His decision was quite unexpected, maybe even to him. When he initially started, he didn't think that he would go this route. But the more he thought about it, the more he felt that this was the best route to take.
Slow and Freeze.
Sylas was relying on one thing to make this decision: affinity.
If the Madness Key didn't lie to him, then every single one of these paths could lead to the pinnacle. In fact, every single one of the others in this Mancer's Wand world could as well. It was just a matter of if he could take it there.
What the Madness Key didn't promise him was the ease of doing so.
Sylas had already taken the harder road by boxing himself into taking one of these eight. Or, rather, two of these eight.
However, as he had said in the beginning, there would also be certain things that he would inevitably have to compromise on in the future. Never mind the fact that he didn't believe he was compromising right now at all.
