Chapter 52: A Simple Construct

​Cassian’s blue eyes gleamed with razor-sharp understanding.

​Setting his posture once more, he stopped forcing his mana toward the visible shade on the ground.

Instead, he directed his consciousness beyond the physical surface, reaching into the deep, hidden layer beneath reality.

​For the first time, he felt something answer.

​Something cold. Something ancient. Something that felt strangely, intimately familiar to the concept of Death itself.

​A slow, genuine smile spread across Cassian’s face. "So that’s why."

​Nyxara tilted her head slightly.

​Cassian looked toward her, his expression carrying quiet, unreserved appreciation. "This is why having a true teacher is invaluable."

​Nyxara blinked, her gaze locking onto his smile. For a moment, she simply stared.

​The faint violet moonlight surrounding them reflected against Cassian’s sharp features.

His piercing blue eyes seemed even brighter beneath the dim canopy, while his slightly disheveled, dirty-blond hair framed a face that looked unusually youthful in that quiet moment.

​Handsome. That was the first word that surfaced in her thoughts. ℯℯ𝑙.

​Then, her chest tightened.

​That familiar, overwhelming sensation returned, a strange, blooming warmth in the very center of her soul.

​’Not this feeling again...’

​Nyxara quickly looked away, a faint flush touching her pale skin.

​She had tried ignoring it, tried convincing herself it was simply the innate loyalty of a First-Order Champion toward her Lord.

She had tried telling herself that the strange warmth was merely the spiritual bond created during her summoning.

​But by now, she could no longer deceive herself. She knew exactly what this emotion was, and the realization had become impossible to escape.

​’I’m in love with him.’

​Her violet eyes widened slightly beneath the shadow of her violet hair.

​’I’m actually in love with my Lord.’

....

Cassian focused inward.

​Closing his eyes, he felt a strange, subtle sensation ripple across his link with Nyxara.

For a brief moment, his concentration wavered under the unfamiliar impulse, but he chose to push it aside.

​Whatever it was, it could wait. Right now, he refused to lose the breakthrough he had just grasped.

​Instead of treating shadows as the target of his control, he treated them as what they truly were, gateways. Doorways leading toward a deeper realm.

​His consciousness followed the connection, piercing through physical darkness and searching beyond the visible world.

​Mana surged from his Lord Seed in an overwhelming torrent, far more than was necessary, and far from refined.

Refinement was something he currently lacked, but he possessed an asset that rendered precision secondary: an endless supply of mana.

​Who needed efficiency when the source could never run dry?

​The shadows throughout the isolated clearing began to churn. The darkness beneath the dead trees twisted violently, the shadows cast by weathered tombstones trembled, and the shade beneath Cassian and Nyxara seemed to come alive.

​Nyxara was pulled from her distracting thoughts, her glowing violet eyes focusing intently on Cassian.

​The surrounding mana grew denser and denser, saturating the cold night air until—

​BOOM!

​An invisible shockwave burst outward. The concentration of death energy became so intense that every summon within Lord’s Hollow instinctively turned toward its source.

The worker skeletons froze, the support units lifted their heads, and even the Special Elites paused in their preparations.

​Cassian’s control was atrocious. There was no elegance, no precision, and no artistry, only raw, unadulterated force. But that force was backed by a boundless reservoir of energy.

​The shadows trembled violently as Cassian pushed his consciousness further.

​Then, he felt them: the Living Shadows.

​They were elusive and formless, like trying to grasp smoke with bare hands. One moment they seemed fluid, the next solid; one moment they felt distant, and the next as though they were coiled around his fingers.

They possessed no fixed shape, existing in a realm between reality and illusion.

​Cassian reached for them, attempting to bend them to his will.

​Resistance immediately met his touch, not an active defiance, but the natural resistance of trying to mold an ocean with bare hands.

No matter how much raw force he applied, the shadows slipped through his grasp. His micro-control was simply too crude.

​Nyxara observed the chaotic display for several moments before speaking. "My Lord."

​Cassian kept his eyes closed. "Speak."

​"Creation requires understanding," her calm voice cut through the roaring storm of mana. "Raw power can move shadows, and raw power can gather them. But to forge something distinct from them requires intimate familiarity."

​She raised her hand, and a delicate shadow butterfly materialized above her fingertip, fluttering its wings smoothly. "Unless you are creating something you already understand completely."

​Cassian’s brows furrowed behind his closed eyelids. ’Something familiar... something simple. Something I know inside and out.’

​His thoughts raced, cycling through potential constructs: weapons, buildings, armor, chains.

Yet each concept fell apart under scrutiny. The structural details were too intricate, requiring countless minute features to recreate faithfully.

​For the first time, Cassian truly appreciated the depth of Nyxara’s mastery.

Creating shadow constructs wasn’t simply imagining an object; it required a complete architectural understanding of every curve, angle, and joint.

The difficulty was akin to asking someone to recreate a city’s blueprint from memory after a single glance.

​Yet Nyxara executed such feats effortlessly, as naturally as breathing. Decades of refined practice had transformed her Authority into pure instinct.

​Cassian knew that with enough time, he would eventually reach that level. But right now? He couldn’t even form a stable shadow tendril.

​Then, an idea surfaced in his mind.

​A slow, sharp smile spread across his face.

​Something simple. Something he understood better than almost anything else. Something that required no complex internal mechanics, no intricate design, and no decorative aesthetic.

​Something built for a single, absolute purpose.

​The churning shadows around him immediately stirred in response.

....

Nyxara stared at the construct Cassian had created.

​At first, her expression held only confusion, her gaze shifting between the construct and her Lord as though trying to comprehend what she was looking at.

​Then, realization struck.

​The confusion vanished, replaced instantly by sheer shock. Her glowing violet eyes widened ever so slightly as she finally understood what the construct was supposed to be.

​A few moments later... even the shock disappeared, leaving behind complete, unadulterated bewilderment.

​"..."

​Nyxara simply stared in dead silence.

​The construct floated high above Lord’s Hollow. Due to the absurd, overwhelming amount of mana Cassian had poured into its creation, its size was staggering, dominating the night sky like a dark, eclipsing moon.

​Every single summon within Lord’s Hollow could see it, no matter where they stood in the territory.

​The torrent of mana eventually slowed before coming to a complete stop, not because Cassian had exhausted his reserves, as that was an impossibility, but because he had reached the structural limit of what his unrefined control over the Authority could sustain.

​The surrounding shadows trembled, then stabilized into a solid, impenetrable pitch-black mass.

​Cassian slowly opened his eyes, a proud, satisfied smile spreading across his face.

​Hovering directly above Lord’s Hollow was a gigantic, flawless shadow construct.

​A perfect circle.