Path to Transcendence

Julius woke up and found himself surrounded by the other participants outside the temple. He immediately threw his senses out to find his friends, and quickly found them all beginning to stand up as well.
He went over to them and helped them up while keeping his guard up. He didn’t want Garrett and his group to attack them suddenly. He spotted the other scion to the side and noticed the large grin on his face as he held some type of potion in his hands. It was glowing with powerful surges of mana.
That must have been the prize Garrett had received from his trial. Whatever he had gotten, it must have been pretty good if he was that happy about it.
Julius looked down at his own prize. The worn-out leather book seemed sad in comparison. But he reminded himself that it could be something even more impressive given time and some help from Freya. He tucked it away into his storage ring for the time being.
He looked off to the side and spotted Riven heading over to them.
The mage waved at Julius with a grin of his own. Eva, Riven’s childhood friend, was trailing right behind him.
“What’s got you in such a cheery mood?” Julius asked with a tilt of his head, noticing that Riven was bouncing on his feet with excitement.
“Well, thanks to you, I managed to fulfill some conditions that helped me evolve one of my skills to epic after such a long time. And because of that, I earned quite a useful little reward to go along with it,” Riven said, bragging to Julius shamelessly.
“Good for you,” Julius said flatly.
“What did you get? Anything good?” Riven asked with a bright grin before waving his arm. “Of course you did. You probably got something totally broken,” he said with a laugh.
However, he was poked in the side by Eva. She must have noticed that Julius didn’t look all that thrilled.
“Oh, does that mean you didn’t?” Riven asked curiously.
Julius shrugged. “I’m not sure how good it is yet.”
“You want to show me? Maybe I can tell you if it's a good thing or not. My master might be a bit odd, but he hasn’t slacked off when dealing with my education,” Riven said proudly.
“Why would he show you? He barely knows you,” Aubrey said with a scoff. Julius hid a grin when he detected minor signs of jealousy coming from her.
Riven grasped his chest offendedly. “Julius and I are best friends. Our fight has cemented our status as brothers,” he said with sparkling eyes.
Julius rolled his eyes. “Stop being dramatic.”
Riven smiled sheepishly. “Sorry.”
He didn’t sound sorry at all.
However, Julius didn’t see a reason not to trust Riven. Funnily enough, he got a similar feeling from the mage that he got from his other friends when he first met them. And look how that turned out for him?
Plus, someone who was the disciple of Archmage Valis must have some knowledge about some things. Right?
Julius had already placed a barrier around themselves and glanced at Eva. The only person that he didn’t trust was inside the barrier.
Riven noticed his glance and nodded understandingly.
“I promise you that she won’t say a word to anyone. I will take full responsibility if she does. I swear it on my life,” Riven said with a firm pulse of aura, confirming his sincerity.
Julius didn’t particularly like it, but if he were going to trust Riven, then he would have to extend that trust to Eva if they were that close. Furthermore, it wasn’t like he was trusting them with his skills or other secrets. Compared to the rest of his secrets, this one barely counted as a secret.
So without another word, he took out the ragged book from his ring and passed it over to Riven.
He saw the mage’s nose pucker when he saw the unsightly condition of the book.
“Well, at least it's still bound together,” Riven noted when he examined the title. Julius watched as a flash passed through the mage's eyes.
“Do you recognize it?” Julius asked.
Riven shook his head but didn’t leave the book. “Can’t say I recognize the title. But I recognize the person who wrote it.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, I got a pretty good mind skill that helps me remember spell formations easier. It also helps me remember general information as well, so I have an excellent memory,” Riven surprisingly shared freely.
“And?” Julius pressed.
Riven grimaced. “Tezuko Willow was a maniac.”
Tezuko Willow, huh? It would seem that the Verdant Willow Sect was indeed named after the man. However, the way Riven described the man didn’t sound very pleasant.
“That doesn’t sound very good,” Julius noted.
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Riven shook his head. “No, not really. But he also was a powerful maniac.”
“Says the disciple of one of the Empire’s biggest maniacs,” Aubrey commented with a grunt.
Riven pivoted his gaze to her. “My master is not a maniac,” he said defensively.
Aubrey stayed silent and simply gave a leveled glare at Riven.
“He’s gotten better over the years,” Riven looked away and admitted after a few quiet moments.
Julius noticed that Derek smirked at that comment and couldn’t help but wonder just how crazy Riven’s master was if this was how Aubrey and Derek were reacting. To be fair, most of the Tier 6s he had come across were crazy in some shape or form. He was beginning to suspect that it was a prerequisite at this point.
The only somewhat normal ones he had met were Alice and Freya. Everyone else was either odd or crazy. Look at Dante and Cain. Even Duke Daemon and Marquis Easten were weird in their own ways.
“You were saying something about Tezuko Willow?” Julius redirected the conversation back on track.
“Oh yeah. Tezuko Willow was a maniac and known by another name. His title was the Undying Revenant because, shockingly, he wasn’t able to die. My master showed me stories about several powerful sects at the time, all working together to kill the Undying Revenant. Safe to say, they failed.”
Julius grinned. He was beginning to like this Tezuko guy. He gently took back the book from Riven and cradled it lovingly, giving its spine a soft caress.
“We are going to be good friends,” he said with a wild grin to the book.
He lurched forward when Aubrey smacked him on the back of the head. “Stop that,” she said with a disappointed look.
“I feel like it is pertinent to mention that during the final years of his life, he changed,” Riven added.
“What do you mean?” Julius asked with a frown.
“He was apparently dabbling in morally dubious techniques in his efforts to reach Tier 7. I heard that he died while doing so, and the sects he had offended along the way made sure to burn every record of the Undying Revenant’s technique. That’s why I am surprised that you have a copy of his personal works,” Riven said with a thoughtful look at the book.
“What type of morally dubious techniques?” Derek asked worriedly.
“Life draining techniques as well as soul conversion abilities that would allow him to use that energy to fuel and empower his own skills,” Riven said with a wince. “I think there was mention of him building an array that drained the life out of an entire city to push him over the edge of Tier 7.”
Julius looked at the book with a completely different look from before, almost burning it right then and there.
Riven must have noticed his disgust. “Don’t worry. This book doesn’t seem to talk about that kind of stuff. It was likely written when he was more sane and humane.”
Julius let out a sigh of relief, though he still didn’t know how he felt about Tezuko now that he had learned more about him. He also couldn’t help but wonder if the trial had something to do with why he was given the book in the first place.
Was he only given it because he hadn’t drained the life out of the villagers? Or was it perhaps a coincidence? He still didn’t know why the woman had talked to him personally. He seriously doubted that she did that for everyone.
“Well, it doesn’t hurt to give it a shot,” Riven said to him.
He was about to respond when he felt a sudden surge of mana blast out. It felt like it came from every angle, as if the realm was exploding. He quickly channeled strength into his body, preparing for the worst.
He thought it was the other group trying to start shit again. However, he looked over at them and realized that they were just as confused by the explosion of mana as they were.
“What was that?” Aubrey asked loudly.
Julius tightened his lips and extended his senses. He widened his eyes when he felt something large blanket around them. It was like a barrier of some sort, but much more subtle. He only noticed it by chance.
However, he was glad that he did, because it gave him some extra time to deploy a barrier of his own. When this mana collapsed on top of his group, his barrier did a pretty good job at making sure they were safe.
He had no idea what kind of attack it was, but his barrier rippled from it. He thought it would hold, but to his shock, the mana this field was projecting, somehow made it through his barrier.
Once it made it through, it wiped out his technique and dissolved it into mana.
What was worse was that a sudden wave of exhaustion beat down on him. It was like someone had drugged him with sleeping pills. He immediately used his healing skill to counteract this effect, but it had a surprisingly low impact on it.
He could feel the exhaustion fading away, but not as quickly as he hoped. After a few moments of observing this field, he realized that it wasn’t just a normal debuff or curse. This was something else. Something much more dangerous.
He could already feel it affecting his soul, which was why his healing skill was having much more trouble.
However, he was much more concerned about his own friends. He had a skill that helped protect them. They didn’t.
He saw his friends drop to their knees, gasping for air. He ran over to them and started to channel life mana. He also took out Drasil; the little guy took one taste of the air and spat it out in disgust.
Derek was the closest one to him, so he checked him first. To his relief, Derek appeared to be wearing something around his neck. It was glowing with a bright light and must have been protecting him, because Derek stopped gasping for air.
He was still debilitated, but Julius believed he would be fine, and so he went over to Aubrey. He was also glad to see that she had something with her. A small purple gem had appeared over her head, feeding energy to her, allowing her to stumble to her feet.
It was Edgar he was worried about. The other two appeared to have items or skills that helped protect them, but Edgar didn’t.
Julius dropped next to Edgar and started to feed life mana into him. He made sure to focus on his Phoenix Concept. He knew that with the Concept, he could help heal the soul. It wasn’t something that Freya had helped him with yet, but he did the best he could do.
Thankfully, he had Drasil by his side. He didn’t know if it was because Drasil was just that talented or because he had a lot of experience with Julius, but the little spirit seemed to have gotten pretty skilled at soothing soul damage.
He could see Edgar visibly relax when Drasil slapped a tiny hand onto the guy’s head.
Julius calmed down when he saw this. He glanced over at Riven and noticed that the mage had used some skill to fend off this attack. Eva was protecting herself as well. Her cloak was being used as a shield, protecting her from whatever skill or ability this field had. Still, it didn’t protect her completely. He saw her gritting her teeth in pain.
He also looked over at the other participants spread out in front of the temple. They were all in similar states of panic.
He wanted to believe that Garrett had something to do with this, but he saw the scion frantically chugging a potion down his throat. There was fear in his eyes as he whipped his head back and forth. The other members of the group were either on the ground in pain or barely holding on.
Suppose that wasn’t bad enough. Julius stared off into the distance, where he felt an explosion of spatial mana, and a crack in space appeared. Before he could wonder what was happening, he saw a massive head, the size of a truck, squeezing itself through the spatial crack.
, he said to himself with a groan.