Path to Transcendence

Julius stood across from Riven. The mana radiating from Riven was oppressive. Julius wondered just how much mana Riven had and if he had more than him. He didn’t believe he had come across anyone who had mana reserves close to him after all these years, at least for his tier.
But Julius got the sense that Riven had quite an impressive pool of mana to pull from.
“Ready?” Riven called out, a wild grin on his face as he tapped his staff impatiently against his thigh.
“Yeah, what are the rules?”
“Well, death isn’t a possibility here, and while I am not a specialist, I know a few healing spells to heal both of us, so we can fight until one of us concedes. How does that sound?”
Julius was a little surprised at hearing that admission. It would seem that Riven was able to use almost every type of magic. If that was the case, then Julius was going to be in for a bit of a fight. However, that was fine with him. The more he saw, the more he could learn from Riven.
From what he had seen from the other mage so far, Julius had a lot that he could steal or modify for his own uses.
“That’s fine for me. On your mark?”
“No, please, after you. I insist,” Riven said with a challenging look and twirling his staff around him.
Julius shrugged and, with a burst of kinetic energy, launched himself at Riven.
Unlike the previous fight they had, Riven seemed much better prepared for Julius’s speed. He reacted swiftly, and several large barriers formed in front of Julius’s path. They weren’t there to stop him, but they were made specifically to slow down his momentum.
Unfortunately, Julius had a lot more kinetic energy at his disposal, and with several consecutive bursts, he broke through these barriers. His fist was heading toward Riven’s chest.
However, just as he reached Riven’s position, he pulled back his fist and turned around, blocking the invisible bolt of mana launched at his head. He distractedly smashed his arm through the illusion next to him and stared at the area with focused eyes.
“You have illusion magic too?” Julius asked with a laugh.
“Yep, my master thought it was a waste of time. He thinks it's better to use overwhelming might to wipe out my enemies, but Eva insisted I learn it. I’m surprised you noticed so early; most people wouldn’t have. That must mean you have a pretty good perception or danger sense skill,” Riven replied, his voice echoing from all directions.
Julius could only shake his head. It wasn’t only the illusion magic that was confusing Julius; it was how it was combined with some kind of stealth skill. An excellent stealth skill that touched upon spatial aspects.
It meant that Julius wasn’t able to sense Riven as easily with [Absolute Spatial Perception].
Julius cracked his neck and grinned. This was more like it. He had been waiting to fight someone like this. To be honest, he had been quite unimpressed by the Empire’s so-called geniuses.
However, Riven was already proving himself to be different. Julius would have to try a bit harder, it would seem.
Another bolt of mana ripped through the air. It was just a simple attack made entirely of pure mana, but it was dense and powerful. Julius tried to reach out and unravel it before it could reach him, but found himself unable to.
It wasn’t even a matter of willpower; it was the sheer complexity of the bolt of mana. The construction of the attack was so complicated that he wasn’t able to find the thread to unravel before it reached Julius.
Furthermore, Julius could tell right away that Riven’s willpower was monstrous, too. Not as strong as Julius’s, but definitely one of the firmest and sturdy willpowers he had come across amongst Tier 3s.
Several more bolts of mana attacked him from all directions. Julius either dodged them or smacked them to the side with the back of his mana-clad hands. He could tell that Riven was testing him. Their brief fight several days ago didn't give Riven enough information about Julius, so he was clearly trying to figure out Julius’s strengths and weaknesses.
Julius was fine with that. That meant he was given the same amount of time to figure out how to deal with the stealth skill. He already had a pretty good idea of how he might counteract it. During his battle with Seraphyne, he had learned that it was possible to change the frequencies of his perception.
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However, he also wanted to wait until he had a better plan, one that might actually hit Riven. Once he did that, he wouldn’t have the upper hand of surprise anymore.
In the meantime, he kept on observing the mana bolts coming at him. Julius had a feeling that Riven was only using these bolts to attack Julius because he had already proven that he could withstand the firestorm and earth magic. Riven was trying to figure out what kind of attack could break through Julius’s defenses—probably testing if Julius had some sort of mana resistance skill.
He kept getting harassed from all angles. These bolts were insanely complex, and it took all of his concentration to decipher them. But he finally found a loose thread. That was when he finally started to make his move.
His fists were already covered in aura-woven mana gauntlets, but now he slowly fed some fire mana into his crown. He grimaced in pain as his soul-bound item tried to break his spirit, but he shoved it to the side. He was already getting used to it.
A thin layer of fire covered these gauntlets, and then, before Riven could understand what was going on, he quickly shifted his perception skill. With a twist of mental exertion, he changed the frequency, and during that shift, he felt a particular person high in the air remain unaffected.
Another barrage of mana bolts came pouring down on his position, but now that he had somewhat figured out the construction of these attacks, he was able to rip them apart before they could land.
His aura snuck into the gap he had found, and the ruinous aspect of it ate away at the bolts of mana. They flickered in and out of existence, and the ones that didn’t splashed ineffectively against his chest.
During this process, he had already created a dozen spikes of mana. They glowed a brilliant blue on their edges and at the very core, a harsher, more ethereal blue pulsed. He had managed to sneak in some of the transformed fire mana from his crown into these spikes.
The amount of this fire mana was minimal, but he could tell just how potent it was. Not only that, but his spikes could barely contain this power. He struggled to hold them together, and so with a soft grunt, he launched these spikes at his opponent.
About half a dozen spikes actually shot toward his target. The other half… Well, they didn’t do what he wanted. It would appear that he had been overconfident in his abilities, and half of the spikes blew up in his face.
He shook his head to clear his head of the ringing and was already shooting himself upward, following up his spikes.
The first couple of spikes slammed into several sturdy shields placed around Riven. A big explosion blasted throughout the sky. However, the following ones broke through and broke the illusion Riven had placed around himself. Julius saw some surprise on Riven’s face, likely confused about how Julius found him in the first place.
The explosions against the shields had obscured Julius’s approach, and Riven hadn’t been expecting a Julius-sized missile coming right for his face.
Yet, Riven still reacted in time. The mage swung his staff at Julius, and it suddenly felt like Julius was experiencing a hurricane. With no ground to stabilize his footing, the wind yanked him to the side.
He attempted to counteract the force by using small bursts of his own kinetic energy, but he quickly realized how futile that effort would be. There were so many random forces acting on his body that his mind wasn’t able to track everything. All he ended up doing was making it worse.
However, he had one secret ace up his sleeve when all else failed. It was a little complicated, but it was his tried-and-true trick.
That was just brute-force.
A sphere of pure kinetic energy tore through the sky. A loud shockwave echoed across the field.
All the wind assaulting him was kept at bay by his massive kinetic energy. He also made sure to keep up the sphere all around him. He did his best to absorb as much kinetic energy from the wind magic as he could, which further helped him sustain this technique.
Now that the wind wasn’t throwing him around, he could focus on Riven once again. He was hiding once more with his illusion magic and stealth skill, so Julius flickered his spatial senses and pinpointed his location.
Why was he even bothering to chase after him? He could constantly bombard him from where he was standing. The more he thought about it, the more he liked the idea. And so with a firm nod, he created some spikes. He learned from his previous mistake and only formed six of them.
The fire mana from his crown trickled into them. He also created around a dozen more regular spikes. They were still filled with a lot of aura-woven mana and a shit ton of kinetic energy, but they weren’t as strong as his new ones.
However, he was going for a saturation attack, so he wanted the additional spikes. Julius felt Riven had activated multiple defensive protections. He must have already sensed the massive amount of mana by Julius’s side and was preparing.
Julius wondered if it would be enough, and with an excited grin, launched the spikes at Riven’s position.
Several powerful shields met the first salvo. They held off the regular spikes pretty well; it took three of them directly, but the fourth spike was the one that he added some of the crown’s fire mana to. This tore a hole in the shields and continued forth toward Riven, leading the spikes behind it.
It wasn’t only the barriers he had to get through. The fourth spike slammed into something. He saw dozens of green runes carved into the air pulse with mana. It was almost like these runes physically penetrated into the spikes and ripped them apart from the inside out.
Julius was able to hold on by leveraging his willpower, but the effect was strong. Fortunately, it didn’t stall all of his spikes. The latter half of the spikes were unaffected by these runes and continued heading toward Riven.
The white robed mage wove his staff, and another barrier was swiftly erected. However, he didn’t have enough time to fortify them, and Julius’s spikes shattered the barrier.
Riven attempted to teleport at the last moment, but Julius had already seen his skill before and was prepared. He sent a piercing strike of his aura, disrupting the skill just for a second. But that second was long enough, and Riven had a panicked look when the spikes slammed into his body.