As expected, things weren't going to be that simple. Though he couldn't be entirely sure, he could feel that the ground had an energy of its own, repelling his and preventing it from spreading into the ground.
From the direction his solar energy was being deflected, he could tell that the ground's energy moved in streams, like a massive river. And unfortunately, the wave-like nature of the energy coming from his crux did nothing but create ripples in the infinitely large stream - Ripples that were corrected before any noticeable change could even be seen.
~Perhaps if I change its form?~ he thought to himself, though his plan was based purely on theory.
If light acted in the same way here as it did back on Earth, then it would have the duality property. If he could convert the solar energy into its particle form, and inject it into the ground, there was a chance it would work.
"What are you doing?" Avankor asked curiously.
From the longing expression he had on his face, Lucius could tell that he had a deep interest in magic, no doubt in its healing capabilities.
"I-I don't know yet," Lucius replied, still thinking of a plan.
~Back on Earth, higher-frequency light displayed a more particle-like nature. Though my knowledge of light ends at introductory quantum mechanics, I'm pretty sure that was the caase,~ he thought to himself, whilst trying to increase the frequency of the solar energy in his crux.
In reality, he was only increasing its intensity. The crux got so dense, that the light emanating from it was beginning to burn even though Lucius wasn't casting any spells.
He pressed on past this point, until the tennis-ball-sized crux became as small as a coin. The heat coming from it caused the smallest of the nearby mushroom vegetation to catch fire, though oddly enough he couldn't feel a thing.
By this point, Avankor and the chief had already created distance between them and the crux.
Usually, Lucius would've stopped by now -the mental strain of dealing with so much solar energy completely draining him- however, things were different this time. It was as if the mental strain did not exist, no rather it did but he couldn't feel it.
Perhaps his mind had become more immune to this sort of pain. And so, he pressed on, squeezing even further.
The crux became even smaller, reducing from the size of a coin to that of a pinhead. At that moment, the world around him disappeared and was replaced by a white void.
~I'm back here, huh? Does that mean I did it?~ he thought to himself, staring at the familiar massive sun at the center of his white space.
[New Version of Solar Crux discovered...]
[New version is being processed... Syncing to current database...]
[System Updated.]
[『Kumulipo』 crux has been fully integrated.] his system notified him.
As he felt his consciousness being pulled back to the real world, he noticed a dark spot on the Sun in his white space. It was a minuscule spot, but still, one that concerned him.
~I wonder what it means.~
With that he was pulled out, the white void around him now replaced by the mushroom vegetation of the clan lands.
~Kumulipo, huh? Strange name,~ he thought to himself, before willing his crux to float in front of him. He was curious about what made this version so different from the others, so much so that it had even been given its own name.
And he soon got his answer. As the pinhead-sized crux came towards his face, he noticed distortions all around it, which was what allowed him to spot it so fast. In fact, it was almost as if it were bending light.
"A black hole?" he exclaimed in shock.
His instincts told him to run, but his education reminded him that it would be useless even if this was a black hole. Which he quickly realized it wasn't.
~If this was a black hole, this entire planet would've been gone by now,~ he thought to himself. ~And besides, the gravity it's emitting isn't that much.~ At best it tugged at his skin a little annoyingly, but that was only when he brought it close.
"What is that thing?" Avankor asked interrupting Lucius's train of thought. His body twitched as he stood in a combat-ready stance, and even the chief seemed to be on edge. Though Lucius couldn't blame them. Where the solar crux was like a welcoming light, the Kumulipo seemed malevolent.
So without wasting time, he tried to cast his usual spells to see if there were any differences.
~Nothing,~ he realized, after having completely exhausted the list.
In the first place, the nature of Kumulipo was different from the solar crux. It was like the second half of it, the particle nature to its duality.
To test this, Lucius tried to see if injecting solar energy into the ground would work. And after placing the crux right above it, he felt no resistance.
His solar energy was being fed into the ground at a very stable rate. And soon a section of the ground beneath him seemed to glow ever so brightly. Even the mushroom vegetation that was present around the area grew ever so slightly.
[Processing...]
[New spell acquired... 『Imbue』.]
[Adding 『Imbue』 to 『Solar Sorcery Index』...]
[Complete. 『Imbue』 has been added.]
~Imbue huh?~ he thought to himself, whilst studying the effects of his new spell. In addition to being able to inject solar energy into the ground, he was also capable of controlling the way it flowed, moving it to different places on the ground.
~This is... interesting,~ he thought to himself in sparking excitement. He noticed something odd about the interaction the solar energy had with the energy of the ground.
Whenever his solar energy came into contact with it for too long, the ground energy would start changing... converting.
He quickly decided to pull back his solar energy, sapping it from the ground back into his crux.
~I was right,~ he thought to himself, staring with an almost crazed smile at his crux.
[Processing...]
[New spell acquired... 『Drain』.]
[Adding 『Drain』 to 『Solar Sorcery Index』...]
[Complete. 『Drain』 has been added.]
~I can drain energy straight from the ground,~ he thought to himself, before another idea hit him.
He quickly injected all his solar energy into the ground before bombarding the ground's energy with it.
