The tower itself didn’t have any windows or doors for him to enter through. Thankfully, he had something that could help with that. A little something called [Void Step]. He probably could have used it from the bottom of the geyser, but he was also very wary about using such a mana-intensive skill. He didn’t know if one of the ants would sense that much mana being used. The further the distance, the more mana was used.

Additionally, he didn’t want to waste his mana unnecessarily. It wouldn’t do him any good if he expended most of his mana before he even entered the tower. But fortunately, now that he was close enough, he was comfortable with using it.

The tower itself was a little thicker than anticipated, but he gave a little prayer before he teleported himself inside. There was some kind of anti-spatial enchantment infused in the material of the tower, so it took a little more mana and focus than planned. But he made it in.

He looked around and immediately froze. In front of him stood thousands, if not tens of thousands of eggs. It would seem he had teleported inside the colony’s nursery, or one of them. He had no idea if there were more of these places within this huge tower.

He glanced around to make sure that no ants were around, and thankfully, he didn’t sense anything. He was tempted to destroy all of these eggs before they could hatch, but feared that he would alert the ants to his presence if he did so. And if he learned anything about any species, it was that there was nothing scarier than an angry parent whose children had just been burned.

Instead, he focused on his main plan: investigating this ant tower. He crept past these eggs and found himself peering out of the egg room. He didn’t really have a good idea of where he was going, but he decided to follow whatever direction had the highest concentration of mana and corruption.

He didn’t spot any ants, which was a bit surprising. But he didn’t think too much of it. From what he could tell, most of the ants were hanging out down below.

He stopped in one of the intersections and recognized the similarities of these tunnels to the ones he’d been lost, or more accurately, “trapped” for days. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

He was heading down a random tunnel when his entire body lurched forward and was swept off his feet. It was enormous pressure, and he failed to disrupt it. An opposing willpower came and crashed into him. His kinetic energy control was ripped from him, and he felt the hints of a domain encapsulate him.

Oh shit. He cursed to himself, feeling his body go out of control, and tumbled through the air.

The willpower that was crushing him was oppressive and so ferocious that it took him by surprise. He’d been caught off guard and was being pushed back. He let out a roar as he threw up every bit of resistance at his disposal. He flooded every bit of his willpower into this enemy.

Even then, he barely alleviated any pressure.

But it was enough.

His mind was in overdrive as he constructed his [Void Step] skill and felt the will come down with even greater strength. It must have realized what he was trying to do and wanted to stop him. Unfortunately for his opponent, he wasn’t such an easy target.

He barely managed to establish the structure of the skill before it was crushed, and he found himself slamming into one of the tunnel walls instead of the sharpened limbs of the ant he was being pulled to.

He finally got a good look at his attacker. The creature was an ant, much like its brethren. But this one looked very similar to the Tier 5 he had seen earlier. It was standing on two legs, but rather than being lithe and slim-looking. This one had much more mass.

Julius barely had any time to examine his opponent before he felt that same pull once again. This time, he was more prepared and was already preemptively ripping the technique apart. It was like the ant was grabbing the air around him. He shot out his aura; his authority didn’t even compare to the ant, but it held him enough for his aura to eat away at the technique trying to grab him.

That was all. The domain shot forth and encapsulated him from all sides. However, he was somewhat ready for this, too. He’d been looking over at Doren’s notebook from time to time. It still didn’t make complete sense to him, but he figured out what Doren was trying to get at and why he had been so disgusted with Julius’s soul explosion technique.

There was no need for any of that.

He took hold of his soul and started to gather it together, as he would for his technique. While Doren didn’t approve or sanction the use of his own technique, there were some similarities between Julius's and his. First, there was the requirement to gather soul energy in a short time.

Apparently, this wasn’t common to do and was very hard to get right. However, it would seem that he had some talent in this little niche area, thanks to his “dumbass” ideas. That was what Cain said, at least.

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Still, he was never as glad of that talent as he was in times like these.

Once he gathered all of the necessary soul energy, he didn’t explode it. That much was very clear in the notebook. But instead, he compressed the energy. He already did that naturally as he gathered it, but he needed to go even further and really squeeze the hell out of it.

There were more complex factors involved in the compression. Various circuits and complex structures he was supposed to add, but he wasn’t even close to that kind of control yet, and he just slammed it all together. To be fair, it worked pretty darn well.

His compacted soul energy released a deep thump, and a golden pulse of light radiated outward. This light was composed of his aura, willpower, authority, and soul energy. This power rippled throughout his body, unlike anything he’d experienced before. This interrupted the influence of the domain much like he had done before, but without having to explode his soul. Which was… nice.

Despite his precarious situation, he let out a small whoop of excitement, but couldn’t celebrate for long. Because his opponent didn’t seem to care that its domain wasn’t working like it was supposed to, and was rushing at him at an incredible speed.

With the domain no longer affecting him, he was able to control his kinetic energy, giving him just enough boost to get away without having his head chopped off. And he needed that boost dearly. This ant was clearly much faster than he was, and he had a sneaking suspicion that it was a lot stronger than he was, too.

He backed away from another limb that threatened to crush his throat. The stone of the tunnel got blasted through by this creature's swing, which was terrifying because he knew just how hard that material was.

He was about to dodge once more, but the telekinetic force grabbed a hold of him again, and despite dissipating it quickly, he wasn’t fast enough. The ant smashed its arm into his shoulder, and he went careening into the wall. He actually withstood the damage pretty well. Only a few of his bones were cracked, but it still hurt like hell.

He was staggering to his feet when the domain tried to press down on him again. His soul released another pulse, disrupting the domain before it could crush him. Unfortunately, this sphere of interference only allowed him so much freedom. The domain wasn’t something he could destroy, merely hold back.

This meant he couldn’t use external techniques like his constructs as easily as usual. They were shredded apart by the domain before they had even gotten several feet from him. Even if he infused his authority, by the time they’d reach the ant, they would be no more dangerous than a marshmallow.

He only had one real option, and that was to fight this Tier 5 hand-to-hand.

Therefore, he shut down every other technique and focused on one thing. Pure physical enhancement. He let his [Pyrokinetic Embodiment of Ruin] skill channel through his body, then he added his life technique. In the past, he hadn’t been able to use both at the same time, but today must have been different because he got them to work together.

It was on the verge of collapsing, but it was good enough for him, and a newfound source of strength exploded out of his core. The power was so great that he could feel his flesh burning up from the inside.

His healing skill helped mitigate the damage, though, and when the ant came crashing into him again, he was more prepared. He met the ant with his fist, and while his arm was snapped in half from the force, he wasn’t sent flying down another tunnel.

Instead, he stayed in place, siphoned as much kinetic energy as he could, then redirected it toward the ant’s open chest. [Field of the Shattered Will] emerged from him. Unlike his constructs, the ant wasn’t able to affect this as much and paid the price.

It hadn’t been expecting a counter and staggered backward. He could have sworn he saw a look of disbelief on the creature’s face, but he could have been seeing things. But he definitely pissed it off because the next moment, the thing blitzed at him with relentless aggression.

He did his best to fend off its attacks, he parried where he could, and outright dodged when needed, but that wasn’t enough. Two arms had been hard enough, but another pair of arms emerged from the ant's body, and that ramped up the pressure.

Not to mention, he was still slower and weaker. And he got punished for it. His ribcage was pummeled when an arm snuck through his defenses, and he let out a grunt as he went flying backward, going straight into a wall.

He pulled himself out of the hole just in time before the ant cratered into him. If he had stayed there, he would have been smushed into a pulp.

He panted as he healed his wounds. The ant pulled itself out of the hole, and to his surprise, it didn’t come for him right away again. Instead, it began to walk toward him slowly, and while looking at him with those beady little eyes.

He didn't let it intimidate him, though, and he stared directly into its eyes, letting his ruinflames begin to flow from him. The blue waves of fire flared out, eating into the walls. His crown was fully active and pulsing violently.

He had always told himself he wanted to test himself against a Tier 5 when he reached Tier 4. Now was his chance. He wasn’t going to get a fairer fight than this now. And so, despite the situation, he found himself smiling widely and let out a small laugh.

“Well, come on then! What are you waiting for?” he shouted at the ant.

The ant vanished from sight, its speed so incredible that his eyes weren’t able to track it. Thankfully, he didn’t rely on his eyes to fight; he relied on his spatial senses. Furthermore, he’d been figuring out the creature’s attack pattern throughout the entire fight while getting his ass beaten.

Because at the end of the day, this creature was simply that. A creature.

He used a small [Void Step] to reposition himself right behind where he knew the ant would attack him from. The ant sensed it, but it was too late. His fist, layered with several powerful techniques and an extraordinary amount of force, slammed into the ant.

It was like punching a mountain, and the ant barely budged a few inches, but he grinned nonetheless. That was because he felt something crack under his knuckles and spotted a small hairline fracture on the ant’s body where his fist hit it.

He repeated this, hitting the ant in the same spot. The fracture elongated, giving him a little more confidence. This thing wasn’t indestructible. If he was able to damage it, then that meant he was able to beat it. And that was good enough for him.