There was a weird resonance forming between the blood and the tree. From what Sylas could tell, the tree wasn't just absorbing the blood, it was scrying it, learning from it, breaking it apart into digestible pieces, and only then was it absorbing it.
When Sylas realized this, he felt that there was only one thing he could do to make this work. If he disrupted the rhythm of the tree's absorption just right, he could force a stronger break in the blood than usual.
And if he could do that just right…
A droplet of blood fell from the blob of it.
Sylas' hand reached out like lightning, catching the burning blood in a palm and then holding his middle and ring finger in a downward slope toward the Duchess' mouth.
The blood slipped inside.
It was still at the A-tier, but it was still far weaker than the S-tier blood had been. He could only hope that the Duchess' strength was enough to withstand it.
Unfortunately, he was going to have to leave it to Gogo to oversee that. He had another matter to deal with.
"HERETIC!" a golden monkey leapt through the air, suddenly bounding forward past the others with a shocking acceleration.
It tossed its staff into the air, bounding forward on all fours. It caught its staff in its tail, its maw opening wide to reveal rows of sharp teeth.
Sylas took a breath and exhaled. 'Powerful.'
He took a step forward and vanished.
BOOM.
He t the monkey in the air, his hands clasping with it.
The monkey whipped its tail at his head, its staff whistling like a falling missile.
Sylas' head tilted to the side and the thrust of the staff just barely missed him.
The harsh winds cut into his ear and blasted a hole through his hair. Blood spurted, but Sylas hardly lost a beat as he smashed his head down, connecting with the monkey's nose.
His telekinesis surged within his body as he used the opportunity to separate from the creature. Before it flew far, he snatched its staff from it, landing on a branch as the golden monkey fell.
Sylas slowly touched his own forehead to find that more than just the monkey's blood was streaming down it. It had actually broken skin.
He had t the monkey head on just now to get a real feel for what the limits of their strength was.
The last ti Sylas had been in a Split Realm, the system scouting didn't really work either. He had learned then to use Will to estimate the strength of his opponents.
But what was interesting was that that didn't give clear feedback here. It was like there was interference of so sort.
It wasn't the people themselves, but almost like the Split Realm couldn't quite decide how difficult it wanted to be, and Sylas had a feeling that the reason why was related to why soone else had entered his Split Realm with him.
Split Realms were supposed to be conducted separately. It shouldn't have been possible for soone to fall in with him. Even if the Duchess fell in, she should have been sent to her own Split Realm, not joined his.
The reason he struggled to tell the Duchess' level was different. Her Will had beco fragnted, so it was only natural it was hard to make out her strength through her Will alone.
These monkeys were different. Sotis he felt they were as weak as the E-tier, and at other tis they were as strong as the C-tier bordering on the B-tier.
If Sylas was correct, that was probably because of two factors.
The Supre Commander had said he would have an easier ti because he was of the D-tier. aning, this Split Realm probably adjusted to the strengths of those that entered.
However, Sylas was from the future and much the sa way he had trouble translating strength here, so too did the Madness System have trouble properly asuring him.
The fact that Sylas was now functioning on his own system as well, the Grimblade System, made things even harder to translate.
Sylas had only just entered the D-tier, and he likewise had only just beco a true Demi-God as well. As such, the lower bound of the Split Realm couldn't decide whether he was a super strong E-tier or a weaker D-tier.
But then the Duchess was thrown in to add to the variables, and her Will was so fragnted that the Split Realm was having trouble reading her as well. That led to a situation where it didn't know whether she was a super weak B-tier or a very strong C-tier.
Now Sylas was blessed with the trouble of having to deal with a sea of Demi-God level threats that fluctuated from the E-tier to very close to the B-tier.
The way this played out was very interesting, though. The Wills of his opponents kept changing, but their base strength itself actually remained steady, taking an average of everything.
Since the C-tier weighed far more heavily, every one of these enemies was on the weaker side of the C-tier after everything was averaged out.
But because their Wills sotis spiked to the B-tier, it interfered with and disrupted Sylas' own Will from ti to ti, leading to a situation where he had actually drawn blood from himself from his own attack.
The added layer of complexity certainly made things more difficult than he expected, but there wasn't going to be any changing it at this point.
Sylas' grip on his new staff tightened.
For now, he would keep things close to the vest. He still didn't know exactly what the Golden Race was truly planning. If not for the Duchess, he wouldn't even be this aggressive.
But protecting his woman and child was only natural, of course. Whatever ca afterward, he would deal with.
After all, he had no intention of losing.
BANG.
Sylas shot forward, the branch of the tree beneath him bending and sending him forward like an uncompressed spring.
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