[Third Person Pov]
"Have you thought of a proper name for this spell?" Hecate asked while still examining the space around her closely, her eyes slowly moving across the endless void as she inspected the subtle distortions in the mist and the boundaries of the constructed subspace. There were small imperfections within the Framework, faint irregularities in the way the mist circulated along the edges of the domain, but they were minor enough to be dismissed for a first creation.
"Yes," Lucian grinned proudly. "I shall call it Domain Expansion: Court of the Black Sun!"
Hecate looked up instinctively as he said that, her gaze drifting toward the red sky above them. As she observed the horizon, she noticed something that had not been present a moment ago.
A rising sun was slowly emerging from the distant edge of the crimson sky.
However, the sun itself was completely obscured. The center of the star was swallowed by darkness, leaving only a perfect circular silhouette that blocked the light behind it. What radiated outward was not golden sunlight but a strange dim glow surrounding a pitch black core.
It was a black sun.
Despite the darkness at its center, it still illuminated the void with an eerie, natural light that bled softly across the endless shadows.
"Court of the Black Sun?" Hecate asked with a raised brow. Her expression made it very clear that she was not particularly entertained by the dramatic title.
Lucian blushed slightly and rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. "It's… well… it's actually an extension of this spell. Like a part two that I'm working on. The idea is that it creates a subspace specifically for my Shadow Soldiers."
He gestured vaguely upward toward the dark celestial body.
"There's a rule within this space. The longer the Black Sun continues to shine, the stronger and more powerful my Shadow Soldiers become. At the same time, my enemies gradually grow weaker the longer they remain within the Court."
Hecate raised a brow slowly as she processed the concept. For a moment she said nothing, her gaze shifting between the dark sun above and the mist flowing quietly through the void.
"That… is honestly impressive," she admitted after a moment. "Now I'm beginning to understand why you called it the Court of the Black Sun. Although the name is a little pretentious."
Lucian simply grinned wider.
"And we're just getting started," he replied confidently. "The actual name I created for the spell I just built is simply called [Domain]."
Hecate nodded slowly as realization settled in. "And the additional constructs or variations you develop inside this structure will be labeled as [Domain Expansion]," she said thoughtfully. "Alright, now I understand the naming structure."
Lucian nodded enthusiastically.
"However," Hecate continued calmly, raising a finger slightly, "before you begin designing expansions or additional rules, you need to familiarize yourself with the Domain spell itself. A structure like this must become second nature to you. If your control over the base Domain wavers, any expansion layered on top of it will collapse."
Lucian nodded in agreement. He had already been thinking the same thing.
There was still one more spell he wanted to create before he had to leave so he could attend Annabeth's birthday celebration. That meant he would need to make the most of the time he had left.
Lucian slowly released his concentration.
The endless void around them immediately began to unravel. The red sky dissolved first, fading like mist under sunlight. The shadows folded inward and vanished, and the drifting currents of purple mist evaporated into the air.
A moment later they were standing once again inside Hecate's training hall.
The familiar stone floor stretched beneath their feet and the wide chamber returned to normal as if the domain had never existed.
Lucian rolled his shoulders and cracked his knuckles as he prepared himself again.
"Alright then, let's begin," he said with renewed determination.
He lifted his crystal ball again and glanced down at it briefly. The purple mist inside the orb swirled calmly as if waiting for his command.
"Luckily for me," Lucian continued with a confident grin, "my crystal ball records the spell structure once it's successfully created. So from now on I only need to activate the Anchor to deploy the Domain."
Hecate crossed her arms while watching him carefully.
Lucian rolled up the sleeves of his shirt until they rested above his elbows. The motion was simple, but the look on his face made it clear he was preparing himself for another long stretch of focus and experimentation.
And so the training began.
Over the following days, the routine became relentless.
Lucian repeatedly activated the Domain inside the training hall, sometimes maintaining it for only a few seconds before it collapsed, other times holding the structure steady for several minutes at a time. Each attempt forced him to reinforce the Core of the spell in his mind while stabilizing the Framework circulating through the mist.
At first the void flickered constantly.
The red sky would distort, the shadows would ripple unevenly, and the boundaries of the subspace would occasionally tear open before dissolving entirely.
But Lucian persisted.
Day after day he recreated the Domain, each time correcting small inefficiencies that Hecate pointed out. The flow of mist became smoother. The boundary grew stronger. The illusionary environment stabilized until the endless darkness and crimson sky formed almost instantly whenever he brought his fingers together to trigger the Anchor.
Eventually activating the Domain became effortless.
Lucian could deploy it within seconds.
The mist responded to him with far less resistance, and the subspace no longer wavered under the strain of existence.
Once he reached that point, Hecate finally gave a small approving nod.
"Good," she said simply.
Lucian rolled his sleeves up once again, the familiar grin returning to his face as he flexed his fingers slightly.
Now that the Domain spell had become stable and familiar, he could move forward with what he truly wanted to attempt next.
His second spell.
"I'm really curious how this spell of yours is going to turn out. Not only are you going to be forming two cores, you're also using spells as your cores. I'm honestly very impressed with your creative thinking. Not many people are able to think outside the box the way you do," Hecate said while watching Lucian with clear interest.
Lucian stood a short distance away from her in the center of the training hall, holding his crystal ball in both hands. The orb glowed faintly as the familiar purple mist slowly churned within it. Hearing the praise naturally made him happy, and the corners of his mouth lifted slightly, but the expression quickly settled as he forced himself to remain focused on what he was about to attempt.
"I'll make this spell in your name, my lady~" Lucian said with a grin and a playful wink. "Given the fact that it's the spell you helped me create when I was little all those years ago."
"I am touched. No one has ever gifted me a spell before. I think I might cry," Hecate replied while rolling her eyes in clear exaggeration.
Lucian chuckled and shook his head before shifting his attention fully toward the crystal ball in his hands.
The faint humor vanished from his expression as concentration replaced it. His breathing slowed and steadied while the purple mist inside the orb began to stir more actively in response to his gathering focus.
"Alright…" Lucian murmured quietly to himself.
He had already decided how this spell would be constructed. Unlike the Domain spell, which relied on a single conceptual core, this one would rely on two.
The first core was something he was already intimately familiar with.
Domain.
Lucian began by forming the concept clearly within his mind. The idea of an isolated subspace, a contained pocket of reality shaped by mist and shadow. The same understanding he had spent days refining began to condense once again within his thoughts.
As the concept solidified, the purple mist around his feet began to spill outward from the crystal ball, slowly spreading across the floor like a living fog.
Hecate remained silent as she watched.
Lucian continued focusing, compressing the concept until the spell structure of Domain formed as the first core within the developing construct.
But that was only the beginning.
Lucian inhaled slowly before shifting his concentration toward the second core he intended to build.
Trace.
Projection.
His comprehension of the spell surfaced from memory. The principles he had studied long ago resurfaced clearly in his mind. Tracing the structure of something that existed. Reproducing its form through magical projection. Creating a manifested copy through perfect conceptual replication.
The second core began forming beside the first.
Unlike a simple conceptual core, this one carried the entire spell structure of Trace & Projection within it. Lucian forced himself to remain calm as he balanced both cores simultaneously inside his mind.
The magic in the training hall began to stir noticeably.
Purple mist flowed outward from the crystal ball more aggressively now, spiraling around Lucian's body as both spell cores stabilized within the forming construct.
Hecate's eyes narrowed slightly with interest.
Maintaining one core required focus.
Maintaining two that were already complex spells themselves required a far greater degree of mental control.
Lucian clenched his jaw slightly as he forced the two cores to remain stable.
"First core…" he muttered quietly.
[Domain].
"Second core…"
[Trace & Projection].
Once both cores stabilized, Lucian immediately moved to the next step.
Framework.
Within his mind he began designing the structure that would connect the two cores together. The Domain spell would serve as the foundation, the environment in which the spell operated. The Trace & Projection spell would function within that environment, using the Domain's mist as the medium through which projections could manifest.
Magic flowed outward from the crystal ball in response.
The mist circulating around Lucian thickened as it began following the pathways he imagined. Energy flowed from the Domain core into the structure while branching channels linked it to the Trace & Projection core.
Lucian envisioned the Domain acting as a reservoir of mist and spatial authority, while the second core used that mist to reconstruct and manifest projections within the subspace.
The Framework grew more complex with each passing second.
Mist spiraled around him in layered currents as the magic obeyed the architecture he was building in his mind. Invisible pathways formed between the two cores as he carefully balanced their interaction.
Hecate watched without interrupting.
Lucian's breathing became heavier as sweat slowly began forming again along his forehead. Constructing the Framework while maintaining two independent cores was significantly more taxing than his previous spell.
But gradually the structure stabilized.
The flow of magic smoothed out.
The two cores no longer strained against one another and instead began circulating energy through the Framework exactly as Lucian had designed.
After several long seconds, Lucian slowly exhaled.
"…Framework complete."
The swirling mist around him steadied.
Now only one final step remained.
Anchor.
Lucian lowered the crystal ball slightly and straightened his posture. His hands tightened briefly around the orb before relaxing.
Hecate raised a brow as she studied him.
"What Anchor are you using?" she asked calmly.
Lucian lifted his head slightly.
"This time," he said, "it's going to be a chant."
Hecate's eyes sharpened with curiosity.
Lucian slowly opened his mouth to begin speaking the words that would bind the entire spell to reality.
"I am the—"
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