Gogo was no longer in control of his body, and Nosphaleen was no longer in Gogo’s mouth either. The latter had long gone into the Hibernation Realm to be healed, while Gogo was now in a state of Total Merge with Sylas.
After more time in Nosphaleen’s body, Sylas had grown even more used to what it felt like to control a snake-like body. It came more naturally to him.
But it was also a process that came from the depths of his Insight Path Talent as well. He had a natural understanding of his contracts, and that came with a comprehension of how to use their bodies as well.
Not only had One Kind For Me—the Path that birthed Insight as a Path Talent—reached Level 50, but the overall Profession had advanced even further, making this feeling far more natural now than it had been in the past.
Sylas didn’t hesitate to move like the wind, every sway of Gogo’s body feeling almost like an extension of his own limb, as though he had been controlling this body from the very start.
There was now a comfortability that hadn’t been there the first time he used Total Merge… especially now that his body wasn’t in Gogo’s mouth either.
However, Sylas was facing another problem. In order to free-fall off of the Titans Leaderboard and pretend to be dead, he had no choice but to take out a great deal of his own talent. His stats had plummeted, and right now the only things he had access to were his Will and Charisma. He had even plucked his Classes out of himself.
He was simply a shell of his former self. Without Gogo, even a child could stab him to death right now.
But he had a plan, and it was going perfectly right now.
Sylas’ maw opened and he roared, a series of Runes ahead shattering. They had hardly formed, but Sylas had already seen through them.
He had expected this already. This building would be going into lockdown. And without his True Chosen status, his ability to influence worlds that weren’t his own had plummeted as well, leaving his Rune Spark Mastery a lot weaker than it had been in the past.
Of course, his True Chosen status had also been personally taken out by him.
When Sylas thought about it… what was his True Chosen status if not a chance to influence his Potential? And wasn’t that something that he could directly control with Taboo Bond?
And if that was the case, couldn’t he just take it out of his body and give it to someone else?
When Sylas realized this, a plan began to formulate in his head, but he knew that he would need to nudge things in the right direction. If he failed to do things appropriately, he would end up having lost everything for no reward in return.
In order for this plan to succeed, he needed the Petal of the Seeing Thorn to feel the pressure, and the best way for him to do that was to escape.
No, not just escape, but do so while stirring up the greatest amount of chaos with the smallest amount of damage to himself.
BOOM!
Sylas rounded a corner, arching Gogo’s body to the side. The immature horns on their head sent sparks flying as they grazed against the walls, leaving deep grooves that hardly slowed them down at all, but anchored them just enough that they didn’t lose any speed despite such a sharp change in direction.
He was truly at the point of using the body as though it was his own, but the Petals of the Seeing Thorn had also reacted by now.
Up ahead, in the halls of endless black, an elevator opened up and a middle-aged woman with flowing hair that looked like a sparkling white slug’s body appeared.
Despite her age, her looks were no less enticing than any other Seeing Thorn, a dress of sky blue that perfectly matched the strip of sapphire that rolled down the length of her hair hugging her curves tightly.
However, in the slit of her dress, one could see a garter belt fastened with what must have been a half-dozen leaf-shaped daggers.
Even so, what anyone’s eyes would be drawn to the most was the sapphire bow in her hand.
—
[Lise Camerone (EE)]
[Level: 72]
—
Sylas felt a pressure ram into him. This woman was powerful without the slightest doubt, and he had suddenly become an enormous target.
He roared as though a beast that had lost his mind, but Lise calmly plucked out a sapphire arrow with an elegant stroke of her fingers through the air. Aether gathered in a surging tide as she drew her bow back.
SHUUUU!
It was hard to tell when she released it. It was so fast, so sharp, that it appeared before Gogo in an instant.
But then there was a warp in the air, and Gogo’s enormous body vanished, a pulsing portal appearing for a brief instant of time.
Lise was caught off guard, her eyes widening. Was this a creature with a rare spatial ability?
It was a thought that she was only able to have for a brief instant of time before a man wreathed in black-scaled armor appeared before her.
“You…”
Sylas punched out, blood seeping from his body in waves. Without his usual array of Genes, he couldn’t maintain a normal Fusion with Gogo at all.
But this time, that wasn’t his goal—he just needed to close the distance.
Lise dodged out of the way of the punch, and was then suddenly confused by how shockingly weak it was. What was this person thinking?
Despite her haphazard dodge, her movements returned to elegance moments later, her hair shifting and her leg kicking out in a high arc toward the side of Sylas’ face.
Sylas vanished, and Lise’s leg passed through air at first, and was then rejected by the portal of the Hibernation Realm…
Only for Gogo’s maw to appear as she lost her balance.
There was a bloody flash, and then the Level 72 Seeing Thorn was bitten in two, a savage crunch echoing through the air.