Chapter 127: New Spells [I]
The three of them were sitting down now.
It was quiet, well if you ignored the whirring filling the basement as the freshly repaired P40 hovered lazily above their heads.
The once-defective drone was working perfectly again, it circled once and landed gently on Villy’s shoulder.
Everything had gone back to calm... or at least it should have.
But the energy in the room was far from peaceful.
Luna couldn’t help but glance at Lucius.
His eyes were glimmering too much for her liking.
"So this means," Lucius said, leaning back in his chair, "you’ll be able to get your orders ready on time."
He patted Villy’s shoulder approvingly, though he couldn’t hide the excitement in his voice.
"We can advertise a launch date during the next raid we stream and make it part of the show. And on launch day, we launch an official site so that they can come back for more..."
Even though Lucius was known for being a professional slacker, everyone knew the moment money entered the picture, he transformed into a machine.
"I can order the materials right now," Villy said, adjusting her gloves. "I only want to make final tweaks to the internal stabilizer and the wing gear ratio before we mass-produce."
Lucius’s grin widened.
"I guess that’s fine. Both of you have to work hard for my—" he coughed mid-sentence covering it with a fake throat-clear, "—I mean, our gain."
Luna rolled her eyes... He wasn’t being subtle at all.
"Yes, boss," she said half-sarcastically.
Villy simply nodded, ever the loyal servant.
"Well, get to it," Lucius said, clapping his hands once as if the meeting were adjourned.
And before Luna could add another word, he disappeared... literally vanishing in a swirl of faint spatial distortion.
"Typical," Luna muttered. "He’s leaving all the work to us."
She sighed, turning toward Villy.
The dwarven woman was busy sorting through a tray of metal scraps that had been on the table.
She looked incredibly composed.
Luna thought for a bit before she finally swallowed and spoke softly, "Villy, can I ask you something?"
The dwarven woman glanced up, her green eyes showed her curiousness.
"Yes, of course, my lady. Ask away."
Luna hesitated, fingers fidgeting with the hem of her sleeve.
"When..." she started, her voice trailing off before she gathered the courage again. "When do you think Lucius will make things official with me?"
Villy blinked.
Luna’s lips quivered slightly, and her gaze dropped to the floor.
Sure, they were technically dating... online at least.
Lucius had flirted, teased, and even confessed in that playful way of his.
But when they were home, it was different.
He treated her kindly, but distantly almost like she was too fragile to touch.
And Luna wanted more.
"Luna..." Villy said softly.
She set down the gear in her hand and reached over, taking Luna’s trembling fingers gently in hers.
"Do you want to know what I think?"
Luna nodded quickly, her large eyes focused with hope. "Yes. Please."
Villy took a deep breath, pretending to think deeply about it... though truthfully, she had no experience in romance.
The only relationships she knew came from the overly dramatic plays she occasionally watched on dating channels while cleaning.
Still, she could at least sound confident.
"Lord Lucius," Villy began, "is the kind of man you have to be very intentional with."
Luna tilted her head slightly.
"He doesn’t like making the first move," Villy continued. "So you must make yours. If he doesn’t want to kiss you... you kiss him and see how he reacts. If he doesn’t want to take a shower with you, then lock the door and make him. Be bold."
She nodded firmly, finishing her statement like a priest delivering divine wisdom. "I’m sure you’ll see improvement."
Luna blinked, replaying the words in her head.
She had to be intentional... bold and make the first move...
Was that truly what it took to make him see her properly?
She squeezed Villy’s hand and nodded slowly.
"Thank you. That actually makes sense."
"I’m glad," Villy said, releasing her hand and letting out a quiet breath.
’I can’t believe that actually worked,’ Villy thought to herself, still forcing a wise expression.
She’d stolen that entire line from a romance drama where the heroine seduced a clueless noble... and it had sounded good enough then, so maybe it would work here too.
’If this works... maybe he’ll finally call me his girlfriend properly.’
...
Lucius, completely unaware of the conversation taking place behind his back, walked into the training room upstairs.
He exhaled deeply.
The air was cooler here... it was like walking through the hallway shirtless once again.
Though It had been a long time since he’d stepped foot in this place.
His last serious training session had been his fight with Vanessa.
Now, he was here for a calmer purpose ... to experiment with his magic.
To create new space spells.
Space manipulation wasn’t a power you could master through repetition alone.
It depended on imagination greatly.
You had to think outside the box literally.
The more abstract your ideas, the more reality bent to your will.
He had another goal too... experimenting with how to integrate elemental energy into spatial constructs.
He’d seen Elara do incredible things with plasma, and part of him was curious if he could mimic that using his own unique twist.
Like confining a spell into space and storing it in his own pocket dimension or something to be used later.
But apparently, he wasn’t the only one thinking about training today.
A burst of light flashed at the far end of the room, followed by the sound of something hitting a reinforced wall with a heavy boom.
Lucius turned his head and there she was.
Elara.
Her long blond hair was tied up in a messy ponytail, and sweat glistened on her skin.
She was wearing a black singlet that hugged her athletic frame and oversized training pants that hung loosely on her hips.
Every time she punched, the air around her burned... flickers of plasma energy bursting from her fists and fading into smoke.
Her chest bounced slightly with every motion as well and that was what his gaze was on majorly.
Lucius blinked.
"Well... that’s new."
The moment she noticed him, Elara’s face lit up.
"Master!" she called out with a bright grin, jogging toward him and waving as if she hadn’t just been assaulting the atmosphere itself.
Lucius raised a brow. "You training now, huh? Nice."
"Yes, Master," she said, her tone respectful.
She stopped just short of him.
"During my first raid, I let my emotions get the better of me. I nearly hurt my comrades, and I can’t let that happen again. So I’m training to control it."
Lucius nodded slowly, his expression turning serious. "That’s a valid reason. I’m glad you’re self-aware."
She smiled faintly, brushing a strand of hair from her face. "Thank you, Master. Actually..."
She hesitated.
Lucius tilted his head slightly. "What’s up?"
Elara’s eyes flicked down, then back up again. "Can you help me out with something?"
He folded his arms, curious. "Sure. What do you need?"
Her next words came out as blunt as a hammer.
"Can I punch you?"
Lucius blinked once.
Then twice.
He stared at her raised fist, which was already crackling faintly with plasma.
"...You want to what?"
"Master, reinforced walls simply won’t do it," Elara said with a sigh, brushing a strand of hair from her face.
She pointed to the wall she’d been punching a few moments ago and sure enough, the reinforced steel surface was riddled with deep dents and holes.
Lucius stared at it, unimpressed. "You destroyed reinforced walls?"
Elara nodded seriously. "Yes. On the other hand, you have the ultimate defense, and I can’t punch holes in your infinity... so can I?"
The way she asked it... so innocently made it sound like she was asking for permission to pet a cat, not to punch a space barrier.
Lucius groaned, rubbing his temple. "You’re serious, aren’t you?"
Her bright eyes sparkled with determination. "Completely."
He exhaled and gave up. "Alright, it shouldn’t be that—"
Before he could even finish, Elara moved.
Her fist shot forward so fast the air cracked, the punch cutting through the space between them and stopping just meters short of his body.
’So this is how Infinity feels,’ she thought, sweat glistening on her brow.
Her knuckles hovered just shy of his chest but no matter how much force she put into it, the invisible wall between them would not break.
She could feel the mana in the air pushing her away.
Lucius hovered upward, crossing his arms. "Why don’t we take this to the battlefield instead?"
He floated toward the open section of the training ground.
Elara followed close behind, adjusting her gloves as sparks of plasma flickered between her fingers.
’I’ll use this to test something,’ Lucius thought as he landed on the opposite end of the field. ’If I can store plasma inside space... vacuum it and compress it then maybe I can use it later as an elemental construct. But... where would it even be stored?’
Elara bit her lip, getting into stance.
Then, with a burst of energy, she charged.
Plasma flared around her legs as she used it to propel herself forward.
The ground cracked beneath her feet, leaving burning dents as she closed the distance.
She swung a kick toward him but Lucius side stepped, easily dodging.
’Alright... testing,’ he thought, trying to manipulate the plasma still hanging in the air around her leg.
He reached out with his space energy and...
nothing happened.