Path to Transcendence

Julius got completely lost in the moment. It was partially because he was so focused on fighting the Tier 5, but it was also because it was easier to just ignore the pain.

Exploding and mangling his own body wasn't something that was easy to do. No matter what kind of 'experience' he had with self-inflicted punishment, this was a step further than ever before.

With that being said, he was proud of how well he was able to keep up with the Tier 5. He knew that the man had been taking it easy on him, but it was still notable that the man wasn't able to just beat him down like nothing. He had to put some effort into it.

However, when he sensed another two individuals show up unannounced, he lashed out instinctively, not even realizing they had helped him before it was too late. Thankfully, they were strong, much stronger than the Tier 5 he had been fighting if the way they dealt with him was any indicator.

Furthermore, the woman managed to trap him in the same barrier she did with the Tier 5. He tried to avoid it, but she somehow managed to know exactly how he would move and predicted his movements, trapping him inside the sphere of dense runes.

When he was encircled, everything seemed to stop. His brain shut down and he didn't even recognize the flow of time.

One moment he was dodging and the next he was sitting on the ground with the two individuals standing over him.

The man was quite an impressive specimen. While he only had a single arm, the man was absurdly muscular and absurdly scary looking. He had a set of glowing purple eyes that immediately reminded him of Lily's and a matching purple aura that seemed to weave through his skin.

The woman on the other hand was almost the exact opposite. For one, she was extraordinarily pretty. Like, one of the prettiest people he had seen, which was saying a lot considering that most people were attractive the higher the tier they were.

She was tall with ashy brown hair with a pair of sparkling dark blue eyes that examined him with curiosity and had a dazzling smile on her face.

Oh yeah, and both of them revealed some of the most powerful Tier 5 auras he had ever sensed. It made the man he had been fighting seem like a child in comparison. It even made Rebecca's aura seem almost trivial.

"Oh goodie, you are awake," the woman exclaimed while clapping her hands together. "Are you okay? Ah, you must be low on mana, take this," she said while pushing a crystal bottle of what seemed to be a mana potion into his hands.

"Calm down, Stella, let the boy breathe. He still is missing a couple of limbs," the one-armed man said to the woman.

"You calm down, Marcus," she argued back. "I'm well aware he is missing a few pieces. That's why I gave him the potion. His healing skill seems to be more efficient than any healing potion we could offer him."

"Yes, but you could let him actually focus on healing before you start yapping at him."

"Bah! You saw him, his healing skill, or whatever he uses to heal is good enough that a little distraction wouldn't hurt its effectiveness. I am more concerned about the pain or rather his lack of reaction to it," she said with a curious frown.

"Don't even think about trying to break down his skills. It is not the time nor the place. We are here to rescue him, not use him as an experiment for skill development."

He watched them bicker at each other for a moment before he spoke up.

"What is going on? Who are you two?" He asked confusedly as he opened the bottle he was handed, smelling it as he did so.

Huh, seems like the other mana potions I have in my storage, but much more potent.

Still, he didn't consume it. Instead, he took one of his own out of his storage and chugged it down because she was right about one thing. He had practically no mana left in the tank. He was running on fumes. But as he downed the potion, he immediately felt a rush of mana flood back into him.

It wasn't quite the same feeling of his own mana, and had this almost plasticky feeling to it, but it was enough to channel his healing skill to help start regenerating his limbs.

"My name is Marcus Avery and this is Stella Quincy. We have been looking for you for a little while," the man said to him.

Julius frowned at him. Why would they be looking for him? He couldn't think of anyone who might… never mind.

He let out a loud sigh that had all of the emotions of exasperation, gratefulness, and amusement. He knew exactly who it was. The purple eyes should have been the first hint.

"Lily?" He asked in a knowing tone.

He saw the man smirk at that, giving him all the confirmation he needed.

"Indeed, Lady Lily was the one who sent me after you," Marcus said.

Julius sulked and leaned back, ignoring the itching feeling he got from his regenerating limbs. "I knew I should not have mentioned which part of the Empire I was in."

The man's purple eyes shimmered with amusement. "It did make my job easier to be fair."

Julius turned to the woman who was pouting off to the side. Looking upset that he had rejected her potion.

"I noticed that he said Lily only sent him and not you. What did he mean by that?"

The woman perked up as he spoke to her. "Oh! I was sent by my young master to find you as well," she said with pride.

"Young Master? Wait, you said you're last name is Quincy?" He asked with interest.

She nodded her head and then curtsied at him. "Yep, a proud member of the Quincy family, Stella Quincy at your service."

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"So you are related to Kyle then, huh? I'm guessing he is the one who sent you after me too?"

"Actually, it was young master Derek who sent me after you. Well more specifically, it was his father who assigned me, but it was all on behalf of the young master's request," she clarified.

"Oh yeah, Derek did mention his family and Kyle's worked closely together," he murmured.

"Hmmhm, we Quincy's and Zenith's have been working together for many years," she said enthusiastically.

Julius nodded his head, already aware of the relationship between House Zenith and Quincy. It did feel weird though. How did they manage to find him? While he understood that he mentioned that he was in the northeastern region of the Empire, he never specifically said where he was. Additionally, he found it hard to believe that they were able to track him down in such a manner.

"How did you guys find me?"

"Oh, that was easy. I just followed Marcus here. He has this special knack for finding people and things. And even though he tried to lie to me, I just followed him until he eventually found you."

"I didn't lie."

"You didn't tell the truth either."

"Godfrey is right there. You literally just captured him," Marcus said while pointing at the sphere behind Julius. One much like the one he was captured in for a moment.

Oh, so his name is Godfrey, huh?

"Valid point! But you could have told me that you were going to find Julius alongside him."

"I didn't know that for certain," he said unconvincingly.

"But you knew it was likely right?" Stella asked.

The man's noncommittal answer was all she needed. "See, this is why I stayed with you."

"Well now you can leave, I got the boy and so the mission is done," Marcus told her.

"You mean I got the boy and this 'man'. Don't even think about stealing all of the credit."

Marcus rubbed his face with his lone arm. "Credit? You just admitted that I was the one who tracked them down and you were just following me."

"Yes, but I also was the one who actually captured the Tier 5 and Julius. I should be the one who gets to take them in with you."

Julius frowned as he heard them discuss things but had to interrupt.

"Wait, what do you mean by taking me in?"

The two of them looked over at him.

"Isn't that obvious? We are going to take you back to Heston," Stella said like it was a silly question to even ask.

He shook his head. "I'm not going."

"What? Why not?" She asked with genuine confusion.

"I can't exactly up and leave. There are other people I have to let know before I head back to Heston," he told her.

"Like House Easten?" Marcus asked.

He looked over in surprise. "Actually, yes. How did you know that?"

The man smirked. "I went over to talk with House Easten a little bit ago to try and find you. I knew that you had some sort of connection with them based on my observations, but they clearly weren't willing to divulge any information."

He tilted his head at the man's response. "How did you know I had a connection with House Easten?" As far as Julius knew, his presence was quite lowkey. Only a small number of people even knew of his existence within the Easten household.

"Like Stella said, I have my ways of finding people and things," Marcus said mysteriously.

Understanding he wasn't getting anything else from the man, he asked his next question. "Who did you talk with?"

"Marquis Easten himself."

"Hm, and you told him why you were there and who sent you?" Julius asked.

"Yes, and the man didn't care. He simply sent me on my way. I am not sure what you did to have a man like Casidus Easten personally invested in your well-being, but he didn't share anything with me. Not even when I levied House Violet's influence against him."

That was nice to hear, Julius had enjoyed his time at House Easten, and seeing that the Marquis had not sold him out so easily was a good sign. He did feel a bit worried about the potential backlash they might receive because of that though.

"Well since you already know, I hope you don't mind that I follow through with the job I was doing for them," he said to both of them.

"You mean this farce which happened to put you in such danger?" Marcus asked with a slight edge to his voice. "I am sure that Lady Lily will not be happy to hear that House Easten has sent you on such a dangerous mission."

"Neither will House Zenith or Quincy," Stella added firmly.

"It was not that dangerous."

"You were getting thrashed by a Tier 5 when we arrived, literally blowing yourself up to just keep up with him," Stella said bluntly, with mainly disgust but also a little bit of respect coloring her voice.

He was about to argue but realizing she had a point, he stopped and paused for a moment. "It wasn't supposed to be that dangerous. The plan was to lure out a few of their Tier 4s," he said, pointing to where the Tier 4 woman and assassin were still on the ground.

"Ah yes, a Tier 3 child fighting against a bunch of Tier 4s. Totally normal and expected," the purple-eyed man said sarcastically.

"Hey, it would have worked if there wasn't a Tier 5 in hiding, okay?"

The man groaned as he rubbed his stubble once more. "I am going to have some choice words for Casidus Easten and whoever else planned this operation."

"Oh, so that means you aren't taking me back to Heston?"

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"Oh no, we definitely are. But I don't see a harm in taking you back to Blumand first to settle your stuff there," the man said.

"Oh." Honestly, he was kind of hoping that they were going to let him head back to Heston on his own time. He had been kind of enjoying his time away from school, even though he missed his friends.

"We can probably grab the princess while we are there too," Stella added casually.

"Wait, you know about Reinera?" He asked, slightly nervous.

They ignored him.

Marcus frowned at the woman, "I was told that the princess was not a priority and that I could allow the Royal Family to take care of it. My only concern is this 'dumb' boy."

"Hey!'

Marcus turned to him with a frown. "Not my words, Lady Lily's words when she described you. Also, considering that I found you blowing yourself up into little pieces as you attempted to fight a Tier 5, I am going to have to agree with her description of you."

Okay, fair point, but more importantly…

"She really called me dumb?"@@novelbin@@

Marcus gave him a sympathetic look. "She used many other choice words, but that was the general gist of it."

Julius moped as he heard that. That was hurtful to hear but not surprising.

"You might not have instructions to grab the princess, but I was told that I was to take her with the boy if the opportunity allowed for it," Stella explained, ignoring their side conversation.

Marcus shrugged. "Do what you want. I am only here for the boy, I couldn't care less about the girl."

Julius gave the two of them one last pleading look.

"Does this really mean I have to go back to Heston with you two after?" He was really hoping that he could stall it.

"Absolutely," Marcus said with no room for arguing.

He paused at that. "What if I say no?"

It was Stella who responded. "Then you can join him," she said while pointing at the scary sphere of runes that contained the Tier 5 with ease.

He swallowed nervously. "That's okay, I don't think we need to do that."

"Good, that makes things easier," she said brightly.