Chapter 77

[Third Person's PoV] 

1 year ago… 

Lucian sat in front of a desk, with papers and books neatly organized on his side, while the walls displayed the spoils of war he had collected over the years. The room was tidy, nothing compared to what it would become in the future.

He tapped his pen on a piece of paper while tapping his chin with the knuckle of his index finger.

"I've already researched all types of ingredients, their effects, their combinations. Even though they were mostly theoretical, I don't believe they're wrong. My intuition is my greatest gift. It helps me know where to go with things, what could work or if it doesn't. My whole body is basically like a yes or no machine. Maybe my intuition is the way to go here.

My mother is a seer, a very powerful one at that. Maybe I could do it. I could amplify my intuition to the power of a seer. After all, it's my legacy. I doubt it's weak.

My intuition has always guided me to the way of potions and rituals every time I started doing research into my goals. The best way always leads to Potions and Rituals, but I just can't figure out how. The only solution I can think of is to empower that intuition into a seer ability.

I saw how Mom figured out my legacy using her abilities. Maybe I can do the same... Goodness, my own muttering is barely even making sense to me, but I understand what I have to do," Lucian muttered before grabbing a couple of books from the side.

He started researching a bit more before preparing the materials.

"First things first..." Lucian said, standing up. He reached into his shadow and pulled out a bowl before conjuring Annabeth's dagger.

Lucian winced as he cut his wrist and poured his own blood on the bowl, slowly his wounds started to close. 

Lucian let out a sigh as he grabbed the bowl of blood and walked towards the middle of his underground room.

He started dipping his fingers in his own blood and drawing a large circle. "My own blood has the power of an ancient witch and a God. It will certainly help in the process and amplify the succession rate. It's literally brimming with magic, after all," he muttered to himself.

Lucian began drawing Greek symbols and letters around the inner lining of the circle while occasionally redipping his fingers in the bowl of blood.

After the symbols were drawn, Lucian drew a star before setting up candles of different colors. Each color represented something different when doing rituals and was very important.

The colors Lucian used were 2 blue, 2 purple, and 1 yellow candles, which he put onto each point of the pentagram. 

Blue candles represent calmness, wisdom, and communication. Blue candles can be used in rituals aimed at enhancing intuition, clarity of thought, and spiritual guidance.

Purple candles represent spirituality, intuition, and psychic awareness. They are commonly used in rituals related to divination, spiritual awakening, and connecting with higher realms.

While Yellow Candles symbolizes intellect, creativity, and confidence. Yellow candles can be used in rituals aimed at boosting mental clarity, inspiration, and self-expression.

Once he was done, Lucian grabbed the books where he wrote about different ingredients and their effects and surrounded the magic circle. He then grabbed a black notebook and a quill before sitting in the middle of the pentagram.

'Although High-speed Divine words aren't a problem, it's better if I recite the incantation of the ritual.'

"Διὰ σκιῶν βαθέων καὶ ὁράματα σαφῆ, ἡ ἐνάργεια αὔξεται, ὁ βλέπων φαίνεται."

("Through shadows deep and visions clear, intuition rise, the seer appear.")

Lucian used his fingers, which still had a bit of blood on them, and ran them down his forehead while closing his eyes.

The magic circle below him glowed bright red with power, the flames of the candles swaying wildly before turning black and growing larger. The pages of the books all started flipping by themselves, as if a gust of wind had suddenly appeared.

Lucian's head snapped towards the ceiling, his eyes wide open, which were previously black, now glowing a bright red color, with his mouth slowly opening.

The blood on his forehead started to glow as well, and the bowl with some of his blood shook before the blood flowed up and rushed towards Lucian's forehead.

The blood entered his head, causing him to scream out in pain.

"AAAAHHHHH!" Lucian felt as if two hands jammed themselves into his forehead and started prying his skull apart.

As more blood entered his forehead, a red lining appeared before snapping open, revealing an eye, which started glowing just as fiercely as his other two.

When all the blood had entered, all his eyes started moving rapidly, trying to discern his surroundings.

Lucian's smile widened as far as his facial muscles would allow, showing his four fang-like teeth. A look of pure insanity flickered around his eyes as he started to laugh maniacally.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I SEE, I SEE! SO THIS IS HOW IT IS! THIS IS HOW I FIGURED IT OUT! HAHAHA! SO I WAS THE ONE THAT GAVE MY YOUNGER SELF THE FORMULA FOR THE SEQUENCES AND PATHWAY!" Lucian grabbed the quill and started scribbling down notes while still smiling widely.

"It's all starting to make sense! With my powers of impossibility! It doesn't make sense, and that's the point! Who created this formula? How am I able to do this? This is impossible! And like I said, THAT'S THE POINT!" Blood started pouring down all three of Lucian's eyes, and blood escaped his mouth, but his smile never left his face.

'My little body isn't strong enough to hold me on for long.'

Lucian then started laughing once again as he flipped the pages and wrote, "Be careful of going insane!" in bold letters.

Lucian leaned forward and face-planted onto the ground. "Hehehe, I'm so fucking awesome. Best of wishes, little me. Good luck on the journey towards the great beyond." All of Lucian's three eyes then started to close very slowly as he still chuckled.

"Man, this little place sure brings back memories…" Lucian closed his eyes with a smile.

…

Present: 

"I don't remember much after I activated the ritual. My mind went dark, and when I awoke, I was basically in a pool of my own blood with the notebook containing a list of ingredients and somewhat of an explanation.

There were three potions and a list of ingredients. They went from 9, 8, to 7 in a decreasing manner, meaning there are a total of nine potions in total. Each potion had a name: Stuntman, Artisan, and Treasure Seeker, in that order," Lucian explained as he brought out a cauldron and positioned it in the middle of the room with black flames underneath it.

Annabeth sat in the chair where Lucian was sitting, with her legs crossed, looking at him with a serious expression.

"It mentioned to be careful of going insane, so just to be sure, I waited a whole year and did my research before I even began looking for the ingredients. Number 9, the one I'm currently making, is Stuntman, and the ingredients for that are:

Main ingredients:

A vial of Tears of the Strong and a Heart of a giant.

Supplement: 5 drops of ambrosia, 20 pieces of fur from the Nemean lion, 5 dragon scales, 10 kilograms of bark from the Golden Apples tree, 4 Blades of grass where heaven and earth meet," Lucian listed.

A look of understanding came over Annabeth. "I see, so that's why you needed Atlas' Tears. It's starting to make sense," she remarked.

Lucian nodded as he reached into his shadow and took out the vial of tears, which he poured into the cauldron. He then controlled his shadow to bring him a large heart that was on a shelf in a jar of liquid.

"Does it belong to a Laistrygonian giant?" Annabeth guessed, recalling most of Lucian's shadow soldiers, to which he nodded with a serious expression.

Lucian opened the jar and put the heart inside the pot before he started mixing it together until it turned into a purple liquid. Once it was purple, Lucian started to add all the supplementary ingredients one by one.

The 5 drops of ambrosia were easy to get, the 20 pieces of fur he could get just from his coat, 5 of Ladon's scales which he had earlier picked up, the bark from the tree, and the grass he picked by Atlas' feet.

He started mixing everything until it turned into a white liquid with spots of blue, red, and gold. Afterward, he put it into a bottle.

"Here it is… The sequence 9 potion: Stuntman," Lucian announced, smiling.