Sylas stared at the screen before him for a long while before he finally dismissed it.
He was certain that the system had reacted first. But then there was a glitch similar to what he would only see when the Madness Key interfered with something. And then, a new screen popped up.
In truth, it had happened so fast that had Sylas not translated things to Ancient Ithkuil, all he would have seen was the glitch. It was only because he had been able to feel the intentions of the first notification so quickly that he had been able to read even half of it. If not for this…
Did Legacy not want him to see what was written initially?
Sylas should have known that it couldn't possibly be that he was lucky enough to run into the one and only item in all of the universe that could interfere with the system. If there was anything his struggles had taught him it was that there were too many ways to pull the wool over the system's eyes.
But… this still felt like it was a level above. This was as direct as it came, a level of directness that Sylas had only ever seen from the Madness Key itself.
However, this felt more oppressive. The Madness Key seemed to toe a line, and it punished him for touching on Taboos that were likely not decided by it, but likely the system itself.
Sylas could only speculate, but it felt like the Madness Key was trying to strike a balance of sorts, while Legacy didn't care for this balance at all, doing as it pleased.
Taking a breath, Sylas exhaled. But he had only barely grasped his situation here when something maybe equally as surprising happened.
His hand slipped and passed right through Moose, slamming against the ground with a BANG!
He had been holding down quite a bit of pressure to keep the big man restrained and in control, even using his Will to stop him from manifesting his own. With his disruption domain active too, Moose couldn't even cast a Skill if he wanted to.
So how the hell had he escaped?
Sylas looked around, his visualization spreading out, but in the entire two kilometers… aside from Sylviaa and her city, he couldn't find even a single trace of Moose.
'What…?'
Wasn't this Quest supposed to be inescapable? Did Moose just leave it completely?
'Or was he able to escape it precisely because he never appeared on the leaderboard to begin with?'
Sylas frowned as he stood to his feet.
Honestly speaking, he wasn't worried about Moose. What he was, was curious.
If he was correct, the loss of his Woodland Territory was definitely related to this man.
'Is he the reason the Emperor disappeared from the list? And now he's going after Sylviaa? A coincidence, or was he only targeting the people of Earth to begin with? Interesting…'
Sylas couldn't help but wonder if this was related to the mysterious first Race of Earth or not.
But logically, that didn't make sense. The system wanted nothing more than to revive that Race, but the system also hated Demons to the core for whatever reason.
How could Moose be related to that Race if his being was hated by the system? Something wasn't adding up.
Sylas stood to his full height. It seems that he had accidentally gotten himself caught up in something again. There was likely no avoiding this Legacy meeting, but now Moose was also gone once again.
The good news, though… was that if Legacy was interested, they were unlikely to destroy their branch.
The bad news was that if Legacy took interest, Earth would be under a lot more scrutiny all of a sudden.
But this was also an opportunity… the stores of knowledge Legacy should have would likely be far beyond his wildest imaginations. If that was the case, the answer to his plight might be forthcoming.
**
Sylas crouched over Sylviaa's city wall, watching her struggle as his tail slowly swayed behind him. Every time it did, another arc of green lightning would curl through the air, shattering one of her spawns, or her defenses.
It wasn't that he was playing around, he wasn't. He was on a time crunch.
Instead, after seeing Sylviaa's set up, he knew that he didn't have to take the unnecessary risk of rushing in.
Sylviaa was intelligent. She knew that she wouldn't have the same advantages as others. So after she figured out what Sylas had, her approach was very different.
She forgot about Gene collecting for the most part and focused all her attention on building up a single city. Given that it had only been a day, she had done quite well.
There were buffs, countless siege weapons, and her spawns were well organized. She had clearly abandoned culture and focused completely on military might, and it had paid off.
Between the buffs, the battle against her was tougher than even the First Wave of the Bronze City Stele challenge had been.
Unfortunately, not only was Sylas far stronger since then, but he was far less restricted as well. In this case, he had nothing to protect. He was the one that could stand high in the skies and pelt down attacks.
This was how he cleared the wall and now stood on it.
The moment he accomplished this, his Will flooded the protective formations and turned them to his advantage, using Sylviaa's defenses against her.
Sylas' tail flickered.
BANG!
An arrow rippled away against a barrier just six inches from his face, but Sylas didn't even look at it, a beam coming from his tail and colliding with the archer that sent it.
They trembled once before blooming flowers of emerald crystal coated them.
And then, there was no one by Sylviaa left.
Huffing out heavy breaths, she stood in the midst of a forest of green emerald humans, looking up toward where Sylas crouched. Even now, there wasn't a sense of defeat in her eyes, but deep inside, she knew what the reality was.