Path to Transcendence

It took more time than he had initially planned, but eventually, he neutralized the poison for the most part. It was a tricky little bugger. He did make sure to leave the littlest piece behind, though. He wanted to see if there was a way for Lily or Derek to find out what kind of poison the assassin had used.

If they could do that, he might be able to figure out who had attacked him.

Once he had sectioned the poison away from his vital organs, he placed his attention back on the two people staring at him.

To their credit, they hadn't disturbed him a single time while he had been settling things. They simply stood there waiting for something.

Lord Holten stepped forward when they saw he was finished with his task. However, before the man could say whatever he had been planning to say, Julius swung his head backward.

The barrier surrounding the area had dissipated, and some people were already coming inside to investigate. Although they made sure to keep a safe distance from the lord, a weird aura pulsating from the man dissuaded anyone from getting too close.

With that being said, there was one exception. The others must have been worried about what was taking him so long and came to look for him. They paused as they felt the warning from this lord's aura, but didn't let that stop them when they saw Julius up ahead.

"There you are! We were wondering where you went off to," Aubrey exclaimed, strolling up to him with a disgruntled expression. However, when she saw the two men standing in front of Julius, she squinted her eyes at them with skepticism.

"Who the hell are these people?" She asked brusquely.

Julius tilted his head curiously when Lord Holten didn't seem offended at all and merely smiled behind Aubrey.

Julius frowned and looked over her shoulder. The person the lord had been staring at was Derek, and the Zenith scion walked forward and placed a calming hand on Aubrey's shoulder.

"Relax, Aubrey, I know this man," he told her.

She looked back with widened eyes. "You do?"

"Indeed," he said before waving his arm at the man.

"Meet Lord Demetrius Holten. He is one of my family's good friends," he introduced before turning to the older man with a grin. "Lord Holten, I apologize for my friend, Aubrey. She means well, but sometimes has a poor choice of words."

Lord Holten bowed deeply to Derek. "No offense taken, Young Master. I am glad to see you in such good health. I take it that you are this young man's friend?" He asked, pointing at Julius.

Derek chuckled. "That is correct. He didn't do anything to bother you, I hope?"

"No, no. I am afraid it is my own apprentice, Franklin, that caused some problems," Lord Holten said with a pointed look toward Franklin.

Derek frowned at this. "What do you mean?"

"I am not exactly sure. I was going to ask your young friend myself before you arrived, but perhaps it is better if you get to ask him yourself."

Derek nodded and looked over at Julius, who had been half ignoring their conversation.

Julius was in the middle of using his mana senses around the area where the woman had disappeared. He was much more concerned about where that woman had made off to and who she was working for than meeting another lord. He felt like he had been meeting a lot of lords and nobles lately.

Plus, he wanted to investigate the mana he sensed left behind before it could fade into the environment.

"Julius?" He heard Derek call out to him.

He put a single finger up to Derek, motioning the other boy for some time to think to himself. There was some kind of residue that he was picking up on. He cranked up his own senses and [Sage of Savagery] to immerse himself in the small piece of mana he was picking up on.

Aubrey being the impatient person as always, was about to walk up and interrupt him. Thankfully, Edgar quickly yanked her back by the shoulder. It would appear that the others understood that Julius was being serious and let him be. Thus, they stood at the side and waited patiently for him to finish whatever he was doing.

He closed his eyes and did his best to throw out his senses in a wide web. Based on what he could sense, he didn't think the woman went very far. Whatever skill she used might have a limited distance she could move.

Eventually, he picked up something and without hesitating for a single moment, he stood up and dashed toward the back alley where he felt the resonating mana. There he was able to find a small remnant of shadow mana and what he believed where the woman had first escaped to.

However, he assumed she had used her skill almost immediately afterward, because there was a similar feeling of mana off in the corner. He sighed annoyingly because he knew there was next to no chance he would find her if she continued to jump through shadows.

When he saw the others show up behind him, following him in the alley, he finally paid attention to them.

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"Sorry, I wanted to see if I could pick up where the woman went before it was too late," he explained.

"What woman? What the hell happened?" Edgar asked worriedly.

Julius gave a quick glance at the two men who had come along before explaining what had just happened.

Their faces went from confusion to anger real quick.

"And this woman really tried to kill you?" Derek asked in an incensed tone.

He nodded and pulled up his shirt to show the small remaining wound from where the woman had stuck him with her needle. The scar was much smaller than it had been, but there were still signs of blackened veins lingering around the small hole.

"I don't know if the poison she used was a skill or something made by an alchemist, but I made sure to save some of it. If possible, I would like to see if you guys can find out where it came from."

Lily instantly came over and bent down to examine it. "So dumb," she scolded him as she examined the poison.

"Where is this bitch? I'm going to break her spine and smash her face in," Aubrey exclaimed.

"As much as I would gladly like to see that, she is gone," Julius said.

Aubrey turned and pointed at Franklin. "Why the fuck did you let her go? What is your problem?"

Franklin straightened up and looked at Aubrey with a disgruntled expression. "I thought he was attacking a girl in the streets!"

"Well, obviously, you were wrong!" Aubrey scolded him.

"Calm down, Aubrey," Julius called out to her before she could get even more riled up.

"What do you mean by 'calm down'? Someone just tried to assassinate you, and the person who did it got away thanks to this idiot!"

"There is nothing we can do right now. The idiot thought he was doing the right thing at the time," Julius explained, but still felt petty enough to throw a jab of his own.

However, even as he said those words, it was much harder actually to believe in them. He was quite fuming as well. He knew that he couldn't exactly blame the man for stepping in to help, who he thought was the victim, but he still let the woman escape.

Even Derek didn't seem willing to forgive the man despite him being Lord Holten's apprentice. The young Zenith ground his teeth as he stared at Franklin, but he didn't outwardly say anything. He bit his tongue, likely understanding that it was just an unfortunate situation like Julius did.

Eventually, Derek turned to Lord Holten. "Do you know what kind of poison it is?"

Lord Holten understood that Derek wasn't in the best of moods and looked surprisingly anxious about that revelation. Julius knew that Derek was the scion of House Zenith, but a Tier 5 shouldn't be that worried about Derek's frustration. It wasn't like Derek was the Duke quite yet. His father and grandfather were still alive after all.

"From the quick look, I was able to tell that it was a death-aspected poison. One backed with an equally strong Concept. If I had to take a guess, I suspect the poison originated from a skill."

Julius huffed in frustration. That was one other method of tracking his attacker down, no longer viable. That left him with only one more idea. An idea that he didn't even know would work.

But left with nothing else, he knew that he had to try, and if it failed, then all he would have wasted was some time.

***

Lily POV

She was outraged. Who would have the gall to attack Julius in the middle of the street in Heston, of all places? They should have known better.

Or perhaps, they were desperate. She could only imagine that someone must have really wanted Julius dead if they decided to attack him in such a manner. The first thing she imagined was that his family or the people who attacked Julius at his home had finally found him.

However, she also had to consider that the mission he had just done for House Easten had something to do with it. Julius had been very instrumental in capturing that Tier 5, whom her family was still in the middle of interrogating.

Speaking of that Tier 5, she had recently gotten a report that there was some kind of failsafe soul contract that they almost activated. Thankfully, they managed to keep the Tier 5 alive, but it also left the man in quite a dire state. They wouldn't be getting much more information from him until they could heal his soul or let it recover on its own.

With that being said, they weren't getting that much information out of the man anyway. Despite House Violet's methods, there was sometimes nothing they could do if there were too many contingencies to protect the Conclave's secrets.

Still, it didn't matter if Julius was attacked by some random person who didn't have anything to do with either of these events. She wanted them found and hand them over to her family so that they could dissect their minds. It was a suitable punishment for someone who tried to kill someone she cared about.

However, as she was fuming in her own head, she looked over at Julius, who looked very odd for someone who had just experienced an assassination plot. Much calmer than one typically would be after such an incident. But it was also Julius, so she shouldn't be too alarmed.

He was thinking about something, though. She could feel the doubt in his own emotions. Still, she didn't pry. If he wanted to share, he knew everyone would be more than willing to listen.

She turned her attention to the two strangers. Lord Holten was a known name to her. Derek and his family had a very close relationship with the man. Derek's own father had adventured with Lord Holten when they were younger.

She also knew that House Holten had sent the man to manage some of the family's business near the Endless Forest. Unlike Derek's father, Demetrius Holten was still delving rifts and trying to advance to Tier 6 as soon as he could.

She couldn't help but wonder what the man was doing here in Heston. Maybe he just wanted to watch the festival and see some family. House Holten had some branch families here in Heston, after all.

As she was thinking about that, she was alerted when she saw Julius walking away.

"Where are you going?" She asked.

He gave her a weird look. "I need some time alone to think. I will meet up with you guys later." She still felt that same feeling of doubt from his emotions, but also something more complex. However, she couldn't quite understand it because he hid his emotions from her.

"You really think that is a good idea? Someone just tried to kill you," Aubrey said to him, as if what he had proposed was stupid. To be fair, Lily thought that Aubrey made a valid point.

"I don't think you need to remind me of that," Julius said with a sarcastic roll of his eyes before taking a firmer tone. "I am not asking for permission from you guys. I need some time to process some things, okay?"

Although it was in the form of a question, his tone made it clear that it wasn't.

Aubrey was about to argue, but Edgar pulled her back before she could and nodded at Julius. "Be safe, though. And don't stay out too long. In the meantime, we will try to figure out who attacked you."

Lily, Kyle, and Derek all nodded simultaneously. She was already planning to send out a message to her family asking for help. She was sure that someone in Heston must have heard about someone hiring an assassin. The difficult part was finding out who to ask.