had never treated Demons kindly. On top of that, they were heading straight into the territory of a Clan that specialized in examining Genes and Bloodlines. Nosphaleen couldn’t imagine Xarvenya’s presence going unnoticed for long.

The fact that Sylas had brought her along meant he had plans of his own. That didn’t necessarily make it any less of a headache, though.

"You’re staring."

Nosphaleen blinked and realized Xarvenya had turned to look at her.

"Just thinking."

"About me?"

Nosphaleen smiled. "You’re difficult not to think about. I wonder how many people in this Clan would lose their minds if they knew an S-tier Demon was sitting right under their noses."

Xarvenya’s expression stayed indifferent. "Then they should consider themselves fortunate that I have no intention of announcing it."

"That’s not quite how these things work, unfortunately. The Nethum seem rather good at discovering secrets people would prefer to keep hidden."

Xarvenya looked over at Sylas.

"Then they’ll have to be better than him."

Nosphaleen chuckled. She couldn’t deny the Demon had a point.

Sylas had spent 3 years picking apart the secrets of the Nethum’s Gene Locks. Considering what he’d pulled off with Alex’s Haloryn, there was a good chance he understood their methods better than plenty of the Clan’s own members.

However, knowing how to hide something and actually hiding it from the people who invented the method were two different things.

A knock came at the door.

Nosphaleen glanced toward it. After a moment, Alex stepped inside, looking like his homecoming had already gotten a lot more troublesome than he’d planned.

He glanced at Sylas before clearing his throat. "Sorry to bother everyone, but we’ve run into a little problem. I’ll try to delay things for as long as possible, but the Nethum want to conduct a thorough examination of everyone I’ve brought back."

Xarvenya’s eyes narrowed.

"What sort of examination?"

"Genes, Bloodlines, Aether foundations, probably a few things I haven’t even thought of yet. I don’t know exactly how invasive it’ll be, but considering the Nethum’s reputation, I wouldn’t count on them missing much."

The Demon fell silent. That was most definitely a problem.

Her identity was one thing. The fact that she was an S-tier Demon made the consequences of being found out a lot worse.

And even if she managed to hide her origins, there was still Sylas to think about. He wasn’t ready to wake up yet. Forcing him to break off his recovery just to satisfy some Clan’s registration process would be an enormous waste.

Alex rubbed the back of his neck.

"I know you’ve got a lot on your plate, Sylas, but I figured I should at least tell you before someone comes knocking and starts demanding blood samples."

"It isn’t a problem."

Sylas answered without opening his eyes. His voice carried the same indifference it always did when he thought something was too trivial to deserve much attention.

Alex’s lip twitched. Why did he suddenly have a very bad feeling about this?

Before he could ask what Sylas meant, a faint ripple spread through the chamber. Two figures appeared beside the meditating young man.

Alex stared. One was Xarvenya. The other was Sylas.

These weren’t illusions, or crude imitations built out of Aether. They were two complete bodies, and their Genes, Bloodlines, and even the subtle fluctuations of their Wills were almost identical to the originals.

Xarvenya looked over her counterpart with a raised eyebrow. Nosphaleen leaned forward with a lot more interest.

Alex, meanwhile, felt his knees go weak.

He had seen Sylas make copies of himself before. However, building a body for experiments and building something that could survive the scrutiny of the Nethum Clan were two very different things.

Those bastards had spent generations studying Genes. Their entire civilization revolved around protecting the secrets of their Bloodlines. Even their younger descendants had extraordinary instincts for spotting abnormalities in other people’s bodies.

Yet, Sylas had made these copies without even opening his eyes.

"You’re not seriously planning to send those through the registration process, are you?"

"Why not?"

Alex opened his mouth, then closed it again. How was he supposed to answer that?

Because it was insane? Because the Nethum might notice? Because he was fairly sure the Clan would tear apart anyone they caught trying to fool their examinations?

Unfortunately, none of those arguments sounded very convincing when the man he was talking to had spent 3 years studying the exact techniques used to protect the Nethum’s deepest secrets.

Alex looked back and forth between the two Sylases, trying to find even the tiniest difference. He couldn’t find one. Even the clone had that same irritating indifference on its face.

"Fuck me. Have you really gotten this good?"

Sylas didn’t answer. Instead, another ripple spread through the chamber, and Nosphaleen found herself looking at a perfect copy of her own body. She blinked, then smiled.

"Well, isn’t that convenient?"

Xarvenya glanced at the new arrival, then at her own counterpart.

"It seems you intend to keep us hidden."

Alex swallowed. Should he be glad his problem had been solved, or terrified by how casually Sylas had done it? Or should he be worried about whether it was actually solved at all...

Then, another figure appeared. Fanelei.

And after her came Old Brahma.

Alex stared at the growing collection of duplicates, his expression getting more and more lifeless. It was starting to dawn on him that the problem wasn’t just Xarvenya, or Sylas.

It was his entire fucking ship.

If Sylas was making these copies, it meant every one of these people had problems he didn’t want looked into.

Alex sighed. He had hooked himself up to a madman.