Path to Transcendence

Chapter 14: Survival

Right when he thought he was done for, Julius was grabbed from behind and tossed out of the way of the knife.

In the chaos, Julius had completely forgotten to wake Edwin up. Luckily, it seemed that breaking down his door was sufficient to wake Edwin from his slumber.

Edwin, after getting Julius out of the way, quickly attacked the intruder. Julius couldn’t follow their movements. However, a split second later, Edwin had a blade of shadow mana rammed through the chest of his opponent. The assassin never had a chance.

Seeing the commotion from Edwinʼs room, Julius sensed the other assassins converging on it from their hiding places. The violet orb of mana didn’t make contact with his attacker. It was much faster than his previous constructs, but it was still too slow to hit a high-tiered opponent. Yet, it seemed that Lady Luck was on his side, and the orb, missing his intended target, was heading directly towards the doorway, where the assassins were now running.

The mass of violet mana hit the chest of the first assassin just as he was turning into the room and detonated. Unlike his earlier kick on the first intruder, this attack did much more damage.

The combination of condensed fire and kinetic mana created a lethal explosion that ripped through the defenses of the assassin. The orb that Julius created wasn’t a technique that focused on elegance or efficiency. It was a construct that had one purpose: to destroy anything in its path.

That said, Julius was still only Tier 1, so hurting someone who was probably Tier 3 or 4 was next to impossible. It was already insanely difficult to fight up to Tier 2 as a Tier 1, and the disparity between ranks only increased as you advanced.

That was why it was so surprising to see how effective his attack had been against a much superior opponent. The assassin was enveloped in the explosion and was blasted out of the doorway and through the walls of the building. Leaving a human-sized crater in its wake.

The hallway didn’t remain unscathed either. The surroundings of the explosion destroyed everything around it, and the wall connecting Edwin’s room to the hallway had turned to rubble.

Julius could only hear ringing in his ears from the shockwave of the blast. The chaos Julius had caused gave Edwin a few moments to get his bearings.

Edwin took a quick look around at the intruders still converging on them and immediately sent out a wave of shadow mana. It hit the group, and they all swayed as if they were drunk. It seemed like the purpose was only to disorient the assassins because Edwin instantly turned to the wall that connected his room and Lukas’s and blew a large hole through it.

Julius understood what Edwin was doing. He was trying to get to Lukasʼs side, knowing that he was probably the intended target.

The other room had a similar scene playing out. Apparently, Lukas had heard the noise as well and woke up. However, around ten attackers were in the process of trying to kill the Patriarch, compared to the four who were in Edwin’s room.

It seemed their true target was the Patriarch of House Hyperius. Despite being heavily outnumbered, Lukas was holding his own.

His uncle had a thick, golden barrier of sun mana protecting him from the assassinsʼ bombardment. He was also simultaneously tossing out golden blasts whenever he could.

Unfortunately, it seemed like the assassin knew about his uncle’s abilities and had prepared accordingly. Three attackers with pitch-black shields stood in front of the others. These shields were able to absorb Lukas’s blasts with ease. It was almost like they were consuming the light out of the blasts.

It seemed like they had come well-prepared. It was well known that sun-affinity users were much more powerful during the daytime. It was also why they probably tried to assassinate Lukas at night. Therefore, they thought they had the best chance of success if they attacked him when he was weakest and defenseless in bed.

Still, the assassins werenʼt making much headway into breaking Lukas’s defenses. To Julius’s surprise, Edwin grabbed him by the arm and whipped him over to Lukas’s feet. His uncle expanded his barrier a bit, so Julius was safe from any stray shots.

Edwin, on the other hand, promptly disappeared and reappeared directly behind the attackers. Within a blink, he took out one shield user with a blade to the back of their throat and disappeared again before half a dozen strikes landed on his location. This time, he reappeared several steps to the side and launched the same wave of mana he used in the other room at all of them. Disoriented, the attackers didn’t focus on Lukas, who had swept a narrow disk of condensed mana at the distracted intruders. It managed to cut through four of them like they were clay.

The other four from the other room had made their way over, and now there were nine opponents against Edwin, Lukas, and Julius. They also didn’t leave any more gaps for Lukas to exploit. Every attack from him was blocked by those black shields.

Julius just sat there behind the barrier, watching. He was aware he was more of a liability than anything else. Because he was there, Lukas was forced to continue protecting him within the barrier.

He constantly pulsed [Spatial Perception], making sure nothing snuck up on them. But the intense usage of it was putting a large toll on his brain. His legs were still a mess, even with him sending as much life mana as he could down into them. The only thing he thought might help was to try to replicate that violet mana orb again.

He didn’t know exactly how he did it, but it was the only thing he had done that caused actual damage. Taking a deep breath, he tried to remember that feeling. Ever since he successfully delivered that kinetic, empowered kick, a switch seemed to flick for Julius. Kinetic mana was now more responsive than before. It was as if once he had done it, his body wouldn’t let him forget it.

Julius vaguely seemed to remember getting a notification during the chaos. So, before he tried to recreate the orb, he wanted to quickly check to see if there was a skill available. Any increase in strength would be useful, right, and might be the difference between life and death.

[Spatial Perception] has reached threshold. [Spatial Perception lvl 16 -> Spatial Perception lvl 17]

[Spatial Perception] has reached threshold. [Spatial Perception lvl 17 -> Spatial Perception lvl 18]

[Focus] has reached threshold. [Focus lvl 8 -> Focus lvl 9]

He got two consecutive level-ups in [Spatial Perception] and one in [Focus]. It must have been the pressure he was under with the threat of death. It was an open secret that skill levels correlated with the amount of stress your soul endured. But he didn’t think it would have been this drastic.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

There were more notifications.

Would you like to learn the skill [Kinetic Release]?

Would you like to learn the skill [Thermal Compression] (Uncommon)?

He was offered two skills, and one was even uncommon. Learning an uncommon skill without evolving an existing general skill was difficult. Not many were able to achieve it. He had a feeling it was because of his years of compressing his own mana.

Julius had accepted both of them without a second thought. They might not be what he wanted in the long run, but if he survives the night, he could always remove them later.

Congratulations, skill [Kinetic Release] acquired.

Congratulations, skill [Thermal Compression] (Uncommon) acquired.

While Julius was fooling around with his new skills, Edwin and Lukas were fighting the remaining assassins. Feeling bad for being dead weight, he focused on his task.

[Thermal Compression] unsurprisingly was related to how Julius compressed his fire mana to its limit, and [Kinetic Release] was similar to what he had done with his kick to the assassinʼs face. While they weren’t new variations of his abilities, these skills made a large difference already. He could feel them starting to activate on their own, with just the thought of it.

He began to load fire mana into another orb, while also trying to add kinetic mana on top of it. However, the way the kinetic mana was interacting with the fire mana did not feel the same as before. Earlier, the fire mana and kinetic mana seemed to swirl together inside, feeding off one another’s energy.

Therefore, he started to spin the mana inside the orb, not worrying about controlling each mana type separately, just trying to mix them together like in a blender. While he continued dumping mana into the orb, it started to spin faster and, as a result, compressed even further, [Thermal Compression] making it practically automatic. He took much longer to form it compared to his previous one, but this time it felt stronger.

After almost ten seconds, he finally held in front of him an orb of compressed fire and kinetic mana. It was still a violet color but was now rapidly swirling within its confines.

The mental toll it took to control this much mana together, all while feeding it two separate mana types, was massive. On top of his generous use of [Spatial Perception], his brain was just about to melt into a puddle.

Julius didn’t know whether Lukas’s barrier only stopped external attacks or allowed attacks from the inside to be sent out. It looked like Lukas’s own attacks went through without a problem, but it might just be because itʼs his technique.

So, Julius tapped his uncle’s side to gain his attention.

***

Lukas POV

Lukas had been observing Julius create the orb while he was defending and attacking the assassins. Truthfully, he was shocked at how much mana Julius had managed to fit inside the orb. Julius always seemed to have a talent for condensing mana. Furthermore, Lukas was also aware of the unnatural purity of Julius’s mana after his baptism. It was unknown to him why Julius had such rich mana at Tier 1, but it was only a benefit to Julius and subsequently, House Hyperius, so Lukas didn’t pry.

These factors, combined with Julius’s high mana capacity, put Julius far above any Tier 1 Lukas had ever met. He would never tell Julius this, but just off of pure raw mana, Julius was at the level of a Tier 2 combatant.

It seemed that Julius himself had no idea how far ahead he was compared to other children his age. His isolation left him without anyone to compare himself to, and Edwin’s brutal training made Julius’s foundation unbelievable. Lukas truly believed that Julius would reach Tier 5, maybe even Tier 6 someday, as long as he lived long enough.

He needed to make sure Julius survived no matter what. If Julius reached his potential, House Hyperius’s success was assured.

***

Julius POV

After getting Lukas’s attention, Julius didn’t even need to say anything. Lukas just opened a small gap in his barrier around the size of the orb, and Julius quickly shot the orb right toward the attackers.

It seemed like Edwin had taken care of one assailant in the meantime. Still, the two remaining with shields were the biggest threats. Those shields seemed to be specifically made to counter sun magic, and they needed to be taken care of before anything else.

Julius used [Kinetic Release] to use up some of the charge he built up on the outside of the orb. Unlike his prior attempts, where he tried to use explosions to propel the construct, the kinetic mana was much more delicate with the orb. The kinetic mana acted like a jet thruster, pushing force in one direction and the orb speeding toward the other.

This meant the orb was much faster than any previous attempt. The shield-bearing figures noticed the projectile and braced themselves against the incoming orb. Edwin, once he saw what Julius was trying to do, teleported away from the group and shot another wave of shadow mana. It didn’t do as much as it did the first time, as they were prepared for it, but it still staggered them.

The orb hit the shields with a monstrous force, detonating on impact. The shield users themselves stumbled backward. The shock was evident in their eyes. They weren’t expecting such a blow from a child. One of them even almost lost his grip on the shield.

Edwin immediately capitalized on this opening and the confusion. He teleported directly overhead and released a massive blast of shadow mana that shredded the one who had almost dropped the shield and took the entire left arm from the other.

With only one more shield user, who was half crippled, Lukas made his move. He surrounded the remaining assassins with golden light. The sole shield was trying to absorb as much of the mana as it could, and the others were desperately flinging spells at Lukas, but it wasn’t enough. Lukas powered this move with enough mana that it had completely overpowered whatever effect it had. Once, the entire group was enveloped in the thick aura, Lukas released his technique on them.

In a similar fashion to what happened to Gregor, a divine beam of light enveloped them; this time, Julius could feel the heat and oppressive force it constrained. Every single one of them was vaporized. Nothing but ash and several pieces of equipment survived its wrath.

Just like that, it was over. Julius was exhausted. He had a lot of mana, but those two orbs took everything out of him, and it would take several hours before he could regenerate his mana.

Only that Edwin and Lukas didn’t look like they thought it was over. They were still on edge and prepared to fight more.

Their instincts were proven correct as Julius could see through a hole in the wall to the outside and saw a layer of blue mana sealing off the entire section of the mansion they were in, like a dome. They were trapped.

He heard Edwin curse under his breath.

Lukas let out a soft sigh as well, “They somehow activated the property’s wards, and now we can’t leave. I wondered how they got in, but now it makes sense.” Lukas said.

“You think someone betrayed us?” Edwin asked Lukas.

“Yes, they had to have someone on the inside let them in and then give them access to the wards. It probably took them a long time, too. Otherwise, I would have seen signs of tampering.”

“What does that mean for us?” Julius asked the two.

Neither replied, but that was an answer in itself. It didn’t look good for them.

“The ones that attacked us were probably expecting to catch us off guard in our sleep. Honestly, they would have if you didn’t wake us up, Julius. Those shields were made to counter my skills, and they would have eventually whittled me down. We are alive because of you.” Lukas finally said to Julius, ruffling his hair.

The realization of how close to their deaths hit Julius. One false step, and they could have died. Not that they were out of danger yet. It seemed like they were still in a bad situation.

“I only noticed them because I felt something was off, and [Spatial Perception] picked up on them hiding in the shadows.” Julius paused for a moment. “Were they from the Genshen Clan?”

Lukas nodded his head. “Yeah, I expect one of our enemies, maybe Duke Greyson, hired them for this job.”

Edwin spoke up, “We should head towards the emergency teleportation station. They shouldn’t know about it, and they might think we are trapped inside. The only worry is that the wards might interfere with any long-range teleportation. With that said, it is still our best chance.”

“Where will it send us?” Julius asked.

“It is supposed to send us to a corresponding teleportation station in one of our safe houses. It should be the one in Celestia.” Lukas said.

Julius hadn’t heard much about Celestia, only that it was the nearest city to the estate and where House Hyperius held many of their holdings. But it seemed like that was their next destination, assuming they got to the teleportation station first.