“NO!”
Cenk’s roar peeled through the dungeon, shaking it so severely that it seemed like it might collapse at any moment. But it was right then that the Runes activated.
Sylas had already noticed that there were D-Grade Runes that formed the dungeon. And yet, there were no D-Grades in captivity. Why was that?
At first, one might think that this was out of an abundance of caution. If it was before he had spent so much time with the UniForm Andromeda, Sylas might have dismissed that as well. In that case, he might think that the D-Grade Runes were mostly hollow and unimportant, causing him to neglect them—or at the very least, he wouldn’t rely on them.
But his scope of the world had expanded considerably. He knew that the gap between E-Grade and D-Grade was enormous, a truly unfathomable chasm. The amount of effort you would need to upgrade so many of the materials in this dungeon to D-Grade was ridiculous.
If you were going to have a D-Grade existence overseeing things anyway, there was no point in also investing so much.
The point of this wasn’t to say that there was definitely a D-Grade lurking around somewhere, though this was almost certainly the case. The point was to say that these D-Grade materials wouldn’t be wasted on a “show.”
This was all to say that… this dungeon was definitely capable of trapping a D-Grade. Not only was it capable of imprisoning one, but it would also be ready in the case of a prison break so long as the leaders in question knew what to do.
All it needed was a little bit of a nudge, just a little trigger…
Kind of like what would happen when a D-Grade lost their mind to fury.
Sylas didn’t need long at all. He just wanted Cenk to lower his guard just the slightest bit and to freeze in the moment for the briefest of instances.
That… that would be enough.
—
[Your Contract {Nosphaleen Tideborn} has received a Progenitor Quest]
[Your Contract {Nosphaleen Tideborn} has Ignited the Flame of the Frostbane Planet to become its Progenitor]
[You have raised a Progenitor as a Contract]
[You have infuriated the World {Planet Frostbane} and have received Demerits]
[Demerits have Failed to take root]
[You have suppressed Planet Frostbane]
—
[Make World {Planet Frostbane} a Subsidiary of Earth?]
[Yes][No]
—
Sylas ignored the string of notifications. In an instant, he had already Fused with Nosphaleen, the string of Merits and Free Experience points he had gathered barely registering to him.
Everything had gone as planned, and in the end that would only mean one thing.
Sylas’ arm shook and the boy’s body shattered into pieces. He hardly gave the young Sylph a look, as though his life was only worth as much as a pawn piece on a chess board to him.
His figure phased forward and flashed beyond Nosphaleen’s father, his speed a blur as Runes of the dungeon danced around him.
At that instant, Cenk was already trying to break free, and was just on the verge of succeeding, when Sylas suddenly appeared before him, driving a fist into his gut.
The eyes of the D-Grade widened, feeling all the air in his lungs almost spring out of him as though lurching into the air.
BOOM!
It wasn’t akin to a regular fist at all. It sounded as though a nuke had fallen from the skies, all of its power echoing right through Cenk’s body in a cacophonous madness.
The D-Grade Sylph shot out like he was fired from a cannon, but just as he slammed into the walls, Runes appeared around them, reinforcing them, strengthening them.
The dungeon shook from its very foundations, but not the slightest crack appeared on them.
Sylas had already flashed forward again in streaks of emerald lightning, [Glassvolt Shift] reacting again and again to his call as plumes of darkness and crimson, reflecting the blood in the depths of his marrow, emitted from him.
[Primal Fury] and [Glassvolt Throne] activated, and the skies rumbled above.
Cenk couldn’t see the clouds from the depths of the dungeon, but it still felt as though an eye in the sky was descending upon him.
At least, that was what it felt like for a short while—until he was forcefully transported there.
The Mesh of Reality bent and twisted to Sylas’ Will, single steps becoming as potent as strides across an entire mountain range.
An illusory Throne of Glass appeared to his back, his hair whipping in the air like the vines of a demon, and his claws extending from his long arms with a sharpness that cut into the wind and even down into the mesh of space itself.
Sylas’ body flashed and his assault was relentless, E- and D-Grade Runes spinning around him as though butterflies fluttering to his every call. His roars, as he poured every ounce of power and Fury he had into Cenk, might as well have been the sonorous song of a fair maiden to these Runes, a soothing war drum that beckoned them to battle.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Cenk couldn’t react a single time even if he wanted to. The Will of the World itself was suppressing him down to his very soul, and all the actions the Sylphs had made until this point in an attempt to replicate Earth were like another knell to his coffin.
He was being suppressed so much here because that was what they had designed the world to do. This failure… was ironically enough a product of all of their success until this point.
And he would have to sit with that for the rest of his short-lived life.
Sylas’ figure flashed before him again. Cenk tried to grab out at him, but Sylas vanished, appearing to his back and sweeping out his feet from under him.
Cenk spun in the air and Sylas snatched his ankle as though snagging a ball.
He raised Cenk high above his head, his intention swirling as the Scorned Wraps churned.
“Die.”
Cenk swung down from the skies, a fear of a lifetime blooming in his heart as he felt every moment of it…
Every moment of his body being burnt to ash.
—
[Title Upgraded]
[Grade Slayer > King Slayer]