Sylas looked around, his irises reflecting like glass as he paid closer attention to the walls around him.
'These walls are designed to keep Aether very restrained. The winding and twisting tunnels aren't just here to confuse people, but it almost increases surface area for these Aether suppressing Runes. This entire underground network functions similarly to the disk I risked my life to get for Lucius-it's capable of restraining even Portals.
'What happens when sothing inherently volatile is forced to remain steady?'
There was one main difference between the Woodland Spider Queen and the Glass Monkey... the Woodland Spider Queen had been the helm of a Field Dungeon, but the Glass Monkey had been the head of a Dynamic Field Dungeon.
The last Dynamic Field Dungeon Sylas had cleared had also been an anomaly. It was the result of a Dungeon and a Field Dungeon combining into one, resulting in the creation of the Violet Rose Heart.
What if, in this case, it was the clash between the Glass Desert Territory and this maze that triggered all the changes?
However, there were still too many holes in this theory.
For one, the Glass Desert had been several hours' journey from this location. Sylas and Alex had to travel quite a while to get to Cairith after capturing the monkey in the first place.
But Sylas seed to have thought of sothing for that as well...
The Mountains of Giza.
After Sylas cleared it, there was a large change to the surroundings. A strong teleportation force warped him to a region that was likely off-Earth, which was why they faced the ti dilation.
Then there was the fact that after Sylas cleared it, the pyramid reset and then allowed Lauren to follow after him, and then the monarchs after that.
All of this was re speculation on Sylas' part. He didn't have nearly enough understanding of spatial dynamics or ti dilation to draw a concrete conclusion...
Until that is he factored in one more thing: how late Alex and the others had been.
It was sothing that he had originally dismissed as being no big deal, but with all of this context added to it, he realized that the reason they were delayed wasn't because of an odd coincidence, but rather precisely because of this off-setting that occurred between the expected teleportation locations and the actual teleportation locations.
In fact, he was willing to bet that if he asked the four of them if they had appeared at the sa ti, they would say no. It was more likely that they had coincidentally t up on their way to him. Or, most likely, they had been waiting around for him to show up until the commotion of the battle between himself and the Glass Monkey, and then his subsequent fusion with the Glass Pinecone, was too great to ignore.
If there was this sudden shift in Earth's spatial coordinate system, then it wasn't impossible for an already out-of-place Winking Portal to be transposed several kiloters away from its original location.
But that still left the biggest question of them all...
Why the hell was any of this actually important? Was it useful to spend so much ti thinking about this seemingly worthless information?
Sylas suddenly did an about-face and ignored the portal, rushing through the underground maze. He was looking for sothing very particular, and Alex and the others followed him silently because they were very much used to it.
'No... No... Not this...'
Sylas ended up finding several more Portals. The Africor Continent had reeled in control of so many that it seed that this wasn't as much of a "coincidence" as it seed. They were collecting these Portals on purpose.
In fact, in this underground region alone, they probably had easy access to almost all corners of the world. Even Alex found himself being taken aback by the sheer scope of it all.
'This is it.'
Sylas suddenly ca to a stop in front of the seventh Portal they had run across. Just staring at the portal, Sylas could feel it very clearly. This was a second forcefully stabilized Winking Portal to the Glass Desert.
The first one they had co across was the very sa entrance to the Glass Desert Territory that Alex and him had found the Glass Monkey in.
But this one... this was a new Portal, to the sa Territory, but a completely different region of it.
Sylas' mind could see exactly how things had played out.
The Glass Monkey had left Cairith defeated by the remaining mbers of the Africor Continent Governnt, and managed to find its way back to its Winking Portal to lick its wounds.
But then the changes to the Mountains of Giza caused the coordinates of the Glass Desert to shift and change until it was ensnared by this constructed net of the Africor Constitutional Monarchy.
The Glass Monkey likely then finished healing its wounds and either planned to co back for revenge or had sensed an opportunity for a breakthrough, or maybe there was a third reason that Sylas hadn't considered.
But in truth, the reason didn't matter now.
Whatever it was, it caused the Glass Monkey to leave through its Portal, only to find itself trapped in this maze. It likely relied on its senses and eventually stumbled onto this second Glass Desert Territory Portal.
And whatever it found inside... was the reason it had skyrocketed in power in such short order. Sylas took a step forward and entered the Portal. No matter what was on the other side...
He was willing to bet that he would have the advantage. He would be the Glass Desert Warlord quite soon, after all.
...
King Roderic stared at the contribution list before him. Sylas sat firmly at the top, while he... was only second place.
This was a result that was far outside of his expectations. Everything was perfectly prepared, and things couldn't have possibly gone more smoothly. He had even managed an unprecedented 51% Clearance and an S- rating to go along with it.
Even Archibald's barely 23% rating was enough for an AA- Rating. So one could imagine just how difficult all of this was, even though he had the knowledge of predecessors to rely upon.
But now it was all for naught.
'The Genesis Forge is in his hands...'
King Roderic closed his eyes and took a deep breath. For the first ti, he lost his composure. But he regained it quickly.
'It's fine. Without the proper opportunity, he will never understand its value. Before then... I'll
crush him.'
King Roderic and the other monarchs had not once taken Sylas seriously. But now... the young man had successfully earned his wrath.
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