Chapter 605: Long Time
Sylas had been asleep practically the entire time, so he was sure that he wasn't the first to think of this. The others may have already guessed at such a thing, but they didn't know what to do about it. Should they try to knock one another off? But what about the family? What if this statue only wanted one person to remain?
That was enough to explain why Cole and his family hadn't acted. Well, that and the fact Cole was bound to listen to Sylas' orders for the next three years, and that also stipulated him not doing anything to harm Sylas.
Alex was the true wild card, but he hadn't acted either, just standing in silence. And with his face covered by the mask, he was difficult to read even for Sylas.
'Hm?'
Sylas looked up to find something interesting.
'We're closer to the statue now than we were before. Higher as well. Is this a boiling frog situation?'
Sylas liked to think that his observation skills were sharp enough that he would have noticed if he remained awake the entire time. But he had been awake for about an hour before he fell asleep, and he hadn't picked up on anything at all.
Unless their platforms had only moved while he was asleep, that meant that he had missed it too.
Sylas also realized that he was feeling quite refreshed right now. That seemed only natural since he had woken up from a deep sleep, but given the fact that Alex had felt his stamina draining faster when he sat down, this was definitely not something that Sylas could take for granted.
'Interesting...'
Sylas gave a look toward Cole. "Do you have telekinesis?"
Cole was somewhat slow to respond, the sudden words in the endless silence still not enough to shake his fatigue.
"... Telekinesis? No."
"Mm..." Sylas nodded. With a wave of his hand, he sent out a casual pulse of his own.
He had tried everything during the first few minutes of being in this world, including using his telekinesis, but nothing had worked. The Aether in the air didn't respond to him, the Enlightenment Rune couldn't be drawn, Skills couldn't be cast, and his telekinesis didn't properly respond.
But properly responding versus not responding at all were obviously two completely different things.
He had felt his telekinesis; it just wasn't good enough to do anything.
This time, nothing had changed. The pulse was still weak.
When he tried to use his telekinesis on the platform under him once again, it hardly budged.
But...
'So it did move. It's just that the increments were so weak I couldn't even pick up on it.'
The platforms were moving slowly on their own, and he could speed it up by a small margin with his telekinesis. But at this speed, it would take years to reach the statue. And over that course of time, the pressure would only grow great in all likelihood.
Was this task really meant to be so difficult?
Sylas looked back toward the other floating platforms, and he noticed that they were moving at different rates in relation to one another as well.
He didn't pay much attention to this at first because the placement of the platforms was a bit erratic. It didn't have rhyme or reason, and initially, they were practically in a semi-circle around one another, with each of them separated by about three meters or so.
However, now this semi-circle had blurred somewhat and looked more distorted than Sylas remembered.
'Mountains of Giza...'
Sylas still recalled that it was plural, but he still wasn't sure what that meant.
'Unless multiple people were supposed to be here?'
He was always obsessed with finding the perfect solution all on his own. But what if the solution was actually to work together?
But the question was... how?
He had already asked Cole, and though the man had strong enough Will to send a System Contract, he didn't have strong enough Will to use telekinesis.
Or maybe that wasn't the right way to look at it...
Sylas had met plenty of people with strong Wills and Charisma, but only Nosphaleen of them all had telekinesis like he did.
Reaching out with his telekinesis, Sylas targeted one of their platforms and pulled. He observed it silently and found that it was still moving at the same rate his was.
'Hm...'
Sylas' gaze suddenly sharpened, and he looked off into the distance as another group appeared.
'Lauren.'
Separated by about ten meters or so, Lauren and a group of four others appeared on their own sets of platforms. Their platforms were just as small, and the trouble they were facing was
just the same.
This group was a little behind Sylas and the others, and this seemed to show how far forward they had moved. But it was so incremental, over such a long time, that none of them had
noticed.
However, they were now facing another problem.
Alex and the others were immediately on high alert, but Sylas didn't bother to move an inch. All he did was observe, waiting to see if Lauren had another card up her sleeve.
Lauren's pupils shrunk when she met Sylas' gaze. However, after a moment, she relaxed and then gave him a light smile.
"Long time, no see."
Sylas didn't respond, his gaze descending to Lauren's chest. It was covered by tight leather armor, and he couldn't tell whether she was wearing the necklace or not. With something so valuable, he wouldn't find it too shocking for her to hide it at all cost, especially if that cost was just some slight discomfort to her skin.
Lauren didn't mind Sylas' lack of a reply as she looked around, observing Alex and the others. But maybe to Alex's credit, she didn't seem to recognize him at all.
"You've only made this much movement in a week... It seems that though we've split our first two battles, I will be the victor of this one," Lauren said lightly.
Sylas inwardly sighed. As he had feared. There was yet another time dilation here.