Path to Transcendence

Neil sauntered boldly as he and his friends were all heading over to the arena. His father had gotten them VIP seating by calling in some favors. Not many people were allowed to get such luxurious privileges. They were generally reserved for high-class nobles and other important individuals.
His father was a prominent merchant, though, and was extremely wealthy with powerful connections to boot. Thanks to these connections, he was able to acquire the seats.
He and his friends all attended Arcane Solstice Academy, a very prestigious academy in the capital. To be fair, all the schools in the capital were prestigious. It was more uncommon to find an underachieving school than an elite one.
They were only third years, though, and weren’t able to gain one of their school’s slots for the tournament. It was unfortunate, but expected. Everyone knew that the fourth year was the year when people began to take the tournament seriously.
Even the powerhouse elites competing this year were fourth years who had failed to gain a slot in their third year.
Of course, Neil had hoped that he would have been one of the exceptions. He was the strongest person in his year and had almost grabbed a spot, despite being a year younger than the others fighting for slots.
If only his luck wasn’t so shit and he wasn’t paired against one of the stronger fourth years in the qualifying round. He felt himself clench his fists at the memory of his loss, feeling his previously good mood get spoiled.
“Are you okay, Neil?” Audrey, one of his friends, asked with concern.
He plastered on a fake smile and laughed brightly. “Yeah, never better. Are you guys excited?”
She nodded and grinned. “Totally. This year's tournament has a bunch of strong people attending.”
“Yeah, you might even get to watch Derek Zenith fight this year,” Finn, Neil’s closest friend, said teasingly, knowing Audrey had mentioned the Zenith Scion on multiple occasions.
Her cheeks flushed. “He’s not the only reason why I want to go. I want to see Riven Briarwood’s fights as well. He is supposed to be our generation's most talented mage, and I hope that seeing him will give me some inspiration,” she defended herself.
“You know that he supposedly lost to someone during the second stage, right?” Luken, their other friend, noted.
“What? He lost?” Neil asked in surprise. Even he had heard of Riven Briarwood. His father had spoken of the talented mage on several occasions. All of it was high praise, too. But he also knew that Luken was following the tournament with much more interest than the rest of them.
Luken was a bit of a nerd when it came to stuff like this. And while their group liked to tease him about this, Luken was also a good source of information whenever they needed answers to questions. Neil wouldn’t be surprised if Luken knew the names of every competitor and where they went to school.
“Who the hell did he lose to?” Finn asked, also sounding surprised by this news.
Audrey must have already heard about this because she didn’t look surprised, but merely upset about being reminded about it..
Luken shrugged his shoulders shyly. “He lost to some first-year that has been making waves this year,” he dropped a bombshell on their group.
“Huh?!” Finn shouted loudly in surprise.
“A first year? Are you serious? You’re not pulling our legs, right?” Abigail asked Luken with a tone of apparent skepticism.
“I’m telling the truth. He has beaten several strong elites during the second stage. He also ripped apart one powerful group like they were a bunch of Tier 2s. He has quickly become a top contender after he beat Riven.”
“He didn’t
Riven; it was only the second stage. Everyone knows the true matches start in this final round. Plus, we don’t even know if Riven was going all out. For all we know, the first year was won by luck, and Riven chose to hide his true abilities,” Audrey said in defense of the mage, clearly not enjoying hearing them talk badly about him.
Luken looked like he wanted to contradict her, but he hated conflict, and so he stayed silent. Instead, Luken added something else.
“I heard he was friends with Derek Zenith.”
This changed Audrey’s mood entirely. “What?” She asked with excitement.
“Yeah, people saw them hanging out together during the final days of the second stage. I don't know what the story is, but I thought you might find it interesting,” Luken said softly, glancing up discreetly to watch her reaction.
Neil and Finn knew that Luken had a slight crush on Audrey. They didn’t really tease him for it either. He wasn’t the only person who had a crush on Audrey. She was a beautiful girl. She and Neil had actually dated for a little bit during their earlier years, but it hadn’t worked out.
Neil was about to ask more questions about this first year, but their group was called. It was their turn to use the teleportation station, and they all quickly headed on over to their designated stations.
They were quickly transported deeper into the capital, to the arena, and immediately swarmed by the numerous people heading to the stadium just like them.
Neil directed his group toward the tram, where his father had already gotten them passes. The line was long, but it was eventually their turn, and they hopped on. They watched as the tram flew across the large city, no doubt cutting their time to their destination by a lot.
“Damn,” Neil heard Finn mutter quietly as he stared off in a different direction.
“Hmm?” Neil asked distractedly, still looking out the window.
“Look over there,” his best friend nudged him with his elbow.
Neil rolled his eyes but followed his friend’s request and quickly realized why his friend reacted like that.
“Damn.”
“Right?” Finn asked with a nod.
Not far ahead of them was a girl. She was wearing a cloak that obscured her face, but it had been pulled back, and he could see some of her features. She was absolutely stunning. Her blonde hair perfectly framed her beautiful face and her eyes...
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He felt his heart race when he saw a glimpse of them. They were some of the most magical-looking eyes he had ever seen. They were like little amethysts glistening in the dark. They weren’t the first pair of purple eyes he had come across, but they were by far the prettiest.
“She’s gorgeous,” he muttered, already love-struck.
Audrey must have noticed them looking at this girl. “Boys,” she grumbled under her breath.
“What?” Finn asked innocently.
“Why don’t you drool some more?” She said to them.
“I’m not drooling.”
“Yeah, you are. And it looks like you are too late, by the looks of it, she is already taken,” she noted, with a head tilt toward the person also wearing a cloak beside her.
“They’re not together,” Neil said with a shake of his head.
“Really? Because they look pretty close to me,” Audrey said, looking at the boy’s hand that was placed on the girl’s shoulder.
However, from Neil’s perspective, she looked slightly uncomfortable and maybe didn’t want the guy touching her, but was simply too shy or too nice to ask him to remove his hand.
Neil nodded to himself, and before his friends could say anything, he waltzed on over with a confident stride when he saw the girl head off to the bathroom.
The boy wasn’t short, but he wasn’t much taller than average, and his build was slim. On that front, Neil felt that he already had this guy beat. So with that confidence in mind, he leaned down to the other, smaller boy.
“Why don’t you get lost, eh?”
The boy looked at him with a dim look. “Huh?”
“I said you should get lost,” Neil repeated.
“Do you need something?” The boy asked calmly; however, there was a hint of annoyance behind it.
“She clearly doesn’t feel comfortable with you touching her like that. So why don’t you just leave, yeah?”
“Ohhh,” the guy said as realizing something.
“Are you dull? Get out of here,” he stated more aggressively.
“I can’t believe this is happening right now,” the boy muttered, sounding almost… amused.
“Calm down, Neil. What are you doing?” Audrey came up beside him.
“Can’t you see that he was making that girl uncomfortable?”
“It just looks like you are jealous that I am around her,” the boy said with a light chuckle.
That irritated Neil, and he clenched his fists tightly as he pushed his aura on the guy. He didn’t normally like to use his aura to bully people, but he didn’t like this guy.
“She is way out of your league,” Neil spat out.
“She’s just a friend,” the guy said, completely ignoring his aura.
“I don’t care. You should leave.”
“You keep saying that. I don’t know why you would think I would just leave because you said so,” the guy said with a tilt of his head. “And would you mind pulling back your aura? The way it's cloying onto me is quite frankly… gross.”
Neil froze, feeling more anger rush through him. He didn’t like the guy’s tone. It was so arrogant, as if Neil wasn’t anything more than a minor nuisance. This guy didn’t seem to understand that Neil was a big deal.
That was why Neil decided to crank up his aura, pressing it down onto this poor guy.
“Neil, stop it!” Audrey yelled out. The other people in the tram were starting to notice the commotion and backed away from him. However, Neil ignored them and glared at the other boy in front of him.
However, to Neil’s shock, he felt his aura get torn away from him and shredded before he could do anything. The pressure he had been mounting fell apart as someone knocked over his house of cards.
The boy’s eyes, which had previously been black, were now a deep crimson red, and they stared up at him. Amusement was gone, and in its place was a cold stare. Neil spotted something on the boy’s head; it was a band of pitted gray metal, but it was now shimmering with sparks of blue light.
He felt something bubble in his stomach.
“What is going on here, Julius?” A voice suddenly called out in worry. The girl had come back and looked at the situation with confusion.
“Nothing. I think it’s just a misunderstanding,” the guy said to her with a dismissive wave of his hand toward Neil, the cold stare and oppressive atmosphere was gone and was replaced with a bright grin.
The dismissiveness angered Neil, but he kept it in check. Instead, he took a step closer to the girl and bowed gracefully.
“Hello there, my name is Neil, may I know your name?”
The girl, to his surprise, looked up at him with a flat glare. “Are you serious?” She didn’t even wait for his response and turned to her friend. “Is this guy serious right now? How cliche is this?”
The other boy chuckled. “Yeah, I’m surprised too.”
“I blame you,” she said with a sigh.
Neil was taken aback by their casual conversation and forced out a laugh, rubbing his head awkwardly. “I’m sorry, I think we got off on the wrong foot. I just wanted to come over and introduce myself.”
“I’m not interested, dickhead,” she said with a dismissive tone to him.
The boy beside her choked out a laugh.
Neil's smile froze on his face, but he didn’t give up. “I actually wanted to ask if you were heading over to the tournament. If you were, I was wondering if you would want to join my friends and me. We got some VIP seats, so it should be cool to watch the tournament from there.”
“Wow, gotta give him credit for being so shameless,” the boy muttered.
“I told you I am not interested. Now get lost,” the girl said with a frown.
Neil was about to insist once more, but he felt someone grab him by the shoulders roughly. He turned around angrily and was about to yell at Finn to let him go, but to his surprise, it was Luken who had grabbed him.
Neil was going to ask what his problem was, but he saw the flash of fear in the guy’s face. “Stop it, Neil.”
His other friends also took this moment to jump in. They apologized profusely on his behalf, and before he could wrestle out of their grasp, they pulled him away and got off the tram at the earliest stop before he could even realize what was going on.
Luken was particularly aggressive, and Neil was actually surprised at how strong Luken was. Neil wasn’t able to pull out of Luken’s grasp despite being so much larger.
It was only after they had gotten far away that Neil yanked himself away and glared at his friends.
“What was that all about? What is your guy’s deal?” He said with a pissed off expression.
Audrey stomped up to him. “No, what is
deal? Why would you act like that? You made a scene in front of everyone. And for what? A girl?” She scoffed and looked away angrily.
Neil was going to argue with her, but noticed that Luken looked panicked. He was breathing heavily, and his eyes were wide with fear.
“What is wrong with you? Why were you acting like that?” He asked his timid friend.
Luken whipped his head toward Neil, and there was a wild look on his face. “You don’t even know who that was, do you?”
“Who? You recognize the girl or something?”
“No, the guy,” Luken said aggressively.
“What? He was just some random guy,” Neil said dismissively.
Luken stared at him with terrified eyes. “No. That was Julius Snow.”
“Who?” Neil asked with bewilderment.
Audrey, on the other hand, seemed to know who that was. Her eyes widened with dread. “That was him? Are you sure?”
“Yes, that crown on his head was the dead giveaway. Which means the girl next to him was probably Lily Violet.”
Audrey, in panic, started chewing her nails and turned to Abigail. “Oh shit.”
Neil was still confused, but he recognized the last name. His father was a merchant, which meant he knew who House Violet was better than most. And apparently, that girl with the pretty eyes had been Lily Violet, the daughter of Count Violet.
He frowned. That may not have been good news. If she complained to her father, it might hurt his father and his business. Thankfully, she probably didn’t know who he was, so there was that. He could see why they were so upset.
“Okay, I understand now. I messed up, but why are you guys so worried about the boy?”
Luken stared at Neil like he was crazy.
“That’s the same person we were just talking about earlier. The same person who beat Riven Briarwood during the second stage,” Luken said with unease, looking around as if the boy would show up at any moment.
Neil froze, horrified, as the realization sank in.