In a car already a long distance away, two kunai hovered in the air, pressing against the throats of both the front passenger and driver.
"No sudden movements, and there will be no need to kill you. Focus on the road and don't look into the mirror."
Sylas' cool green eyes stared forward without another word, his gaze sharp. Just then, he chose to make a sacrifice. Although he only had two chances to use this Skill, he didn't hesitate. Of course, that Skill was Shadow Warp.
Sylas hadn't actually been sure if it would work because they were nowhere near a portal right now. But the Skills in the Stabilizing Bracelet seemed to be self-contained. The reason Skills didn't work when the Aether in the atmosphere was too diluted was because activating a Skill meant using the Aether inside of you to communicate with the Aether in the environment. The circulation pattern of a Skill was like a code telling the world what you wanted to do.
However, the Stabilizing Bracelet directly stored the Skill, having already gathered all the Aether it needed, both inside and outside. As such, it could be activated whether there was enough Aether in the environment or not.
Just as the car in front of him moved past the barrier and his own rolled up to it, Sylas activated Shadow Warp and flashed into their backseat.
There were probably very few that could have accomplished what Sylas had. That was because according to the description of the technique, you had to have eyes on where you wanted to end up in order to teleport there, and Sylas couldn't actually see the backseat. As such, he could only rely on his visualization abilities.
At the same time, that meant that rather than a distance of 54 meters, he could only use it within 20 meters. This was quite a decent distance, but in the situation, it was a bit tight nonetheless.
If he had looked too eager back then, he could have been exposed. But if he wasn't eager enough, he could have let them slip out of range of his visualization.
Obviously, he had ended up succeeding in the end.
Although he could have just teleported across the barrier, this would have been a foolish decision for many reasons, the main of which being that his legs couldn't outrun a vehicle.
The moment he appeared on the other side, he would have immediately been hunted down, and at that point, he might as well not use a Shadow Warp at all and just burst his way through.
Luckily, everything had worked out.
Sylas directed the driver down the path he wanted to go, keeping his eyes locked on both of them.
When he felt that he was a far enough distance away, he told them to get out of the car and he took over before zooming off.
Sylas didn't bother to actually kill them; it would make little to no difference.
He drove as far as he could toward the direction of Paradise, unsure of what the situation over there would be like. If there was a blockade here, so far away from it, what would the situation be like over there?
However, Sylas pressed down his worries. The odds that the Grimblades would allow that were slim to none.
Soon, he felt that he was approaching familiar territory. This was more familiar to him because they had walked this distance by foot after touching down. So Sylas had had far more time to take a personal look at everything. He could tell things apart even in the dark.
Suddenly, he felt something shoot through his visualization, but he was too late to do much other than rip the wheel to the side.
That extra second bought him just enough time, but to his amusement and slight speechlessness, the arrow just reflected off the bulletproof glass, leaving not much more than a small scratch.
The SUV teetered to the side and flipped over.
Sylas felt as though his world had turned upside down and the rattling of the car shook along with the meat in his skull. He felt disoriented and his injuries flared up again.
As the car flipped again, Sylas couldn't help but feel that this was really too ridiculous. If not for his visualization, he wouldn't have even reacted to the arrow and wouldn't be in this situation.
Sylas sighed, but his reaction wasn't slow.
He unclipped his seatbelt with his telekinesis and kicked his door open, jumping out of it even as it continued to flip. There was no choice but to take the risk of being flattened to do it now because if he left when the car stopped, it would be too easy for him to get targeted again.
However, just as he was ready for a fight, a surprised voice echoed.
Only when Sylas heard this did he relax somewhat. It seemed that the arrow was from a Grimblade. He had really gotten into too many battles these last few hours.
However, he could feel that.
"You've done a great service, Sylas."
Lucius stood from his desk and looked down at the disk Sylas brought back with burning eyes.
After Bloom and Mark returned, and without Sylas no less, there were only really two options for what might have happened. Bloom should have been able to tell that Sylas was still alive, but for some odd reason, his status was in limbo, so they could only conclude that he had died.
There were too many things that even an ancient family like the Grimblades wouldn't understand. Ultimately, their greatest treasure was just a Bronze City Stele, so how much of this world could they have seen?
Of course, a Bronze City Stele was far more valuable than even most Gold Treasures. The worth of a City was that heavy. But the point still stood.
However, Lucius was still curious.
"Just what did you experience?" Lucius looked into Sylas' eyes.
At that moment, Sylas felt Lucius' strength clearly. He couldn't see any stats, but he was certain that he was already far more fearsome than the snail in the volcano.