Chapter 610: My Son! [Bonus]
Jake could feel himself falling from the skies. He was a bit surprised, but his reaction was different from what one might expect.
Sadness.
Not fear, not anger, just sadness. And it wasn't even for the sake of himself.
He had wanted to hold on for the sake of his parents. They had already lost so much ever since this Summoning began; he didn't want them to lose anything more. But he also saw how much they suffered trying to keep him safe.
Maybe it was a good thing if he died now. They would feel some pain for now, but then they would eventually get over it. They still had each other, and the fact this was a dangerous world meant that they would have no choice but to continue relying on one another even if their marriage was strained.
With their Twin Moon Healer Class, they would be tied together until they died. At least he didn't have to worry about becoming the impetus for his parents' divorce.
Soon enough, his parents' relationship would heal and they would have another child when they were more established. They weren't too young anymore, but that was the beauty of this world. It probably wouldn't be long before people began to age in reverse.
Jake smiled, though he could hardly control his body, so it was nothing more than a slight quirk of his lips, something that no one but Sylas could see as he plummeted to his death.
"JAKE!" Cole roared, his Aether erupting as he tried to dive down to his son.
"Stop." Sylas said calmly.
The bounds of the contract began like chains that wrapped around Cole's throat. He couldn't even breathe properly anymore as he looked toward Sylas in horror.
Looking into those steely green eyes, Cole realized just how naive he had been. From the start, Sylas had already seen through him.
Their Twin Moon Healer Class didn't split their stats in two. Instead, they had a pool of stats that they could pass between them freely. So long as one of them remained with at least one stat point in every category, the other could take everything.
Sylas' assumption that Cole had exactly half of their stats at the beginning was an oversight on his part. But he saw through it the moment he realized just how much better Cole's wife Lara was performing.
Given the fact Cole had strong enough Will to form a contract with him through the system, if there was any difference between the husband and wife, it should be that Cole was performing better than Lara, not the reverse. If the assumption was that their stats were equal, that is.
But Lara was far more ruddy and healthy than Cole was to this point. That could only mean one thing...
Their stats weren't equal at all.
But an imbalance in their stats didn't make much sense. There were some convoluted explanations, but Sylas chose to take a bet on Occam's razor...
They could choose the distribution of their stats as they pleased.
As expected, when Lara exploded with her strength to try and save their son, her momentum was much greater.
Unfortunately for her, whether she could successfully cast a skill or not was dependent on Sylas' Aetherflow... and why would he allow it?
"NO!"
Lara shrieked, realizing that the Aether in the surroundings wasn't listening to her.
To her credit as a loving mother, she didn't make a second attempt after the first failure; she just directly lunged after her son, leaping off of the platform without the slightest hesitation.
Cole's eyes bulged, crimson veins leaping from his body. Sylas' command to stop was so overwhelming that he couldn't even move a single inch. The gap in their Wills was too far apart.
Originally, he had thought that when the time came, his wife would just pour all of their Will into him and he would be able to break the contract with ease. Right now, their combined Will was over 3000.
But to his horror, he realized that even if he had 3000 Will concentrated onto himself... the difference and disparity in quality was so great that there was simply no chance of success.
He would be a slave to this man for these next three years, and after that, there might not even be a functional change. All the while, Sylas himself could break the contract as he pleased.
Cole could only stand there, watching his wife and son fall to their deaths.
However...
A tendril of darkness reached out before Lara had fallen more than five meters, snapping her back into place on her platform.
"NO! Let me go! Let me go!" Her screeches filled the air, her hair becoming disheveled as blood and tears pooled around her chin. "My son! MY SON!"
Jake was already more than 20 meters from them and only accelerating. Even if Alex wanted to save him now, it was simply impossible. But when he looked toward Sylas, the man had turned around. The only thing they could see was his back as he sat in silence.
The commotion had obviously caught the attention of Lauren and the others, but they had no idea what to make of it. Only Lauren seemed to realize what this meant, but even she could only conclude that this group wasn't as close as they seemed. Sylas was only using them. As for Sylas' intentions now, she couldn't see through them at all.
She could only guess that Sylas was only throwing away useless dead weight since he was taking too large a hit on his stamina by carrying them all.
Down below, Jake could only faintly hear the shouts of his mother. He tried to tune them out, but the pang of pain in his heart wasn't something that he could ignore.
At least... his death would be quick. You wouldn't feel the ground kill you falling at this speed,
right?
He released a sigh as his heart slowly suppressed the pang.
But it was soon replaced by a deep unwillingness. He really didn't want his parents to feel this
sort of pain at all... he really didn't want to die...
And for the first time, his parents had failed to save him from such a fate...