Path to Transcendence

Chapter 758: Plenty of Time

A deluge of lightning surged through his body and fried all of his nerve endings. He thought Derek’s lightning was powerful, but this was completely different.

This was more brutal and cruel than Derek’s lightning. And it wreaked havoc on Julius’s organs. That being said, he still slammed his knee into the man’s torso and even crashed his forehead into the man’s chin.

The headbutt was actually more effective than he hoped for. Evidently, his opponent hadn’t been expecting this, and for the first time, they reeled back, the mask slightly crooked. Julius didn’t let this opportunity slide, and he kept on the attack.

He didn’t care about the damage he was taking at the moment. He shoved all of his pain to the side and lost himself in the chaos. The only thing on his mind was taking down this masked bastard.

That being said, it wasn’t so simple. Julius could tell that his attacks were connecting, but he didn’t get the sense they were doing all that much damage. It was becoming quite apparent that he was losing out on this exchange.

He was tempted to heal himself completely, but he held back. For one, he didn’t want to show his healing card quite yet. But he also didn’t think it would be good for this person to find out about Julius’s healing. They probably already realized that Julius had some kind of regeneration skill, but since Julius was relying on his passive healing, they shouldn’t realize just how powerful [Phoenix Incarnate] was.

Not to mention, he doubted the man would have held back as much if he knew just how much punishment Julius could take.

However, he started to realize that he wasn’t going to have much of a choice given a few more moments. The red lightning was an insidious thing, and it was accumulating damage faster than his passive healing from his Ruinous Phoenix Body could handle. It was only thanks to [Lord of the Dying Sun] that he was able to withstand this much as is. If not for the new legendary skill, he suspected that his body would have already been fried and forced to use his healing skill just to stay alive.

On the bright side, he enjoyed the faint flicker of confusion coming from the masked man. It was clear that the man hadn’t expected Julius to tank the lightning as well as he did.

Julius slammed an elbow towards the man’s head. It was blocked, and he got a knee in his stomach for his troubles. He grunted and felt blood lurch up to his throat. He looked up and smiled manically, spitting that blood straight towards the man’s eyes.

A flash of lightning and aura rippled forth and destroyed the blood before it could reach him. But Julius used that slight moment to increase the output of his flames from his body and his crown.

They were another thing that was helping keep the lightning at bay. Their intensity and ruinous nature somewhat blunted the peril of the lightning. They were helping him barely keep up.

Barely.

That being said, it wasn’t something he could keep up forever. He was forced to acknowledge that it wasn’t working and toned it down when he noticed the damage to his own body was more than he was dealing out.

He grunted unhappily but understood that this wasn’t working as he hoped, and so he was disengaged. The masked man didn’t seem like he wanted to let Julius go, though. He wrapped his own arms around Julius and kept on sending larger and larger surges of lightning through his body. It almost felt like the man was testing out how much lightning Julius could handle.

Julius twisted his body and sent out large bursts of flame and kinetic energy, but no matter what he tried, his opponent’s grip was too tight. He couldn’t free himself and was forced to activate [Void Step].

The skill might have been stopped previously, but Julius hadn’t really expected it. He had been relying on the skill’s innate nature to slip through any disruption. But this time he was more prepared. The activation sequence for the movement skill slid into place, and just like the previous time, a weird but powerful disruptive effect came crashing down on it.

Since he was more prepared, the skill didn’t collapse; it still held on. But he still couldn’t fully activate it. He grunted in exertion, though, and started to shove as much of his Authority into the skill as possible.

This seemed to help a lot, though he noticed that [Void Step] didn’t seem to handle the Authority as well as his [Lord of the Dying Sun] skill. There were some stark differences between the two skills, and the ability to handle Authority was one of them. [Void Step] required a more delicate touch; otherwise, his Authority would have overwhelmed the skill.

So he really concentrated and kept a delicate touch as he fueled the movement skill with Authority. Not just Authority, though; he also added a shit ton of willpower. As strong as his opponent might have been, Julius was able to confirm one thing.

While he was lacking in almost everything compared to the man, when it came to willpower, he wasn’t. His willpower was just as robust as the Tier 5s, and so he used that one advantage to help guide him.

He channeled all of his willpower into [Void Step] in such a way that he had never done before.

If there was anything about his current strength that he felt was lacking behind everything else, it would be his Seed of Authority. He didn’t have the innate talent or perfect affinity like Lily or Derek. He already knew this, though. He understood that without the talent of these geniuses, he would find cultivating through Tier 4 a little more difficult than they would.

It was why he pushed himself so hard to develop his skills and various abilities. If he couldn’t keep up with their innate talent and bloodlines, he would use his other strengths.

However, for the first time, he started to truly comprehend the meaning of Authority.

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It wasn’t just about enforcing his will and intent onto the world. He needed to do the same thing to himself. He had to imprint his will onto his own mind, body, and soul. His Seed of Ruinous Phoenix might have been a part of him, but he needed to embody it to truly bring out its potential.

Once he realized this, it was like the entire world expanded. Much as his senses had expanded during his third soul evolution, he felt something within himself shift. His Seed of Authority, which had been slumbering quietly within the depths of his soul, started to flash and come to life.

His willpower, which had always been strong, even at Tier 2, began to flow into this seed, fanning the flames softly and reinforcing it with his enduring resolve.

It was also at this moment that he started to comprehend what his opponent was doing to him and how he was able to disrupt [Void Step] as easily as he was.

He was taking advantage of Julius’s lack of experience and using his own willpower to dilute Julius’s Seed of Authority. It didn’t even require much power; it was actually quite a simple technique in theory, but Julius never noticed it.

Until now, that is.

But now that he was aware of it, he could finally fight back against it.

His body was still being bombarded with lightning, and his insides were starting to shrivel from the overwhelming might of the red lightning, but he didn’t give it so much as a second glance. He let his confidence in his body’s resilience calm him and instead began working on his Authority.

It was a little awkward, but he tried to mimic the way his opponent used their willpower on his seed. He made a few mistakes and had to start over, but he didn’t get frustrated. He let [Calm Before Ruin] keep his mind still like water. And then he began to build a protective shell around the seed. Not only that, but he extended that shell around [Void Step] as well.

It was astonishing to feel the sudden release of pressure that was on his seed. A pressure that he had barely noticed until a few moments ago.

The disruptive energy that was attacking the skill was kept at bay. At least long enough for Julius to give one last push and finally manage to activate [Void Step]. With a twist of spatial energy, he teleported away from the man’s grasp.

He immediately flooded his body with kinetic energy and prepared for the man to chase after him, but to his dismay, the man stood there with what Julius could only describe as delight.

The masked man lifted both hands and started to clap.

“Wonderful! Truly amazing! A little rough, but you actually managed to create an anti-suppression technique on the fly,” the masked man said with excitement. “There’s no way I’m leaving you behind now.”

Julius stood there, panting, as his passive regeneration healed his severely wounded body. The lightning had done a number on him. Large spiderweb-like lacerations covered his entire body. His skin was cracked and bleeding everywhere. He could barely see because one of his eyes was fried and the other was drowning in blood.

Yet the man seemed concerned only with recruiting Julius. He wasn’t taking him seriously at all. Which sort of pissed Julius off.

“It’s been longer than thirty seconds; I think you’re supposed to tell me who you are now,” Julius said with a breathless gasp.

For some reason, the man didn’t seem very thrilled to be reminded of this. In fact, he seemed a bit annoyed. That made Julius a little happier. He might not have been able to hurt the man physically, but it seemed emotional damage was super effective.

That being said, it seemed the man was true to his word, and despite clenching his fists, he answered Julius. “It’s Caiden.”

Julius was actually surprised to be given a name. He half expected the man to blow him off and just beat him up some more instead.

“And you are?” Caiden asked after a few moments, walking towards Julius again.

“Oh… Would you look at the time?” Julius said, glancing down at the imaginary watch on his wrist with an awkward chuckle as he moved backward. He’d already delayed quite a long time, and so he hoped that Kaito would come to help him. But alas, Kaito was off somewhere, leaving Julius all alone to handle this monster.

“We got plenty of time,” Caiden said with a roll of his shoulders and advanced towards Julius.

“No, seriously. Didn’t she say that you had to get going? You don’t want to be late, right?”

“The only reason why I needed to get going was to get all of these losers out of here safely. But I think I found a better prize,” the man said with an intense glare.

“I’m a terrible prize. I was just lucky and used a bunch of items. That's the only reason why I managed to keep up so long,” Julius lied.

He was already preparing to heal himself at a moment’s notice. As much as he wanted to fight and learn something new, he also had fought enough people to understand when he was outmatched. Unfortunately, this man, Caiden, seemed to be one of these people. And if they resumed their fight, there was no way Julius could keep up without showing off his healing skill. He definitely didn’t want to do that, especially considering there was no way Julius could stop him from reporting this to the man’s bosses or the Conclave as a whole.

Hence, avoiding a fight was in his best interests.

“I don’t think so. You have two options. You can either come with me willingly, or I can beat you unconscious and drag you back by your legs. Make the right decision.”

Julius shook his head. “I don’t like those choices. Is there a third option?”

“Third option? You should be grateful that I am giving you two,” Caiden said with a scoff.

Julius let out a sigh and wiped the sweat from his brow. “Well, thank you for that. But I think I’ve found my third option.”

Caiden tilted his head in confusion. “What are you babbling about?”

Julius grinned when he finally saw the realization on the man’s face. Caiden had been so distracted with Julius that he failed to sense the incoming meteor that was Marcus Avery. A flash of telekinesis and an enormous amount of force blasted straight into the opposing Tier 5's chest, launching him a hundred feet across the estate’s yard.

Marcus surprisingly didn’t chase after him; rather, he immediately flashed over to Julius with concern on his face. “Are you alright?”

Julius nodded with a relieved sigh. “Thanks for that. I think he was trying to kidnap me and harvest my organs.”

“You’re still joking even when you look like that?” Marcus asked with a shake of his head.

“That's why I have to joke. It hurts like hell,” Julius argued, doing his best to avoid thinking about his fried nerve endings. Unfortunately, the smile on his face faded when he felt a pulse of mana come from the crater where Caiden had been smashed into.

He and Marcus both reacted at the same time. Marcus threw up a powerful barrier backed by his domain. Whereas Julius created three thick panels made of [Primordial Armaments].

The red lightning tore through two of them like they were nothing but a piece of plywood. Only the third one seemed enough to stop the lightning in its tracks.

He cursed when he saw the dangerous Tier 5 walk out of the dust with no injuries other than a small smoldering wound on his chest from where Marcus had hit him.

Why couldn’t he just stay down and leave him alone?