Path to Transcendence

Chapter 326: What Now?

He gave himself a moment to collect his breath. Fighting off three Tier 4s who had some pretty decent teammates was hard work. It didn’t matter if they weren’t the most impressive fighters within their tier, they were still a whole tier above his own.

He sat down next to her and pulled out some snacks to replenish his energy.

“Who are you?” He asked her with a light grin on his face and took a bite of the granola-like bar he found in one of the stalls in Heston.

He wasn’t too worried about being too high-strung. He had her exactly where he wanted her and she wasn’t going anywhere. His grip on her entire aura and body was more solid than she could hope to break. And he was going to ask her some questions.

However, she would barely look at him. He had to use his finger to tilt her face so it was directed at him. When their eyes met, he saw the fire reflected in them. She must have been pissed about her teammates.

However, she had to realize that their profession came with a certain element of danger. She couldn’t expect that they could just assassinate people without risking their own lives. In his eyes, it was just a hazard of their work.

“Who hired you?” He asked a different question this time. Still, she kept her lips closed but he was able to sense some movement in her soul. He suspected that it was a soul contract that was responsible for it.

He sighed when she still remained stubborn. “Are there more people still out there?” He asked, already expecting what would be her response.

He looked away at the darkening sky with thoughtful eyes. He dearly wanted answers. He wanted to figure out who had sent these people to kill him. He had his suspicions, but he didn’t want suspicions. He wanted the truth and to figure out who had told these people where he was.

Even if he dismissed the possibility of Tristan telling his father about Julius’s survival, that would mean that the Conclave must have figured out who he was and that he was involved with that mission.

Of course, there could have been other reasons, but he didn’t see any that would justify someone sending Tier 4 assassins to kill him.

He asked the angry woman many questions, but she didn’t say a single word to him. She barely looked at him. The only thing she did was occasionally grunt in pain as his aura continued to pressure her.

It didn’t matter what Julius asked of her. It was futile. It wasn’t even a matter of being convincing or threatening. She was just unable to tell him. It wasn’t entirely unexpected. You would have been a shitty assassin if you were able to talk about your client. Doubly so in a world where soul contracts existed.

It also didn’t help that the woman didn’t seem to be in the most helpful of moods. She was just staring at Julius like he had just killed her entire family. Which, to be fair, wasn’t that far off from the truth.

Still, Julius felt more confused than anything else by the time he finished with her.

What was equally aggravating was that she was unable to answer simple questions about her identity. He wasn’t even able to ask her name without her soul lighting up like fireworks as if it was going to implode at any moment. She was so tightly wrapped with soul contracts that asking her anything other than what she ate for breakfast was pointless.

It became evident that he would need Lily and her family’s expertise if he wanted to find out anything.

So, while he was still keeping a close eye on the captured woman, he sent a quick message through his communication device to Lily, explaining where he was and that he needed some help.

He received a reply almost instantly, letting him know that she was on her way. She didn’t even try to ask what was wrong; she simply accepted his request.

As he waited for Lily to arrive, he examined the woman a little more closely. Surprisingly, she was quite cute and looked pretty young despite the ugly grimace on her face. She actually had similar features to Julius.

Black hair and black eyes.

“Are you a member of Clan Genshen?” He asked, not expecting an answer but still wanting to ask it.

He almost missed it because she hid it so well, but there was the slightest flinch when he mentioned their name. She either recognized the name or was indeed a part of the clan, as he thought she could be.

“Good, so you are. But what about your friends? Were they also a part of the clan?” He asked while pointing at the dead body, not too far away from them.

While he normally wouldn’t be that cruel and taunt people with their dead teammates, he didn’t forget that these people tried to kill him twice. Once they did that, he didn’t think they were entitled to as much sympathy as he might have toward a regular person.

So he would use them to try to elicit an emotional response from the woman. Hopefully, she would slip up and tell him what little she could.

***

It didn’t take long for Lily to arrive. However, she wasn’t alone. She had dragged someone along with her.

“Why can’t you ever just be a simple, normal boy?” Alice asked while rubbing her eyelids sleepily. Lily must have awoken the Tier 6 space mage or taken away from a busy project.

Julius shrugged his shoulders. “It isn’t my fault this time. I was minding my own business when they decided to kill me in the middle of the street,” he explained.

“Yes, and isn’t this the second time this has happened?”

He waved his arm through the air and shook his head. “That first time didn’t count.”

“What, first time?” Lily asked with suspicion.

He swallowed his saliva uneasily and ignored her, not wanting to get into explaining that he had been almost killed before, and he never shared it with her. Thankfully, Alice also ignored her.

“So, who do you need me to transport?” She asked him.

Julius pointed at the woman he was still pressuring with his aura. “Just this one. The others are… well, you can probably guess what happened,” he said awkwardly while pointing at the body off in the distance.

“Ah.”

The woman got angry at his actions and, not for the first time, struggled to break free of his hold. But he quickly smothered her, not allowing her to move and even hindering her ability to speak.

“Thanks for coming by the way,” he said gratefully to Alice.

She shook her head. “It’s okay. It’s not like I was busy creating a brand new enchantment structure and got called when I finally had some time to relax or anything.” That last part she emphasized and looked over at Lily, who at least had the decency to look apologetic.

“I didn’t know,” Lily muttered.

Alice went over to Lily and hugged her. “I am just teasing you. I’m always glad when you ask me for help. I feel like you never do nowadays.”

“I can handle my own problems,” Lily said quietly.

“Yes, I know you can.”

At this point, the woman seemed to realize that Alice wasn’t just a normal person coming to help. He didn’t know if the woman recognized Alice or if she just knew that Alice was a Tier 6, but she looked much more scared when she looked at the other woman.

She started to thrash around, even with Julius’s kinetic energy, attempting to hold her down. She even went as far as to try and connect some of her mana to something attached to her chest, but he had learned his lesson about letting people activate anything and demolished the mana before it could.

Alice wasn’t far behind, probably also sensing the woman’s movements. She had briefly extended her Domain, but he had already taken care of it.

He looked at Alice with a smirk and wiggled his eyebrows braggingly.

She didn’t fall for his taunt, though, and looked expectantly at the shadow-using woman.

Julius got her hint and walked over to the assassin. It appeared that it wasn’t just him who realized they didn’t need her to be conscious anymore. Thus, he went over and slammed a fist into the back of her skull.

He made sure to hold back a little bit. He didn’t want to kill her before he got answers after all. Still, the punch had enough force that he felt something crack underneath his knuckles.

Lily looked over at him with a blank stare, almost as if she was disappointed in his eagerness for violence.

He shrugged his shoulders. “She deserved it. Plus, Alice asked me to,” he pointed out.

Alice, when she heard this, placed her face into her palm.

“Why are you doing that? I thought that’s what you wanted me to do?” He asked confusedly.

“No, I was gesturing for you to remove the item she has underneath her shirt,” she said in a deadpan tone.

“Oh...”

Oopsies. He must have misinterpreted her look earlier.

With that being said, it wasn’t like he still couldn’t do that either. So before he could embarrass himself any further, he went over the unconscious and slightly bleeding figure on the ground. He flipped her over and fumbled around until he found a small amulet the size of his fingernail.

“Is this what I think it is?” He asked Alice with a worried look.

“No, no. Those things aren’t common. Still, it has a similar function,” she explained to him as he handed the pendant over.

“What do you mean?”

“Its primary purpose is for when an enemy captures you and you don’t see a way out. Sort of like the orb that Tier 3 had, but way less dangerous to other people in the area. This one simply kills the user whenever activated, no big explosions,” Alice said while scrutinizing the pendant.

Oh, so something like a cyanide pill, he thought to himself.

Something like that seemed useful for an assassin, but it seemed like there was a design flaw. It wouldn’t work if someone made sure you couldn’t activate it. A pill in the tooth was harder to prevent and would be accessible even after people removed all of your clothing and equipment.

He looked over at Alice and Lily, who were in turn staring at him. “So what now?” He asked, jabbing a finger at the woman at his feet. He hadnʼt gotten past this part of the planning process and was more than happy to leave it to the professionals.