Genetic Ascension - Chapter 1286: More or Less [Bonus]

Chapter 1286: More or Less [Bonus]

[Bonus Chapter thanks to Patticus <3]

Gralith stepped through the clouds, marbled resin of violet forming squares beneath his feet with every step. It was as though his will was so tangible that he didn’t need a Gene Talent like Aetherflow at all to manifest it.

The man seemed almost too… normal.

It was said that there wasn’t a Human Race in the Sector with abilities worth noting. But Gralith didn’t seem to have anything particularly inhuman about him at all.

His robes were laced in dark violet, his face was handsome and middle-aged, his beard remaining well kempt and carrying sparse strands of grey and white.

He would have seemed like any man one might find on Earth if not for the fact his eyes were a striking violet, one no less natural than the steps beneath his feet.

The appearance of the Scorpion Warlord was something that Sylas might have noticed first, but the Sentinels quickly noticed afterward. The change in the atmosphere was near immediate and everything else seemed to have been forgotten.

Gralith came to a stop three meters or so in front of Sylas, standing in the air just an arm’s reach from the roof of the starship. He seemed to be taking his time to observe this disciple of his, while Sylas felt as though his body had become practically as transparent as glass.

No, it was more like he could feel something peeking behind his curtains, inches away from revealing everything that was him. But his Will, his True Pride Seed, his dominion over himself, and seemingly even a hint of his King Slayer Title seemed to be too stubborn to allow the complete change.

Gralith didn’t seem to react much to this. But then again, he and Sylas were quite similar in this regard. Neither really displayed much emotion.

He looked down at Captain Herrs.

“Explain this to me. The credit will be yours.”

“He overextended his hand and accidentally revealed himself to be a member of the Beastguards by informing me that there were spies amongst the passengers. I used his attempt to gain my trust as an excuse to interrogate them and picked out who they were.

“My servant is the creator of the Golden Grove’s UniForge. With it, we were able to analyze the ship in short order and create a plan to overwrite the systems during an opportune time. Correct content is on f(r)eew(e)bnovel.(c)o(m)

“The first few attacks were used to bait out larger fish. Captain Herrs didn’t realize that we were monitoring him and his communications through the mesh systems of the starship. This allowed us to be prepared for attacks in advance, thwarting them under the guise of my servant discovering them ahead of time.

“Captain Herrs felt that there was no getting anything by my servant, so he decided that the best course of action was a strong maneuver taking advantage of numbers. Even if Brama learned of it ahead of time, there would be little chance to do anything. However, he didn’t know that I had picked out two double agents amongst his men during my first round of interrogations.

“During one of the attempted raids, I used the chaos to capture them and interrogate them further about the other pirates and what communication channels they had. When Captain Herrs set up his large-scale operation, I used these double agents to alert the other two pirate groups that their base would be vacated…”

Sylas continued his explanation, going through everything step by step as though it was as natural as waking up for brunch on a particularly gorgeous weekend day.

However, the more he spoke, the more chilling it became. It was to the point that some even began to feel that things were quite pitiful for the Beastguards that had terrorized the galaxy for so long.

By the time they realized what sort of game they were playing, they were crippled, base-less, and one of their most important leaders, their eye in the skies, had been trapped and captured.

After their base was destroyed, Sylas used their scrambling attempt to return as a chance to kick them while they were down.

Many escaped, but they had no idea that the nightmare had only just begun.

Captain Herrs had no idea what happened and was still under the impression that they had just gotten very lucky. He knew there had to be a mole, but he had no idea from where, so he decided to be even more cautious, using special channels for emergencies, not realizing that revealing this method was exactly what Sylas was waiting for.

At that point, Sylas set Old Brama on Captain Herrs, capturing him and crippling him. Then, he began to impersonate Captain Herrs, sending out a series of cascading orders that forced the long-time captain to watch everything he had helped to build crumble before his eyes.

By the end of it, Captain Herrs had completely lost the will to fight. He had witnessed it all from start to finish. One F-tier and one C-tier crushing an organization with over ten thousand C-tiers as though they were nothing more than ants in their sand farm.

As a person with a Warlord Armor of his own, Captain Herrs’ Will was very strong. But Sylas had practically ground it beneath his boot.

Three months. Three months.

That was all it had taken to destroy what they had built over centuries.

Even now, Captain Herrs didn’t understand how he had exposed himself. How had Sylas so perfectly picked out the stowaways with just a couple hours of questioning? How had such simple schemes brought him to his knees?

Those thoughts tormented him to the point he could hardly lift his head.

Gralith nodded slowly and then looked toward Old Brama.

“You took over the Golden Grove?”

“More or less,” Sylas replied.

“Your time here would have been easier if you started with that.”

“I didn’t want to. It doesn’t count because I used your name to do it.”

Gralith looked back to Sylas. The latter said that so simply, but if it was so easy to take over such a hot commodity, someone else would have done it already. However Sylas had done it, it was far more complicated than he made it seem, but it was clear he didn’t want to elaborate.

In fact, without Sylas saying it, he was already sure of whose hands the Dominus Paragon Title had ended up in. It seemed that… these matters had become several times more difficult to handle.

“When would you like to take up your challenge?” Gralith asked.

“Now.”

Gralith’s gaze flickered, the violet within them churning deep. He was about to speak, but someone spoke first.

“Wait! There should be another in-name disciple on this vessel.” Thorak’s patience had been wearing thin with all of the nonsense happening today. He had training to do, and though he was respectful of the characters present, he didn’t have to fear any of them. He had his own backing.

The only response he got was Captain Herrs’ laughter, though. As for Sylas, he didn’t bother to stop him.

He didn’t care.

“You’re not going to find what you’re looking for here, little boy. Haven’t you guessed it already? She’s dead. This murderous bastard killed her.”

Captain Herrs’ laughter was akin to a man who had well and truly lost his mind.