Chapter 739: Calm
The peacock soared through the night skies.
Sylas' family followed along with him, their bodies bundled up in winter clothing they had luckily had with them. When they originally came to the Grimblades, it was already the dead of winter and they knew they were going up the mountains.
By now, Earth had already traveled around the sun once over, so they were right back in the dead of winter and these garments came in handy.
The peacock's Level was too low to carry so many people at once, so it was actually Sylas offsetting their weight with his telekinesis. This was actually quite easy for him now.
As his Wisdom increased and his telekinesis strengthened, the number of ways he could divide his mind became quite variable.
Unfortunately, it wasn't straightforward. The stronger his telekinesis, the more Wisdom it needed to apply its full Strength.
That said, he could peel back the strength of his telekinesis a bit for the sake of splitting his mind more ways.
Right now, with Madness activated, he could apply the full strength of his telekinesis about a half dozen times.
His family obviously didn't need even half his full telekinesis. Even his father, the heaviest of them all, wasn't even 200 pounds unlike Sylas who was not only a bit taller than his old man, but had also put on quite a substantial amount of muscle since the Summoning began.
Though, in this number, there was an... uninvited extra.
Aside from his grandfather, parents, and little sister, Vesta had been brought up to the back of the peacock, making the area to maneuver quite limited.
Unfortunately, this was at the insistence of his mother.
For obvious reasons, the matriarch didn't like the idea of her son carrying around a naked woman dangling from a vine. On top of that, Isolde had had some correspondence with Professor Fembroise in the past.
That said, Sylas knew that it wasn't that his mother was so soft-hearted. She trusted him, so she knew that if he was treating Vesta like this, there was probably a very good reason.
Instead, it was because she didn't want foul rumors about her son to start spreading.
Isolde gave Sylas a stern talking to about the value of perception and displaying a positive outward image.
"... Even if you don't care about what most people think, you will inevitably turn off some people who you could have otherwise worked with. You have to be more mindful of your image."
Sylas listened to his mother's scoldings quite calmly.
They rarely happened to him. But as one might expect, he never reacted as usual children
might. Coupling that with the fact he was an adult now and it was even more unlikely that he would snap.
"Do you understand me, young man?"
"Yes, mother." Sylas nodded.
"Good. Now we've got to get you some better clothing. My boy used to dress so well, but now you look like a street hoodlum. Even if you get into battles all the time now, I'm sure we can figure something out for you."
Sylas smiled lightly and didn't say anything.
His mother tended to scold when she was in a high-stress situation.
Flying a thousand meters above ground on the back of a creature she didn't understand and without a visible barrier to protect them definitely fit the bill.
That said... it didn't mean that she was wrong.
...
The peacock flashed over the ocean, soaring through to the island that Cassarae had cornered off for herself.
But as they were going to enter the portal, Sylas suddenly spoke.
"Hold."
The peacock obeyed, slowing down until it hovered in place.
Ever since Sylas got Demonic Will, his ability to suppress and control the peacock was easier than ever before. He had always been able to suppress it with his Will, but now it didn't feel like it was an effort at all.
It was like the difference between walking and breathing, the former being the effort it used to take, and the latter being the current state.
Not only had the peacock understood his command, but it also stopped gently, taking his intention into consideration. After all, Sylas had to think about his family as well.
"Is something wrong, Sylas?" Cedric asked with a frown.
Sylas didn't answer his father immediately, his gaze focused.
"... The waters, they're too calm."
This was the ocean, not a lake. Even if one discounted the portal, ocean waters should almost never be this calm. If one remembered that there should be a portal that completely disrupted the ecosystem of this environment, then it was even more impossible that the surface would be this calm.
However, Sylas couldn't immediately figure out why.
Did Cassarae close the portal in his absence?
No way, it had barely been more than a day since he left, although he had been through a lot and it felt much longer.
A glow pulsed in Sylas' eyes as he searched for something.
'No Runes either... the Rotten Wolves are still patrolling... I can see militiamen... Nothing is wrong at all...'
The more Sylas couldn't find something, the more he felt that there was something off.
'The Sperm Whales from the Den should be patrolling this area too. How could something of this large a scale happen without anyone noticing? Impossible.'
Sylas began to wonder if he was overthinking things. Even his Luck hadn't alerted him to anything. But... after his Luck failed to warn him properly that one time in Split Realm Dungeon, he had realized that it wasn't some blanket protection. He needed to think for himself.
Luck was a stat just like everything else for a reason. It would have its limitations if it wasn't
high enough.
Even after several minutes, Sylas couldn't figure it out. Without a choice, he could only fly down to the Portal entrance with his family, stepping into it soon after a check-in with the
militiamen.
However, when he stepped into the familiar underground basement they housed the Portal in, the full force of it hit Sylas.