Path to Transcendence

Chapter 390: Cleared

Julius was completely spent. There was nothing left in his tank. He was running on fumes. It was a miracle he was still standing after all of that. Even Drasil was running ragged. The poor spirit had been fueling his healing skill directly, which helped Julius a lot, but considering how much damage he put his body through, it almost hadn’t been enough.

If Julius hadn’t landed that final strike, he would have been truly out of mana. Nothing would have saved him at that point. The opponent had just been that tough. He was forced to rely almost entirely on brute force and his ability to withstand immense amounts of damage, regardless of whether it was mainly self-inflicted.

He staggered to his feet. Now that all of that energy no longer empowered him, he noticed how badly his legs were shaking. They were quivering like a leaf. His skin felt raw from all of the swift regeneration his healing skill had to do.

His mind was the most worn out though. Maintaining control of that much energy and with that much precision was extraordinarily difficult. Despite the fact that he was injured by the vast amount of power coursing through his body, it was still way better than it could have been.

If he had lost control for a single moment, his body would have burst like a little balloon. It took a toll on his willpower just to keep it together. With that being said, it was well worth it.

He had actually managed to beat the demon. It was the first battle in what seemed like forever that he felt outmatched. The last time he felt like this was when he fought the Tier 5, but that hardly counted.

The demon had been very strong. It was only because of his healing skill that he was able to take it down eventually. Of course, he had to thank other abilities and skills, but the healing skill allowed him to survive long enough to use them.

He wasn’t worried about the demon getting up to fight again either. Although he wasn’t dead, Julius was quite confident that he was done for. He had destroyed the demon’s core at the very end. The demon wasn’t even able to manipulate mana anymore.

The demon didn’t have enough strength left to move his heavy body. Plus, he could sense that the demon’s aura was strangely peaceful, as if it had come to terms with its death.

He took this time to remove a mana potion from his storage ring and down it real quick. The foreign mana trickled into his veins, and he swiftly converted it into mana he could use. Despite it being a small amount compared to his entire capacity, just this tiny bit was enough to alleviate some of the fatigue.

His healing skill greedily took this mana and used it to heal the minor fractures he felt running down his soul. His little technique appeared to have caused more damage than he initially thought.

Of course, it wasn’t as bad as his previous soul damage, but it was something he had to be careful not to stress any further. It even occurred to him that he would need to leave before he was able to finish the next floor. He just wasn’t in the right shape to continue.

He had no idea what kind of monster would be able to defeat this enemy and then challenge the next floor. They had to be absurdly strong.

He didn’t care all that much, though. He had gotten what he wanted from this rift already. He was more than fine with leaving without clearing the last floor. Let someone else deal with it.

Julius relaxed his shoulders and slowly trudged his way over to the demon, who was just lying there, barely breathing.

He sensed the massive greatsword he had created not too far away. He closed his eyes intensely as he tried to bring it closer to him. Even this much had him groaning with exertion and when he finally had it hovering in front of him, he let out a sigh.

The demon was still conscious and was staring at him the entire time as he brought over the sword. Its body was completely ruined, but some life was still behind those dark ruby eyes. When the demon saw the hovering sword that had severed it in half, it closed its eyes and waited for death to come.

However, after a few moments and nothing happening, the scary demon slowly creaked one eye open and chuckled. Julius hadn’t brought the sword over to him to kill the demon, no, that would be extremely wasteful. He had brought it over to repurpose the mana into a chair he could relax in.

“You’re insane. You know that, right?” The demon grunted to Julius.

“What do you mean?” Julius asked with a raised eyebrow.

“You would have done well if you were born as a demon.”

Julius frowned. “What’s wrong with being a human?”

“Other than being weaker and dumber than demons?” The demon asked with a sarcastic tone before coughing weakly.

“You do realize that a human beat you, right?”

“I know, that’s why I said you would have done well as a demon. Your talents would have been appreciated more than humankind likely does,” the demon said matter-of-factly.

“Talents?”

“Don’t even start with that shit. If I hear you tell me that you aren’t talented or something like that bullshit, I will actually get up and strangle you with my last breath,” the demon said, very annoyed at Julius for some reason.

“I would like to see you try to get up. I don’t know if you realized this, but you don’t have any legs,” Julius said with a blank look.

“Don’t tempt me.”

Julius sighed and relaxed into his chair. “What the hell is that halo around your head?” He asked the question he had been curious about since the moment he saw it.

“Just a little special thing I created when I was younger,” the demon said with a smug grin, clearly understanding that Julius wanted a more detailed answer but refusing to entertain him.

Ass, Julius thought to himself.

“Okay, at least tell me your name?” Julius asked with a shake of his head.

The demon paused at this, and the smug grin fell from his face. He thought about something for a little bit before he eventually looked Julius in the eyes.

“It’s Savath,” he said with surprisingly respectful eyes.

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Julius nodded gratefully. “Mine is Julius,” he replied.

“Julius, huh?” Savath said with a grin. “It’s nice to put a name to the human who killed me.”

“You wouldn’t be the first Tier 4 I killed if that makes you feel any better,” Julius said.

“It doesn’t,” Savath said with a glare.

“Sorry.”

He wasn’t, at least not that much. After all, the demon had just been trying to kill him moments ago. However, Julius didn’t like to harbor that many grudges. He already had enough as is, and they were annoyingly heavy to carry around.

The two of them remained silent for a brief moment. “What is that healing skill of yours? How the hell were you able to feed it more mana? It must have been extremely draining,” Savath eventually asked.

“Just a little special thing I created a while back,” Julius said, with the same smug grin the demon had just given him moments ago.

He saw a twitch of irritation cross over Savath’s face. “Fair enough,” the demon muttered and waited a moment to speak.

“My skill is called [Demon’s Pride]. It is a physical manifestation of my Authority and something that gives me an edge against all other Authorities,” Savath suddenly explained.

“[Demon’s Pride], huh?” Julius repeated with a grin.

“Don’t even start.”

“What?”

“Never mind. It’s your turn,” Savath said with a sigh.

Julius thought about being petty momentarily, but eventually decided it wouldn’t hurt him. The demon would be dead in a few moments anyway. “It’s called [Phoenix Renewal] and relies on both life and fire mana to heal me.”

Savath laughed with mirth. “Phoenix? You crazy human. You shouldn’t rely on it too much, though. There might be a day when you push it too far and end up in my position.”

Julius shook his head exasperatedly. “Thanks for the advice. Anything else, wise ol’ master?”

“Keep on practicing that aura and mana technique. It’s going to be useful later down the road. You already have a unique variation of it, so don’t let it go to waste,” Savath said with a genuinely serious look.

Julius swallowed the sarcastic answer he had prepared and merely nodded his head.

“And if I were offered a skill that revolved around it?” He hinted.

Savath sighed. “I don’t know. It’s your path either way, but I know that some of those skills are easily combined with others if you choose not to specialize in it.”

Julius nodded gratefully for the advice, whether it was something he would follow in the future or not.

“Anything else?” He asked with the same level of genuineness that the demon had been showing to him.

“Be careful with that spatial skill you have. I have only seen a single individual use chaotic space to travel, but I also know it is extremely dangerous. You have that healing skill to help you, but no healing skill is going to come to your rescue when you are trapped in the middle of chaotic space with nowhere to go as your body slowly gets ripped to shreds.”

“Noted, you aren’t the first person to warn me about it. I had a Tier 6 space mage who said something very similar,” Julius admitted.

“Smart man.”

“She’s a woman.”

“Smart woman,” the demon corrected.

“Indeed.”

Another brief moment of silence pervaded the empty throne room. Once again, it was the demon who broke this silence.

“You should really visit the Demon Continent if you have the chance,” he said to Julius.

Julius leaned forward curiously. “Demon Continent? Where’s that?”

Savath let out a weak cough before answering. “You don’t know?”

“No, never even heard of it,” Julius said.

“Where are you from?”

Julius shrugged. “I don’t really know. All I have heard is it being called the Continent. We mostly refer to the regions inside of it.”

“What are the regions?”

Julius quickly explained the Empire and its surrounding countries. Savath had no idea what he was talking about until Julius mentioned the Endless Forest.

“Oh.”

Julius frowned at the demon. “What is it?”

“I have heard rumors about the Endless Forest, and while I haven’t gone myself, I know that many demons have gone exploring there,” Savath explained.

“How do they get here?”

Savath shook his head. “I have no idea. All I know is that you normally would have to cross the ocean to the west in order to get to the Demon Continent.”

“Okay, but why do you make it sound like that is unlikely and not the only way?” Julius asked.

“Because itʼs ridiculously dangerous to do so. I suspect there are other methods to make the trip shorter, but they are unknown to me. Or at least to this iteration of me. I don’t know what memories have been removed.”

Julius nodded. He almost forgot that this Savath is not even the real Savath. For all he knew, the real Savath was dead or perhaps still alive somewhere.

“Come over here,” Savath demanded suddenly.

Julius frowned with suspicion. “Why?”

“I am not going to kill you, crazy human.”

“It’s Julius.”

“Crazy Julius,” Savath corrected.

He sighed dramatically and left his chair to kneel beside the dying demon.

“Okay, now what?”

“Give me a little bit of mana.”

Julius gave the demon a look of disbelief. “Are you sure you don’t have any feelings of resentment?”

“Just give me some, I don’t have much time left. I am barely holding on as is,” Savath said impatiently.

Julius carefully did as he was asked, handing over a small patch of mana, and watched in amazement as Savath took control of his mana without issue. Of course, he wasn’t fighting to keep control, but seeing how fast the demon took control of it was still impressive.

“How did you do that so fast?” Julius couldn’t help but ask.

Savath shook his head. “It will take too long to explain. But once you have an Authority of your own, I suspect you will be able to replicate it easily. Now quiet, let me focus.”

So that was exactly what Julius did, he also inspected every action the demon made. Savath manipulated what little aura and willpower left to create some kind of construct. Julius had no idea what its purpose was.

“Let me see your arm,” Savath told him.

Julius didn’t hesitate and extended his arm. He wasn’t worried because, in his current condition, the demon wasn’t able to hide anything from Julius. He was an open book, and his aura had no sense of malice.

Savath extended the construct, and Julius watched curiously as it gently melded with his skin. The way it interacted with his aura was particularly interesting.

“What is this?”

“It’s a mark that will let any demon know you are a human who has earned the respect of another demon. It won’t stop them from attacking you if they want, but it should let you at least talk with them beforehand. But don’t worry, demons care for strength above all else.”

“And I have earned your respect?” Julius questioned.

“Of course,” Savath scoffed. “I don’t just give one out to any stupid human who hurts himself more than his opponent.”

Julius didn’t bother even to retort; instead, he smiled gently. “Thanks.”

“Youʼre welcome.”

Neither of them spoke as they waited for the end to come. Savath had already closed his eyes and seemingly made peace with his death.

“Hey.”

Julius looked over at Savath one last time. “Yeah?”

“Can I ask you for one favor?” Savath asked.

“Depends.”

“If you get the chance, can you punch whoever put this copy of me in here?” Savath asked with a hopeful grin.

Julius chuckled and shook his head. “I don’t know, I’ll see what I can do, though.”

“Good enough for me,” Savath said with one last rasping breath.

Julius watched as the final willpower Savath was using to keep him alive fell away, and once again, he was left alone in this rift.

Congratulations, Ninth Floor Cleared.