Path to Transcendence

Chapter 575: Weight Lifted

Julius used a liberal amount of aura to wipe the blood from his hands and took a deep, steadying breath. He had let some of his anger bleed through at the end. He internally scolded himself for his lack of control.

As he walked out of the arena, he noticed the crowd was much more subdued than normal. They had likely been surprised by the brutality he displayed. Julius didn’t blame them for their reaction.

When he finally returned to House Zenith’s private viewing room, he was greeted by Lily. She didn’t say anything but came over to him and gave him a soft hug. She didn’t say anything, but she didn’t need to.

Aubrey didn’t seem to care and jumped on his back. “That’s what I’m talking about. You absolutely destroyed him,” she said with a laugh and rubbed his head affectionately.

“Aubrey,” Lily warned her.

“What? That git deserves it. Do you remember what he tried to pull during the second stage? That guyʼs a prick, and so is his family. I say that he deserved what was coming to him,” Aubrey said with a nod.

Aubrey swatted Julius’s back a couple of times in quick succession. “Stop moping. You made it into the Top 4 and got some revenge against House Greyson. You should be celebrating, not down in the dumps.”

“I hate to agree with Aubrey, but she is right. There is no reason why you should be sulking. Be proud of what you achieved,” Edgar said to him.

Julius smiled at his friends, appreciating that they were trying to make him feel better. “Thanks, guys.”

To be honest, he did feel a little lighter. As if a small weight was lifted from his shoulders.

Aubrey rolled her eyes and dragged him over to the seating area. “Now settle down, Derek’s fight is up next.”

Julius let himself get shoved into a seat. He looked over and saw that Derek’s family was there as well. Typically, only Aliyah and a couple of members of House Zenith attended Derek’s matches. However, today must have been an exception because he spotted Derek’s father here as well.

Aliyah spotted Julius and congratulated him. Derek’s father even smiled at Julius.

“Well done. I am starting to see why my father was so keen on you,” Darius said with an assessing look on his face.

“Are you saying that you didn’t have faith in young Julius, my dear husband?” Aliyah turned and asked Darius.

Darius shrugged his shoulders unashamedly. “You always hear about the next talent or next powerhouse. But in my experience, itʼs mostly empty words until they actually do something. However, now that Julius has made it into the Top 4, he has solidified himself as a genuine talent.”

Aliyah gave Julius an apologetic smile. “Don’t worry about my husband. I think he was surprised to see your match. This was his first time seeing you fight outside of sparring. He’s been really busy for the past several months, so he hasn’t had the time to watch the tournament. But don’t worry, I always had faith that you would go far. Congratulations.”

“Anything to impress you, Lady Aliyah,” Julius said with a deep bow and a grin.

She rolled her eyes at his theatrics. “Now we just need to see if Derek can make it into the Top 4 as well.”

Julius could tell that she was more nervous than she let on. The fact that she had spent all night making Derek special toffee was a sign in itself.

Darius grabbed her shoulder assuringly and looked down at the field below. “Truth be told, his odds aren’t great. The fact that he has gotten into the Top 8 was more than I could have hoped for, Derek.”

The man looked over at Julius. ”Ever since he met you, he has become a lot more motivated. I know my father loves that. So whatever the result is, we are proud of him.”

Julius appreciated that Derek’s parents were so caring. He wished most parents were like this. The world would have been a better place if they were.

“You are already writing him off? He’s your son, have a little faith at least,” Aubrey said from beside Julius.

Darius glanced at her and sighed.

“I’m trying to be realistic. I know it isnʼt totally impossible for him to come out on top. But Riven Briarwood is a terrifying opponent to go up against, especially since Derek only just started to take training seriously. I suspect you know that better than anyone else,” Darius said with a glance at Julius.

“I heard you fought him recently. Who do you think will win between the two of them?”

Julius frowned and thought about it for a few moments. It was a hard question, especially since Derek was his friend, but he knew the answer.

“Riven will likely win,” he admitted hesitantly. “He’s insanely talented. I was able to catch him off guard, so that was in my favor, but I don’t think Derek will have that same advantage.”

“I agree. Archmage Valis’s disciple won’t let Derek get close. If they were both Tier 4, then I would have higher hopes for Derek, but until he starts to cultivate his bloodline, Riven will have the advantage,” Darius nodded at Julius.

It sucked to admit, but odds were that Julius would be the only one left in the friend group who would continue in the tournament.

***

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Lightning and a hurricane of four elements clashed against one another. Just like Julius had feared, Derek wasn’t able to get close enough to Riven to use his spear. It wasn’t even a matter of speed or spatial skills. Riven was just too cautious and prepared.

Nothing Derek did could get through the massive array of defensive protections Riven had prepared. Derek’s best chance had been at the beginning of the fight before Riven could gather the mana to create his skills.

But it was apparent that Riven had a lot of practice against this strategy. He handled Derek’s initial pressure like it was nothing. Constantly using large blasts of mana to keep the Zenith Scion away and liberal uses of his teleportation skill when he got too close.

Once Riven established the hurricane of destruction, it became an uphill battle. Derek was fighting valiantly. Julius watched as Derek’s entire body was bathed in lightning magic, so much so that the entire arena was charged by this power.

Blue streaks of lightning were constantly trying to fry Riven, but nothing got through. Julius frowned when he saw Derek flash away from a huge boulder attempting to crush him. His friend was on the defensive, as wave after wave of mana attempted to drown him.

There were too many things going against Derek. One thing that Julius didn’t have to worry about when fighting Riven was the size of their environment. They had fought in an open plains. However, the area was much smaller than the plains. This meant that Riven’s magic blanketed the entire arena.

There was nowhere for Derek to hide or to avoid the hurricane. He had to endure and dodge as many attacks as possible. Julius could tell that Derek was blowing through his reserves of mana like a certain life spirit munching on an orb of life mana.

With this being said, it wasn’t like Riven was having an easy time, though. Most opponents hadn’t lasted nearly as long as Derek had. Julius saw signs of fatigue as Riven continued to weave complicated forms of magic at an unprecedented pace.

Derek brushed aside an invisible blade of wind magic that attempted to decapitate him, before hefting his spear by the middle part of the shaft. Derek coiled his body like a snake, and before Julius could understand what Derek was doing, the spear glowed a bright white and lanced across the sky toward Riven, who was floating high above the arena.

He couldn’t see Riven’s face that well, but he sensed over a dozen various techniques to meet this spear of pure lightning. The clash was deafening, and the spectators were concussed by the shockwave.

Two figures were just barely visible through the smoke. Derek had used this opportunity to close the distance. He had tried to use his spatial skills before, but Riven had a way to interrupt such things.

He hadn’t been able to do this against Julius because of his willpower and his void skill, but against Derek, it seemed to work. However, Derek was plenty fast despite this. If it came down to speed in a straight line, Derek was one of, if not the fastest, person in the tournament. He was certainly on par with Garrett.

Using lighting magic had its privileges. That was what Derek was using now. He had supercharged his body, sending it forward like a lightning strike.

Thunder resounded through the stadium as Derek approached Riven. He blew through several defensive barriers around Riven. Somehow, the spear had reappeared in his hands and was already piercing the final barrier around Riven’s body.

However, Riven wasn’t to be underestimated. The mage used an incredible amount of mana to force the spear to the side. The barrier shattered, but the strike only managed to leave a long slice across the mage’s abdomen.

Riven used the same mana he used to turn aside the attack to attack Derek from up close. Derek closed his eyes, knowing that he had left himself exposed after that last attack. Lightning flared around his body, cladding it in its blue light, but he was still sent blistering toward the ground like a missile.

Riven grabbed a hold of the wound he received; the blood was already flowing quite heavily. There were remnants of lightning magic still working its way through his body as well. Julius saw sparks of lightning flicker over his form.

It interrupted the healing magic Riven used on himself, but since Derek wasn’t trying to stab him in the face, he was able to recover slightly. His healing skill wasn’t great, even to regular healer standards, but it was enough that the bleeding was stemmed and the skin was healed over.

It was just in time, too; another bolt of lightning tore upward from where Derek had been shot down. Riven dodged to the side and sent a wall of flames at Derek. Julius had experienced this before, so he knew how hot these flames were.

Derek did his best to withstand this, but he was also tired and got his arm burned when he was a second too late to react. He clenched his spear in his hands once again and looked like he was about to throw the spear again, but by this time, the hurricane had been reformed.

The explosion earlier had blown a huge hole in the hurricane Riven created. The mage was forced to pull the hurricane back to keep it together. While it felt just as strong as before, its size was definitely smaller.

It was clear that Riven was running low on mana despite having obscene amounts of it in his core.

Derek deflected a boulder the size of a horse with his spear. Strain was evident on his face as each movement must have been tiring. Riven wasn’t letting up either. He knew he had the advantage and pushed hard.

He flooded the arena with continuous blasts of powerful magic. Derek was being buried by pure brute force, and Julius’s friend knew it.

That was why Julius wasn’t surprised when he saw Derek come to a decision. Lightning surged through Derek’s body once more, but it wasn’t as steady as it had been before. The fatigue was setting in, and the lightning flickered as if about to peter out.

However, it was enough for Derek’s purposes. Blue lightning swirled in Derek’s eyes, and before Riven could respond, it blasted upwards. Derek went straight through the sea of flames, ignored the razor-sharp storm, and smashed through the massive boulders that met him halfway.

His body was getting brutalized, but he didn’t seem to care. His gaze was focused solely on the mage in front of him. He made it through the hurricane, but not without cost. His body was burnt, bruised, and large flaps of skin were fluttering in the wind. However, there was an uncompromising look of resolve on his face as he drove his spear toward Riven.

Riven didn’t just stand there idly either. He had already been preparing something. The mage had already released his control over his hurricane the moment Derek penetrated it, but he used this extra freedom to weave together another technique.

Julius watched with amazement when he saw all of the mana in the arena get sucked toward Riven, coalescing into a shield of iridescent light. It was like the shield was made of the most beautiful white opal in the world and met the spearhead on.

The resulting eruption of mana blinded the crowd. There was so much mana being released that Julius could practically feel it despite the barrier surrounding the arena.

When the light died down, he saw two bodies drop out of the sky. They smashed into the ground, and the crowd was silent as a mouse. Not a single person moved or breathed as both forms were unmoving.

It was only when Riven stumbled back to his feet, blood all over his face, that the crowd erupted into cheers. Derek’s form slowly disappeared into white light before their very eyes.

Julius glanced over at Derek’s family. To his surprise, it was Darius who was at the very edge of his seat. His elbows were on his knees as he smiled down at the arena.

“Well fought, son,” Julius could barely hear Darius mutter under his breath as lightning crackled over his skin. There was a proud expression on his face as he looked at the spot his son had been before he was teleported away.

Despite Derek losing, it seems Darius wasnʼt upset. Not at all. If anything, he seemed more excited than anything else. His eyes were brimming with passion and delight.