Path to Transcendence

Chapter 701: Found You

Julius immediately blasted himself away when he felt the mana collapse on top of him. The table and all of the delicious food were destroyed. He gasped audibly.

He threw himself to the side again when a large tendril of black mana tried to snatch him up. The tendril was wicked fast, and he was only barely able to avoid it. The real issue was the deep profoundness he felt coming from the tendril. There was a heavy weight of darkness and emptiness that originated from the Concepts infused into it. The old man must have multiple powerful Concepts.

That wasn’t all, either. The black mana was exuding a very powerful disruption effect that had his own enhancement skills struggling to remain stable. His willpower was able to hold on for now, but sometimes willpower could only help out so much. The vast difference in power and experience was clear.

He avoided the tendril, but his opponent was getting impatient and summoned two more to try to capture Julius. That made things multiple times more difficult. He stopped holding back and exploded with mana.

He activated both of his enhancement skills, channeling an absurd quantity of mana through his flesh. There was a reason why he didn’t use [Pyrokinetic Embodiment of Ruin] and his life mana technique at the same time.

He already had issues with controlling his life mana technique, and balancing the two abilities simultaneously was even more challenging. It was like trying to juggle a dozen porcupines while riding a horse.

He felt his flesh start to physically melt from the heavy influx of mana. Thankfully, Drasil was already healing him, and the damage was canceled out. His mind was struggling to handle both of these enhancements; it was being stretched apart. His brain was being strained so much that it was hemorrhaging and splitting apart.

More life mana was sent into his skull to slow this.

However, the result was more than worth it. The surge of strength he felt was unlike anything he had ever experienced with his prior skills. When it came to other Tier 4s, he was in another league on his own, but when he faced other Tier 5s, he realized how far away he was in terms of physical abilities.

However, this surge gave him a taste of that power. The vast chasm that divided him and Tier 5 seemed to lessen if only for these few moments, and he planned to make them count. Though that was easier said than done.

He ducked underneath the tendril and smacked aside the other that was flanking him.

He’d gotten stronger, but the force behind the tendril was enough to stagger him. He was off balance, and the last tendril came at him, piercing the air with a shriek. He detonated some accumulated kinetic energy to abruptly change the direction his body was moving. The force of this move had his organs slam around in his body, several of them bruising, and his bones creaked from the pressure.

The tendril grazed his chest, and he felt a load of disruptive mana explode out of it and into his body. This disruption was particularly effective because he was already barely able to hold on to the two techniques, and only thanks to his stubborn willpower did he manage to prevent it from tearing apart his skills.

However, his body was damaged by the backlash, and Drasil was forced to shift his attention from healing it with the two skills to healing this damage instead.

Julius could have used [Phoenix Incarnate], but he wanted to keep such a skill hidden. He also wanted to use the skill at the most opportune moment. When he could catch the old man off guard.

He tumbled off into the woods, slamming his back into a nearby tree. His clothes were dirty and covered with his own blood. He grumbled and pulled himself up to sit against a tree.

Erek was stalking toward him leisurely. His hands were behind his back as the three tendril swirled around his back. Coiling tightly as if they were serpents ready to strike.

“How do you know about the Conclave?” he asked Julius.

“Lucky guess,” Julius answered with a groan.

One of the tendrils shot out, and he threw himself to the side. The tendril speared the tree he was lying against, tearing it from its roots.

“I’ll ask you one last time. Where did you hear of the Conclave?”

Julius shrugged. “I’ve had a run-in with you guys before.”

Erek pulled back the tendril and stared at him. “What organization are you a part of?”

Julius shook his head and smirked. “None, I’m currently unemployed.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Well, I don’t know what else to tell you because that’s the truth.”

The older man’s eye twitched in irritation, and then, without any notice, Julius felt an oppressive force press on him from all sides. Somehow, the man collapsed his domain around him without warning. He choked on his tongue when the oppressive force squeezed his lungs and body tightly. It was like someone put him inside a trash compactor. That same disruptive force was also stabbing into him; he could feel his body enhancement breaking down and tearing itself apart despite his best efforts.

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Luckily for him, he’d already prepared his anti-domain technique the moment the fight started. His soul was already charged, and the second he felt his body getting crushed by the domain, he activated it.

A strong pulse of soul energy rippled outward and created just enough space between him and the domain that he was able to get out safely. He also made sure to create a thin layer, constantly pulsing barrier to prevent the domain from affecting him again.

This was also exactly what he had been waiting for. The second he was free, he leaped toward Erek, who was still reeling in surprise when his domain didn’t work. He’d been too careless, and the distance between them was only a couple of dozen feet.

It was so close that he didn’t even bother to use [Void Step]; he closed the distance with a burst of kinetic energy. The same sword he’d used to take care of the orcs appeared in his hands. The sword was quickly enveloped with sharpened mana and his Sharpness Concept.

However, Erek was still a Tier 5 and reacted swiftly. He tried to lean back, but it was immediately obvious the man wasn’t well-trained in close combat. He stumbled over his feet, and rather than try to avoid Julius’s sword thrust, he threw a rough blast of pure mana at him.

Unfortunately, this still worked quite well, especially with how much mana was put into the blast. Julius did his best to rip through it, but he was still knocked back just as his sword was inches away from his opponent.

He didn’t let this stop him, though; he sent a compressed wave of ruinous flames at the man and quickly regained his balance. Unfortunately, the flames didn’t work that well. The same disruptive mana that was woven into the tendrils erupted from his opponent’s skin.

The flames washed ineffectively over the man’s body. It would appear that mana-based attacks weren’t going to work that well. However, these flames had another purpose–they blocked Erek’s view of him.

With his vision obscured, Erek blindly shot his tendrils at Julius. They pierced the air, and Julius used [Void Step] for the first time during this fight. The tendrils missed him as he vanished into the void, and when he reappeared, he had his sword already striking toward the Tier 5’s neck.

However, he was just a hair too slow, and one of the tendrils caught the blade just before it managed to slash the neck. He tore away the sword before the tendril could grab hold of it and blitzed at the man once again. Now that the man was on the back foot, Julius was able to see gaps in the man’s fighting style.

He wasn’t nearly as polished as some of the other fighters or sect members he’d seen. His aura was strong and well-trained, but it was clear that Erek was either a mage or someone who didn’t specialize in close combat fighting. He relied on those tendrils too much. He also relied on his domain, but with Julius’s anti-domain technique active, that advantage didn’t make too much of a difference.

So before Erek could adjust, Julius did his best to put the man down. His body was flooded with nigh-uncontrollable amounts of energy. The influx was tearing his flesh apart, and it was only thanks to Drasil that he wasn’t an exploding pile of flesh during this fight. Fortunately, Drasil’s healing was much more subtle than using his own skill.

He stepped in and detonated a load of kinetic energy right in the man’s face. He didn’t want the man to gain any separation that would allow him to make use of his tendrils. Instead, he kept up the pressure, slashing his sword at the man.

There was an issue, though. When he managed to slip through his opponent’s defenses, he felt something on their person activate. A shell of energy formed exactly where the blade would have cut him.

he noted to himself.

Another blast of mana knocked him backward again. The tendrils almost stabbed him in the face when he landed back. Erek was backpedaling, though. He was gaining some distance and suddenly stopped his assault with his domain; he must have realized it wasn’t working as he had anticipated.

Instead, he took control of his domain and began compressing it further. This space was reduced and modified so that it protected the older man within a thick black shell. Then the man .

Julius pulsed out his perception skill, hoping it was because the man had teleported farther away. But alas, he still didn’t pick up on anything. His spatial skills weren’t detecting anything. But that didn’t make him believe the man had left him be.

That was why he wasn’t surprised when a wave of black disruptive mana came crashing down from above. Julius responded with his own blast of mana. His ruinous aura was packed inside it. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem like it was enough, and his mana was quickly overwhelmed. He was forced to jump to the side, but that was when he felt the barest tickle of mana coming from all sides.

He activated [Void Step], but since he’d already shown he could teleport, his opponent was ready. A firm pulse of disruptive mana and willpower came crashing down on his skill. It delayed the activation slightly, but if there was one thing Julius was really good at, it was a battle of wills.

He grunted and ripped through the disruptive technique. Then he teleported away just before the area around him was utterly devastated. Everything within twenty feet of where he was standing was obliterated. He was still trying to find where Erek had gone off to, but he wasn’t getting anything. He searched every direction, narrowing his cone of perception to extend it as far as possible. But he became more convinced that the man wasn’t simply far away. He had a feeling he was hiding in a separate space, or somewhere Julius couldn't detect.

It was possible that he was inside a space that acted much like the void Julius teleported through. The problem was that he had no idea how to find the man if this was the case. Was it some kind of shadow realm Erek was hiding in? Or was it a separate dimension altogether?

However, the fact that the man was able to interact with the real world hinted that there was an opening or a window through which mana could go. If Julius could find this, then it meant he’d find Erek.

So, while he was being bombarded by various attacks, he began investigating every particle of air. But he only did that for a minute or two. Because he quickly remembered the mark on the man was still active.

He grinned and reached out with [Phoenix Mark]. The skill and his willpower were still firmly connected. The man had commented that he was unable to remove the mark, and Julius was about to test whether he was telling the truth and, if so, use it against him.

The connection was indeed still there, but the information he was receiving was different than before. It was a lot more subtle and incorporeal. This made getting an exact position of the mark a lot more challenging, and it took him another full minute to get used to it.

It also didn’t help that he was being harassed by blasts of disruptive mana and the wicked fast tendrils. But not long after, he finally managed to get a whiff of the mark and let out a savage grin.

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