After they discussed his crown and other things, Cassandra had done what she had done before with him. She gave him some advice and several more training exercises to help him with his advanced flames. However, that wasn’t the only thing she did either. She also stayed for a little bit, enjoying the crafting competition with them.

  When the rest of their friends returned, they accepted her appearance without a word of complaint. Julius and Lily didn’t even bother to tell them who Cassandra was. Of course, this was at the woman's request. She wanted to hide her presence a little bit and pretend to be normal. He didn’t blame her for this. She likely didn’t have many opportunities to relax when she was back at her clan.

  Aubrey wanted to ask some questions, but Lily must have sent Aubrey a telepathic message because Aubrey didn’t say a word. Also, Lily wouldn’t be okay with Cassandra if she sensed the woman had hostile intentions. His friends all trusted in Lily’s abilities.

  In the end, the older man who made the Guardian Pillar won. The judges were very impressed by his creation. As was Cassandra. She noted that even Tier 5s would find this item useful and commented that she would find the man after the competition was over.

  Julius suspected that she wouldn’t be the only one either. He already saw several representatives of groups heading toward the man before he even reached the edge of the stage. But he thought she would have a better chance, considering that she was Tier 6 and all.

  They were all walking out of the stadium together. Cassandra was right beside him, licking some kind of sweet treat off a stick.

  “You really should come with me back to Corvus. I think you would love it. My clan could help you advance your flames far better than they could here. The Scorched Wastelands are quite the dangerous place, but for someone like you, it might be a plentiful bounty,” she offered him once again.

  He smiled at her. “I still gotta advance to Tier 4 after the tournament ends. I don’t know what is going to happen after that. Plus, Corvus is far away.”

  He saw that his friends were confused by this conversation, but they didn’t interrupt.

  “Well, the offer will always be on the table. I suspect that your time in the Empire will become more annoying,” she noted.

  “What does that mean?” He asked with a frown.

  She shrugged. “You’re famous now. That fame comes with its own issues. You won’t be able to bleed into the crowd as easily anymore. People will constantly try to find ways to learn more about you or to use you for their own ends. I have already heard of several other clans from Corvus that are here for the tournament, who are trying to find out ways to get you to join them.”

  He clicked his tongue and admitted that she had a good point. His time in obscurity was gone now. He had shown too much, and honestly, he just wanted to advance to Tier 4 already. Freya and Cain were right; he had been putting it off for too long. He needed to stop wasting time. He couldn’t forget his goal of getting strong enough to protect the ones he cared about. Tier 3 wasn’t good enough.

  He was strong enough to fight most Tier 4s, but that wouldn’t be sufficient against any truly talented Tier 4s or Tier 5s. There were plenty of those in the Empire. He had gotten lucky in the past. The times when he had fought those types of opponents were with the aid of someone else. And other times he was forced to be saved.

  Even that chimera wasn’t as dangerous as some of the other opponents he had faced. Sure, the thing was strong and could heal, but it wasn’t truly a dangerous opponent. It had weaknesses he could exploit and wasn’t as smart as other enemies he had come across.

  He was brought out of his thoughts when a hand slapped the back of his head. “Stop overthinking things. Just enjoy time with your friends for now. You will look back at these days fondly. Don’t waste them by sulking,” Cassandra scolded him.

  He nodded. “You’re right.”

  “I know, I’m right,” she said with a smirk. “Now I gotta get going. I have a meeting with some merchant groups later, and Loreyn will be upset if I show up late. Remember to practice those exercises I showed you. They might seem useless now, but they will help you later on. Your willpower is already sufficient to control an advanced fire, but there is no harm in continuing to work on it. And keep an eye on that crown of yours. I don’t want to find out that the thing consumed your soul the next time I see you. You know how to contact me if you need help, right?”

  He nodded with a grin. “Yeah, I’m making no promises about the crown,” he said with a glance upward. “This thing has a mind of its own. But I will contact you if I have any other issues I need to ask you about.”

  “Sounds good,” she said to him before she turned to his friends.

  “Well, it was nice to meet you guys,” she raised her hand and waved before she vanished from sight. Julius didn’t even sense her spatial skill activate. She truly disappeared from his senses. He could only shake his head. Another demonstration of why he needed to get stronger.

  “Okay, who the hell was that?” Aubrey finally asked loudly, throwing up her hands as her patience finally reached her limit.

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  “That was Cassandra. She is the Vice-Leader of the Burning Sun Clan,” Julius explained to her.

  “What’s the Burning Sun Clan?” She asked with a sharp frown.

  “Just one of the clans, a part of the Ten Great Clans in Corvus.” Instead of Julius explaining this to her, it was Derek who spoke up.

  “Is that a big deal?” Aubrey inquired. She really had no idea of what that meant.

  Derek sighed. “You know that Julius mentioned this before, right?”

  “I must not have been around,” Aubrey said with a casual shrug.

  “Or not listening,” Julius pointed out.

  “That too,” Aubrey agreed readily, which had him palm his forehead in exasperation.

  “So what? Is it a big deal?” She asked again.

  “Yes, it's a huge deal. The Burning Sun Clan can be compared to House Zenith when it comes to influence. They are one of the most powerful clans in Corvus, only trailing behind the big three. That woman was probably Tier 6 and a strong one at that.”

  Aubrey started to understand just how important Cassandra was, and her eyes widened slightly. “Wait, so what did she want with Julius?”

  Edgar laughed. “You know what she wanted. She wanted Julius to join her clan.”

  Aubrey turned to Julius. “She’s pretty.”

  “What’s that got to do with anything? You know she has a kid, right?” Julius asked, startled by her question.

  Aubrey smirked at him before Lily whacked her in the head.

  “Stop it. I will blame you if she comes back and kills all of us,” she berated her friend.

  “She wouldn’t do something like that,” Julius said.

  “Are you sure?” Lily asked him with a pointed look.

  He thought about it for a few moments before shaking his head. “No, not really.” He really didn’t know what Cassandra would do if she found out what Aubrey had said. But she seemed like a reasonable person.

  “Either way, let’s not annoy or piss off any Tier 6s, okay? That is Julius’s job,” Edgar commented.

  “Hey!”

  ***

  Two more fights. That's all he needed. Although these next two fights would be extremely hard. This one he was about to partake in was particularly interesting. He looked across the field to inspect Eren. The sword genius was similarly staring at Julius. There was still the same calm expression on Eren’s face that Julius always saw, but he sensed something different about Eren today.

  He couldn’t put his finger on it, though. He narrowed his eyes but continued to listen to the official give the introductions. Neither of them was listening closely. It was the same spiel, and they both wanted the man to finish up.

  When the official finally signaled the start of the fight, neither Julius nor Eren made a move. They continued to examine each other. Julius knew that Eren was inspecting every movement of his aura and mana. He knew this because he was doing the same thing to Eren.

  Julius was really only nervous about the skill Eren had revealed when fighting Aubrey. That last sword attack had been very powerful, and Julius still had no idea what the limit of the skill was. Aubrey tried to explain it to him, but she had barely sensed it in the first place.

  Eventually, Eren made the first move. Julius sensed mana gathering abovehead, and Eren’s signature falling swords were already forming. He was prepared, though, and created several barriers over his head, like an umbrella protecting him from the rain.

  Once he had those prepared, he created several spikes of mana. He fed a little bit of mana into his crown, letting it produce some of its ruinous flames that he infused into the spikes. Eren was clearly worried about his spikes because instead of targeting Julius, a number of smaller swords were already spearing downward. They were aimed at his spikes rather than Julius himself.

  These weren’t the only attacks, though. Eren had created several massive swords that headed straight for his skull. The spikes were already screaming through the air as the smaller swords tried to intercept them. They were fast, though, and the swords only managed to destroy half of them before they reached Eren.

  The other teen didn't panic as he sidestepped these swift missiles of fire and kinetic force. The one spike that looked like it would hit him was turned aside by his blade. Julius quickly sent a few more spikes at Eren while he dealt with the massive swords about to slam into his barriers.

  He had angled his barriers so that they would deflect the swords off course, but he was surprised at the weight of these swords. It was like they were made of pure tungsten. He grunted as it took a lot of his willpower to keep the barriers intact.

  However, it was at this moment that Eren made his move. For the entire tournament, Eren hadn’t willingly engaged anyone in close combat despite being a swordsman. He only did so when he was forced to. Yet, that wasn’t the case for Julius.

  The black-haired sword talent used some kind of movement skill to dash toward Julius, avoiding the spikes heading his way as well. Julius was surprised at how quick Eren was; his acceleration was instantaneous, and his sword was already carving toward Julius without hesitation.

  Julius thought about blocking the sword for a brief moment, but at the last second, he noticed a collection of energy forming on the blade. It was just like the light that had beaten Aubrey in the previous round.

  He didn’t want to take the risk and instead used his accumulated kinetic energy to sidestep the sword. He was glad that he did this, too.

  There was a burst of light, and he felt something buzz across his skin. He sent a blast of kinetic energy at Eren’s face and ducked underneath the sword that cut through his kinetic blast before jumping backward.

  He frowned at Eren and looked down at the ground, and spotted a sword scar ten feet long that was left where he was standing. Even his barrier, which was covering his body, had been cut. If not for the barrier, he might have been injured even though the sword did not make direct contact with him.

  He knew at that very moment that Eren wasn’t holding back against him. And decided that he should show the same level of respect.

  So without further ado, he let immense amounts of aura, kinetic energy, and mana flood into [Pyrokinetic Embodiment of Ruin]. His body overflowed with power, and he grinned at Eren. This was why he participated in this year’s tournament.

  He formed a four-foot-long staff in his hands, composed entirely of mana. He held the staff in one hand behind him as he stalked toward Eren, the staff scraping against the ground with each step he made. His smile widened with each step that closed the distance. He couldn’t wait to see what else Eren had in store for him.

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