"Who?!" the Duchess' eyes snapped toward Sylas. A slight rage flickered in her eyes when she noticed that she couldn't actually move her arms. She was still wrapped in Gogo's body.

Energy burst from her as she tried to break free, her arms pumping with power as she pushed.

BANG.

Gogo's coil was forced apart and the big one slipped down the tree's body as the Duchess tore her way free.

Sylas' lips parted as she shot a beaming line of red toward him.

"Zarvokyl Throskathar Ghorazaknaral Sanguara."

His head tilted to one side, dodging the beam as the Duchess froze in place, her eyes widening.

"HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT NAME?! SPEAK, HUMAN!"

Sylas gazed at her calmly and found something interesting. The Duchess he knew would never react so violently. She was far more even-keeled. Even when she was furious, her emotions were measured.

This version was much… younger, much less refined.

It was actually hard to tell how old she was right now. She didn't look all that different from the versions he had already seen—though, that in itself was very odd.

Logically, as the Duchess approached the S-tier, she should become more perfect. Of course, it felt hard to imagine a woman like her becoming any more beautiful, but that was what tended to happen.

Still, the important part of this was that between her bloodline, the fact he didn't know how the power systems in this version of the system worked, and the fact this seemed to be the Demi-God Plane and not the Mortal Plane any longer, Sylas wasn't sure of too many variables to decide exactly how old she was.

Logically, the Sanguara aged very differently from other humans because of their ability to take in blood. Then there was the fact the Madness System might make it harder to progress to the C-tier than normal. Everything had to be fought for with it, from the small tidbits Sylas did know.

And then there was the fact that this was the Demi-God Plane on top of all of this.

That in itself was weird as well. For much of this time, Sylas had thought the Golden Race stood at the top of the God Realm at one point or another… and the Sanguara were so powerful he felt they had to do the same.

But it seemed that he had underestimated the God Realm a bit too much.

Even in underestimating it, though… could it really be the case that the Monkey King was also just a Demi-God?

That felt impossible.

"Why don't you use your senses to figure it out?" Sylas finally replied to her.

The Duchess' eyes narrowed, but then Sylas pressed down on her bloodline.

Her eyes widened even faster. "You… you… you…"

Her face turned a bright red, but it was difficult to tell whether she was embarrassed or if she was just that infuriated.

"Impossible!" the Duchess said after a moment of checking herself. "My body is still pure, I haven't laid with anyone!"

For a moment, she had thought that Sylas had taken advantage of her while she was unconscious, but her body was still intact. She was very sensitive to these things as a Sanguara.

Though things like that were common in the Demon World, she had always been insulated and protected by her brother and her father. No harm had ever come to her.

She wouldn't have been able to take it if the first bit of trouble she fell into led to such a thing.

"Whether you accept it or not, it is true." Sylas said calmly.

He had noticed that his control over the Duchess' bloodline was even stronger here than before. It seemed that was likely related to the fact the Madness System was still active here.

"How?" she asked through clenched teeth. "How did you do it? What did you do to me?"

Gogo vanished and the Duchess' eyes snapped back.

Sylas shook his head. She had turned her head away from not just one enemy, but two of them. She had forgotten about Gogo the moment she heard her father's True Name, and then she turned her back to him when Gogo disappeared.

She really was too naive at this age. He was going to have to make sure no harm came to her, she couldn't properly protect herself here.

The Duchess seemingly realized her mistake and her head quickly spun back to Sylas. As for Gogo, he had gone off to deal with the coming monkeys.

"Right now, there's nothing to explain. This version of you can't handle the truth."

"This version?" the Duchess frowned. "What are you talking about?"

"You will follow me."

"No I will not!"

"It's either you do, or I will make you, those are your two choices." Sylas said calmly. "The mother of my child will not come to harm here because of her own foolishness."

"CHILD?!" the Duchess almost fainted. She was still pure, how could she have a baby? Plus, for the same reasons she could tell she was pure, it was simply impossible for her to not be able to tell she was with child.

And she was most definitely not with child.

If not for the fact she could clearly feel that Sylas was somehow her husband, she wouldn't even be entertaining all of this right now. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

But that didn't stop her fury from spilling out.

Her palms opened and then clasped, two daggers appearing in them in a reverse grip.

Her meaning was clear. Sylas was going to have to make her.

Sylas looked at the weapons. He also didn't remember the Duchess ever using them either. Was that because she grew beyond the need for them? Or because the versions of her he had known were limited by something else?

The Sanguara didn't seem like the sort to need weapons, but that didn't mean they couldn't use them.

"Alright." Sylas said calmly. "You will tell me your True Name when you lose."

The Duchess' pupils constricted, but Sylas had already moved.