It was the morning after the fight he had with Eren. He was still a little tired, more than he had been expecting when he found out he would be fighting Eren. He had been comparing Eren to the likes of Riven. The mage was clearly talented and skilled; that much was clear. However, Julius didn’t have much trouble beating Riven.

  It had been a hard fight, especially figuring out how to deal with the large, complicated works of magic, but he had a number of skills that worked particularly well against Riven. Another thing Riven lacked was an actual means of threatening Julius.

  Sure, his magic was very scary. Specifically, the ones such as the firestorm that almost burnt Julius to a crisp. But Eren’s sword light, or rather sword intent, according to Freya, had been truly a dangerous ability.

  He hadn’t come across many things that could pierce his barriers with such ease. The fact that it almost took his head off and actually took his hand off was quite the surprise. It was the first time that Julius almost lost in this tournament.

  He was currently walking down the streets of the inner district with a grin. It was quite busy considering how early it was. His match wouldn’t be until later in the day, so he had plenty of time to chill out and feel better.

  Consuming and destroying the sword intent was quite the task for his aura and his mind. That was the only reason he still felt a little tired despite having a healing skill like [Phoenix Renewal]. However, he knew what would make him feel better and immediately headed to a cafe he had found a couple of weeks ago with Lily. They sold the most delicious pastries, and he already had plans to pick up a few for himself and his friends when they woke up.

  It probably wouldn’t be for a while. Lily wasn’t a morning person, and Aubrey had stayed up late at night with him, practicing a new idea she had for an offensive skill. Edgar was probably getting up around now. He was a morning person like Julius, but he also liked to stay at home rather than go out.

  As he strolled down the streets, carefully maneuvering past several bustling merchants, he thought about what Freya had told him after his match. She had told him that she had confronted Cassian on his behalf and negotiated something else in addition to their previous arrangement. Julius wondered what it could have been, but she simply smiled at him and said it was a surprise.

  Julius hated surprises and begged her to tell him. But she remained stubbornly adamant and stayed silent despite his pleading. He sighed and pouted, kicking a stray pebble in front of him.

  His match later today would be against Isaac of all people. It wasn’t that shocking. Julius already knew that Riven or Isaac would likely be in the finals alongside him. They were clear favorites above anyone else. However, their match was quite interesting.

  He recalled that Riven had told Isaac they had fought previously. According to Riven, no winner had been decided. Riven wasn’t able to put Isaac down, and Isaac wasn’t able to pin down Riven long enough to finish him off either.

  However, the arena's limited size was clearly a major factor in the match. Riven had less space than he would have in an open area fight, and Isaac capitalized on it. The large teen was absolutely relentless, chasing Riven all over the field, slowly cornering the mage with monstrous swings of his fists.

  What really decided the fight was Isaac's ability to absorb mana and use this mana to heal himself. Riven obviously knew that Isaac had this ability, which was why he couldn’t use his normal set of skills.

  The hurricane he had used against Julius and Derek would not have been a good decision. Isaac would have simply used this mana to his advantage. However, with the limited space, there wasn’t enough room to outmaneuver Isaac with his flight or teleportation.

  Isaac hunted Riven down with pure aggression. Of course, Riven had several other attacks that countered Isaac’s mana-absorbing ability. The mage clearly remembered their previous fight and made some preparations. Unfortunately, Isaac also had his own preparations.

  He defended himself against all of Riven’s non-mana attacks. He must have evolved or gained a new skill after that chimera fight, because Julius didn’t recognize the new layer of protection covering Isaac’s body.

  Julius suspected that Isaac gained this skill because the chimera had almost killed him with that unusual attack. It was likely the reason why Isaac had been throwing his body against the chimera without care.

  He didn’t know whether he liked how similar their thought processes were when learning new skills. On one hand, it made him feel like a simple brute like Isaac. But on the other hand, it clearly worked to some extent, so he couldn’t say that it was completely stupid.

  Ultimately, this new skill of Isaac’s was enough to deal with Riven and come out as the victor. It wasn’t without cost, but to someone like Isaac, several broken bones and a missing arm weren’t anything to worry about.

  He sighed again, thinking about how to deal with Isaac. Honestly, his best bet would be to meet Isaac head-on. That, as well as utilizing his ruinous flames to stymie his healing skill. Julius was already expecting a slugfest and, surprisingly, wasn’t feeling all that excited for it.

  He already knew that if it came down to this, he would be forced to reveal his healing skill in front of everyone. There was no way he could keep up with someone like Isaac without having to rely on his healing skill from time to time. He was too fast, too strong, too tough, and with that new skill, it would be even more difficult to put him down.

  He had a feeling he would get a headache later today.

  He blew out a puff of air, but perked up when he spotted the cafe across the street. There was already a large line out of the door, but he didn’t mind and immediately slid into the line right behind an older couple.

  He smiled when he saw the husband lean over and kiss his wife on the cheek. They were talking about what kind of pastries they were going to get. Julius was eavesdropping, trying to hear if they had any tasty-sounding recommendations.

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  They sounded so sweet to each other. They were only at Tier 3, but he reminded himself that not everyone wanted to fight monsters and delve into rifts as he did. Most people were satisfied with living a normal life.

  The line slowly progressed, and eventually it was almost Julius’s turn. He waited behind the older couple as ordered. While they ordered, he leaned over at the case to inspect all of the goodies. There were so many options, and he was tempted to just grab one of every type.

  But to be honest, that ruined some of the fun. It was sort of exciting being forced to choose something good. If he got one of everything, then it didn’t feel as satisfying when he found one he really liked. But if he had a selection of three dozen options and could only choose a small number, then it felt like more of an accomplishment if he managed to find some of the best ones due to his ‘discerning’ eye or nose.

  At the moment, he was torn between what kind of croissants he wanted to get. There were so many variations, but he didn’t want to get too many. So he limited himself to choosing just three croissants. He was going to get the plain one, mainly because Edgar had loved that one the most.

  A chocolate one for Lily, she had loved it the last time they came here. But now he had to decide which one was next. There was this really interesting one filled with a pistachio and white chocolate ganache. But there was also a savory ham-and-cheese croissant.

  He flattened his lips and felt his hands getting sweaty as indecision threatened to make him go crazy. He glanced up and noticed that the couple was almost done with their order. This meant his time was running out.

  He was just about to come to a decision when he felt the girl behind him brush her hand against his shoulder. He turned his head around with a frown. He had been so distracted that he didn’t even notice that she had gotten this close. Or rather, she had completely avoided his awareness. It was like she was a ghost flittering past his senses, despite his perception skill being active.

  He grunted as a sudden surge of pain ripped through his body. It was like someone had jammed a scorching hot firepoker straight down his throat and into his soul. It was agonizing.

  He immediately recognized the girl behind him. He had only seen her from far away, but he hadn’t forgotten about her for a single moment. She had been the person who had analyzed his aura at the beginning of the tournament, but he hadn’t seen her since the second stage.

  The eyes of Casey Vale stared right back at him. She had a shiteating smirk on her face as she proceeded to rip his soul into pieces. Her hand had delivered some kind of soul attack, and he was entirely unprepared for it.

  He wasn’t even the first to respond to this threat. Instead, it was his crown that was the first to react. He felt the crown explode without restraint as it defended Julius’s life. Azure flames, tinged black, roared outwards.

  The only problem was that Julius wasn’t alone. He was surrounded by dozens of innocent people. Even the old couple in front of him was far too close for him, and so when he saw the flames about to explode, he panicked. Time slowed to a crawl as he desperately did everything in his power to stop the flames. However, that was easier said than done.

  The crown had already unleashed everything without restraint. He hissed through his clenched teeth as he was forced to use every ounce of his willpower to halt the advancement of the flames. His soul strained under this immense pressure, reining back such a powerful blast of ruinous flames pushed his will to the very limit.

  He didn’t know how he managed to get it under control. But fortunately, he pulled it back into himself. It was honestly a miracle.

  There was a downside to this, though. His already injured soul faltered for a brief moment, and then he felt something rip in half. An emptiness erupted in the pit of his stomach. He knew immediately that something essential to his existence was damaged beyond anything he had experienced so far.

  The only thing that comforted him was the fact that the old couple in front of him was still alive. The flames weren’t completely snuffed out, and they had several large burns across their back as they cried on the floor, but they were alive. That was all that mattered.

  He staggered down to his knees when he felt another strike from Casey pound into his ravaged soul. He held back the scream of agony, and he pushed every ounce of mana into his healing skill. The skill didn’t miraculously heal his soul, but it helped dull the edge of the pain and protected it to some extent.

  He saw the confusion on Casey’s face and reached out to grab her by the neck. She must have had some kind of skill because his hand went straight through her body like it was made of mist. She staggered back and attempted to retreat. But he wasn’t going to allow her to do this.

  He didn’t hesitate to throw the entire weight of his aura at her. He coughed up a pint of blood as he further stressed his soul, but she cried out when his aura latched onto her. He didn’t bother to play nice and let his ruinous aura consume everything in its path. His killing intent rose through the roof, and he smiled savagely when her form solidified.

  He immediately grabbed her by her now tangible throat, and before she could attack him with another soul attack, he threw her upwards and through the roof of the building. He threw her so hard that he broke the thick stone of the roof with all of his anger fueling him.

  He immediately sent himself after her, racing through the hole in the roof. He had done this for two reasons.

  For one, he wanted to hurt her for attacking him like that. She had almost caused him to kill everyone in that cafe with that blast of flames. He would have never forgiven himself for that, and he suspected that was the very reason she had attacked him in such a public place. She wanted him to hesitate.

  He would have killed them all if he hadn’t torn his soul even more.

  He cursed her internally over and over. The fucking coward.

  Secondly, he had sensed that she wasn’t alone. A number of powerful signatures were quickly converging on his location. He didn’t want the people below to get caught up in it already more than they had.

  He caught up with her as she was still flying upwards and grabbed her by the hair, yanking her face down and slamming her nose into his knee. He felt something shatter and heard her choke on her blood. He didn’t let up and slammed her face into his knee once more. Her entire nose caved in this time.

  She tried to get away from him, but he was merciless. He ripped apart her attempts with his bleeding aura. She also tried to attack him with another soul attack, but he was prepared and was already sending his aura to clash with it. Alongside his healing skill aiding him, the soul attack felt like a simple punch compared to the previous violent surprise attack that crushed his soul just moments prior. It still shook his soul, but he pushed through the pain.

  He coughed out another mouthful of blood from the backlash of using his aura while preparing another strike. However, it was at this moment that the converging signatures made their appearance, and he was forced to dodge a blade that almost took his head off and felt another person bind his body with some kind of skill.

  While he was dealing with all of this, someone stole Casey from his grasp and stabbed him in the gut with a knife. He was able to partially dodge it, which was why it hadn’t stabbed him in the heart, but he could already feel its poison coursing through his blood. He could tell right away that it wasn’t a normal poison; it was a very potent one.

  He didn’t like it, but he teleported himself backwards and avoided the swarm of attacks on his position.

  He breathed harshly as he took in his condition. Poisoned, covered in blood, and a damaged soul.

  He scoffed. He had been through worse, and with a manic grin on his face, he waited for his attackers to make their next move.

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