The unexpected change caught Sylas off guard. It wouldn’t have if he hadn’t been distracted by the sudden notification, but he wasn’t the only one that was distracted, so it was fine. The real issue was that he was falling not in a one versus one, but instead in what seemed to be a free-for-all.
The two down below this time were Jala and Israeal. Suddenly, Sylas couldn’t help but wonder if the Dungeon had done it on purpose. Did it know that he wanted Voryx?
’If it was done on purpose…’
BOOM!
Sylas landed so heavily his knees directly gave out. The sudden change to the gravity almost shattered his bones, his body straining against the blow.
His pupils constricted into pinholes.
The Dungeon wasn’t changing things incrementally.
He almost fell flat on his face, his palm being the only thing that stopped him from collapsing entirely.
Whether it was Israeal or Jala, they both seemed to react at the same moment. As distracted as they were, they weren’t distracted to the point they wouldn’t notice Sylas literally falling down from above.
There was something else at the back of Sylas’ mind as well. Israeal wasn’t from this galaxy. Due to that, his system wasn’t connected with theirs. The System-Wide Message wasn’t something that he should be able to see in the first place. So why was he distracted?
The answer was that he wasn’t.
He was looking for an opportunity. From the very start, Israeal had been looking for Jala. Why was that?
Unfortunately, Sylas didn’t have this piece of the puzzle. But… what he did know was that the only two to fight before entering the Dungeon other than himself and Soryntha had been these two, and that underlied a hidden truth of sorts.
Israeal was looking for a chance to kill Jala, but he also knew that the Dungeon would never allow it. The only person who could do this was Sylas, and now he had conveniently fallen down from above.
Sylas saw through the subtlety of the situation immediately as they both rushed him.
Israeal was acting. His Will was also diminished and controlled in a way that made it obvious he wasn’t actually coming to kill Sylas. Most of his focus was on reading and reacting—on defense.
By comparison, Jala was moving all out to kill.
Everyone here was smart. They knew Sylas had enraged the Dungeon. Which meant that his next opponent would have a supreme advantage.
An advantage the two of them would get the chance to take advantage of.
Jala appeared before Sylas in a flash, his armor almost splintering off into two forms. However, as the one in the distance faded away and the one before Sylas solidified, it became obvious that it was little more than an afterimage.
Due to their earlier battle, Jala knew that Sylas was sensitive to space. In that case… he brought out an ability of his armor that he had yet to use.
Raw, unbridled Speed.
In a flash, his Speed stat alone seemed to have increased by a factor of ten, its momentum transferring seamlessly to his rod as he came to a stop right in front of Sylas, swinging down with all his might.
It was a fascinating array of Runes. Sylas watched as Jala lost no momentum at all. He was so lost in the Runic dance that he seemed slow to react.
And in fact, he was. But this wasn’t because he was distracted—it was quite literally because the Dungeon was suffocating him.
It wasn’t just gravity. The oxygen in his air was limited, the Runes seemed to not want to pay much attention to him despite the fact he had highly limited his Rune Spark Mastery until now, and there was a weight change in his body that seemed to be particularly targeted, settling into his bones alone and almost ignoring his muscles.
To make matters worse, Sylas was almost 100% certain that the Dungeon wouldn’t have any intention of saving him.
Typical.
This just seemed to be his life these days. Constant battles, constant setbacks.
How many times had he already “won” here? How many obstacles had he overcome?
He destroyed a Clan of people that called themselves Demi-Gods without even taking a step out of the galaxy, but somehow it still wasn’t enough. It was never enough.
’Okay.’
It was a simple thought, an acceptance, even. But it was more calming than Sylas could explain.
He had felt the raging emotions of those Seven Sins so clearly on the Frost Bane Planet. It stirred things within him that he couldn’t quite put into words, and his reaction to Envy was probably the oddest part.
He didn’t think that it was him. He didn’t believe that he was someone who compared himself to others to begin with, so how could he feel Envy? His only measuring stick was himself.
But he had had such thoughts more than once when he thought about it. When he thought of the unfairness of it all, when he thought of how much he deserved more than others, when he thought about how much he had been through compared to just how easy their lives had been.
It was at moments like those that he probably felt the most human. But it was also those moments that disgusted him the most.
They reminded him of that moment in the volcano, pieces of himself that he wanted to cut away.
He was better than this.
Far better.
And his reaction just now to those thoughts…
Sylas found himself smiling. It was a more obvious smile than his usual. It wasn’t just the slight quirk of his lip, but a true arc, one that was almost obvious even to those that didn’t know him, and would have been a blinding flash of light to those that did.
Why was his reaction so casual just now? Why did he not feel that overwhelming Envy? That similar annoyance toward his plight?
It was because he had already agreed to take on this burden, agreed to take it on for the sake of a child Cassarae had yet to even conceive for him.
Since he said he would become the Progenitor of his Galaxy to shield them, then he would.
He had never realized it in so many words until now…
But she was his balance, his center of mass.
The challenge didn’t matter if she was there.
In which case, there was only one thing left to do.
Win.