Path to Transcendence

Before the next volley of arrows and ice spears could reach him, he launched himself forward. His kinetic energy tore small holes into the ground as he closed the distance. His aura tore apart the attacks that came close, but now that his opponents were prepared for his aura, they were both already making their own adjustments. They concentrated on quality over quantity, empowering their attacks with their willpower so that his aura couldn’t so easily destroy them.
Although his aura wasn’t able to rip apart all of their attacks, his barriers stopped anything that made it through his aura. Even then, his aura weakened the attacks to such a degree that they felt like someone throwing pebbles at him. Even the deadly arrows felt weak once his Phoenix Concept took care of them.
His barriers didn’t even flicker as the attacks slammed against them. His emotions also fueled his aura, making his barriers that much sturdier.
Julius stalked toward these two, letting his aura reach out to them. He enjoyed seeing the nervous expressions on their faces when they observed their attacks not working. They tried to hold off his aura, but he knew how hard that could be.
It had taken him several months to get a decent grasp of his ruinous aura; he doubted they would be able to adapt to it in the matter of a few minutes. The effects were just that destructive.
They actually decided to use the best strategy, in his opinion. They huddled their auras together to try and limit his aura’s influence. While it somewhat worked, it was only so effective. Not to mention that they were practically conceding defeat and weren’t allowed to use any of their aura techniques or even their senses because it was tucked so closely to their bodies.
Julius felt a huge coalescence of ice mana gather in the air and tilted his head interestedly as a mountain of ice sped toward him. They were trying to get some distance from him and delay him as much as possible.
Unfortunately for them, Julius didn’t care.
He slammed his foot forward as he met this incoming mountain of ice head-on. The bones in his foot cracked, not from the mountain of ice, but from the immense load of kinetic energy he sent through his leg.
An enormous shockwave rippled across the plains as Julius and the ice mountain clashed.
Julius won that clash.
The ice mountain was carved in half as his kinetic energy absolutely destroyed it. A ten-foot scar was left in the devastation's wake. His opponents froze in absolute terror when they saw the overwhelming power on display.
He healed his foot and charged forward, between the gap he had forcibly created. The archer reacted in time, taking out a shortsword from his storage ring, swinging it at Julius’s head. Their reaction speed must have been pretty fast if they were able to act in time.
Julius was still faster, though. The shortsword tried to cut him from shoulder to hip, but he stepped in close, snatching the archer’s wrist and squeezing tightly. The bone snapped like a twig, and the scream that echoed out was like music to his ears.
The mage tried to attack him from behind, but Julius was close enough that his aura was able to influence the mage’s skills, and the spear that shot at him was already weakened by the time it fully formed.
He didn’t even turn around as he slapped his hand backwards, smashing the ice spear into fine mist.
The archer tried to use some kind of spatial skill, but Julius already had his aura clamped down on him. The ruinous aura was eating away at his mana workings and disrupting the attempt. Julius knew better than most how much concentration a spatial skill took to use.
The archer tried to blast him with sheer mana that had been infused with his Death Concept, but Julius’s Phoenix Concept was already there to block it. The life side of his concept was the antithesis to this Death Concept, and it felt like a dingy breeze brushed over his face.
Julius stared coldly at the archer and continued to squeeze the archer’s broken wrist. They wailed at the pain, and Julius used that broken wrist as a handle, slamming them into the dirt. They were surprisingly durable, and they only got a few cracked ribs.
Seeing that he could go even harder, Julius didn’t hold back. He picked them up again and started to bash them into the ground without mercy. He broke every rib in their body, felt their spine shatter in several places, and their face peeled open like a rotten tomato as a dozen broken teeth fell out of their mouth when they whimpered.
The mage had tried to attack Julius again, but instead of preventing them from creating any more spears, he decided to use the archer’s body as a shield. Then waved his opponent in front of the spears and was splashed in blood as the sharpened spears pierced the archer.
The archer was sobbing at this point and begging Julius to stop, his words incoherent with the loss of his teeth. It was only when Julius felt the archer had experienced enough punishment that he grabbed the archer by the throat, staring deep into his terror-stricken eyes.
He ignored the mage’s spears slamming into the barrier he created.
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“It’s a shame that you and your friends can’t actually die here,” he said softly to the guy. The memory of what he felt in their aura still made him grimace in disgust. Julius couldn’t help but wonder how many people this group of guys had tormented over the years.
They clearly knew each other; their comfort level amongst all of them spoke volumes about their relationship. What Julius couldn’t help but question was how they managed to find each other so quickly.
He sent his senses throughout the archer’s body. His aura made sure to cause as much damage while he did so. When he did, he found something. It was attached to a small ring on the guy’s finger. It was faint, but he could sense a slight connection between this ring and the other three members of their little group.
“I see,” he muttered quietly as he cut off the archer’s finger, ignoring the pained scream. Julius lifted the severed finger and tried to take the ring, but frowned when he was unable to do so. It was like his fingers slipped away each time he reached for it.
Julius then tried to do the same with the guy’s storage ring, but, once again, he found himself unable to take it.
Was this some kind of feature of the rift? Or was it an enchantment placed on both items? He hadn’t tried to remove another person’s ring as of yet, but he would have to test this out in the future.
As a matter of fact, there was someone else he could test it on. He snatched the archer by the face and threw them at the mage, who was in the process of channeling some kind of spell.
The archer’s body slammed into the ice wall the mage created instinctively, and the archer turned into red mist as it exploded upon impact.
Then Julius turned his attention to the terrified mage and grinned at him.
The mage started to back away, gathering a lot of mana around him. Julius didn’t particularly care about that, though. It didn’t matter how much mana the guy had or used; it wouldn’t change a thing.
It certainly wouldn’t save him from his fate.
With a little burst from his kinetic energy, he sent himself flying forward. The mage deployed a field of ice in front of him with the hopes it would stall Julius for some time. Julius didn’t really give it much care.
He dodged the razor-sharp icicles and blasted himself over the larger pieces of ice. The only thing that warranted some caution was the pervasive cold nature of the ice and the Ice Concepts he felt from the mage.
This coldness leeched into his bones; it even managed to worm its way into his mana and aura. His fire affinity helped deal with the cold that tried to freeze his flesh. All it required was a quick activation of fire mana, warming himself up. It was similar to the cold environments of the Northern Regions, so it wasn’t anything new or surprising to him.
The cold effect it had on his aura and mana was something to be careful of. It wasn’t as extreme as some of the similar techniques he had faced in the past. In those cases, the cold had been very intense.
However, this coldness was more like an annoying mosquito that never went away. It was a constant annoyance that fed on his mana and aura. There must have been some sort of trick to it because he wasn’t able to get it to stop despite his aura’s destructive nature.
While it wasn’t anything to honestly worry about, it was something he wanted to figure out how it worked. If this mage was able to do it, then he was sure he would eventually come across another enemy or person who could do something similar.
So as he charged in, he paid special care to how the ice interacted with everything around it. He observed how it interacted with the surrounding environment, how it affected the mage’s own mana and aura.
He eventually came to a conclusion. This coldness almost felt everlasting and inevitable, as if there was nothing anyone could do to stop it. It was eternal.
If he was being honest, it almost felt like Freya’s ice. Of course, it wasn’t as powerful or extreme, but it shared some impressive qualities. If not for Julius despising this group of guys, he would have experimented and played around for a little bit longer.
He let out a soft sigh. Honestly, if the mage were a Tier 4 and had advanced this particular Concept even further, Julius might have had a difficult time fighting him. There were some definite possibilities for growth in this specific ability.
Something so relentless and absolute was for sure going to be a powerful tool or weapon. Julius was glad that he got to experience it when it was weaker and was able to examine it. Freya’s ice was much too complicated for his senses and mind.
She tried to explain stuff to him, but it went right over his head.
He glanced over at Aubrey, who was leading the warriors around the noses with her clones, and nodded to himself. He should finish this quickly so he can go and help her, just in case.
So without further hesitation, he blasted himself forward, kinetic energy and blazing flames roaring around his body.
The mage’s eyes widened in shock at this change of pace and suddenly disappeared, using a teleportation skill to escape.
Julius rolled his eyes and quickly found the mage’s spatial ripple off in the distance. Their teleportation skill wasn’t as refined as the girl and the guy mage he had fought the night before. In their case, it had been hard to pinpoint their intended location.
Julius was already halfway to the point before the mage gathered his senses. By that time, it was already too late. He wrapped his aura around the mage and collapsed it as brutally as he could.
The teleportation the mage had been preemptively preparing was crushed under the overwhelming pressure of his willpower, and they choked as the aura rampaged throughout their body and soul.
All of their mana went out of control, and Julius stalked his way forward, ignoring the weak lances of ice the mage managed to throw at him.
He got within several feet of the mage and let his aura do all of the work. The scumbag cried out for help from his teammates as Julius suffocated him with his aura. Julius let him scream, and with a shitload of kinetic energy, he started to compress the mage from all sides.
He imagined it like squeezing a stress ball and took out all of his frustrations on this mage for daring to have such intentions toward Aubrey. He didn’t expect it, but since the mage was so weak physically, they exploded into a bloody pulp.
The viscera went all over the place, and he was forced to create a quick barrier of aura to block most of it. Still, some made it on him and wiped it from himself in disgust.
Only then did he glance back at Aubrey and the two remaining warriors. He had finished his, but now he wanted to see how she would handle hers.