[Bonus thanks to Dignifiedabyss. I hate you, this is all I have to say]
Sylas stood on the hull of the ship, his eyes sharp. There was an oppressive air radiating around him, the sort that made the space around him feel especially heavy... far heavier than anything Nosphaleen had caused what felt like just monts ago.
"We're going to enter a region without hyper highways very soon. The scope of the region is too wide, and travel will be difficult. Do you have a more precise location?" Old Brama's voice reached Sylas.
The region Cassarae was in was one near the borders of the Milky Way Galaxy. Setting aside the fact that their ho galaxy was lacking in advancents that made hyper highways commonplace, border regions like this in general tended to be less developed. This double whammy made it so that while they could get to the general location quickly, actual travel to where Cassarae might be was limited.
However, Sylas had already thought of this long before.
Fowler's insanity was well docunted. It was said that after Sylas' performance, he fully went insane, trying to militarize the entirety of the Leava Clan.
This attempt ended in failure.
It seed that while he was valuable to the family, he wasn't valuable enough to trigger a war with the 073 Sanctum. This matter was handled mostly quietly, though information seed to have leaked to the press nonetheless.
This matter caused Fowler to leave the Leava Clan and establish his own power. Little information was had about this power, and it seed that he was having trouble recruiting. This wasn't much of a surprise.
Who would follow an insane man?
That said, Fowler was still the strongest Rune Master in the Sector. Even without Dominus Paragon, this remained true—since it was because of his feats in the Rune Tower that he received the achievent in the first place.
Dominus Paragon didn't make you the smartest person in the Sector. It was because of being the smartest person in the Sector that you received Dominus Paragon.
This held weight.
What held maybe even more weight than that was Fowler's wealth. It seed that not only was he smart enough to receive the Contested Title in the past, but he was also smart enough to leech on his Leava Clan when he should, while saving his own money. aning... he was probably also the wealthiest man in the Sector despite not having taken personal requests in decades.
Sylas had pieced this all together from random reports and such, but none of that proved that Cassarae was captured by him. Why was he so sure that it was Fowler and not the Bat Lineage? Both had more than ample reason to target him, but the Bat Lineage was far more aware of his relationship with Cassarae than Fowler would be.
The assumption was, of course, that Fowler would be smart enough to figure all of that out and act on it. But according to Occam's Razor, his first target should have definitely been the Bat Lineage and Byahmad, who was almost certainly out for revenge.
That was what Sylas had thought too—until he took a step back.
If he was a mastermind of a grand conspiracy, would he choose the most obvious pawn to play?
No.
But he also wouldn't choose just a single pawn either.
In fact, when you were manipulating things from so far away, trying to nickel and di every mont wasn't going to work. You instead had to cast out a net, entrapping multiple people into a single large sche with a general direction.
When Sylas looked at things from that perspective, the Bat Lineage was in too much trouble. They were likely to be monitored by the 073 Sanctum so that they didn't do anything detrintal, and they were likely also ostracized by the Kaelthar for their failures.
On top of that, if they overextended themselves in their battle against the Ossarans, they would almost certainly end up with heavy injuries that were difficult to deal with.
They weren't the optimal choice if soone wanted to get the drop on Sylas. Especially since his wife, Cassarae, had access to an entire information network—not to ntion whatever secret asures Sylas had left behind.
It had to co from soone with motive to act against him and was yet simultaneously unexpected.
That left one existence.
Fowler Leava.
As for the location... Sylas knew where it would be because he could already feel this matter beginning to tie into the realization he had had just weeks ago now.
The matter of nas and the change to the Milky Way Galaxy affecting change on the Sector—and even changing the na of their Horizon as well—had been weighing down on him for a long while now.
So much so that he had gone through the trouble of cutting down his ti in the Tower of Champions to make it back on ti.
Was it a coincidence that this was all happening near the border of the Milky Way Galaxy? Just outside of the region they were allowed to approach without the System smiting them?
No. No, it wasn't.
But because of that, Sylas knew exactly where they would be.
It seed that he wouldn't have ti to prepare for this matter at all. He had hurried back to avoid this exact situation, but it seed that it was only because he had hurried back that he was right on ti.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
The vessel ca to a grinding halt.
In the far-off distance, a system of asteroids forming a looping belt around themselves drifted through the starry skies. Each one was outfitted with a small colony or civilization as they built sothing that looked reminiscent of a Dyson Swarm.
A Dyson Sphere was a fictional sci-fi construct of Earth that told of a large spherical item that could cover a sun and harness 100% of its energy. A Dyson Swarm was the sa concept, except not solid—a hive of smaller technological feats designed to communicate with one another and convert large amounts of volatile energy into usable energy.
Fowler was building sothing big, and it was right outside the exact location Sylas expected to find it in.
Directly adjacent to Trakar territory, the red-skinned, four-ard, warring Race of the Milky Way Galaxy. Follow current novᴇls on novel•fire
Traitors.
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