"Why?" Lucas asked, his voice edged with ice and fury. "Why did you find joy in this chaos? In the screams inside these walls? You and whoever you’re working with....what could you possibly gain from this destruction?"
The man’s expression didn’t change. His aged features were calm, his bearing regal.
"I have no business exchanging words with insects," the old man replied coolly, his voice deeper than stone, smooth as polished steel. "You are a lesser being. A child flailing in waters too deep. I do not converse with ants, and you..." his lip curled with the barest hint of disdain "....do not deserve to speak to . You do not deserve to stand in my presence, much less interrupt the unfolding of sothing greater than your entire existence."
The words struck Lucas harder than a physical blow might have. His chest tightened, his jaw clenched, and the indignation within him surged. He took a step forward, even as the weight of the man’s spiritual pressure fought to force him down to his knees.
"I may be weak now," Lucas growled, his voice low but resonating with fury, "but do not mistake weakness for worthlessness."
He lifted the crystal, letting its eerie glow reflect off the temple walls. "This. This is what you want, isn’t it?" he said, voice rising slightly. "This is what matters to you. This is what you used to lure those beasts here. You’re using this as a dium...twisting it...to turn their hunger, their instincts, into a weapon. You want to bring this kingdom to its knees."
A smirk, faint and humorless, appeared on the old man’s face. He raised a single hand, the gesture graceful and slow, as though he had all the ti in the world.
"Give it to ," he said, his voice now brimming with authority. "Or I will reduce you to nothing more than a mory that never existed. I will erase your presence from this world with a single strike so complete, even the gods will not rember your na."
Lucas could hear his own heartbeat pounding in his ears like a war drum, the cold sweat on his back soaking through his clothes as the overwhelming presence before him pressed down harder with each passing second.
He knew what this confrontation ant. He knew the outco would likely not favor him. Yet sothing in his spirit refused to yield, If he was going to die here, if this mont would be his end, then he would not go quietly. He would not go powerlessly.
His fingers closed tightly around the crystal, and a reckless thought sparked within him, one that most would consider lunacy.
It was unknown in this age, impossible in this era, but Lucas wasn’t born of this age. He wasn’t just a young noble boy standing in an altar with an ancient relic pulsing in his grasp...He was a man from the future, carrying knowledge that had not yet been written.
He raised the crystal slowly, as if daring the man before him to stop him. Nyx noticed the subtle change in his stance and was about to speak, but sothing in Lucas’s expression silenced her. There was an intent in his eyes she didn’t understand, a quiet defiance wrapped in sothing far older than his current form. He closed his eyes, focusing inward, and in a breathless instant, his Qi reached out and latched onto the crystal’s energy.
The crystal, once violently pulsing with life and hunger, quivered in his hand. The radiant glow at its core flickered once, twice, and then started to dim, not from lack of power, but as though sothing were drawing it inward.
Lucas’s Qi devoured it with precision and hunger, siphoning its energy through cultivated channels like rivers redirecting a flood. The warmth spread up his arm, through his chest, and then exploded behind his eyes in a burst of raw, almost overwhelming force. The glow died completely, and the crystal fell silent, nothing more than a husk now resting in his hand.
The old man’s eyes widened, and for the first ti, true surprise flickered across his face, shattering the mask of arrogance he had worn so effortlessly before.
He took a step forward, eyes locked on the now-lifeless crystal, the energy that had once tethered his grand design gone in an instant. Nyx gasped beside Lucas, her breath caught in her throat as she stared at the crystal in disbelief.
Her mind raced to understand what had just happened. She had never seen such a thing, never heard of anyone capable of absorbing a crystal’s essence, much less doing so without a ritual or external aid.
But Lucas knew exactly what he had done, In the far future he ca from, the art of crystal absorption was real, rare, dangerous, and closely guarded.
He had learned of it in theories and old scrolls, had studied the nuances of channeling refined life force into one’s ridians, and now, in desperation, he had perford it without hesitation. It worked because he made it work, because his very will had forced it to. The energy still crackled inside him like a storm beneath the surface of his skin, healing what was broken, strengthening what was weak.
The man across from him now looked upon Lucas not with disdain, but with fury. The crystal, the very heart of his sche, was dead. The altar no longer called to the beasts outside. The power that had bound them was gone, absorbed into a body he did not understand.....the plan had failed.
The mont the realization dawned in the grandmaster’s eyes, his fury beca action. There was no warning, no declaration, no flare of dramatic prelude, just motion.
The old man blurred from where he stood, and in the blink of an eye, the temple shook with a violent impact as Lucas was sent hurtling backward, crashing through a stone pillar that cracked like brittle wood beneath him. The air trembled with energy as elental forces surged, flas burst forth from the man’s palms, curling like serpents with minds of their own, each strike laced with killing intent.
Lucas gritted his teeth, summoning his Qi in reflex, and retaliated with a blast of wind infused with power he had managed to steal from the crystal. It collided with the flas in mid-air, creating a deafening explosion that tore through the temple walls, sending fragnts of stone and gold flying like deadly shrapnel. Despite the surge of power running through him, Lucas knew he was still leagues beneath the man in front of him. He was holding on by instinct, his body already bruised and his spirit strained from the absorption of the crystal.
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