Genetic Ascension

Chapter 492: Vice

Sylas’s breathing was slow and steady. Celestial Republic soldiers were running from him in droves, and he couldn’t be bothered to go after them at all.

It only made sense that they were scared shitless. After all, their General’s unconscious body was now dripping blood from his hand. However, Sylas hadn’t killed him just yet.

Darla, Paul, and General Song stood not a single chance when Sylas started to go all out. Their battle hardly lasted for more than a half minute.

Sylas looked toward where Grin’s blade was and reached out a hand. A green aura surged forward, a long arm extending from his palm, wrapping around it, ripping it out of the tree, and sending it into the Madness Key.

He didn’t take a look at it for now because there was something more important to do.

…

Sylas returned to the Celestial Republic, feeling the snow falling on his body.

By now, the guards around Morgan had already realized that something was wrong with so many soldiers running away, and they were about to make a move to escort Morgan back when Sylas appeared.

“Make it easy on yourself and just let me go,” Morgan spoke for the first time.

He realized the instant Sylas returned that things had gone about how he expected. Sylas wasn’t a fool, so he had a hard time imagining that he would jump into such danger only to get pummeled in the end. And he knew Sylas’ view of the world, so there was no way he would risk his life just to save a beast unless he was sure he could succeed.

By now, it was obvious why Sylas had yet to kill General Song.

Without the Quicktime Event, he couldn’t leave the System City as he was still its City Lord. So if he wanted to get Morgan out, it was best he wait before killing General Song.

Plus… getting Morgan back would be even more convenient with him as a hostage.

In the end, he was correct. But unfortunately for the men protecting Morgan, the instant Sylas vanished into the first Planar Convergence Gate with Morgan and returned to the city was the same instant the Spinecoil Poison made all of General Song’s bones as soft as wet paper.

…

Sylas took a breath as he received the notification of his success. For another person, the tension might have left their body, and they might have even felt relieved. But… Sylas didn’t feel that way.

He was almost… disappointed.

Sylas shook his head. He still had things to do.

It wasn’t long before he had escorted Morgan to the City Lord mansion and faced the man directly.

“You’re more important than I thought you were. Why is that?” Sylas asked.

Morgan’s answer was almost shockingly straightforward.

“I have a Silver Grade Profession of two Paths they often mistake for a Gold Grade one. It is called Vice Instructor. The first Path is called Language Vice, and the second Path is called Lecturers Vice.

“The abilities can get very complicated, but the gist of it is that Language Vice allows me to read and understand all languages. Lecturers Vice allows me to pass on that information to others and briefly, or permanently in some cases, allow them to understand it.”

“Vice?” Sylas asked.

Originally, he thought the name of the Profession being Vice Instructor was a nod to something like a Vice Principal, meaning there was a higher level of this Profession.

But the way Vice was used in the Paths made him think that it might be referring to something completely different, maybe even something evil.

“Yes. This is what I mean where the abilities get complicated because there is something very… sinister about this Profession if used in the right ways. As much as I can give, I can also take.

“In the context of Language Vice, I can erase the history of a civilization’s remains and even rewrite it. In terms of Lecturers Vice, I can strip away a person’s understanding of a language.”

Sylas fell into silence, looking deeply into Morgan’s eyes.

For a normal person, it might be easy to dismiss such a thing. What was the worth of changing ancient history? Sure, there might be some contexts where that could cause people of the present to make the wrong assumptions, but that was nothing that a normal person couldn’t do to varying levels of success. Maybe at best, what would differentiate Morgan was the fact that he could make the fakes convincing even under great scrutiny.

As for Lecturers Vice, it was far more sinister. It might be horrible if you really lost the ability to understand language, but… it wasn’t like it would kill you… right?

However, Sylas wasn’t a normal person. He was well on his way to being a Rune Master. In fact, if the outside world knew of his advancement to Rune Soul, especially the speed at which he did it, there wouldn’t be enough words in the world to describe their shock.

If language in this context meant what he thought it meant, then sure… maybe in the simplest applications, Morgan could cause an army to forget how to communicate and thus ruin their organization. But in the most sinister applications, couldn’t he make a person forget how to use their Skills? Their Gene Talents? Even their Genes themselves?

And what if this rewriting of history Language Vice represented could allow him to actually influence something in the past?

Sylas felt that that was likely too exaggerated, especially for a mere Silver Grade Profession, even if it did have two Paths. If a Silver Profession could rewrite timelines, then shouldn’t he be a God already? But maybe there was something that he was missing here that might be able to explain it all.

“Alright. For now, stay here. When the time comes, I will take you back to Casstle Main.”

After saying this, Sylas left, but he suddenly had a feeling that Morgan could help him with something that had been bothering him.

Just maybe… Morgan could explain the anomaly that was Archibald to him. The engineer who seemed to have come from a very distant past…

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