Path to Transcendence

Chapter 596: Escape

Julius let his newfound strength fuel him, and he lost himself in the mess of combat. Each minute that passed allowed him to figure out how to properly adapt to his advancement. He was starting to understand why Cain and Freya insisted he take this on alone. Like normal, they were right.

It was the perfect testing ground where he could fight for real and against similarly matched opponents.

His ability to track his opponents had improved significantly. He hadn’t realized how much his mind had been strained before. But the current dexterity of his mind was incomparable to what it was before. Each decision came so naturally. He didn’t have to panic or force anything that was unnecessary. He took his time and calmly assessed the best path.

He was also able to utilize some of his skills to their full power. Skills like [Sage of Savagery] had been upgraded, allowing him to focus on several things at once. It was clear that his epic skills had been meant for a Tier 4’s mind.

The increase in mana, as well as the rate of his output, was exciting to explore as well. What would have damaged his mana channels before was as simple as breathing. He hadn’t even managed to push them to their new limits yet. The same amount of mana he was powering through himself would have collapsed his previous body.

He grinned when he inspected the flakes of the destroyed array the robed man had constructed. He had taken a risk by using [Void Step]. His instincts had told him it was a skill specifically meant to counter teleportation or other spatial skills.

But he also had immense confidence in his survival. If he could survive that last assassination attempt, he knew that it would take something of similar danger to kill him. Still, his maneuverability was one of his advantages during this fight. Which was why he ultimately decided it was worth the risk.

Now that he knew what that weird black array did, he felt confident that he could handle it as long as he was prepared. And so he teleported again, detonating his kinetic energy upon his appearance. A shockwave tore out of him and killed two more enemies.

He couldn’t help but bathe in the thrill of using his kinetic energy like this. After all of this time, he had finally figured out a way to combine the skills. In fact, he had already gotten the notification but was holding it off until he was finished. He wanted to get a feeling for how it was used manually before he gained the official skill.

He teleported again, carefully observing how the fractured array tried to disrupt his attempts. The robed man was already making adjustments, and there was a lot more interference than before. Still, void skills were broken, and Julius was able to use the chaotic aspects of space to essentially bypass whatever restrictions the man had in place.

It was honestly a very interesting skill and a unique utilization of spatial magic. It specifically homed in on any teleportation skills and collapsed onto the destination. With the addition of his ruinous aura, he was enough to tear it apart before it could affect him.

Julius ducked under the swing of an angry warrior and swung back around, jamming his hand into their stomach until he reached their spine. He gave it one brutal tug, and he ripped out half of their spine before they could realize what was happening.

They were dead before they hit the floor.

Julius watched as the rest of the enemies attempted to flee in all directions. They were like rats scattering in the wind. Thanks to Freya, they were unable to do this. Her barrier kept them all trapped inside.

He could feel several of them desperately trying to break her barrier, but he knew it would be futile. If they couldnʼt beat him, they for sure in hell wouldn’t be able to take down Freya’s barrier. However, the barrier was the only aid Julius received. Cain and Freya stood by, watching carefully as he cleaned up the rest of the enemies.

Now that they were no longer in formation, it was much easier. In their panic, they had left the healer undefended, and before any of them could react, Julius had already teleported in front of the healer.

A strong shield appeared in front of him. The healer had some life-saving defenses of their own. However, it could only stall him for so long. He wove his ruinflames into a tight spiral and used it to puncture the shield, burning a hole into the healerʼs chest.

Julius felt some healing magic flowing through the wound, but he took control of the ruinflames to eat away at the life mana before it could heal them. They let out a cry as they fell to the floor, grasping at their bloody chest, unable to heal themselves. Julius flicked out his hand, and a burst of kinetic energy pulped their head open.

He didn’t enjoy killing like this, but he had already gotten a good sense of their auras from their desperation-fueled panic. None of them had particularly pure or honorable auras. Once he recalled the devastation he had seen on his way here, it wiped away any feelings of mercy he might have had.

He continued to move around the atrium like a ghost. Appearing out of nowhere, killing the surviving enemies still nearby. He kept a couple of them alive to see if Lily could interrogate them, if possible. Freya seemed to understand his motives, and she had already encapsulated them with her mana.

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Once he had finished up with that, he looked around the room and searched for the gray-robed individual who was the only one that Julius was impressed by. He was no longer in the atrium and, like some of the enemies, had escaped deeper into the building.

However, [Absolute Spatial Perception] made it almost impossible for them to escape him. He was able to track them through the walls, and he didn’t even bother to go down the maze of the building and rip open every enchanted door. Instead, he broke down walls like a wrecking ball. The doors were enchanted, but the walls weren’t as defended.

Some people tried to run, some tried to fight, some screamed insults at his face, and some simply begged.

He killed most of them, only keeping the ones whose auras didn’t feel like a nasty sewer alive for questioning.

He eventually made his way downstairs, stepping over a charred corpse that his ruinflames had just been used on. He was greeted by the gray-robed man and a row of cages that held prisoners. The man had already taken a young girl out of a cage and was holding her by the throat as he used her as a human shield.

The man was yelling something at him, but Julius wasn’t even focused on the man and didn’t hear what he was spouting out. He was busy looking at the doorway behind the robed man and let out a scoff. He had no idea how she did it, but Freya had already placed her barrier around this door, which he suspected was supposed to be used for escaping.

She was really quite a terrifying woman, and Julius was glad she was on his team.

He only turned back to the man when he heard the woman cry out in pain as a blade of mana was slicing open her skin. His eyes were completely blank as he slowly walked toward the man. A bolt of compressed mana flew at his chest, but he didn’t even bother to block it. He let the attack slam into him without bothering to put up any protections and continued walking forward.

***

Van POV

Van didn’t sign up for this shit. He knew the offer was too good to be true.

When he had been approached by a mysterious man, he had been wary. You didn’t survive as long as Van did without being paranoid. However, his greed had blinded him, and the promise of a sack of gold, along with priceless treasures that he wouldn’t be able to get his hands on even if he had the money, won him over.

He wanted to advance to Tier 5, and these treasures were his best hope. They would allow him to cultivate his Seed of Authority and his skills to the peak of Tier 4 and become one of the truly powerful people in the Empire.

The gulf between Tier 4 and Tier 5 was vast. It was nothing like the difference between Tier 3 and Tier 4. Many people managed to reach Tier 4. However, only a few were able to reach Tier 5. If he got to Tier 5, it wouldn’t matter if he was a commoner. Just by sheer power, he would have the same standing and get the same respect as if he were a noble.

Plus, he had taken a lot more dirty jobs in the past. His skill set was highly desirable. The ability to hinder and kill people when they used a teleportation skill was priceless. Most people didn’t even realize what had happened until it was too late.

It was a skill he had learned from a skill orb. The orb came as a rift reward, and it was so precious that every member of his team fought for the right to use it for themselves. After a lot of arguing, they had decided to hold onto it until they got out of the rift and then choose what to do with it. However, Van knew what he needed to do.

He killed all of them in their sleep. Stealing the skill orb for himself.

Ever since then, he had slowly worked his way up the ranks. Advancing to Tier 4 and improving the skill. He had dreams of grandeur. Dreams of when he would look down on all of the shit stains who used to bully him when he was young.

Yet, he watched as his dreams crumpled before his very eyes. His hands shook as he held the knife to the girl’s neck.

“Stay back! I am warning you, I will cut the bitch’s throat!” He yelled out, his voice cracking from fear. As he threw another bolt of mana. His panic made him sloppy, and the bolt crackled as he was unable to fully contain the mana.

The boy didn’t even throw up a defense. The mana bolt splashed against his chest, only a small burn mark indicating that the attack had hit at all.

In his defense, he had never expected that Julius Snow of all people would be the one who attacked their hideout. He had seen what this boy had done to the Empire’s top talents. Everyone in the capital was talking about the new shining star of the Empire.

The dark horse that made it to the finals.

Normally, Van would have been relatively confident in taking on the boy, even knowing all of this. After all, the boy was still Tier 3. Or at least he had been. It was very fucking clear that wasn’t true anymore.

He had no clue how, but Julius had managed to advance to Tier 4 in the short amount of time since his last fight against the personal disciple of the Sage of Falling Swords.

The boy was already a monster in Tier 3, but now that he advanced? Van let out a shaky breath.

He already witnessed what happened to the others. They had been slaughtered like insects. He didn’t want to end up like that.

He felt his panic rise as the boy continued walking unhurriedly toward him, as countless mana bolts slammed into him. The monster wasnʼt taking him seriously at all.

When he saw his bolts finally tear deeply into the boy’s skin, he was excited. However, that feeling quickly changed into horror, and the small wounds on the boy’s chest were already healing at a visible rate.

Realizing that the walls were closing in on him, Van decided that he needed to show that he was serious. He grimaced and was about to drag the knife across the girl’s throat when a sudden oppressive force clamped down on him.

His willpower reacted and tried to fend off his force, but he could feel his aura scream out in pain when something tore into it. It wasn’t just his body either. He lost control of his mana, and his skills fell apart under this oppressive force.

There was quite literally nothing he could do as the boy walked up to him and pried his fingers away from the young girl. Van did his best to fight back, but that only ended with his fingers getting snapped like a twig when they were forcibly wrenched back.

Van wanted to shout in pain, but more force Julius didn’t even bother to look at him, he spent his time comforting the young girl and had her sit down on one of the crates. Only then did he return his attention to Van, teleporting in front of him and snatching him by the throat as he held him up to the ceiling.

“So what am I going to do with you?”

Van lost control of his bladder and started crying as he begged for his life.