Chapter 451: Begin
"Let's go," Sylas said after a long moment. However, he paused before he turned around. "Can she fight?"
Sylas pointed to Sunniva.
"She can. Though it's a bit complicated. I will need more time to make certain that she remains... loyal. It will probably be best if we avoid that for now if it isn't necessary."
Sylas nodded.
Sunniva was a powerful fighter. If they could get her on their side, it would be like two for the price of one, where the only price he had to pay was saving Nosphaleen.
The problem, of course, was that it seemed that it would be quite difficult to scale this sort of thing.
Whatever suggestion Nosphaleen had placed on Sunniva had to be constantly reinforced and nurtured. There would obviously be diminishing returns the more people there were.
When he got to this point in his thoughts, he handed Sunniva a few pills to heal herself. Then he returned her clothing to her while withholding the special blades.
After analyzing the way Sunniva's Class worked, he found that the blades were a special sort of Rune application.
The hilts of the blades were real, in part. The blades themselves and their edges were fabrications of Aether and the activation of these Runes.
With this, Sunniva had perfect control over whether the blades were active or not, and she could trick opponents into thinking she had suffered blows when she really hadn't, even to the point of fooling Sylas.
Of course, this was only a minor extension of her Class. The main power was blade control. It was even more effective than Sylas' Telekinesis in a lot of ways.
The blades had practically no weight. Durability wasn't an issue because they were all formed of Aether, and she didn't need a skill like <Momentum Shift> to forcefully change their direction either.
On top of that, the Class was clearly a combination path that allowed both this versatile attack form and a boost toward close combat.
Though, unless it was a high-grade Class, it was probably a jack-of-all-trades sort of situation.
When Sunniva was finally fully clothed, Sylas asked something unexpected.
"Tell me the truth hidden at the bottom of your heart. If you learned that your Ravenclaw family was colluding with alien Races, how would you feel?"
Sunniva blinked in surprise and seemed to struggle for a moment. Nosphaleen even felt some of that struggle as though she was about to break free. This shocked her. She didn't
understand why such a simple question would trigger such a thing.
Sylas was the first to react. He analyzed what happened instantly and spoke up again.
"Your master isn't an alien Race. She is a Clypsian, born and bred on Earth. They were a Race of people that existed before humans."
The realization hit Nosphaleen at the same time the struggle in Sunniva vanished. At the same time, Nosphaleen couldn't help but look toward Sylas like she was looking at a monster. She didn't quite understand how a person's brain could work so flexibly.
Nosphaleen understood her ability best, so she realized what the issue was.
She had blue skin. To Sunniva, she was among the alien Races that Sylas was referring to.
As such, if in her heart of hearts she would hate her family for doing such a thing, it would be contradictory to her current subservience to Nosphaleen.
Understanding that was one thing... deducing it from a mere struggle on Sunniva's face, one that didn't even last very long, was another thing. It only made it worse that Sylas shouldn't be able to feel what she had felt in that moment. He wouldn't have known that she was about to break free of her suggestion. Yet he still figured it out before she did despite the fact his Mental stats were well below her own.
Nosphaleen was one of the rare few people that could actually read Sylas' stats. She knew exactly what they were, and that only shocked her more.
'Are humans so powerful?'
Her Race wasn't particularly... inviting to other people. Even the Dogons that stood on par with them in talent were usually disparaged, least of all humans that were basically cavemen when the Clypsians were in power.
Nosphaleen was far more mild-tempered than her counterparts, and she had also never met one of those cavemen personally, so her own bias hadn't settled in, but she had heard enough from her seniors to still feel subconsciously superior.
Even if Sylas was stronger than her, could he really be smarter?
It was only one example, but now she truly wasn't so sure anymore...
Had the cavemen really evolved so far?
"... I would not like it at all," Sunniva finally replied.
"Good. When the time is right, you'll become a part of my team." Sylas turned to leave the cave. "Keep her in check for now."
Having Nosphaleen constantly keep tabs on Sunniva was obviously not sustainable. Unless the Clypsian had months of time to drill her suggestion into the depths of Sunniva's mind, it would be likely that she would break free any time, and maybe even at the worst of times. Even if the worst-case scenario didn't happen, Nosphaleen would likely be constantly handicapped trying to trigger her Gene Talent again and again. It would eventually start to impact her performance, and he would need her.
So, he thought of something else.
While questioning Sunniva, he realized that she didn't really know about the Sylph traitor situation. So he chose to ask her while she was under suggestion.
Now that he knew her answer, turning her over to his side without Nosphaleen's suggestion would be far easier.
Even if only Ragnar was involved, he should be able to make use of Sunniva at least in the short term before she returned to the Ravenclaw family.
That would be enough.
But for now, he would need to show her indisputable proof.
And while he was at it, he would destroy a few checkpoints.
Sylas appeared in an inconspicuous tunnel and suddenly punched out.
CRACK.
The checkpoint split and then shattered to pieces.
That was one down, and its failure would likely put the Ravenclaws on high alert.
'Let's begin.'