Path to Transcendence

Chapter 594: Kicking Down Doors

He listened to Lily explain what she knew about the Conclave’s hidden base of operations. She didn’t say it outright, but he suspected that her information had been discovered using her mind magic. Not that he had any issues with that.

His opinion on mind magic was very different from that of most people. The majority of the populace were afraid of mind magic and thought it was dangerous. Some even believed that it should be outright banned as a magical practice, much like necromancy and other taboo arts.

He could understand where they came from. In the wrong hands, mind magic could be a nasty magic, and he didnʼt need to have much of an imagination to see what could happen if criminals were able to use mind magic at will.

Fortunately, it was quite a rare talent to have, and most of the time it required an enormous dedication to learn and practice it. Mind magic wasn’t something you picked up after a year of study. Specialized mind mages spent years honing their craft, and even then, there were plenty of risks. Lily had told him of many occasions when fledgling mind mages went insane or brain-dead because of their lack of control.

Stuff like that happened when you delved into someone else’s mind. Only special people like Lily could use it as naturally as she did. In a way, the world was very lucky that Lily’s talent had been born into someone like her.

Imagine what would happen if someone like Garrett Greyson had her abilities and innate talent for mind magic. Julius shivered at the thought of it.

When Lily was done explaining the details of what she had found, he had half expected Cain and Freya to immediately head out and take care of it for them. To Julius’s surprise, they simply looked at him expectantly. He knew what that look meant.

“Are you sure?” He asked them, pressing his lips together tightly.

Cain nodded and said to him, “Combat will be your best way to get used to your advancement. It will also be a good way to relieve some of the stress you built up over the last day.

“Plus, we will be right there to make sure that you won’t be in any actual danger,” Freya added.

Julius could tell that she wasn’t as much of a fan of this as Cain, but since she wasn’t arguing against it, she must have also thought it to be a good idea. Freya’s comment also put Lily at ease.

As for Julius, he didn’t need any more convincing. He was already grinning as he thought about testing his newfound strength.

***

They didn’t waste any time and headed out for the base. It took a little effort to convince Aliyah to allow Derek to come with them, but the presence of Cain and Freya made her a lot more willing. To be fair, being next to two Tier 6s was probably one of the safest places in the capital at the moment.

That didn’t mean that Aliyah was going to let Derek go alone, though. She had decided to tag along with them.

They traveled through the city and, with the help of Freya’s shroud, nobody noticed them. Not even the dozen or so patrols they passed on their way.

Julius had only been in the “nice” parts of the city so far. That meant that it was a bit surprising to see the rest of the capital. The district they were heading towards wasn’t like the inner districts where the rich and nobles lived.

These districts held the commonfolk and the poor. He wouldn’t call them slums, but they certainly weren’t as pretty or clean as what he had seen from the capital so far. The disparity was quite eye-opening, and he had to remind himself that not everyone lived such easy or luxurious lives. Most people in these districts were probably living from paycheck to paycheck.

It was quite late at night, so it was surprising to see so many people still out and about. He spotted several injured people on the side of the road. One of them was a young boy, not much younger than himself. He had a huge bleeding wound across his forehead as he tended to what looked like his sister. The girl was even younger than the boy and was covered in dust and blood. She was sobbing as her brother tore off his tattered shirt and wrapped it around the large gash on her forearm.

Julius’s heart clenched upon seeing this scene and quickly spotted the reason why these children were in such a shit condition. With his advancement, he was able to use his perception skill with more ease than before. This meant that he wasn’t as hesitant about extending [Absolute Spatial Perception] far out.

It was still a lot of information, but his improved mind could filter out the details more easily than ever before. He almost wished he hadn’t, though. He was able to see everything.

About a couple of blocks ahead, the entire block was leveled. There were so many dead bodies around the area that he felt a little sick. He was used to death, but those were deaths that occurred during actual fights.

The scene in front of him wasn’t a fight. It was a tragedy. People of all ages were lying dead, most of them crushed under the weight of fallen buildings. The ones who were unlucky enough to survive either suffocated as their lungs were crushed or bled out. He spotted dozens of people mourning over their loved ones and a team of guards going around helping whoever they could. He even spotted a small team of healers going around helping the injured.

“The entire capital is like this?” He asked quietly.

Lily must have sensed his emotions and gently infused some of her mana into him, calming him. “Yeah, they hit everywhere.”

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“What was the reason for attacking a place like this?”

“There could be a lot of reasons. It might have been a specific target or just collateral damage from a fight. It’s hard to tell,” Aliyah said solemnly.

Julius didn’t respond; he simply looked at the destruction, a disgusted expression on his face. He understood that death was a thing of life. But this felt… wasteful and unnecessary.

He glanced back at where the brother and sister were huddling together. He took control of his mana and was about to send a healing pulse toward them, but he stopped himself.

It had already been a struggle to control his healing abilities when he was Tier 3. He didn’t feel confident in controlling his mana and Phoenix Concept just yet. With a frustrated twitch of his nose, he let the mana settle.

However, Freya must have sensed what he was about to do, and he watched as a soft glow of mana radiated from her. It was subtle and hidden behind her shroud, but the effects weren’t. He watched as the children’s injuries were healed in a matter of seconds.

The sister stopped sobbing and looked around with confusion. She began touching her injuries, shocked at their disappearance.

It wasn’t just them either. The rest of the injured in the area were similarly healed. He heard people cry out in surprise and look around for who had performed this miracle. He even spotted a couple of people kneeling down on the broken rubble, as if thanking the gods for their intervention.

As for Freya, she had an impassive look on her face as they continued on their way to their intended location. However, Julius reached out and gave her hand a thankful squeeze. Only then did a small smile grace her lips.

***

When they reached the location of the hideout, he wasn’t sure if they had the right place. His senses weren’t able to detect anything. However, Casey Vale had demonstrated that his perception skill wasn’t as perfect as he liked to believe. She had been able to avoid his detection. Even though he had been distracted by the allure of pastries, he should have still been able to detect her. Hence, he was pretty confident that she had a way to skirt around his awareness.

He got the feeling that she had hidden from his awareness. He might have been able to ‘see’ her. But his mind hadnʼt picked up on her as a threat. Sort of like she had blended into the environment. It was an important lesson and a reminder that there were many skills in the world that he couldn’t always be prepared for.

So while he wasn’t able to sense anything, he wasn’t shocked when Freya told them they had the right place. She must have picked up on something. Julius felt her throw up a field around the entire property, isolating it and likely preventing the enemy from escaping or sending out any messages.

They didn’t tell him anything about what he would find inside.

It was supposed to be a test of sorts, so doing everything for him would be a bit much. It was already quite gracious for Cain’s standards that he had gotten this much help. He must have been taking it easy on Julius, considering he had almost died not even a day ago.

At least, now he wouldn’t have to worry about someone escaping or relaying information to the Conclave.

“Wait, so we are just supposed to stay out here and watch?” Aubrey exclaimed.

“Nobody said you had to come,” Julius pointed out.

She huffed. “Fine, but at least leave some for us,” she muttered quietly.

He didn’t respond and instead headed toward the building. They were in an abandoned part of the city, and there were only a few people in the outlying areas that he could sense. He thought about sneaking in and trying to be stealthy, but unfortunately, he didn’t have any stealth skills to speak of.

Thus, he chose to go through the front door.

The moment he got within five feet of the door, he felt himself pass through an invisible boundary. He had already sensed that something was there, and he could feel something pressing up against his mind as if dissuading him from crossing it. But he ignored it pretty easily.

The second he crossed the boundary, his perception skill worked again. He examined the buildingʼs general layout and detected a large group of people. It was honestly a lot more people than he expected.

However, he felt his anger slowly building when he saw what these people were doing. From what he could tell, most of them were drinking and celebrating. A complete contrast to what he had seen on his way over here. He also spotted something in the basement. There were a lot of things piled up in boxes, but more alarming was the large number of cages. They weren’t empty either. These cages had people inside them.

His face curled in disgust as he examined the prisonersʼ condition. If he hadn’t been sure that this was the right place before, he was sure now.

He could have used [Void Step] to bypass the door, but he decided to forgo subtlety in his anger. He knew what Cain and Freya were offering him by taking him here. And he was going to use this opportunity to vent his pent-up stress.

He activated his trio of kinetic skills. He also fed fire mana into the crown, letting the ruinous flames drip down from it and onto the ground. The flames sizzled as they burned away at the stone and dirt.

He took control of these energies and coiled them around his leg, enhancing his new Tier 4 body. Unlike the session he had with Cain, Julius didn’t care about control; he focused on pure strength. He was going to let loose and see just how much stronger he had gotten after his advancement.

He could feel the powerful enchantments on the doorframe thrum with power. If it was before he advanced, he didn’t know if he could break through. He would likely have been forced to use [Void Step] to get past it.

However, things were different now. He took his time and reinforced his body, specifically his leg, several times with his aura, letting his newly developed Authority flood into it. He immediately felt his aura synergize with the Seed of Authority with a hunger he hadn’t seen before.

Then, once he was ready, he activated [Void Strike], the spatial energy adding another layer to the already powerful technique. Unlike before his advancement, using the skill seemed so simple. His mind barely strained as it used seven powerful skills at once.

He let the accumulated energy reach a pinnacle, and before it could start to leak out, he detonated everything at once as his foot slammed into the doorframe.

His body didn’t so much as flinch upon channeling so much violent energy. It handled it as if it were made for it. Which, in a way, it was.

Several powerful enchantments flared up, recognizing the attack and trying their best to absorb and dissipate the force of his kick. However, Julius’s ruinous aura and flames ate away at the enchantments like they were tinder.

The door flexed for a brief moment before fully buckling, and an ear-shattering explosion rocked the building. He sensed alarms going off, alerting the people inside. But he didn’t care.

He strolled through the threshold, barely passing a glance at the now brutalized bodies of the two guards who were sitting on the other side of the door. He had some anger he needed to release, and he felt these people would be the perfect way to do it.