The man was old, maybe as old as time itself. As wrinkled as he was, though, his hair was bronzed, shimmering like copper and rose gold. And his eyes didn't carry the expected murkiness, even past the gears that rotated in place of his irises.
It simply didn't feel like there was any part of the man capable of being surprised. And while Legacies of this sort should have been projections of what was once real, Sylas was also somehow so very sure that… He was meeting this man in the flesh.
"This is the first time I've allowed a Legacy of Key to reach me. It has been a while since I've seen someone with the audacity to form a Rune Path of Spacetime."
Sylas' gaze flickered.
As expected, the Legacy of Key would have shattered had this man not allowed it to open up.
If someone like the Monkey King could project his Will into the future to protect his image, then there were certainly others that could do it.
Sylas had already thought of this much. He just decided to use the Legacy of Key anyway because he thought that whoever he saw on the other end would be the creator of the Creation World. And by extension, they would likely want the tower to keep on going… no?
But it sounded like this man didn't actually care all that much whether the tower stayed standing or not. He seemed quite indifferent to pretty much everything and was just a little curious about Sylas.
"What are your thoughts?"
Sylas blinked, not expecting to be asked a question like this.
"Of?"
"I think you know what I mean." The old man said calmly.
Sylas was almost amused. It was an odd feeling to experience for him, but he could feel that the old man was already impatient because of his question, almost like he was too used to speaking to people far too foolish pared to himself.
It was true that Sylas could guess at what he meant. The problem was that his guess felt too broad. So, would a man who seemed so impatient actually be willing to listen to all of his thoughts?
That was why Sylas asked the clarifying question, but it was also why he was amused the old man replied the way he had.
pared to the time Sylas would have to spend explaining, the short clarification would only take fractions of a second.
Still, even Sylas was surprised by his own amusement.
"I believe that my path is currently broken. Its foundation is not properly stabilized, and while I can continue to move forward for a long while longer, maybe even making it to A-tier Rune Creation, I won't make it to S-tier like this.
"By the time I reach A-tier, though, I believe I would have already thought of a solution. But purposely ignoring a problem I know is there is only making me weaker now. So, I will fix it."
This didn't answer the old man's question. It was barely a fraction of a percent of Sylas' thoughts. But he still stopped talking nonetheless.
The old man met his gaze and a slight smile tugged at his lip. This time, he seemed to be the one who was amused.
"You are just as much of an asshole as I was as a child. But do you have my talent?"
Sylas didn't reply. He didn't feel like this was a question one should reply to.
The old man nodded, sat up a little straighter and rested his palms on his thighs.
"Then I will listen to all of it. Share with me all of your thoughts and insights toward your path. If your answer is satisfactory to me, we will continue this conversation. If it is not, I will kill you. Is that clarifying enough?"
Sylas didn't reply immediately. He just took a seat himself, took a similar posture to the man, and only then did he begin to speak.
"I've recently entered your Creation World for the first time and noticed that there are many powerful Rune Master Legacies that share one monality. They take extraordinarily simple concepts and seem to extend them to infinity, use a single butterfly to cause a hurricane across the world.
"I haven't seen all the inheritances there are to see, but I have seen 10 of the most powerful ones, and they all follow this exact same pattern.
"By parison, I had a Rune Duel with a fool with the lofty ambition of swallowing all Rune Paths and he never made it beyond the F-tier.
"I believe there is a very simple trend and cycle to follow here. From the simplest of concepts, reaching toward the pinnacle of plexity is a true achievement.
"However, when you begin with a concept that is already plex, there is no achievement in making it more plex, not unless you can strip it down to its simplicity first. That said… "The cycle of simple and plex is where true power lies.
"However… I've noticed that in my attempts that cycles themselves have power. I experienced a rush of Death Runes recently as well, and though I was unable to focus on the experience pletely, I noticed that as I reached further and further into its extremes, I closed in on what exists as its exact opposite.
"Life."
"I believe that the difficulty of controlling Spacetime isn't just that they're concepts that are extraordinarily plex innately because of all of the frame of references one must account for… "But also because Space and Time are extremes of one another. Trying to simplify both at once is like trying to tell with definitive certainty whether it was the chicken or the egg that es first.
"You will loop infinitely. If you think you've simplified Space enough, you will get Time. If you think you've made Time plex enough, you will get Space.
"They're so intertwined and interconnected that making any true divider between them is impossible.
"And if you make the choice to bine them, it's even more so."
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