Chapter 906 Like That [Top Five in Golden Tickets Bonus Chapter]
Sylas had felt it ever since the mysterious Comprehension of the Great Apes had crossed a threshold. It wasn't just their body moving, it was the very world around them doing so.
He had wondered how it could be possible for one person to maintain such a perfect balance of intelligence and wildness. It wasn't until the Great Apes grew powerful enough to affect the waters around them that he grasped it.
It also became clear to him that it wasn't necessarily his fault for taking so long to notice. It was because his other senses had been suppressed that he hadn't noticed sooner.
Without his Rune Mastery able to act and react with the ease that he was used to, it was only natural that he had a harder time grasping the shifts and changes in the air.
But that also went to show something else.
These Great Apes were using a sense that Sylas didn't understand to reach their current level. Otherwise, there was no reason for Sylas' sense of the atmosphere to be so suppressed.
For example, two of his three Comprehension had been suppressed, but the one directly related to the trial at hand—Mixed Martial Arts—was fully intact.
That meant something, without a doubt.
This meant that this trial didn't want him to use Rune Spark to feel out these changes. But…
Sylas felt his Progenitor Flame Ability flicker, and a new world opened up to him.
When he looked at the Great Apes now, he didn't just see the humanoid before him, but also a large, looming aura. It looked as though they were blanketed by an energy ripped from the world that formed an invisible armor around them.
This symbiotic armor communicated with them, sometimes even puppeteering their actions.
No, puppeteering wasn't correct. It was like it gave them options, and they were adept at choosing so quickly it almost looked like they were being directed.
When Sylas finally began seeing these changes imprinted into the Mesh of Reality through his spatial perception abilities, reading and reacting to the Great Apes became so easy that it was almost like he could see the future…
But he wasn't satisfied with this.
He turned it off.
Like he had said, he came here to find something to make him more balanced. If he grasped things like this, he would just have yet another ability that relied on his Will. And this one seemed like it might take more effort and energy than any of the others, especially if he took this path.
But what sense could they be using that he didn't understand?
'… Blood?'
The first thought Sylas had as he fought his next opponent, trying to get a feel, was Blood Essence. But if that was the case, it was something they were born with and it wasn't something that he could copy even if he wanted to.
However, Sylas couldn't shake off the feeling that it was something innate, something deep within them.
And then he stood across from the third-to-last of them and he finally understood.
—
[Grim]
[Level: 50]
-
[Physical: 6222]
[Mental: 4888]
[Will: 1997]
—
'The Will limit—he surpassed it.'
Sylas sighed, shaking his head. It seemed… that his fate of building everything on his Will wouldn't end today. However, it wasn't all bad. Because if he was correct… there was a chance here.
That was because this ability wasn't built on Will…
It was built on Demonic Will.
Sylas felt as though he had stumbled onto a secret of ages, but he didn't know if he was overthinking it or not.
Could… Great Apes be descendants of Demons?
And if that was the case… didn't that mean that Humans that descended from them were as well?
There was a flash in Sylas' eyes as Grim appeared before him, his fist moving with shocking speed, and yet even as it approached, Sylas felt that he could change it six different ways before it landed, depending on how he reacted.
Compared to the others that seemed to have been limited to three, this was on an entirely different level. It was such an enormous and immediate leap.
'Just what is so different about Demonic Will that it allows this?' Sylas couldn't help but wonder as the fist approached him.
His Progenitor Flame Abilities seemed to be the only thing this realm couldn't suppress. With his Time Ability, observing was only easier.
Now that he understood, he felt no need to hold himself back. He just had to use this opportunity to learn just how to do this…
It took him a fraction of a second.
'So it's like that.'
Will oppressed the world, but it didn't take anything. Demonic Will, however, was savage and relentless; it would strip the world of its laws themselves if it had to.
The Great Apes were using a quasi-Demonic Will concentrated into their Comprehensions that allowed them to snatch understanding from the world around them.
They were reading and reacting to the spontaneous changes in the Mesh of Reality, and deciding to either allow their Comprehension to guide them or their minds.
The more adept they were at this, the more fluid their actions, and the more powerful they were.
Sylas sidestepped, the forearm of the Great Ape passing by his cheek so close that he could feel the bristling of the hairs that covered his arm.
BANG!
His own fist drove through Grim's face, caving his nose in. Using the strength and power of the Great Ape against it, as well as his overwhelming Constitution, he nearly ended the battle in a single exchange.
Compared to how much he had struggled to get here, it was akin to night and day.
But… Sylas found them too easy to read with his Progenitor Flame Abilities activated.
'Demons…'
He kept thinking about the word again and again, sweeping his leg at Grim as he fell back.
The Great Ape tripped under the momentum, his vision still disoriented and clogged with pain from Sylas' knuckles.
The back of his head slammed into the ground and his head went blank. He likely didn't even feel Sylas' heel smash his skull to pieces.
Just what did it mean for Humans to descend from Demons? Was he even correct in the first place? Or, with how much the impotent system hated Demons…
Was this yet another trap laid out by the hands in the shadows?