Path to Transcendence

Stephanie POV

She was a bit taken aback by the drastic change in Julius's attitude. It wasn't anything like the smiley and slightly meek boy she had gotten to know during this past week. Instead, she was presented with a boy who exuded confidence bordering on downright arrogance.

Even his posture shifted. It had become much more relaxed but she could also see signs of his muscles coiling like a snake. As if any moment he could strike.

Then George screamed out a warning to the rest of the camp and tried to attack Julius. She was about to step in and stop the unstable man, but in a crazy turn of events, George was completely frozen in place.

All due to the young man whose eyes hadn't left the vast plains the entire time she had been talking to him. George's warning seemed to be the trigger that started the chaos. One moment it was a quiet peaceful night and next, she sensed a wave of auras come crashing toward them.

She immediately understood why this mission was rated so dangerously.

She ignored George who was still stuck in place and took out her staff out of her storage ring. She quickly used some mana to tie her hair behind her, there was nothing worse than getting hair in her face when someone was trying to stab her.

Then she looked over at Julius who still had an unnerving smile on his face.

He says he's not with them, but can I really trust that? She clenched her fist as a wave of indecisiveness washed over her. However, she was made of sterner stuff than her looks may have indicated and quickly made a decision.

"You said that this was all a part of House Easten's plan, so what should we do?" She asked, already setting up several spells around her.

Julius still maintained that annoying calmness as he stared down an incoming horde of enemies and responded in a level tone.

"Take them out. Don't worry about keeping any alive for now. I have no doubt that there will be plenty of survivors to question later. The ones who are more important to keep alive are some of their Tier 4s, they will probably know more than all of them."

She could barely comprehend what she was hearing. A boy not much younger than her brother was talking about killing other humans with such indifference was unsettling. She had only gotten used to such death because she and her team had been sent on many missions to kill or capture vile criminals.

"Is there something wrong?" He asked.

"You don't have any reservations about killing them?" She asked.
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He shrugged uncaringly. "They decided to ambush us in the middle of the night. These aren't exactly the people to give such empathy."

She couldn't help but shrug alongside him. He did make a very valid point.

"What should we do then? You aren't seriously thinking about attacking them without the others are you?" She asked, expecting some sort of strategy or trick.

But to her surprise, he nodded. "It's not a bad idea. It would give all of the others time to get ready."

She couldn't believe him. Where was this arrogant attitude coming from? He couldn't seriously think that he could take them all on by his lonesome. It didn't matter how much he was hiding his strength.

She could already sense multiple Tier 4 auras from the incoming attack.

She didn't bother trying to argue and went over to the boy, grabbing his arm to pull him back toward the others who were quickly preparing in a sleepy haze.

However, she found that she wasn't able to budge him a single inch.

She pulled harder once she saw the first group of people off in the distance. Urgently trying to get him to come back with her to the others.

They were out of position and would only get killed this way.

But just as she was about to use her skills to forcibly yank him away, she sensed a huge gathering of mana. It was so powerful and quick that she almost believed it belonged to some sort of Tier 4. However, it wasn't. It belonged to the young man in front of her.

She observed stunned as the boy, who was a "close combat" fighter weaved an amount of mana that represented a significant size of her pool with ease. The actual weight of the mana made it a little hard to breathe.

All around Julius dozens of small thick pellets the size of her thumb spawned into existence. They were like small blue stars, sparkling in the night. But it wasn't just the amount of mana that surprised her or how amazingly constructed they were, it was the profoundness of each one.

There was no doubt in her mind that each pellet was packed with more than just one Concept. There had to have been at least three different aspects radiating from them.

"Head back to your team," he told her softly. "They are going to need your help if they want to survive tonight."

When she was about to argue, she felt the boy's aura shroud drop for the first moment she had known him. And it was… terrifying.

A monstrous aura that exuded pure death and destruction flooded from him. She choked as this aura seeped into her own aura and started to wreak havoc on it. Thankfully, it was mainly concentrated around Julius and stopped pretty quickly.

"Sorry, still tweaking some things," he said apologetically, with a hint of red flushing his cheeks. "Go back, okay?"

This time she could only nod her head, the residual fear from his aura made her much more compliant and quickly made her way toward the others who had already grouped up.

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"Oh yeah, take him with you," Julius said while tossing George over to her.

The handsome man was literally tossed over to her and she had to catch him with a softened barrier so that George didn't smash his face into the dirt. She quickly yanked the man behind her and met up with the others who were desperately trying to find out what was wrong.

Matt was the first one to notice her approaching and came over to her, taking notice of George who was getting pulled behind her with an upraised brow.

"What is going on Steph?"

She filled him in as quickly and in detail as she could. Thankfully, she didn't have to repeat it either because Rolus had arrived in front of her, listening to her explanation.

After she was finished, the caravan leader looked at the spot where Julius was still patiently waiting for the enemies to arrive with a frown.

"He's planning to take them all on?"

"He said he will give us time to get ready."

Rolus scoffed. "Arrogant children," he said while unsheathing the massive sword off his back. Something he hadn't even done when fighting against the other Tier 4s during this trip.

"He's going to get himself-" The man froze mid-sentence as Julius chose this exact moment to send out whatever attack he had been preparing at the enemies.

She could only watch in awe as several dozen finger-sized constructs screamed through the air toward the rushing attackers. They didn't look like much from a distance, but she had seen how much mana was packed into each one.

A powerful barrier of mana spawned in front of the attackers, attempting to block the attack. It would seem that the enemy's mages didn't see it as too much of a threat because that was all that was done against it.

However, she watched in a mixture of amazement and horror when the barrier was only able to hold a dozen of these pellets at bay for a fraction of a second before shattering like a broken pane of glass.

The rest of the pellets razed the entire frontlines without mercy.

The ground detonated in a deafening explosion, wreaking havoc and injuring many enemies. The lucky people took direct shots and were killed before they knew what had happened. The unlucky ones had their limbs blown off and were left with gaping holes in their torso.

If there was anyone still asleep, they would certainly be up after hearing that.

"Holy shit," George breathed out as he observed the destruction caused by a lone boy, before turning to look at Stephanie with wide eyes.

Rolus on the other hand chuckled like a madman and had an unusually excited look in his eyes that was similar to the one she saw on Julius's face.

"Unexpected, but certainly not unwelcome."

***

Godfrey POV

Their preparations have gone without issue so far. They had successfully baited out all of the member's abilities and the ones which presented the most danger by sending in a carefully selected group of monsters.

It was difficult to decide which monsters to send because if you sent too many, it ran the risk of being suspicious. But if you didn't send enough, it wouldn't push them enough to show their skills.

Their leader and vice-leader were obviously the most dangerous of them. However, there were some other notable members. For example that acid user was quite dangerous if left alone.

That was why there would be a dedicated team who would kill her before she could do much damage. With their abilities, they should be able to kill her before her team could save her. They just needed their front liners to create an opening.

Unfortunately, it would seem that not all plans worked out the way he wanted. Somehow a person within the transport had spotted them.

Godfrey had no idea how this was possible. Crane's stealth ability should have hidden them well enough that they could attack before the transport could prepare.

He shook his head in frustration. He didn't like complications in his plans. Everything had been meticulously prepared but now this forced them to immediately pivot.

He turned to look at Fuval, one of his Tier 4s.

"No need to hide anymore. They know we are coming. Remember to focus on their support members. The vanguard will cause enough chaos for many of our assassins to sneak in, it will then be their job to take them out. Once they make their move, I want you to take advantage of that and hard-press the rest of them. Use the chaos to finish them off. I want this to be quick, we need to be gone before any help can arrive," he commanded.

Fuval bowed deeply. "Understood, Lord Bishop."

Godfrey waved him away and beckoned Crane over to him. "How did they break your stealth skill?"

"I don't know. Not a single person in the past week has been able to notice it, so I am also quite unclear about how they managed it," Crane admitted hesitantly, likely worried about being punished for his mistake.

"Don't worry about right now. Focus on taking out those supports got it?"

"Yes, sir," Crane bowed toward him before heading off.

Godfrey wasn't going to hurt Crane like some of the other Bishops might have for the error. He knew that sometimes people were just unlucky. Still, he would have to punish Crane once this mission was over. If he didn't, it would be a bad message to the rest of them.

It would probably be something light, like reduced pay. Crane wouldn't mind. He would just be grateful that he was going to keep his head.

Godfrey stood by and watched as his group of men charged toward the campsite with haste. They should be fine, according to their assessment the fighters were mostly around B-rank with a few A-ranks. With only a single Tier 4.

The lone Tier 4 felt like an odd decision. With the value of some of the treasures they were transporting Godfrey had expected at least two or three Tier 4s. As a matter of fact, he was about to call it off because of his suspicions before he saw the said Tier 4 in action.

Whoever that Tier 4 was, he was really good. Definitely, on the pinnacle of Tier 4. It also meant that House Easten perhaps was hoping to surprise them with a powerful lone Tier 4 instead of scaring them off with multiple of them.

Furthermore, this attack was quite important. Someone high up in the organization wanted some of the natural treasures they were transporting. Which forced him to proceed. No matter the uneasy feeling he was getting about the attack.

That uneasy feeling ended up being true when he saw a salvo of explosive constructs wipe out a good number of their Tier 3s before the mages were able to protect the rest of them.

Idiots. Why didn't they create more barriers to stop the attack? He could only shake his head in disappointment as a lone person demolished all of their momentum with a single strike.

Although to give credit to the lone person, they were strong. If he had sensed it correctly, they had to have at least three separate Concepts since he felt the presence of a fledgling Emblem in their aura.

This is another unexpected development, he said to himself with a frown marring his face.

"Lyn, go down and help them out. Deal with that Tier 3 before he kills any more of our people," he commanded at the crazy Tier 4 woman who was staying back with him as a backup.

The moment he gave permission to her, he felt her entire aura shiver in excitement. The woman was insane, there was no doubt about that. Godfrey had rarely met a woman so unhinged and who loved to fight as much as she did. Unfortunately, she was also too valuable to kill or leave out of the fight.

"Don't go overboard got it?" He said pointedly.

The woman's pretty red eyes looked at him with an innocent doe-like expression. One that would have fooled anyone who didn't know her. "Aw? Not even a little bit?" She cutely murmured.

"No," he said sternly. "If you do, I will personally go down there and deal with you myself. Is that understood?"

"Spoilsport," she grumbled before disappearing in a flash of movement.