Chapter 1153: Spell it Out

Jala found his heartbeat racing for reasons he couldn’t understand. It was a story he had no context for. For all he knew, the so-called “puzzle” wasn’t all that difficult to begin with. He had never seen it before, so how could he know how impressive what Sylas had done was?

Alex laughed as though he could read Jala’s thoughts.

“You’re doubting it? Luckily for you, I have a copy here. I already know the solution, and I have the problem here, but I still can’t solve it. Have at it.”

Alex flipped a palm and a parchment paper opened up to reveal a series of scribbles.

“What the hell is this supposed to be?” Jala looked at it speechlessly.

Alex only laughed harder.

“Believe it or not, this isn’t even the start of it. This puzzle was only the beginning, and it was only one of the trials left behind. The Split Realm itself was another huge problem, but he solved it in less than a week even though he gave the solution away as a child before he even understood what it was.

“He managed to get his hands on that damned obelisk before I could, but not only did he do that, he managed to find a way to take out the third piece while it was stored away in a damned Silver Grade City at the same time.

“I bet you he already cracked the code and learned how to use the technique on it already. No, knowing him, he probably didn’t even notice that another puzzle was supposed to be protecting it at all.

“Then there was the center of the world puzzle. Do you know what kind of brain you need to figure out that the continents of your world were arranged so that two opposing sides could be connected by the same tunnel? No? Me fucking neither.”

The more Alex ranted, the more confused Jala got. Even the explanations for these things didn’t make any sense to him.

“Who the fuck knows how many other puzzles are stored away on Earth somewhere, but what I do know is that he’s probably the only one with a chance of figuring it out.

“Even if we managed to get the potency of that bloodline up to a certain level, and benefited from the lowered difficulty, by then he would have already cleaned house. I swear if I was one of the Ancestors of that devouring Race that set all of this up, I would be rolling in my damned grave.”

Jala cleared his throat and Alex seemed to finally step out of it. But just as Jala was about to say something, his eyes widened.

“Wait… are you saying that the reason I’m alive is these contingency plans?”

Alex blinked. “…Damn, you’re slow. Maybe I should just go find Psycho Syl and make amends. I didn’t mean to trigger trouble he’ll probably have to end up cleaning up. I’m just a weak man looking for some power, alright? Forgive me!”

Jala was speechless. At first, he thought Alex was joking when he said that the only man he was gay for was Sylas. But now it felt like there might have been some actual truth to that.

This man was obsessed.

But at the same time, Jala was a bit embarrassed. Indeed, maybe he was a bit slow. It should have been obvious from the moment Alex started talking about contingency plans that the reason he was alive was because that Race wouldn’t so easily allow the last of their bloodline to just vanish like that.

That thought made Jala’s mood take a downturn. If he was saved, why wasn’t the rest of his family saved too? Why was he the last? Where were they?

“Don’t look at me like that. If you experienced the things I had around him, your reaction would be just the same—wait, I can tell a Psycho Syl fan when I see one.”

“I am not a fan,” Jala said coldly. “He killed my uncle.”

Alex blinked. “Well, that’s a bit of a doozy. Honestly, he kills a lot of people. He doesn’t really have a filter that way. I would probably advise forgetting about that. After all, he isn’t the one responsible for the death of your entire Clan, that would be someone else. In fact, technically speaking, everything is your great-grandfather’s fault. He probably knew this day would come, he just didn’t expect it would come so soon, so he thought he’d be able to grow strong enough to stop it.

“He was naive.”

“What?” Jala looked up with red eyes.

“I’m sure you met The Professors, and they probably spoke of a ‘favor’ your great-grandfather owed them. The Professors might be more aggressive than the normal branches of Legacy, but they still have great restrictions themselves. Something like taking your Hall Clan away from Earth to escape the influence of the Race you descend from is next to impossible without cooperation on your family’s part.

“It was just that your grandfather didn’t realize until too late that the ‘favor’ he was given and had to repay was actually helping The Professors a lot more than it was helping him. At the last moment, he managed to kill the liaison and cut off the connection to Legacy, but it was always just going to be a matter of time before they found you all again, looking to collect.”

“Then… then why was the Thryskai looking for me?”

“Huh? What now?” Alex blinked in confusion.

“You…”

Alex shrugged. “I’m not Psycho Syl, I can’t connect so many unrelated things. You’re going to have to spell it out for me before I can answer.”

Jala clenched his teeth and spoke of what he could.

“Hm…” Alex’s gaze flashed with a peculiar light. “If that’s the case, then it’s likely The Professors chose to pass on their information about you all to the Thryskai, but I highly doubt they told them about the Race. It’s more likely that they’re trying to test things, maybe even to…”

Alex’s expression changed. “We need to leave. They want to find this place again. MOVE! AND PUT SOME DAMN CLOTHES ON FOR GOD’S SAKE!”