Chapter 114

[Third Person's PoV] 

The next day…

Lucian was seen sparring with Clarisse, or in other words, he was teaching her a lesson using a spear.

Lucian twirled his spear around before redirecting her moves and thrusting his spear towards her.

Clarisse tried to block it with the staff part, but Lucian kept hitting her with the ballpoint of the spear.

Clarisse attempted to kick him, but he turned his spear upward, causing her to only kick the staff.

As one of her legs was up, Lucian quickly dropped down and swept her leg, causing her to fall to the floor with a thud.

Clarisse gripped her spear in anger and stood up before she started thrusting her spear furiously.

However, due to Lucian's danger sense and intuition, he moved between her attacks with relative ease. As she thrust her spear, Lucian took hold of it, pulled her off balance, and thrust the ballpoint of his spear into her stomach, making her groan in pain.

"How are you so good? Your godly parent has nothing to do with weapons. I should be better than you," Clarisse grumbled.

Lucian rolled his eyes. "Because I don't let my godly parent dictate what I do or practice. Tell me, are you good with weapons because you are the daughter of the God of War, or are you good because you spend your time honing your skills and abilities? My skills with weapons don't come from any of my parents; they come purely from my years of hard work and dedication."

"Are you saying I don't work hard?" Clarisse glared.

"Did those words leave my mouth? All I'm telling you is to keep practicing. You're already great at wielding a spear; I just happen to be better. Also, you let your anger consume you, making you predictable. Don't let it consume you—use it to empower yourself instead. If you do that, you'll definitely be stronger."

Clarisse still looked unsatisfied but mumbled a thanks.

"So, are we done now?" Lucian asked.

Clarisse nodded, and they put away their sparring spears. Lucian walked towards Annabeth, who looked a bit bored.

"I still don't get why you would entertain her request for a spar against you. It seems pointless, especially from your perspective, knowing how strong you really are," Annabeth said, shaking her head.

Lucian just shrugged his shoulders. "All she did was ask for a sparring match. I didn't see a reason to decline," he said as they started walking towards his cabin.

But just before they went in, Thalia came running towards them. "I'm so glad I found you guys," Thalia said with a sigh of relief.

"What's wrong?" Annabeth asked.

Thalia turned towards Lucian. "Can you take us to the place you took me last time where we couldn't be heard?"

Annabeth looked at Lucian with a raised brow before they were all engulfed by Lucian's shadow and reappeared inside his secret underground chambers.

"So, what's wrong?" Lucian asked.

Thalia reached into her back pocket and pulled out a card, showing it to them. "This. I found it when I was practicing."

Annabeth and Lucian's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. "Son of a b—" Lucian started to say before stopping himself.

"I came to you since you're the magic expert. As soon as I touched it, weird information started floating in my head, like this is called a—"

"Card of Blasphemy," both Lucian and Annabeth sighed out at the same time.

"Yeah… a card of… wait, how did you guys know? Do you know what it truly is? It mentioned gathering the ingredients in this card and the acting method. Just so much information."

Annabeth reached into her purple pouch, while Lucian's shadow came to his hand. When they revealed their hands, they both had a Card of Blasphemy.

Thalia's eyes widened. "You two have one as well…"

Lucian let out another sigh. "You know what this means, don't you?"

They looked at him in confusion before Lucian thrust his hands sporadically and then thrust his card forward. "IT'S MORPHIN TIME!"

"..."

"..."

Lucian still held the pose as they started to look at him weirdly while he began to turn bright red from embarrassment.

"Tsk, you guys suck. Y'all don't understand my references."

"Now isn't the time for references no one will ever understand, Lucian. This is a serious matter. We need to find out how Thalia came into possession of this," Annabeth said, face-palming.

"I already know how," Lucian said, rolling his eyes.

"You do!?" They both asked at the same time.

Lucian let out an annoyed sigh and nodded his head. "As soon as Thalia took it out, my intuition told me everything I needed to know. Even more so now that it's been upgraded since turning into a treasure seeker."

"Can you two please tell me what's going on? I'm so lost," Thalia said with a sigh.

"For you to get the entire picture, you need everything from the beginning. Remember during Luke's quest how I said I had a goal I couldn't share before?"

Thalia nodded her head and listened, as she had always been curious about what Lucian had been planning. Even more so after they went to Russia together.

"Well, that goal just happens to be to become a Primordial Entity—a true God, in a sense."

"WHAT!? ARE YOU MENTALLY HANDICAPPED OR SOMETHING?" Thalia asked, looking at Lucian like he had just said the most absurd thing in the world.

"Anyways," Lucian said, rolling his eyes. "In order to do that, I started doing research. My gift of intuition led me to the route of potions, which led me to the direction of the sequences—"

Lucian went on to explain everything that went on, from Annabeth getting her own sequences to him getting the Cards of Blasphemy from his future self.

Thalia was in deep thought after learning about everything. "So, are you saying you're the creator of these?"

"Most likely, yes," Lucian confirmed.

"Is this the reason why you're so strong?"

"I was stronger than you before even taking my first sequences, so don't think about it."

They both heard Thalia click her tongue.

"If I follow this, does that mean I'll eventually be as strong as my father?" Thalia asked, her expression turning serious.

Lucian only smiled. "Even stronger."

Thalia grinned. "I'm liking the sound of that."

"So, what sequences are you guys currently at?" 

"I just got my second one. Lucian is on his third," Annabeth answered. 

Thalia then looked over their cards and noticed how they look when they're older. "Woah, you are hot," she said, staring at Lucian's image longer than necessary.

When she realized what she said, she turned red and looked away, unable to meet their teasing expressions. 

Lucian then took Thalia's card from her hand and examined it. He flipped it over and began to read the sequences.

"The Tempest Pathway:

Sequence 9: Brawler

Sequence 8: Lancer

Sequence 7: Thunder Herald

Sequence 6: Cyclone Rider

Sequence 5: Cloud Shaper

Sequence 4: Wind Commander

Sequence 3: Sky Dominator

Sequence 2: Storm King

Sequence 1: Elemental Sovereign

Sequence 0: The Unforgiving Tempest"

As Lucian finished reading, he let out a low whistle, impressed with what he read, before handing her card back.

Lucian then narrowed his eyes. 'Knowing how I am and what I'm capable of, I didn't give this to Thalia just to give it to her. What other reason would there be? And what else did my future self change? He better not have changed much, as one of my main advantages is my meta-knowledge. But I can't say I don't like the mystery of what's to come,' he pondered to himself.

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