Sylas' forward momentum came to a grinding halt when the notification flashed. Normally, in a situation like this one, he would ignore it, but he didn't think that this one was a coincidence.
And he was quickly proven correct.
There was a flash and then a series of corrupted characters pulsed across his stat screen.
'What's happening?'
Sylas focused his mind. There was a part of him that didn't believe that the glitches were so random at all. He didn't mean that as in they were random, but instead that the lines and almost scribbles that appeared when they did.
They had to mean something. And even if they didn't, what they were wiping out certainly did.
But this focused intention only gave Sylas a splitting headache. It was clearly something even his Rune Mastery couldn't see through.
Then the words solidified.
'It…'
Sylas' eyes narrowed.
The system, it had been commandeered by something else. Something had forcefully taken it over.
Sylas looked into the distance, but all he saw was a blue orb in the skies and nothing else. He couldn't even see it clearly enough to decide what it was.
But before he could even read what was on his screen, there was another flash. He couldn't react as the orb of blue took shape and then rammed into him.
A searing pain etched across Sylas' skin and he ripped apart his shirt to reveal a burn mark in swirling, complex patterns.
—
[You have been Branded with a Chosen Mark]
—
Sylas' mind pulsed with something, and he suddenly felt two other presences. They were impossibly far away, and yet they felt like they were right in front of him.
'What just happened?'
—
[Galaxy Grade Destiny Quest Triggered]
—
[Luck of the Milky Way Galaxy (???) (Destiny Quest)]
[An imbalance has been sensed in your Galaxy. Rooted in menace and vindictiveness, the Luck of your worlds has been twisted and separated, placed in the hands of those that don't deserve it.
[Three have been marked as Chosen. As the three with the greatest promise of the Milky Way Galaxy, the Luck of your Galaxy is concentrated onto them. However, none of them are worthy.
[Claim their heads and their Mark. Should you succeed, Luck will shine down upon you. Should you fail, nothing will change]
—
This was the Destiny Quest every Overlord Race member across the entire Galaxy saw. However, Sylas saw something very different.
—
[Luck of the Milky Way Galaxy (???) (Destiny Quest)]
[You have been Marked as a Chosen. Protect your Luck and claim your place amongst the central drivers of the Milky Way's future.
[Are you worthy of being the one and only? Are the other Chosen beneath your notice? Prove it]
—
Sylas slowly touched the searing skin on his chest.
**
While everyone else was seeing their own versions of the two, there were two others that saw the exact same screen that Sylas had. But, there was a third version of the screen…
One reserved for Jala.
—
[Luck of the Milky Way Galaxy (???) (Destiny Quest)]
[You have triggered a resurgence and suppressed the system of your Galaxy. Time ticks and your Destiny hangs in the balance. Successfully become a Chosen, or lose your life to the ire of the impotent system]
[Time Remaining: 29:23:59:59]
—
Jala felt his heart pulse with a great surge. He suddenly became a hidden player. Much like Sylas, he could feel the other two, but he could also feel Sylas.
However… they couldn't sense him. He seemed to have become separated from the Luck of the… Milky Way Galaxy? What was that?
He had no idea, nor did he really understand what he had triggered. He understood even less why the science experiment would give him such a Treasure in the first place.
What Jala didn't understand was that the Ancient Treasure only activated in this way because of the way he used it. If he had used it on Sylas, the result would have been very different.
For one, Sylas didn't have the mark of the science experiment within him. That meant that the system wouldn't be able to detect the Legacy member through Sylas.
But what it certainly would be able to detect… was Sylas' connection to the Demonic Spawn.
There were several things that could happen at that point.
Either Sylas was related to the Demonic Spawn and that would lead to his death. Or, the system would track down the Demonic Spawn through Sylas and give the Legacy member direct access to exactly what he was looking for.
To him, Sylas wasn't the important piece here, but rather how Sylas was related to what he truly wanted to study.
By having Jala be the one to activate it, the system also wouldn't follow up with him. As one could see from Jala's Quest, there would be some comeuppance in the future once the system was no longer being suppressed by Heaven's Wrath.
The real question was… was it worth it to use such a valuable Treasure just for the sake of finding the Demonic Spawn?
It was clearly a one-use item, and now that it had been triggered, it was gone. The science experiment could have never guessed that Jala would take such a risk just to spite him, this was completely out of his calculations.
Unfortunately for him, maybe if Jala hadn't just lost his uncle to Sylas, he wouldn't have made this decision. But after seeing the true gap that existed between them… he knew he couldn't continue to allow himself to be pulled down this road.
In the end, the one who truly suffered here was Sylas himself.
There were the obvious problems. The two other Chosen were almost certainly from the most elite families and would receive heavy protection while Sylas was all on his own.
But this was hardly the biggest issue. The real problem was something others might miss but Sylas realized immediately.
If the system was suppressed under Heaven's Wrath right now…
How was he going to earn a Gold Demerit to clear the Gene requirements for the Madness Key?
Now the entire galaxy would want to hunt him down, but before they could even get a piece of him his own Treasure might eat him alive first.