Chapter 518: Down
"Тар.
Nosphaleen let the heads drop to the floor of roots. Her own gaze was flickering with surprise as she watched Sylas' chest close before her eyes. She couldn't quite understand how anyone could heal so fast.
Even the top-graded Healing Elixirs wouldn't be so great. For it to be so effective, it would have to at least be an E-Grade Elixir. But the problem with them was that if an F-Grade existence took them, they would explode and die.
That meant it would not only have to be an E-Grade Elixir, but it would also need to be an exceptionally high-graded one, maybe one so highly graded that even D-Grade existences might fight over it. Only an E-Grade Elixir that was so great could both have the power and gentleness necessary to be so effective.
Having this sort of context, it was no wonder Nosphaleen was so shocked.
Of course, she had no idea how close to the truth she was.
The Sylphs that came down to Earth had an odd lock on their bodies. Every time Sylas tried to absorb their Genes, the system didn't recognize them, and even Extricate didn't seem to work.
Sylas still didn't quite understand why this was, and unfortunately, their methods were Taboo, so the Madness Key couldn't give him the answer he needed. But what was certain was that the strength the Sylphs displayed now was only a fraction of their real strength.
Although it might not be as exaggerated as them being E-Grade powerhouses, Sylas wouldn't be surprised if they were close.
If by chance they were E-Grade powerhouses, it would explain why even Extricate didn't work on them. After all, Extricate was only designed to be used against F-Grade existences.
But regardless, the Blood Essence he took from them was certainly not normal by any means. That was because even if they weren't E-Grade existences, they were part of an E-Grade race, which naturally made their Blood Essence a level higher than anything Earth had to offer right
now.
It could be said that of all the people on Earth he could use to replenish himself, these two were among the best.
"Their leader got away?" Sylas asked, ignoring Nosphaleen's shock. The more enigmatic she thought he was, the less likely it would be for her to turn on him.
It wasn't lost on him that he didn't have full control of her when she wasn't one of his Contracts. And now the cancer Gene was heavily damaged, so he might only be able to use it once or twice more.
So until he found a way to make her a permanent Serpentes, he would have to make himself the largest shadow in her mind.
"I'm not sure who their leader is," Nosphaleen said with a shake of her head.
Sylas' eyes narrowed. Her response meant that she hadn't seen Ragnar slip away; otherwise, she would have understood what he meant.
Nosphaleen had come back with five heads, two of which came from Germaine and Britt, while the other three were Sylphs. Judging by the looks on their faces, she had caught at least the Sylphs off guard.
'He's smart...'
Sylas knew that none of the heirs were simple characters. Ragnar had proven that several times, and he had suffered enough at Lucius' hand by now to understand it even more intimately.
But he didn't expect Ragnar to manage to slip away.
'No...'
Sylas' gaze flashed as he realized something. He had planned on healing up some more, but it seemed that he wouldn't have the time.
"Let's go. He should be close by."
Nosphaleen was surprised again, but she didn't question it. She had already seen that Sylas' brain simply didn't work like a normal person's did. Even if she had access to the same information, it would probably take her several times longer to reach the same conclusion. What surprised her even more than Sylas' words, though, was the fact that instead of making his way out of this hellhole, he was going in deeper. Literally.
Sylas began opening up a path beneath them, ripping through the roots and beginning to descend downward.
"How's your immunity to the poison?" Sylas asked.
"I should be okay with my Aether skin active."
Sylas nodded. Nosphaleen's Intelligence was high, so her reserves of Aether would be equally as high. With the help of the armor he had given her and the upgrades they had already fed it with, her Constitution wouldn't be too bad either.
She should be fine.
As for himself, he wasn't back to 100% yet. The Blood Essence could help his Physical stats, but did nothing to change the state of his mind or his Aether.
While his body was soaking up the Blood Essence, he also couldn't divert his attention to other things like casting skills because he had to both be wary of the Greed Seed and be mindful of his control over the powerful Blood Essence.
That said...
"Use this. Pick up any snake corpses you see along the way and convert them to pills for me." ... He had another method of replenishing his Aether quickly.
Nosphaleen obliged as Sylas picked his way forward. It was best he do the heavy lifting on this front, or else no matter how strong Nosphaleen's Aether, she would eventually hit her limit due to the accumulated damage and corrosion.
Sylas began swallowing the pills Nosphaleen handed him one after another. The snakes might be weak, but there were many of them, and most had at least part poison affinity that made them more useful to him than not.
Although it wasn't the perfect Ice-Poison affinity that would help him best, it was better than
nothing.
By the time he swallowed the sixth one, his Aether had replenished by 30%, and he was closing in on refining the rest of the Blood Essence.
However, it was also around then that their efforts to dig deeper came to an end.
'There really is something down here...'