Soryntha’s mouth opened wide, her body bowing into the shape of a ‘U’. Spittle flew out first, followed by a torrent of blood. It felt like her organs—despite the inner armor she wore—were being churned inside out.
There had only been the slightest and most casual punch on Sylas’ part, but the Runes that subtly propelled his action were only spotted by Zoryx. The latter’s gaze couldn’t help but narrow further, feeling that something was very much off.
Was someone like Sylas supposed to be capable of such expert Rune usage? Just… what was this?
Soryntha should have been sent flying on impact, but Sylas had wrapped her chain whip around his arm as she flew forward, using it as a ladder to grab onto her wrist and lock her in place. Right now, even if she let go of the chain whip, it wouldn’t matter in the slightest.
Her vision swam, and her eyes watered not from frustration or sadness, but from pain.
Her entire body wanted to shut down, but her Will was keeping her conscious. She just… couldn’t possibly allow herself to collapse like this. Not… not like this.
She spat up another mouthful of blood, the momentum of the punch finally settling enough that she collapsed to the ground, falling to a knee right before Sylas.
She struggled to look up, the flaming green star in the distance becoming the backdrop of Sylas’ silhouette. And yet, somehow, the burning look in Sylas’ own emerald light, locked away in his two irises, was far brighter.
He looked down at her as though it was only natural—like he wasn’t the one from a small, unknown Summoned World, like he wasn’t a mere inferior human, like he wasn’t someone who had to rely on the little sister she looked down on so much just to survive to this point.
The more she thought about it, the more infuriated Soryntha became. She deserved this. She had always been the best of the very best. She had always stood above her peers.
It was she who had the right to stand above others and look down upon them. When had someone else ever had the right to do this to her?
Soryntha shrieked again, but this time it was truly out of fury. However, in that fury, something within her snapped.
BOOM!
Sylas was sent flying away, flipping through the air as Soryntha’s aura continued to climb. Her aura alone caused her hair to whip about with the violence of a torrential storm, forming the peaks and valleys of tsunamis rising to the skies and then falling to shatter the lands below.
—
[5. Soryntha Valeria | Lv. 50 | (Florineth)]
…
[4. Soryntha Valeria | Lv. 50 | (Florineth)]
…
[3. Soryntha Valeria | Lv. 50 | (Florineth)]
…
[2. Soryntha Valeria | Lv. 50 | (Florineth)]
…
[1. Soryntha Valeria | Lv. 50 | (Florineth)]
—
Her ranking shot up one after another, soaring by leaps and bounds as Sylas softly landed on his feet.
Judging by Sylas’ expression, he didn’t seem surprised in the slightest. Zoryx and Thalrik, however… that was a different matter entirely.
Thalrik had already deduced that this would happen, as had Zoryx, and they all had their trump cards on how to deal with it. But even they didn’t expect that the difference would be so large.
Sylas, however, could tell that something curious had happened—maybe an unlikely synergy of sorts. It even seemed like the Petals of the Seeing Thorn had broken their own Taboo for this chance.
‘Unlikely. It’s something else. Which means it worked.’
Sylas watched on calmly as Soryntha’s aura shot beyond what should have been possible for the F-Grade geniuses of this Galaxy or even this Galaxy Cluster. Sylas had yet to see what those geniuses beyond were capable of, but he had seen that Matrix Index ranking…
Furon Leava.
Aira Venom.
Vidu Mancha.
Their names were practically burned into his psyche. He didn’t compare himself to others, and his own standards were his own, but his memory was impeccable, and there were certain things that he would simply never forget.
The names of the three strongest Matrix Index F-Grade experts wouldn’t be forgotten by him. And right now, Sylas felt like Soryntha was burning away at herself just to reflect half of their light.
And yet, half of this light alone was already enough for her to stand on a tier all to herself.
Seeing this, Zoryx and Thalrik alike probably thought that things were over. There was no chance that even Israeal would be able to deal with this. Even though they were confident in themselves, this was simply far too much.
Which was why what happened next was something they wouldn’t forget for as long as they lived.
Sylas just stood there as Soryntha suddenly rushed him, her dagger and chains flashing.
Slowly, a pair of golden, vertically slit irises appeared behind his back.
“Kneel.”
The voice wasn’t very loud, nor did it seem to have much effort placed behind it at all. And yet, Soryntha’s forward momentum came to an abrupt stop, her knees slamming into the moon with such force the two young men watching on could have sworn that it had shaken the entire celestial body.
Soryntha fell as though all the light in her body had left her. The shock in her eyes was so deep and resounding that she couldn’t even put it into words, even until the moment Sylas walked up to her, ripped her armor off, and punched a hole through her chest, taking her heart out as though it stored everything he needed.
“Gogo.”
Sylas tossed the heart over his shoulder, and it was swallowed into the spatial portal of his Hibernation Realm.
Soryntha shuddered one more time before she fell to the side, dying with her eyes wide open.
It was truly unfortunate. Matriarch Valeria might not have felt anything while she was absorbing Gogo’s Blood Essence because she was already a D-Grade Existence, but that Essence she had ignored had made a world of difference for Soryntha.
Unfortunately, that also made Soryntha more than Serpentes enough.
—
[> All <F-Rank> Serpentes obey your commands]