36) Ascended spirit

We heard a loud thunder and a man came walking from the direction of the thunder sound. He said, " So this is the last candidate. I have a proposal for you, join my side I will make sure to reward you when I become the ultimate spirit". I replied, " I won't join someone who hasn't even introduced themselves ". He said, " I like your guts, I am Zeus the high-rank god of Lightning and also referred to as ascended spirit ".

I asked him " Why should I join your side " and he replied " Do you think you have a chance? There is only one month left before the competition you cannot become an ascended magician in that short amount of time so you will probably be the first one to be eliminated so join me and you might live happily ". I asked, " What can you do if I refuse? ". Zeus said " There is no rule that I cannot kill a spirit candidate before the competition. If you don't become my ally you will die ". Autolycus said " You wouldn't " and Zeus attacked me using his ascended lightning magic. Autolycus barely blocked it telling me to run. I used Light magic to run but Zeus easily caught up to me and said " My lightning is faster than your light".

I copied his ascended lightning magic and his ability to control his speed and his magic. Autolycus said " If you keep running in that direction you can enter the time chamber then Zeus won't be able to do anything to you. Only the ones with the candidate mark can move inside the time chamber so even if he followed you he cannot move like you in the time chamber so hurry".

Zeus said, " You think you can escape in your dreams now die you puny human ". I tried using ascended lightning magic to escape but it wouldn't activate for some reason. I had to take a gamble so I used Time acceleration magic and light magic at the same time to escape but he caught up with me after some time saying "You have gotten a little faster but not faster than me".

I was severely wounded after taking a lightning bolt attack from Zeus even though I tried using defensive spells to block it. If I didn't use those spells I would have died. Zeus was about to finish me but his Lightning bolt suddenly vanished. "It is not nice to bully a newbie Zeus leave him alone," said a voice. " This is none of your business so leave or I will destroy you Poseidon ".

Poseidon said " If we were to fight even if I lost you will be severely injured so you will easily be defeated by low-rank gods do you still want to fight? " Zeus got mad but he knew what Poseidon said was true so he left in anger. Poseidon healed me and also asked me if I would join his side. I refused but unlike Zeus, Poseidon accepted my answer and asked me to come to him if I ever change my mind.

Autolycus finally caught up to me after Poseidon left. I asked him why did Poseidon help me and he replied " Wait Poseidon helped you? That's good anyways since there is no spirit king the remaining Ascended spirits have created factions. There are some small factions but the main 3 factions are Zeus, Poseidon and Hades's factions. If you joined the faction of Zeus then Poseidon will be at a disadvantage. He doesn't want to strengthen Zeus's already strong faction".

I asked Autolycus to show me the way to the Time Chamber. I will make Zeus regret trying to kill me next month during the competition