Chapter 433: Method To His Madness

Lily POV

She dropped to her knees and vomited all over the ground. Thankfully, she had the foresight to eat light beforehand, but she still hated the astringent taste of bile as it dripped from her lips.

“Get up,” Marcus ordered her strictly and used his domain to remove all of the vomit from the floor.

As much as she wanted to yell at Marcus to shut up and leave her alone, she listened and dragged her tired body up to her feet. After all, she was the one who had asked Marcus to help her and her friends.

After the recent attack in the Endless Forest, it hadn’t taken much to convince her family or her friend’s families that they needed some extra training. They had gotten very close to death, much closer than any of them had experienced before. Derek had gotten especially close.

If not for Julius, the Zenith Scion might have been killed. Something that Derek didn’t let the others know bothered him, but they could all see it for themselves. Derek was talented. Arguably the most talented amongst them, but he had a bad habit of relying on this talent.

While nobody would say that Derek didn’t work hard, he didn’t work as hard as Aubrey or Edgar. His natural talents allowed him to understand skills and lightning magic to such an absurd degree that he barely had to put any effort in. It was why he was one of the strongest people of their age.

However, in the weeks after the attack, Derek had pushed himself harder than ever before. He would spend his nights training even after their daily training regimen. There was a fire lit underneath her friend, one that she had never seen before.

Truth be told, Lily didn’t think she would meet anyone who could surpass Derek in terms of combat. In her mind, Derek was the pinnacle of Tier 3. Excellent combat instincts, prodigious ability to use lightning magic, multiple epic skills, and Concepts. She would put herself on that level, but she wasn’t a combatant. Her path was slightly different, but she was confident that she had also reached this peak for Tier 3.

That was until she met Julius. Their younger friend was the anomaly that changed her entire perception of life.

Unlike the others, he didn’t have perfect affinities or dedicated tutors. Hell, Aubrey had her own mother, one of the strongest people on the continent, personally train her when she was younger.

Yet, Julius had a few traits that helped him get to where he was. He was stubborn, stupid, and seemingly unkillable. An incredibly dangerous combination that transformed her friend into a total monster.

No, she wasn’t at the pinnacle of Tier 3. Not even close. Her eyes were open, and she knew that she needed to get stronger herself.

She didn’t believe him for a second when he pretended that he didn’t clear the rift trials. She didn’t even need to sense his emotions to know that. She already had high expectations for him, and she was using him as motivation for herself.

It was why she was pushing herself this hard. Her inadequacies were made clear during that rift. Her physical abilities were lacking, and she needed to fix that.

She and Derek weren’t the only ones who found things to work on. Aubrey wanted to work on the power of her prismatic beam. At the same time, Edgar wanted to work on his overall mobility.

In her case, Marcus had developed a training plan that would help her gain some of the physical prowess that Marcus himself had. A part of this was utilizing her exceptional telekinesis to aid her body movements.

The problem was that her body couldn’t handle this newfound application. It wasn’t tough enough, and it wasn’t flexible enough. If she wanted to use her telekinesis to aid her movements, it had to be strong enough to withstand the strength of her psychic abilities without falling apart.

That was what they had focused much of their time on improving during these past several weeks. Marcus had used the body enhancement treasure she had gained from the rift to help speed up the progress.

He had procured a large number of other expensive body enhancement treasures, but the man had been impressed by the quality of the treasure she had been rewarded with. It was as if the treasure was specifically for Lily, and she was told it was one of the best resources she could hope to get at Tier 3 with her body.

With a plan in place, she pushed herself. She pushed herself harder than she could have ever thought possible.

Sweat and vomit dripped from her chin as she collected her breath.

“Do you need a break?” Marcus asked her daringly.

A part of her desperately wanted to take the man’s offer. It sounded so tempting to her ears, and she felt herself subconsciously about to accept when Marcus continued to speak.

“Just so you know, Julius would have been able to handle this much with ease. I bet he trained night after night to train his body to be both flexible and powerful enough to withstand his own stupid power,” Marcus was taunting her. He knew as much as she just how ridiculous Julius was and was using it against her.

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She didn’t need Marcus to remind her. She knew how many countless nights Julius spent training without any sleep. She still didn’t know how the boy managed to keep that up for so long.

She took some inspiration from her insane black haired friend and shook her head stubbornly.

“Not yet,” she gritted out.

“Good, now get up and let’s go again. You still have an hour before you have to meet with Cygnus and Stella,” Marcus said with a proud smile before activating the gravity chamber’s enchantments.

The sudden change almost had Lily faceplant into the mat, but by sheer will, she managed to keep herself on her feet.

Another thing she had failed to mention was that they didn’t just have Marcus to help them either. Derek convinced his family to send Stella over, and even Aubrey’s mother had sent over one of her people. His name was Cygnus, and the man was a brutal teacher.

Unlike Marcus and Stella, the man was borderline cruel, and she didn’t want to think about their next crazy exercise the man had in store for them.

Funnily enoug,h the dread of the upcoming session gave her enough fuel to get her through the next five minutes.

When the gravity returned to normal, she dropped to her knees and dry heaved. There was nothing left to vomit, and Marcus threw her a towel to wipe herself down.