Path to Transcendence

Chapter 457: Annoyed For Some Reason

“God dammit!” Julius heard from Christina as she picked herself up from the ground.

It had been two days since he had evolved his soul for the second time. In those couple of days, he had gone with his friends to the tournament site, where he officially signed up. They were right, it had been swamped. He could not have gotten out of there faster.

The tournament would begin in a couple of days, and all of them were trying to improve as much as possible before it started. Julius was curious what the first stage would be, but it apparently changed each year and was only revealed on the day of, to prevent people from preparing for it.

He wasn’t too worried. From what he heard, it was a stage designed to weed out the weaker participants and create a pleasant atmosphere for the spectators.

Now, he was back at the Zenith Estate and somehow had been dragged in as a trainer, almost specifically for Christina. Ever since he beat her, she had insisted on challenging him every chance she got. At some point, it had devolved from sparring into him giving her tips.

He surprisingly didn’t mind it. She was insistent and an excellent listener. She didn’t argue when he recommended something; she tried it out and asked questions afterwards. Compared to Aubrey, she was an absolute delight to teach.

He just wished that she would do the same with Derek, who she obviously adored and respected. According to her logic, there was no way she could inconvenience Derek for something so simple.

He didn’t know if he should be offended that she thought it was fine to bother him. He felt like he should have.

He let out a sigh as he looked over at her, where she was beating herself up and also the floor after losing to him once again. Her fists were slamming into the hard ground with quite a powerful force, considering she was a mage.

If there was one negative thing he had to say about her, it was her unreasonable expectations she placed on herself. She believed that if she tried hard enough, she would be able to close the gap between them before the tournament started.

He had bluntly told her that it wasn’t possible. It would take much longer before she would be able to do that. He didn’t mention that he doubted that she would ever get to that point. He didn’t want to crush her hopes completely; he also didn’t want to sound too conceited.

“Why can’t I beat you?” She finally asked him after she felt like the floor had its fill of punishment.

He gave it some actual thought since she sounded like she wanted an honest answer. He rubbed his chin and took a few moments.

“I think it has to do with two main issues. One, is that your body is just unable to keep up with mine. The physical gap is huge, and you can’t react in time. But I know you are a long-range fighter, so itʼs not that big of an issue. The other is just willpower. I don’t know how often you have trained your willpower, but that is a big reason why my aura is so effective on you. I can just enforce my will without much impediment,” he answered truthfully.

She nodded and narrowed her eyes as she processed that information. “Do you have ideas on how I can train my willpower?”

He bobbed his head. “The simplest way is just to clash your will against a more powerful will. It will naturally get stronger, and you will instinctively learn to manipulate it to gain an advantage. I know that there are dedicated tools and training aids, but I’ve never experienced what they are like, so I can’t say if they will help or not.”

“Okay, I think that’s what I am going to do. I don’t think that improving my physique will do me much good, but I can improve my willpower,” she stated with a firm nod.

“Don’t neglect your body. You didn’t see Lily before, but she was very similar to you and your brother. However, she has recently put in a lot of effort to address that weakness. I am confident to say that she has become exponentially more dangerous now,” he said to her. While Christina had a decent physique, there were still some weaknesses that any skilled opponent would exploit.

“You say that, but how many people do you think will be able to rival you in terms of physical prowess?” she asked with a weird look.

“What do you mean?” He asked her.

“How many people do you think will be in the tournament who have the speed, strength, perception, constitution, and reaction time like you do? Be honest.”

He scrunched up his face and thought about it. “I can’t be sure. I am not too knowledgeable about who else might be competing,” he said as honestly as he could. He really had no idea. He knew that the others had been talking about some interesting participants, but he hadn’t been paying that much attention.

From what he had overheard, there were supposed to be some pretty amazing Tier 3s coming from all around the Empire. But he didn’t really know for sure.

“Give me an estimate,” she demanded.

He shrugged. “I don’t know. Not too many, maybe a dozen or two,” he admitted. If he used Edgar as a basis for comparison, he would say that very few people would be able to challenge him in terms of pure physical power now that he had trained with Cain for these past few months.

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Even at the Shattered Winter School, there were only a few Tier 3s who could give him a good fight. While they had better overall control, his output was crazy high.

For some reason, she laughed when she heard his answer. “Yeah, that is about how many I was thinking as well. That’s why I am not too concerned.”

“Why not? That is still a pretty large number,” he said with a tilt of his head.

She scoffed. “I know my place. I might have qualified for the tournament, but I have no actual plans to win it. My only hope is that I somehow make it into the top hundred, although I am not entirely sure if I will be able to do that. If I go up against people that strong, then that means I am really unlucky, or I have already made it to the top hundred.”

He wanted to say something to her, but he didn’t necessarily disagree with her logic. She wasn’t on the same level as Edgar, Derek, or Aubrey; that much was clear. However, she was also younger and likely stronger than they were at her age. She also had the option to participate next year if she was still at Tier 3.

“Are you using this year as a practice run if you participate next year?” He asked.

She shrugged. “If I am still at Tier 3, I probably will. I mainly want the experience more than anything else. It’s not like I am exactly starving for resources or money, like some of the other participants. Getting the rewards isn’t the primary goal for me,” she explained.

He nodded in understanding. It was a good goal to have, and thatʼs what he was aiming for. He was also pretty curious what the secret realm in the second stage was all about. From what he heard from the others, he might find it more useful than the actual rewards from placing well.

He was interrupted from his reverie when Christina shoved his shoulder. “Come on, let’s go one more time. I want to at least get in one good hit before the tournament starts,” she said with a stubborn grin.

He rolled his eyes and followed her over to the practice arena. “Yeah, no offense, but I don’t think that will be happening,” he said with an amused chuckle.

She grumbled something under her breath, but he ignored it and quickly found himself being bombarded by dozens of lightning bolts.

***

Cain and Freya had joined him at the Zenith Estate for dinner. The two of them had hit it off with Derek’s family pretty well. Derek’s uncle appeared to like their company a little too much. Julius couldn’t help but wonder if they knew who they were already.

He had done a pretty good job of hiding their true identities, something they appreciated greatly. Even with his friends, he didn’t tell them that Cain and Freya were scary Tier 6s. They were “assumed” to be Tier 5s and powerful ones at that. But since they were from the Northern Regions, it appeared their reputation wasn’t quite as widespread as in Auraulos.

The only person he believed really knew who Cain and Freya were was Aliyah. Ever since the first meeting, she acted differently around them. If he didn’t know any better, Julius would almost think that she was nervous. Which only made him think it was even more likely she knew, but it was still hard to guess since her aura control was immaculate.

However, knowing that two mysteriously powerful Tier 6s were eating in front of you and being in the same house must have been uncomfortable, so if she knew, he would not blame her for her reaction.

If he hadn’t seen Cain wearing cute matching pajamas, he might not have treated the man with such familiarity.

Speaking of Aliyah, she suddenly stood up at the table. Everyone looked curiously at her, wondering if she had an announcement to make.

“Sorry for the interruption. But I just wanted to inform you three that my husband and Duke Zenith will be joining us tomorrow,” she said with a formal tone, and to most people’s confusion, she turned to look at Cain and Freya.

“I apologize if I overstepped, but I have informed them of your presence as well, Lord Cain and Lady Freya,” she said with a deep bow, and Julius could tell that she was nervous, as if they would smite her for ruining their little secret.

Julius opened his mouth, but quickly snapped it shut when he didn’t have anything actually to say.

I guess that answers my question, he thought to himself.

“See? I told you she knew,” Freya said to Cain.

Cain only grumbled and looked away, knowing he had likely lost a bet and wasn’t happy about it.

“Sorry, I am confused,” Derek said. “What is going on?”

His mother nodded understandingly and glanced once more in Cain’s and Freya’s direction, as if asking for permission. Cain still wasn’t looking, but Freya saw her and nodded once.

Aliyah smiled gratefully. “I think it is time that you were introduced to them properly. This is Cain Steelborn, the Lord of the Shattered Throne. And this is his wife, Freya, the Saint of Winter.”

“What?!”

Surprisingly, this outburst didn’t come from any of the others but Julius. Everyone in the room turned to look at him, but he ignored them.

“That’s your title?” He asked with wide eyes toward Freya.

“I know, pretty impressive, isn’t it?” Cain said proudly. Julius couldn’t even argue against it and nodded solemnly. It was indeed an impressive title; being called a Saint was quite inspiring. He also realized this was where the other half of the school’s name came from.

“Wait, hold up. I have no idea what kind of significance those names mean,” Christina said loudly, standing up and looking very confused. “Who—”

However, before she could finish her next question, her father had teleported right beside her and held her mouth closed. There was a look of fear in his eyes as he stared at Cain and Freya.

That also seemed to answer the question of whether Kayden recognized their names or not.

“See? And this is why we don’t share who we are,” Cain said with a disappointed sigh.

Aliyah bowed deeper. “My sincere apologies. I would love to let you keep your secret, but with my husband and the Duke arriving, it might make things more complicated if they were left in the dark,” she explained.

Cain waved away her concerns. “I really don’t care.”

Julius was about to say something in response, but Lily suddenly grabbed him. She had a pained expression on her face.

“Nobody too important, right?” She asked, repeating what he had said to her about Cain and Freya.

Luckily, he had already prepared for this eventuality and pointed at Cain right away. “It’s all his fault.”

He let out a sigh.

There, now she won’t be able to blame me, he said to himself.

Despite this, for some inexplicable reason, Lily and his friends still had an annoyed look on their faces as they glared at him.