The purpose of Legacy was almost a mirror to the Petals of the Seeing Thorn. The latter was obsessed with gathering information about people, politics—the sort of information that could bring the patriarch of a powerful family or organization to their knees.
The former, however, only cared for improvement.
When Legacy saw that the Petals of the Seeing Thorn had such a trump card, they obviously wanted to study it. How had this rare plant been culled and controlled, even turned into a weapon in the defense of the organization?
Once Legacy was interested in something, they would definitely take action. But Legacy was also not a confrontational organization. They chose their spots and only acted when it wouldn’t offend or step on toes they couldn’t afford to step on.
Of course, the depths of Legacy ran far deeper than most could fathom. But soft power was far more useful when dealing with so many powers than hard power was. Legacy often rode a line that pissed off many. If they had to deal with all of their potential enemies at once, even they would suffer.
This was seen quite recently. Though it was the system that bit back this time, it was because Legacy took the risk in the first place.
That said… Legacy was one thing.
The Professors were a different matter entirely.
They, a faction of Legacy, didn’t ride a line at all. They were far more aggressive, and far more willing to take risks. They were madmen that only danced between the line of life and death. The only thing they were interested in was improvement no matter what the cost was—even if they had to turn themselves into a science project.
This was exactly why the Seeing Thorn was so enticing to them. So they found their own methods of infiltrating the Petals of the Seeing Thorn.
Originally, the Seeing Thorn was a sacred being to the organization, an idol to be worshipped and respected for its help, and never taken advantage of. This was a rule that was set by the very first Seeing Thorn’s Matriarch.
However, after the fallout of the Professors’ efforts, leading to a complete wipe of not just one galaxy, but an entire Sector of its life, the Petals of the Seeing Thorn had to spend many generations recovering their reputation.
What led to such a result?
The Professors figured out something quite shocking. Using the Unique Gene of the Seeing Thorn, they were able to borrow its abilities, making use of the Seeing Thorn to absorb Genes, Blood Essence, and even deeper-layer talents in ways they had never imagined possible in the past.
It was an intoxicating method of improvement. But what the Professors and their collaborators didn’t notice quickly enough was that this mode of improvement came with its own drawbacks.
Evolution had its own checks and balances. The Seeing Thorn was an incredibly powerful Race, but they lacked intelligence. There were plant Races out there that were no less intelligent than Humanoid Races, but the Seeing Thorn was not one of them.
When one began to rely on the Seeing Thorn for this method of improvement, it would crush you. Not physically, but mentally.
What made you you… it would slowly be whittled away. The more you relied on it, the less of you would remain until you were a mindless zombie after much the same things as the Seeing Thorn.
In fact, this was precisely why when one entered the maze, they lost consciousness.
For the Professors, who were already so obsessed with improvement, they didn’t see the problem with this until it was too late.
The details of what happened afterward were lost to time. And honestly, even these details were mostly lost to Sylas. He didn’t have the full scope of the picture when he deduced these matters. What he did know were a few things, though.
First, he knew that the Petals of the Seeing Thorn had a very protective relationship with their Seeing Thorn. The Golden Grove didn’t have much information on them, ironically enough, but it was enough to know this.
Second, he knew that the Seeing Thorn was a B-Grade Race, and that immediately raised alarm bells to him—especially after he learned that plant Races could build civilizations no less complex and magical than Humanoids could.
Third… he had had the chance to observe Nyssa’s Unique Gene ahead of time.
Sylas couldn’t take out a person’s Gene when they were alive. The only exception to this had been the Clandestine Ape, who had a unique physique he could take advantage of.
However, it was a different matter entirely when the Lust Seed was involved, especially if Nyssa didn’t resist. In this case, he didn’t need to kill her at all.
Sylas’ ability to understand Runes was only improving by leaps and bounds every day. And during his six-month stint, suffering day after day to become a D-Grade Human Simioid, he had nothing else to do between the pain other than hone exactly that.
While he hadn’t learned any new Runes, nor had he grasped any new unique concepts, his understanding and refinement of the fundamentals were on another level now more than ever before.
At this point, he understood his own Genes like the back of his hand, and that helped him to analyze Nyssa’s Seeing Thorn Gene with much greater ease.
Thanks to this, he was able to deduce exactly how the connection worked, and that helped him to do several things.
First, he knew that Semi-Fusion would work so long as Nosphaleen managed to get the Unique Gene.
Second, he knew that when in a dazed state and consciousness was lost, this was the state where anyone inside the maze was the most in tune with the Seeing Thorn.
And third… he knew that when these two things came together, framing Matriarch Valeria for breaking the greatest taboo of the Petals of the Seeing Thorn would be a matter of great ease.
Yet, this was still just the tip of the iceberg of Sylas’ plan. That was because he knew the organization would let Matriarch Valeria live this time.
And it was what they did after that would give him exactly the opportunity he needed to end all of this.
**
Matriarch Valeria felt the vines constricting her, the thorns piercing into her soft flesh.
Slowly, a figure began to shimmer into existence across from her.