Path to Transcendence

Julius was thankful that Freya was with him, and she saved his nose from being smashed into the stone when he fell. If it were Cain, the man would have let him hit his face and acted surprised about it.
However, he couldn’t really pay that much attention to that at the moment. Currently, it felt like his head was being jammed full of information like one would stuff a turkey on Thanksgiving. Safe to say, he wasn’t very comfortable.
That wasn’t all, either. Before he could realize what was happening, he felt his consciousness blank for a few startling seconds. Then he found himself standing in a small grove full of green lushness.
The moss under his feet was incredibly soft, and he could practically taste the life mana in the air. There was that much of it in the grove.
However, most of his attention was on the man sitting on the rock at the edge of a stream. He wore a simple white tunic and loose white pants. His skin was nicely tanned, and he had a powerfully built body. His black hair hung just above his eyes, but Julius couldn’t see the man’s face entirely.
That was when Julius realized where all of this life mana was coming from. Wave after wave of powerful life mana flowed from this man’s body. The rhythmic pulse invigorated Julius every time it passed through his body.
He was ninety percent sure that this was some kind of vision, but the sensations he was feeling were incredibly realistic. It was hard not to doubt whether this was indeed a vision.
Julius stood there, watching as the man meditated, remaining silent and simply observing the man's mana. He couldn’t help but relax as he fell into a trance, watching the man with bated breath.
“People often misunderstand life mana and the path of those who use it,” the man suddenly spoke out and turned around to stare at Julius.
Julius, on the other hand, felt his throat tighten when he saw the blazing verdant green eyes staring at him. It wasn’t oppressive or anything of the like, but the potency of the gaze locked his soul in place.
“Misunderstand?” Julius said, forcing himself to speak.
The man, who was likely Tezuko Willow, the person who created this vision, bent down and picked up a small pebble that was sitting on the edge of the stream. The pebble's surface was incredibly smooth.
“They often believe that life is just that— life. They fail to understand the deeper meanings of life and death…” Tezuko laughed brightly. “Hah! The fools.”
Julius kept silent as the man ran his fingers over the smooth pebble.
“Take this stone, for example. Do you think it has life?” The man asked Julius, staring straight into his soul.
Julius’s immediate instinct was to say no, but he held himself back, knowing full well that it wasn’t such a simple answer.
“I don’t know,” he said honestly.
Tezuko smiled at him. “Good. If you had said no just because you thought I was tricking you, I would have killed you.”
Julius laughed a little bit, but realized that the man wasn’t laughing with him. Tezuko was staring at him with a hint of madness. There was a kindness on his face, but Julius could spot the insanity lurking beneath the surface. He knew a fellow madman when he saw one.
“It’s obviously not alive, at least not in the traditional way. However, what makes life? Is it a beating heartbeat? A sentient mind?”
Julius stayed silent, feeling that the man wasn’t speaking directly to Julius.
“No, I believe that life is given meaning through experiences. The more one experiences makes that life all the brighter. Joy, suffering, tragedy, all of these emotions and experiences leave a mark on someone’s life. It’s what gives it power, and it’s what gives it meaning.”
“Look at this stone. Look at how erosion and time have morphed it. How much has this little pebble seen or experienced? How many centuries has it been sitting in this stream? It is proof of the life it has lived.”
Julius tried to follow along, listening carefully to the man’s explanation. But found himself frowning for some reason.
“You disagree?” The green-eyed man asked with a tight-lipped expression.
Julius grimaced and took a deep breath before answering. “Not exactly.”
“But…?” Tezuko pressed.
“What about the potential?”
“Potential?” The man repeated carefully, as if rolling the word around in his mouth.
Julius nodded. “What about the potential one might experience? The potential for growth? Does a newborn have less life because it has experienced fewer things? Or does it have more because of the endless possibilities it might have since their path is undecided?”
Stolen story; please report.
The man stared deeply at Julius for a few long moments. Julius felt a little nervous under his gaze, but kept eye contact.
The silence stretched uncomfortably long, but Julius just stood there, not moving a muscle.
“There’s some hope for you,” the man eventually said with a slow nod.
“Huh? Hope?” Julius asked with confusion.
“Yes, so many people have tried to follow my path and copy my techniques, but they were all fools. As if you can hope to surpass someone by following their exact path,” the man said with a scoff, throwing the stone back into the stream.
“So I’m not supposed to copy your techniques?”
Tezuko stared off in the distance. “You will only be able to mimic them to a certain extent. I can give you the tools, but I can’t tell you how to use them. It will be up to you how to incorporate them into your path.”
“Okay,” Julius said with a nod. He was planning to do that anyway. He had heard enough about Tezuko in his later years that he already knew that he really wanted to avoid going down the same path as the man. Sacrificing an entire city wasn't part of his future plans.
Julius had a few questions he wanted to ask the man. Or rather, a copy of the man. He didn’t know what this version of Tezuko was, or if they were simply programmed.
Unfortunately, he didn’t seem to get the time to do so. He didn’t even sense Tezuko move. One moment, he was sitting by the stream, and the next, he was standing right beside Julius, placing a hand on his forehead.
Julius flinched back and tried to pull away. But Tezuko’s arm was like an immovable object.
“This is the first chapter. You will learn the basics of creating a mana heart, and also various body modifications I have experimented with over the years. I don’t expect you to start creating your own quite yet, but you can prepare. Once you reach Tier 4, your body will be strong enough to handle the changes. When you have comprehended the first chapter, return, and I will teach you the second.”
Then, before Julius could try and say something, he found himself lying on the ground in front of Freya once more. This time around, his brain felt like someone peeled his skull with a potato peeler and then smashed it with a sledgehammer afterwards.
However, he realized that his brain had some interesting additions. It was as if someone had dropped off an information packet filled with knowledge and exercises. It seemed the first chapter was meant to acclimate him to the general process.
The thing that caught his attention was that these exercises were quite… extreme. They certainly weren’t for the faint of heart. He started to understand why nobody had successfully followed in the footsteps of the Undying Revenant.
“Are you okay?” Freya asked with concern.
He nodded and staggered to his feet. “Yeah, just a lot to take in.”
“What did he say?” She asked.
“You knew that I would be taken into a vision with him?” Julius asked curiously.
She shrugged. “It is a common method to use when sharing techniques and such. It makes it easier to comprehend. Not everyone can use it, and it takes a lot more effort, but the results are night-and-day. It would make sense that someone like that would go to the extra lengths for a book manual he personally wrote.”
“Ah,” Julius said with a sigh and rubbed his head, letting some healing mana flow into him. It didn’t do much, but it was better than nothing.
“So what did you learn?”
“Well, apparently, I was only given the first chapter. It’s a collection of techniques and exercises to help me prepare for the modifications I will need to do in the future,” he explained.
“Are they bad?”
He scrunched his nose. “They don’t sound like they will be pleasant,” he admitted.
“That’s fine. Take the day off to absorb the information, and we can try it out tomorrow,” she said to him.
He shook his head. With the second stage done, there would be a one-week break before the final stage began. He didn’t want to waste those precious days.
“No, I want to try it out when it's fresh in my head. I don’t have to push it hard, but I want to see how they feel at the very least,” he said to Freya.
She looked at him and sighed, knowing that it was futile to argue against him, knowing that he would likely just go off on his own to practice.
“Fine, let me get some stuff ready, though, alright?” She said to him.
He nodded and watched as she went off and prepared some circles on the ground. He didn’t know what she was doing, but based on the complicated runes on the floor, it was probably something to help him.
He relaxed and healed his headache as he carefully examined the way she controlled her mana. He understood just how much of a blessing it was to have two Tier 6s helping him as they had been.
He wasn’t going to waste a single moment where he felt like he could learn from them.
As he observed her, his mind slowly wandered onto other things. He wondered how the tournament would go now that the incident had happened. He was also concerned about how much stuff going on inside the realm was shared with the public. He assumed that the Empire either censored most of it or shared only some of it. However, from the looks he got upon leaving the stadium, he had a feeling that he had garnered even more attention to himself.
He shrugged; there wasn’t anything to do about that. It wasn’t like he was particularly hiding anymore. With his strength, it was just a waste of time and energy. He only needed to hide his more essential skills and abilities.
When Freya was ready, she beckoned him over and had him sit in the middle of the circle she created.
“Whenever you are ready,” she said to him.
He took a slow, deep breath and manipulated his mana, following the instructions left in his brain.
It felt weird, it was like he was controlling his life mana in a way that he had never done so before. It was aggressive and brutal.
He was basically carving pathways into his own mana channels. The pain was immediate. He could feel a severe stinging sensation racing through his body. However, at the same time, he felt an invigorating rush from how the life mana was being moved around.
He could feel his body strengthening in a way that he hadn’t experienced before. It was small considering this was the first time, but he could already see the promise it held.
Aura and kinetic energy were his primary sources of empowering his body, but it would seem he had been missing out on something. Life mana not only strengthened his body, but it also helped support the other two energies.
The only downside was that he wasn’t used to it, and this method was clearly more dangerous than most other techniques. Sadly, this meant he eventually lost control of the technique, and his arm was blown off when he cycled the life mana half a second too late.
Blood went everywhere, and he saw Freya shake her head in exasperation.