[Bonus thanks to Dignifiedabyss <3]
Sylas flowed one combination into the next, a savagery and relentlessness coming through his arms and legs, even as a deathly stillness radiated from his eyes.
He had to keep Voryx close, not wanting him to get too far away. He wasn’t yet used to using Mixed Demonic Arts as a replacement for his senses, trusting his Comprehension to move and shift his body in ways it had never moved before.
But as he did so, he could almost feel that Demonic side of him growing more feverish, more devilish. His canines lengthened, his claws grew sharper, his hair increased in volume as he danced through the wind of the void he had been trapped within.
The suppression of the Dungeon came harder, swifter this time, but Sylas reacted once again, swapping out his Scorpion Warlord Armor for its 88% version, leaping over 87% to account for the cheating of the Dungeon seamlessly.
He no longer expected things to be fair; he no longer cared for them to be. It didn’t matter what the challenge was, what the obstacle he faced was, there was only one way—
Sylas’ eyes sharpened, his gaze blazing.
’I haven’t forgotten about you at all.’
There were two reasons Sylas hadn’t killed Voryx yet. The first was because he couldn’t guarantee a death until he understood the true limits of this Dungeon. It had already proven that it was willing to bend its own rules now because Sylas had outright broken them.
The second reason was Jala.
Sylas had seen Jala looking particularly listless. Even after the battles, he showed no signs of recovery, as though he had completely lost any and all will to battle.
But Sylas had felt there was something off about it.
When he called Jala weak, it wasn’t because of his reaction, but because of what he was resorting to.
Jala realized that he couldn’t win a battle like this in a head-on manner, so he had taken another approach.
However… for a while now Sylas had been wondering how things ended up this way. He seemed randomly thrown into the spotlight due to the sudden appearance of an All-Seeing Eye, but he had no idea how it appeared or who triggered it.
That day, whatever happened had happened outside his Luck range, so he didn’t understand it at all. But what he did know for certain was that he had almost died that day. And yet, somehow… he didn’t?
And now, of all the countless geniuses likely hidden in the Milky Way, Jala was the only one outside of Sylas himself who managed to make it to this moon?
Was it a coincidence? Sylas highly doubted it.
That day, he had enraged the All-Seeing Eye and ended up getting tagged with a Quest that should have been impossible to complete, one that he was right in the middle of this instant.
At the same time, Jala disappeared off the face of the universe, and even Israeal, a genius from the Main Kaelthar Clan, hadn’t been able to find him.
Even while not knowing the full story, all of this pointed to just one thing…
Sylas wasn’t the only one plotting and scheming, and he probably wasn’t the only one that had received a Quest from the All-Seeing Eye either.
If Jala had really gone through all of this, would he really give up just because he lost one weapon? Was that really enough of a setback to ruin everything, especially after he watched his own uncle die to Sylas’ hands? Was he really so weak-minded?
The obvious answer was no.
So Sylas was waiting. Waiting for Jala to show him his true colors while it seemed like he was entirely ignoring him…
When in reality, his Mixed Demonic Arts could focus on more than just one person at a time—reading intentions, predicting movements.
The moment it latched onto Jala, Sylas knew that this wasn’t a young man that gave up so easily. And, he had also decided another thing:
To kill Jala first, and Voryx second.
Whatever the All-Seeing Eye had given Jala, Sylas wanted it. Even in this situation where his back was against the wall, Sylas was wanting for more.
What could he say…
He was a Glutton.
BOOM!
Sylas suddenly pulled on his Gluttony Seed.
Jala appeared to his back, a new rod in his hand and even more powerful downward pressure.
With a single palm, Sylas grabbed it out of the air, the gap between their strengths so vast it practically looked as though he was snatching a toy from a child.
His and Jala’s gazes met for only the briefest of instances—only enough time for all the blood to drain from the latter’s face. In that moment, Jala realized that maybe he would have been right to feel nothing but despair previously.
The gap was simply too large.
He released his weapon on his own, trying to make distance, but in a shocking turn, his rod didn’t turn to ash like he expected.
Sylas’ gaze focused on it for a moment, activating his Unravelling Pupils and severing the connection between the rod and the armor.
There was a jolt in Jala’s body as his armor stiffened, the Runes no longer working properly. They were about to rearrange themselves, but he hadn’t noticed that Sylas’ Hibernation Realm had appeared right behind him, and the head of a Basilisk King with teeth bared to the world loomed overhead.
The Dungeon simply couldn’t account for the Basilisk King. Not when Gogo had yet to truly take a step in.
Before it could even calculate for Gogo’s appearance, Jala’s head was bitten clean off.
Sylas appeared with a palm to his chest.
—
[You have killed someone in the middle of a Destiny Quest. Would you like to steal their Destiny?]
[Yes] [No]
—
Sylas didn’t hesitate to say yes, feeling a surge come from his Gluttony Seed.
It seemed that he had almost neglected the most important ability of Gluttony, after all.
Chi.
Voryx convulsed, looking down at the tail paused just before his head.
Sylas hadn’t pierced through him. So…
Why was he dead now?
It wasn’t supposed to end like this.