Ryn
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Chapter 272
🕑 Added 2025-02-03 19:00:05 +0000 UTCJulius got completely lost in the moment. It was partially because he was so focused on fighting the Tier 5, but it was also because it was easier to just ignore the pain.
Exploding and mangling his own body wasn’t something that was easy to do. No matter what kind of ‘experience’ he had with self-inflicted punishment, this was a step further than ever before.
With that being said, he was proud of how well he was able to keep up with the Tier 5. He knew that the man had been taking it easy on him, but it still notable that the man wasn’t able to just beat him down like nothing. He had to put some effort into it.
However, when he sensed another two individuals show up unannounced, he lashed out instinctively, not even realizing they had helped him before it was too late. Thankfully, they were strong, much stronger than the Tier 5 he had been fighting if the way they dealt with him was any indicator.
Furthermore, the woman managed to trap him in the same barrier she did with the Tier 5. He tried to avoid it, but she somehow managed to know exactly how he would move and predicted his movements, trapping him inside the sphere of dense runes.
When he was encircled, everything seemed to stop. His brain shut down and he didn’t even recognize the flow of time.
One moment he was dodging and the next he was sitting on the ground with the two individuals standing over him.
The man was quite an impressive specimen. While he only had a single arm, the man was absurdly muscular and absurdly scary looking. He had a set of glowing purple eyes that immediately reminded him of Lily’s and a matching purple aura that seemed to weave through his skin.
The woman on the other hand was almost the exact opposite. For one, she was extraordinarily pretty. Like, one of the prettiest people he had seen, which was saying a lot considering that most people were attractive the higher the tier they were.
She was tall with ashy brown hair with a pair of sparkling dark blue eyes that examined him with curiosity and had a dazzling smile on her face.
Oh yeah, and both of them revealed some of the most powerful Tier 5 auras he had ever sensed. It made the man he had been fighting seem like a child in comparison. It even made Rebecca’s aura seem almost trivial.
“Oh goodie, you are awake,” the woman exclaimed while clapping her hands together. “Are you okay? Ah, you must be low on mana, take this,” she said while pushing a crystal bottle of what seemed to be a mana potion into his hands.
“Calm down, Stella, let the boy breathe. He still is missing a couple of limbs,” the one-armed man said to the woman.
“You calm down, Marcus,” she argued back. “I’m well aware he is missing a few pieces. That’s why I gave him the potion. His healing skill seems to be more efficient than any healing potion we could offer him.”
“Yes, but you could let him actually focus on healing before you start yapping at him.”
“Bah! You saw him, his healing skill, or whatever he uses to heal is good enough that a little distraction wouldn’t hurt its effectiveness. I am more concerned about the pain or rather his lack of reaction to it,” she said with a curious frown.
“Don’t even think about trying to break down his skills. It is not the time nor the place. We are here to rescue him, not use him as an experiment for skill development.”
He watched them bicker at each other for a moment before he spoke up.
“What is going on? Who are you two?” He asked confusedly as he opened the bottle he was handed, smelling it as he did so.
Huh, seems like the other mana potions I have in my storage, but much more potent.
Still, he didn’t consume it. Instead, he took one of his own out of his storage and chugged it down because she was right about one thing. He had practically no mana left in the tank. He was running on fumes. But as he downed the potion, he immediately felt a rush of mana flood back into him.
It wasn’t quite the same feeling of his own mana, and had this almost plasticky feeling to it, but it was enough to channel his healing skill to help start regenerating his limbs.
“My name is Marcus Avery and this is Stella Quincy. We have been looking for you for a little while,” the man said to him.
Julius frowned at him. Why would they be looking for him? He couldn’t think of anyone who might… never mind.
He let out a loud sigh that had all of the emotions of exasperation, gratefulness, and amusement. He knew exactly who it was. The purple eyes should have been the first hint.
“Lily?” He asked in a knowing tone.
He saw the man smirk at that, giving him all the confirmation he needed.
“Indeed, Lady Lily was the one who sent me after you,” Marcus said.
Julius sulked and leaned back, ignoring the itching feeling he got from his regenerating limbs. “I knew I should not have mentioned which part of the Empire I was in.”
The man’s purple eyes shimmered with amusement. “It did make my job easier to be fair.”
Julius turned to the woman who was pouting off to the side. Looking upset that he had rejected her potion.
“I noticed that he said Lily only sent him and not you. What did he mean by that?”
The woman perked up as he spoke to her. “Oh! I was sent by my young master to find you as well,” she said with pride.
“Young Master? Wait, you said you’re last name is Quincy?” He asked with interest.
She nodded her head and then curtsied at him. “Yep, a proud member of the Quincy family, Stella Quincy at your service.”
“So you are related to Kyle then, huh? I’m guessing he is the one who sent you after me too?”
“Actually, it was young master Derek who sent me after you. Well more specifically, it was his father who assigned me, but it was all on behalf of the young master’s request,” she clarified.
“Oh yeah, Derek did mention his family and Kyle’s worked closely together,” he murmured.
“Hmmhm, we Quincy’s and Zenith’s have been working together for many years,” she said enthusiastically.
Julius nodded his head, already aware of the relationship between House Zenith and Quincy. It did feel weird though. How did they manage to find him? While he understood that he mentioned that he was in the northeastern region of the Empire, he never specifically said where he was. Additionally, he found it hard to believe that they were able to track him down in such a manner.
“How did you guys find me?”
“Oh, that was easy. I just followed Marcus here. He has this special knack for finding people and things. And even though he tried to lie to me, I just followed him until he eventually found you.”
“I didn’t lie.”
“You didn’t tell the truth either.”
“Godfrey is right there. You literally just captured him,” Marcus said while pointing at the sphere behind Julius. One much like the one he was captured in for a moment.
Oh, so his name is Godfrey, huh?
“Valid point! But you could have told me that you were going to find Julius alongside him.”
“I didn’t know that for certain,” he said unconvincingly.
“But you knew it was likely right?” Stella asked.
The man’s noncommittal answer was all she needed. “See, this is why I stayed with you.”
“Well now you can leave, I got the boy and so the mission is done,” Marcus told her.
“You mean I got the boy and this ‘man’. Don’t even think about stealing all of the credit.”
Marcus rubbed his face with his lone arm. “Credit? You just admitted that I was the one who tracked them down and you were just following me.”
“Yes, but I also was the one who actually captured the Tier 5 and Julius. I should be the one who gets to take them in with you.”
Julius frowned as he heard them discuss things but had to interrupt.
“Wait, what do you mean by taking me in?”
The two of them looked over at him.
“Isn’t that obvious? We are going to take you back to Heston,” Stella said like it was a silly question to even ask.
He shook his head. “I’m not going.”
“What? Why not?” She asked with genuine confusion.
“I can’t exactly up and leave. There are other people I have to let know before I head back to Heston,” he told her.
“Like House Easten?” Marcus asked.
He looked over in surprise. “Actually, yes. How did you know that?”
The man smirked. “I went over to talk with House Easten a little bit ago to try and find you. I knew that you had some sort of connection with them based on my observations, but they clearly weren’t willing to divulge any information.”
He tilted his head at the man’s response. “How did you know I had a connection with House Easten?” As far as Julius knew, his presence was quite lowkey. Only a small number of people even knew of his existence within the Easten household.
“Like Stella said, I have my ways of finding people and things,” Marcus said mysteriously.
Understanding he wasn’t getting anything else from the man, he asked his next question. “Who did you talk with?”
“Marquis Easten himself.”
“Hm, and you told him why you were there and who sent you?” Julius asked.
“Yes, and the man didn’t care. He simply sent me on my way. I am not sure what you did to have a man like Casidus Easten personally invested in your well-being, but he didn’t share anything with me. Not even when I levied House Violet’s influence against him.”
That was nice to hear, Julius had enjoyed his time at House Easten, and seeing that the Marquis had not sold him out so easily was a good sign. He did feel a bit worried about the potential backlash they might receive because of that though.
“Well since you already know, I hope you don’t mind that I follow through with the job I was doing for them,” he said to both of them.
“You mean this farce which happened to put you in such danger?” Marcus asked with a slight edge to his voice. “I am sure that Lady Lily will not be happy to hear that House Easten has sent you on such a dangerous mission.”
“Neither will House Zenith or Quincy,” Stella added firmly.
“It was not that dangerous.”
“You were getting thrashed by a Tier 5 when we arrived, literally blowing yourself up to just keep up with him,” Stella said bluntly, with mainly disgust but also a little bit of respect coloring her voice.
He was about to argue but realizing she had a point, he stopped and paused for a moment. “It wasn’t supposed to be that dangerous. The plan was to lure out a few of their Tier 4s,” he said pointing to where the Tier 4 woman and assassin were still on the ground.
“Ah yes, a Tier 3 child fighting against a bunch of Tier 4s. Totally normal and expected,” the purple-eyed man said sarcastically.
“Hey, it would have worked if there wasn’t a Tier 5 in hiding, okay?”
The man groaned as he rubbed his stubble once more. “I am going to have some choice words for Casidus Easten and whoever else planned this operation.”
“Oh, so that means you aren’t taking me back to Heston?”
“Oh no, we definitely are. But I don’t see a harm in taking you back to Blumand first to settle your stuff there,” the man said.
“Oh.” Honestly, he was kind of hoping that they were going to let him head back to Heston on his own time. He had been kind of enjoying his time away from school, even though he missed his friends.
“We can probably grab the princess while we are there too,” Stella added casually.
“Wait you know about Reinera?” He asked, slightly nervous.
They ignored him.
Marcus frowned at the woman “I was told that the princess was not a priority and that I could allow the Royal Family to take care of it. My only concern is this ‘dumb’ boy.”
“Hey!’
Marcus turned to him with a frown. “Not my words, Lady Lily’s words when she described you. Also, considering that I found you blowing yourself up into little pieces as you attempted to fight a Tier 5, I am going to have to agree with her description of you.”
Okay, fair point, but more importantly…
“She really called me dumb?”
Marcus gave him a sympathetic look. “She used many other choice words, but that was the general gist of it.”
Julius moped as he heard that. That was hurtful to hear but not surprising.
“You might not have instructions to grab the princess, but I was told that I was to take her with the boy if the opportunity allowed for it,” Stella explained, ignoring their side conversation.
Marcus shrugged. “Do what you want. I am only here for the boy, I couldn’t care less about the girl.”
Julius gave the two of them one last pleading look.
“Does this really mean I have to go back to Heston with you two after?” He was really hoping that he could stall it.
“Absolutely,” Marcus said with no room for arguing.
He paused at that. “What if I say no?”
It was Stella who responded. “Then you can join him,” she said while pointing at the scary sphere of runes that contained the Tier 5 with ease.
He swallowed nervously. “That’s okay, I don’t think we need to do that.”
“Good, that makes things easier,” she said brightly.
Comments
Jason Beard
Nah she wont be disapointet becouse with how the Story is going she'll already be kidnapped again and in need of rescue
Sean Dawson
Wonder what goodies he will get for the mission being way above advertised. Plus hope Lily isn’t to hard on them. She’s a little scary.
Hamfist
Was just thinking about this while eating dinner and his selfishness in this chapter goes beyond his failure to thank these two t4s for saving him. After a big fight, knowing that Rolus is either dead or at least beaten most of the way there, not knowing anything about the status of the other people he's been hanging out with for this trip, does he have even a thought about any of them? Does he ask if they are okay? Does he check to see of the communications jamming is down so they can call in assistance? Nope. He has a casual conversation about whether or not he really needs to return to school because chatting about his plans for the coming week are more important than the survival of others.
Jeff Thomas
"He dropped down to one knee by her side and started to immediately feed his life mana into her. The only problem was that [Phoenix Renewal] made it very hard for him to heal others. This left him in a difficult spot because he wasn’t able to infuse his Concept into his manual healing technique." he can it just sucks.
Amanda
Ahhhh caught!! I’ve LOVED this whole arc but I am glad Julius is going back to his friends :) I’ve missed everyone. I’m interested in the princess’s reaction to their undercover adventures being over. Hopefully she isn’t too disappointed. Maybe they’ll get to eat some good food on the journey back :)
Corwin
I think Julius can use his Healing skill already to heal others.
Adrian Auriat
i was just thinking the same i don t want that
Adrian Auriat
i was just thinking but julius could add his sharpness concept to the ruinous aura . when he do that Sssssss Haaaaaa
Kevin McKinney
I get that everyone thinks he was stupid in his fight against the tier 5, but if he just admitted he was scared of being taken alive, I think people would shut up about it.
Hamfist
Prick is a little harsh but selfish is spot on.
Kyfe
I'm pretty sure it was a Time-time-out, lol.
Derek Walker
It really makes more sense for Alice to take him on, since having a space affinity is very rare, and where he likely has the least access to relevant information.
DT
That would be amazing
Daniel Hamilton
Really looking forward to the aftermath, what it did for his skills, his emblem, the damage to his soul the fallout from almost being captured by a tier 5 and from his point of view a death battle. Really hoping Dante takes him on as a protégé/disciple. Personal and political ramifications and the attention from the conclave .
Daniel Hamilton
Or at least gain a bit of understanding of time and space concepts
Usernames_are_annoying
Exactly
Daniel Hamilton
Crossing the fingers we will get another one tonight
Daniel Hamilton
He is just very selective of who he shares his cake with haha 🤣
Daniel Hamilton
I’m thinking they’re gonna have to upgrade the reward and resources they are gonna pile on Julius
Daniel Hamilton
Hopefully, he’ll grab an upgraded pair of shackles (new training equipment)
Daniel Hamilton
That would be cool, let me take care of that arm for you. Mind telling me how I can track better? Or maybe be energetic karma concepts
Robert Reilly
LMAO I love this series
Detrox
That would be perfect. Just them talking about it and her maybe describing a scene or two of what she went through. I just don't want to go for the entire "meanwhile" PoV
Rallaster
I actually think we may just get a short replay of it when Julius meets back up with her... I hope, anyway...
Azulmar
Change of pov can be good at times like this. It gives you a bit of separation (though I hope we see the wrap up with the adv guild group first).
Jeff Thomas
in trade for Julius learning how to heal others and regrow his arm
Conrad Manaugh
Wrecked
Usernames_are_annoying
He’s not a selfish prick
greg
Space magic... time to learn and upgrade his spatial senses
Mitchell Calhoun
Of course not, he’s a selfish prick most of the time. He was literally about to die and the first thing he does is complain when someone saves him. It would be one thing if he’d been putting up a good fight but it was clear even to him that the guy was toying with him. It’s fun when a character has low self preservation but he almost seems like he wants to die.
Colby Jordan
In which it will be pointed out that he did beat 2 T4s.. and then his fame skyrockets.
ThoMiCroN
Julius could learn a lot from her to improve his spatial perception at last.
Detrox
Cool chapter, however I am kind of dreading that we will now have to follow a bunch of chapters from the princess's PoV and while she is not a bad character while staying with Julius, I don't know about others but I don't particularly care about her side story. Although, I know that I prefer mostly a single PoV novels where other povs are related to things happening around the MC or foreshadowing, not standalone character development of side characters so it might be just a me problem.
Corwin
Let's go with learning his Space Concept on the Road. And Marcus teaching Julius Tracking skills
Profile Name
Tyftc
William Johnson
House Easten gonna get such a talking to. Thanks for the chapter!
Adrian Auriat
not space concept just curiosity
Usernames_are_annoying
I don’t think he thanked them for saving him. I might be wrong but it would be nice if he did thank them. TFTC!
DT
I hope there's a chapter tomorrow
RedLeaf
Julius, trying to be that "unstoppable force" meets not one, but two (!) "immovable objects"!
Kevin McKinney
Good interactions!
Tom
I'm surprised he hasn't asked to experience it again to try to get his space concept
brennon Petersen
Tftc!
Raymond Mouton
Thanks for the chapter. Smart of Julius, not fighting back further and ending up in spatial-time-out…
Quentin Cozzi
Thanks for the chapter!
