Time Twister

"I know it may seem redundant, to teach you how to "harness" and "control" the elements around you when they are already gravitating to your body naturally and even more so during Magic meditation. but controlling the elements around you has more benefits that it may show." Ms. Amelia changed the holographic figure, showing this time a human avatar controlling the element particles around it.

"To begin this lesson, let"s answer a very simple question: What does it mean to "control" an element, and its difference from controlling elemental particles, and elemental energy? Any one who is brave enough to answer?" Ms. Amelia asked the cla.s.s, but she didn"t bother turning to Xander, who was lying down on the mat, curled up, asleep.

In truth, he didn"t really have to attend the cla.s.s. After all, his results in the Midterm Test showed that was the case. Not only that, but the news of him reaching Master-1 had also already reached the ends of the campus, spread of course by both students and Ms. Lim by word of mouth. It was basically impossible for the school to suppress the news, and it spread all over Callows City, to the point that in an hour, relevant people of power in Eta had already received the news.

Right now, they were undergoing another impromptu meeting, the discussion focused on X-001, Xander Cloverfield. After all, according to the history of the planet, for the past 20,000 years, he was the only 7-year-old magician to reach Master cla.s.s. They needed to rea.s.sess the threat level and the possible usefulness of X-001 to the country.

However, it wasn"t a problem for Xander for now, since he had notified his parents yesterday about his breakthrough, so they were there to help him suppress the waves of surprise, jealousy, and well, attempted a.s.sa.s.sinations.

Ms. Amelia looked around the cla.s.s of 100+ people and saw some who looked like they were hesitating. Ms. Amelia decided to help them by randomly calling those people.

"Mr. Fairwitz, what do you know about controlling an element?" Ms. Amelia asked the young man, Adam Fairwitz, about his take on the topic.

Adam momentarily stuttered before coughing, and then after reorganizing his thoughts, proceeded to answer.

"I think that controlling an element focused on the idea of communication between the caster and the element itself. We still believe in the idea that elements themselves have a limited consciousness, and although they move in sequenced structures in our daily life, it"s not to say that they are simply as such. Why? Because we can communicate with them through the activation of Magic spells. In this perspective, magic spells are like orders, or requests for the certain elements to follow. If the order is disrupted, the command cannot be cast, and the elements may perceive it as something else, thus causing a backlash to the caster." Seeing that he wasn"t interrupted by other students and Ms. Amelia was still waiting for his answer, Adam gained confidence and continued to speak.

"Concerning element particles and element energy control, I think these are 2 other different set-ups. If previously, if controlling an element is a macro-state, then controlling an elemental particle is a micro-state. You are exerting more energy and time to ensure that specific particles of an element are doing the specific functions you are asking it to do. Element Energy control, on the other hand, is more of guiding rather than controlling, I think. Because energy is a byproduct of the elements, and it can"t be commanded per se, but it follows certain universal laws that allow it to exist in such a state and be converted into magic energy."

A snort sounded out, causing Adam to stop talking. He knew it was Valerie, who was basically arguing with his ideas all the time. Although he didn"t hate it because it furthered his knowledge, she can come off to be very condescending.

"Adam, I think your first 2 ideas are correct but aren"t they too a.s.sumptive that since elemental energy is a byproduct of the elements, it can"t be commanded? So how about sprites, then? Or even Magic beasts? Sprites are literally made up of elemental energy, while the life core of magic beasts are made up and run by elemental energy, no need to be converted into magic energy at all. Not only that, but there are preliminary studies that elemental energy attacks are inefficient against Sprites, specifically, the elemental energy that came from their primary element. Isn"t this an example of controlling the elemental energy? Not only that, I don"t think that elements have a consciousness that can decide for themselves, but rather hard-coded orders from whatever produced them in the first place. This is a form of elemental suppression, and in the case of the sprites, there was also a form of suppression present." Valerie said, referring to the idea of elemental suppression by hierarchical elements.

The past 4 years were quite challenging for people to change their mindset concerning elemental hierarchies, but as year after year pa.s.sed, more and more papers came out in support of the model that Therault and Xander had submitted. It was further refined by Gold D. Roger"s paper, perfectly identifying the origin elements" correct placement in the hierarchy.

Ms. Amelia chose this point to interject between the two.

"Both of you are correct, and well, also incorrect at the same time. Let me explain." Ms. Amelia said, and seeing the confusion, began her discussion.

"Elemental control involves your life essence doll controlling your body to control the elements, the elemental particles, and the elemental energy outside and inside the body. What is within your life essence doll? For starters, it contains your comprehensions, your thoughts, your primary element affinity to. Life essence dolls basically create a resonance reaction, whether it might be due to elemental suppression, or because it can communicate with the elements in a certain way. It"s not because of magic spell communication. The a.n.a.logy of magic spells was not wrong per se, but in this situation, it is. A magic spell is well a list of orders that resonates with their rules, representations. It is not because they "understand" the magic spell. It is an automated reaction."

"Concerning Ms. Verdny"s idea of sprites and magic beasts on elemental energy, she is correct that there is a significant aspect related to elemental suppression. The origin of the product can definitely suppress the product. But she forgot to take note that once they reach sentience, they also form their own life essence dolls, albeit in a different form from humanoids, their system of control is the same. it is the Life essence dolls creating a resonance reaction to the elements around them, allowing the body to control them and manipulate them easily. If we compare it to a clan system:

Elements are basically Clan A, having A traits.

Humanoids and other sentient beings are basically Clan B, having B traits.

The life essence of humanoids/sentient beings has the capacity to show some of the traits of Clan A.

When humanoids, other sentient beings attempt to control the elements, Life essence dolls show modified A traits to these elements, aka magic spells, arrays, and curses, allowing the elements to resonate with these traits and react accordingly."

"Now, concerning the difference between controlling an element vs controlling an elemental particle, there"s a big difference in the scope of control; generally, the macro and microstate of control Adam had said is correct, and it involves a higher degree of control, affinity, and practice. Usually, the micro-control is done within the body, if one wants to remove something specific from it, as it is easier to be done in the body than outside."

"Do you guys understand?" Ms. Amelia asked the cla.s.s. Adam, Valerie, and the rest of the cla.s.s nodded. Seeing them shake their heads in agreement, she then smiled.

"Ok, moving on to the types of elemental control. Since this week we are focusing on outward control, we"ll focus on the types present for this kind of control."

"

We have 2 overarching types of outward control: Macro control and Micro control. Macro focuses on controlling the element as a group, while micro focuses on controlling an element as individual particles. Since Micro-control is basically unachievable without sufficient practice and affinity, we will only focus on macro control.

Under each type, we have 3 general types of outward control: Conscious, subconscious, and biconscious.

Conscious deals with you as the director, real-time commanding the elements. This is quite simple and can even be done by someone in the Mundane stage if one is really talented; by Elite cla.s.s, this should be a skill everyone can do. This is quite hard as you are roughly commanding and ordering the elements.

Subconscious deals with you as an influencer, setting up a series of commands to be executed after a previous command has been done. This makes it more complicated than conscious control, but is easier to be executed; This is where Magic spells, arrays, and curses come from.

Biconscious control shows both conscious and subconscious control. Meaning, as you command the elements, your commands are layered with follow-up commands set up to activate after a certain period of time, or interaction/situation has pa.s.sed. This is the most complex type of control. In other words, you are casting spells through your conscious control of the elements.

All these three controls are subdivided into 3 types: Specific, Random, and Area.

Specific subcontrol type is the kind that targets a collection of elements that are similar in function and state.

Random subcontrol type is the kind that targets a random a.s.sortment of elements that you can influence.

Area subcontrol type is the kind that targets a specific area, where all elements present in the area are put into control." Ms. Amelia then demonstrated in the hologram projection these types of control.

Immediately, the first scene was a Conscious control, Specific subtype. The person can be seen utilizing on the spot the elements around him, specific elements that he is in control of. A portion of the elements, specifically fire and water elements, was able to move perfectly under his command, without the use of magic spells or arrays, or curses.

The next hologram showed the same control, but random subtype. It showcased a random a.s.sortment of fire, water, and air elements, even if the caster in the hologram was only able to utilize Air and Water elements. This was because the fire was influenced by the movement of air elements, causing it to move with the flow.

The next hologram showed an area subtype of conscious control, causing all the elements present in the area targeted by the caster to be under its control. It showed the figure continuously forcing fire elements to explode while being strengthened by the air elements. The movement of poison elements in the area infused the flames as a type of poison, causing the target inside the area controlled to suffer greatly while charring to crisp.

The next 3 holograms showcased the Subconscious control, showing the caster use pre-configured commands in the form of magic spells, arrays, and curses. There were 3 subtypes demonstrated: Specific, Random, and Area.

The last 3 holograms showcased the Biconscious control, showing the caster actively commanding the elements, and every command activates a series of magic spells, arrays, or curses. Under specific subtype control, fire and wood elements are controlled, and after a few movements, the elements activated in an orderly fashion similar to a magic spell being cast. Under random subtype, random elements that were influenced by the elements the caster could control activated on their own after a few movements, releasing the strength of a magic spell. The last subtype, Area, was shown with the Caster restricting the movement of elements in the target area, before causing all of them to attack the target inside the area in a systematic form. After the videos ended, Ms. Amelia looked at the students and said,

"Today and until the end of the week, you will be practicing with 2 sparring partners. You can select your sparring partners within 2 minutes. Time starts... now."

Immediately the cla.s.s was thrown in a frenzy; most of the people who knew each other after three weeks of cla.s.s did not hesitate to choose one another as their sparring partners. The guys were shamelessly inviting the girls who were not yet in a group, who had no choice but join their groups.

The only difference was that no one had attempted to pair up with Xander, not even the girls that found him cute. They felt if they did that, they would lose their motivation to cultivate, ok? Not because they might get arrested for pinching Xander"s cheeks and hugging him with their developing b.r.e.a.s.t.s, suffocating him.

Of course, there were 2 girls who approached Xander; Maryann and Valerie. It was Maryann who approached Xander, waking him up groggily.

"Hmm? Wh?" Xander mumbled, rubbing his eyes. The other girls seeing this could help but giggle. Xander was so cute! It was like he was disturbed from his nappy time.

"Hey, Xander, can you be my sparring partner for the lesson today?" Maryann asked shyly. Xander looked at Maryann for a period of time, causing Maryann"s face to blush. She wasn"t used to people staring at her face for a long time. After a while, Xander nodded his head in agreement.

Maryann was elated. She had wholeheartedly believed that Xander would be able to greatly guide her in controlling external elements. Valerie, seeing this, also asked Xander and Maryann if she could be part of their pair. Xander didn"t care, so he nodded. Maryann, seeing Xander didn"t have any qualms, also agreed to Valerie"s request to join.

After 2 minutes, the cla.s.s of 120 was grouped into 40 groups of 3. Seeing this, Ms. Amelia began to speak again to the groups.

"Ok, now head to the other side of the room, and choose a spot. make sure you are 2 meters away from another group. You may begin practicing by:

1. Attempt to control an element outside your body. Once you have a strong, conscious control of the element, attempt the subtypes.

2. Attempt to use a subconscious control of elements by casting your magic spell. While casting your magic spell, attempt modifying the incantation, or modifying the flow of magic energy. Target your sparring partners only. This is a form of combat training as well.

3. Attempt to do a biconscious control of elements. Try not to target your cla.s.smates, and target your sparring partners. This is a form of combat training as well.

4. Do not use the subtype Area for subconscious and biconscious control of elements in this sparring session, unless they are non-offensive kind of spells. You can be prosecuted by the university"s internal council community if severe injuries have been doc.u.mented.

5. For advanced learners, try to practice wrestling the control of the caster of the elements to your own. After getting a hang out of it, attempt to do it without alerting the caster.

Do you have any questions?"

Xander raised his hand, asking nonchalantly,

"If we accidentally injure our sparring partners, we can just heal them right there and then, and we would be off the hook?"

Ms. Amelia was taken aback by his question, and so did the other students, even Maryann and Valerie. She thought about it for a while, and said,

"Well, technically, yes, since the injuries aren"t present anymore, but-" she was interrupted by Xander"s voice.

"Ok great! Is it also the case if I accidentally kill my cla.s.smates, as long as I can resurrect them, I wouldn"t have any problems?" Xander asked innocently, causing everyone who heard it feel a shiver down their spines.

"Er, I, well, I think that"s not allowed, Mr. Cloverfield. Resurrection is iffy magic and doesn"t guarantee 100% perfect restoration. So if there are still hints of severely damaged internal organs or function, you can still be prosecuted." Ms. Amelia stumbled a bit in the beginning, before calmly responding to Xander"s inquiry.

"Oh. No killing, I got it." Xander said seriously, nodding his head. He then turned to the two girls, and asked them seriously,

"Do you want me to retaliate while you two girls are sparring with me, to make it more realistic, or do you want me just to point out problems in your form, casting, and control?" Valerie and Maryann were taken aback, before thinking and consulting with one another.

After a few moments of whispering and thinking, both of them said:

"I think you should retaliate. But limit it to Elite-cla.s.s magic spells only! No self-made spells." After hearing this, Xander thought about it for a moment, and nodded.

"Ok, let"s begin. First, do the conscious control of elements." Xander began, raising one of his eyebrows. Immediately, an invisible wind moved about the area where the trio were, causing a bit of a ruckus. The winds were caused by the elemental particles moving at a very high speed, so anyone who experienced the wind would have felt the different properties of elements present: burning, cold, shocking, suffocating, heavy, rejuvenating, poisonous, restoring, decaying, deathly, etc. Those who were around the group were shocked, and even Ms. Amelia, who was a tens of meters away, could feel the fluctuation of elements.

Xander then put his eyebrows down, and the element fluctuation went down as well. Xander had not moved a single finger, just his eyebrows. Both Maryann and Valerie were shocked and had a trace of joy; they were truly correct on choosing Xander as a sparring partner! They would probably learn a lot.

"That"s a conscious control of elements. What I showcased was the subtypes of specific, area, and random. I controlled specific elements that caused the surrounding elements to follow their lead, creating an area effect. This is optimal if you want to cast an area of effect or specific magic spell, because it can effectively confuse the target. He or she would think this was an area type of magic spell, but in truth, it is a specific magic spell and should have raised his or her magic barriers instead rather than escape the area."

"As you begin the conscious control of your primary elements, expand your senses and attempt to locate elements that are related to your primary elements, and attempt to make them resonate to the movement of elements under your control. How do you resonate one element to another? One word: Representations. Use their common representation sections and activate it in your controlled element; once it is activated, it acts like a beacon for the other elements not under your control, to follow the controlled element."

"Go on, practice. I"ll point out mistakes and possible improvements you can do as you practice." Xander motioned the two to begin practice.

Maryann and Valerie nodded seriously and began attempting their conscious control of their primary elements.

Maryann was experienced on such things because her elements were opposite to one another so she had begun testing them when she had reached Elite cla.s.s. Although it caused a lot of injuries, it had improved her understanding of the 2 elements tremendously.

Ice. It was cold, very cold. It was the manipulation of molecular movement, causing the heat produced by the movement to decrease, to the point of solidifying liquids. In this case, the free-flowing water elements.

Fire. It was warm, it was painful to touch. it was the manifestation of heat in the physical realm. Fire is weakened by water, but ice is weakened by fire.

For both the elements, she easily gained control of them through her life essence doll. It was controlling them to do something or manipulating them, that was hard. She had to ensure that there were no conflicting movements between the two, or that they exist in parallel lines, never to touch or intersect.

"Good job Maryann. Since you know that ice is the manipulation of molecular movement or the manipulation of heat present in an object or area, why not control the heat produced by your fire elements without causing them to be extinguished? You would have better results in attempting to fuse the two if you get the concept."

Maryann"s eyes widened, as if she just realized something. She attempted to do what Xander had just said, channeling the heat of the fire, and continuously lowering the heat, without causing the flames to be extinguished. Although she kept failing, she felt it was feasible, and she continued to do it again and again. Seeing her determination, Xander nodded in approval. At least she isn"t a quitter, Xander mused. He looked at Valerie and saw that she was having a bit of a problem and decided to give her some tips, just to do his part in this practice session.

Valerie, on the other hand, was not that experienced. Although she was lauded as a genius because she had 4 primary elements, she knew the difficult task she has ahead of her if she wanted to reach Master cla.s.s and above.

Fire, Water, Poison, and Darkness element.

When she began to control Fire, Water, and Poison elements, she had an easy time focusing on them. She could even cause them to harmoniously move around and about. However, the moment she attempted to control the Darkness element, the other 3 elements would quickly lose control and became free-moving again. She was frustrated, because it kept happening over and over again; she couldn"t add the darkness element as part of the 3 elements she could control!

When she was about to shout in anger, she heard a voice entering her ears,

"You"re utilizing it the wrong way, Valerie. Attempt to have sufficient control of the Darkness element, before attempting the other 3 elements. The darkness element is the manifestation of the Yin in the Yin-Yang elements. It is a higher-order compared to the 5-elements and their derivatives."