A huge commotion had just happened inside the Palace Museum's inner complex. A place that was usually calm and tranquil, where the occasional heated debate was the loudest source of disturbance, had been shaken awake by a muffled explosion. But the sound of the explosion wasn't the main cause of said commotion itself, it was the shock that reverberated across the complex that startled everyone.

Crowds of resident academias could be seen flocking in front of the entrance to the underground bunker. Many elders could be seen shouting and advising people to scatter and not to crowd the scene. Some heeded the advice, but more and more people were coming to see what was going on.

Several minutes earlier, some elders were even seen carrying an unconscious person on a stretcher. They were in a hurry, perhaps worried that the unidentified person on the stretcher wouldn't make it alive if they were to be the slightest bit late.

At this time, the sound of rushed steps could be heard moving through the crowd of people.

“Move! Move! Don’t you people have anything better to do than to stand around like idiots?!”

The shout came from Sepphira. She hastily went through the crowd with a layer of protection magic that knocked people out of her way. She didn't even look at the guarding elders as she arrived and directly entered the underground bunker.

“It’s okay everyone, there is no danger here…everyone should go back to whatever they were doing.” A calmer voice came after Sepphira’s harsh scolding. It was Unsui’s.

Unsui stopped in front of some of the guarding elders and said, “Send a message to the infirmary to do whatever it takes to save the individual in their care. Also, don't let anyone enter the underground bunker without the express permission of us teachers.”

After advising the guarding elders, Unsui went after Sepphira and entered the underground bunker.

The inside of the underground bunker was chaotic. It was mostly dark since all of the illumination crystals had exploded. The little bit of light was from the faint glow of a magic spell that someone had cast.

There was also a four-colored glow of trace elements that bounced off the layer of minute particles and dust that was still hovering in the air.

When Sepphira and Unsui entered, they immediately saw Tellrog casting a spell to slowly neutralize the chaotic trace elements that filled the entire bunker. Tellrog had also conjured a simple construct to prevent the bunker from collapsing.

The light from this conjured construct illuminated the surrounding area and made it possible for them to see that there was now a giant gaping hole at one end of the underground bunker.

Sepphira and Unsui were perplexed by what they saw. Even more so when they noticed the state Tellrog was in, he might still be able to stand and conjured magic but he was definitely injured.

“What happened here?” Sepphira asked Tellrog.

“...I’m not sure how to put it better, but it was elemental magic. Definitely an elemental magic.” Tellrog said.

“He cast elemental magic? How...it shouldn't be possible for him to cast elemental magic!”

“You should ask Unsui about that, it was the hand wraps that he made after all.”

Sepphira looked at the surprised Unsui.

“He used the hand wraps? That’s impossible, the hand wraps didn't even work!”

“That’s what I thought too, but there's a giant hole here that says otherwise…”

“But…but…even if he managed to get it to work, how could one simple element caused this kind of damage?”

“It wasn't one element,” Tellrog said. “It was six.”

—

A few moments later, in the infirmary.

Satoshi laid down unconscious on top of a platform surrounded by lights of inscription. There were four old people around the platform seated inside different nodes within a formation. Glows of light blue, dark blue, grey, and purple could be seen coming from these four people, making their way from them through the formation and into Satoshi. After some time, the same kind of colorful glow came from Satoshi and entered the four people, completing a cycle.

Satoshi was badly injured, especially his hands, arms, and the front part of his torso. There were no broken bones on his body but his skin was badly mangled, charred, and cracked. There were even some parts of his hands that looked like they grew weird black scales, but those scales were now mangled and broken.

After their initial shock, Sepphira and Unsui helped Tellrog to stabilize the underground banker. They made a magical formation that conjured a temporary support structure to prevent the bunker from collapsing. After that, they set up a formation to slowly dissipate the turbulent trace elements inside the bunker and sealed it off, preventing anyone from entering.

Right now the three of them were gathered in the infirmary, supervising the treatment of Satoshi.

Tellrog looked worse among the three of them, he felt very guilty since he was the one that was supervising Satoshi when the incident happened.

Unsui looked more confused than guilty. He was very sure that the hand wraps were a failure, and that was why he held no reservations about giving them to Satoshi.

Sepphira actually seemed to be the calmest among the three, although she couldn't get rid of the last trace of worry from her eyes. At this time she especially regretted the fact that her Evil-eye couldn't look into Satoshi’s future to prevent an incident such as this.

“Tell us from the beginning, what exactly happened before, during, and after the incident,” Sepphira asked both Tellrog and Unsui.

Tellrog then began recounting the session with Satoshi, before the incident happened. He also recounted the fact that Satoshi specifically asked for some time to train on the hand wraps that he got from Unsui. That was what they were doing before the incident.

Unsui explained to the two of them how the hand wraps came into being.

“He told me to make a hand wrap with as many as possible trace elements enchanted into it. He said he will be using them as a catalyst to execute some elemental technique.”

“To use some trace elements as a catalyst is technically possible, in fact, it is a very common practice, you two know this. But we all also know that it would be impossible to do more than that. In the end, the hand wraps were nothing more than a convenient tool which holds many kinds of trace elements that can be used as catalyst…nothing more…”

“That’s why I thought it would be okay to give him…I never thought…”

Unsui looked even more confused when he finished his explanation. Generally speaking, it was as he said, the hand wraps shouldn't be more than a convenient device. But the reality in front of him made him question his own understanding, and the guilt slowly came into him.

“You are not wrong, that’s what I thought too initially,” Tellrog said as he looked at Unsui with pity.

“I even told him that it wouldn't work as he thought, even before he tried. And as I thought, he failed.”

“But only the first tries,” Tellrog stopped his explanation and took a deep breath.

Sepphira and Unsui were now fully concentrating on what Tellrog was about to say. The way Tellrog was saying, something definitely happened after those first failures.

“Suddenly, out of nowhere, a bluish glow shined from his body. It was a faint glow, but he definitely became two times faster than before.”

“And then the bluish glow became more intense, and a darker hue also appeared. He became even faster, and explosively.”

“Then shortly after that, a purplish glow appeared.”

Tellrog stopped and looked at Sepphira. His eyes were apologetic. “Now that I think about it, I should have stopped him right then and there.”

“But to see three glows of different elements, from someone that moments ago couldn't even manage to produce one…I was excited. And it got the better of me.”

Tellrog took a long pause when he got to that point. It even looked like he got nothing more to say. But each one of them knew that it wasn't the end.

“Then…what happened?” Unsui finally asked.

Tellrog took a few extra seconds before he finally answered, “Then another color glowed, and the purplish hue turned brighter.”

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“He managed to execute the attack, just the one. It all exploded outward before blowing back into him. It was so fast I barely got any chance to protect myself.”

“That should be when all of you felt the earth quaked,” Tellrog said.

Unsui and Sepphira were listening attentively to all of this. After Tellrog was done with his explanation they were still replaying it in their minds, making sure they missed none of it.

“It is indeed six elements.” Unsui finally broke his silence, he was recalling what Tellrog told them while comparing what they found inside the bunker. There were indeed six traces of elements.

“How in the world someone that…not even a student, could wield six elements?!”

—

While Sepphira, Unsui, and Tellrog were talking about what had happened, Satoshi was unconscious. But his mind was pretty much awake, inside his mental realm.

Satoshi looked around him as he stood inside an empty darkness. There were no lights and he shouldn't have been able to see at all, but he could clearly see the darkness that stretched for what seemed to be forever.

He was not entirely unfamiliar with this place. In fact, he had been here many times. Recently, whenever he utilized his predictive learning technique, or in the past, whenever he was thinking about something and tried to vividly visualize what he was thinking.

Every single time the whole void would be filled with flashes of colorful images that raced one after another. Flowing endlessly like a reel of a movie as Satoshi would watch intently. But right now there was nothing, only Satoshi standing there by his lonesome.

After some time standing there in the darkness, Satoshi began to notice different glows of light scattered amidst the darkness. There were soft glows of blue, grey, and purple lights. Some are brighter and some are dimmer, but there were many of them.

These were rampaging elements that resulted from the blowback of Satoshi’s failed experiment. Now they were invading Satoshi’s body and mind, causing harm unless they were to be neutralized quickly.

Satoshi walked toward the closest glow of light to him and reached out his hand. He knew it could be dangerous, but he wouldn't know how to neutralize them unless he gave it a try. Unfortunately, his hand directly went through the light, Satoshi couldn't even touch it. Fortunately, nothing dangerous happened.

Satoshi shifted his gaze from the floating sphere of light to an area of darkness a little bit further away from him. He couldn't see anything, but since the whole place was basically within his mind, Satoshi could notice the changes in his awareness.

A figure slowly emerged from the dark, and as it approached Satoshi it became clearer and clearer with each step it took.

Satoshi grew alert when he could finally see the face of this figure. It was “him”.

More accurately, this was the figure that Satoshi once saw during his predictive learning session, the one that looked a lot like him.

The figure that emerged from the darkness finally stopped approaching when it got a few steps away in front of Satoshi. Its entire figure was almost solid at this point and it looked calmly at Satoshi.

Ever since the first time Satoshi noticed this figure during one of his predictive learning sessions, Satoshi had been trying to find it again. Although he had no base for it, Satoshi had a hunch that this figure wasn't a result of his technique. Unfortunately, no matter what he did, Satoshi hadn’t succeeded in finding the figure again after their first encounter.

Until this time.

Satoshi scrutinized the semi-translucent figure standing in front of him. He waited if it would do anything while at the same time giving a closer look at this mysterious entity. Only now that Satoshi noticed, while it looked a lot like him, there were differences between them that he noticed.

They both had light dark skin and short black hair, but now that they were standing face-to-face Satoshi could see that the figure was a little bit shorter than he was. It also had a stockier build with less prominent cheekbones.

The one thing that Satoshi notice the most was its eyes. He had never seen such intense eyes before and Satoshi was sure he never saw it on him when he looked in a mirror. It was a pair of eyes that shined with unquestionable confidence and authority.

The figure kept his silence while Satoshi scrutinized it and it didn't look like it would do anything.

‘Who are you?’

Satoshi was surprised by his own question. He was going to speak the question but instead, it came out as a string of thoughts that echoed within the darkness. He instantly realized that since he is technically inside his mental realm, there was no need to talk aloud.

The mysterious figure furrowed his brows a few seconds after Satoshi’s question. It then moved its mouth like it was speaking but no sounds were coming out.

‘You can’t speak? Try thinking about it, I should be able to hear it.’ Satoshi thought as he noticed the figure wasn't able to answer his question.

Instead of responding to Satoshi, the figure shook his head with a faint smile. It then looked at the scattered floating lights around them and back to Satoshi

The figure waved its right hand and the scattered floating lights around them shuddered and began to move slowly. They seemed to be attracted by something as they moved toward Satoshi and the figure as the center.

As the furthest lights drew closer and closer to them Satoshi noticed that they were not simply attracted to where they were standing, they also slowly began to sort themselves. As they drew closer, they clumped together with other similar glow of lights along the way.

Satoshi’s mental realm seemed to stretch endlessly and these floating lights were scattered all over, but it took just an instant after the figure waved its hand for all of them to be gathered in front of him.

There were now only five lights of different colors floating between them, and they were now much brighter than they were before.

The figure waved its hand again and the floating lights began to squirm and changed shape. They turned into alphabets and words that Satoshi recognized.

‘Oxygēnum’ and ‘carbo’, both glowed with a purplish light.

‘Ferrum’, glowed with a greyish light.

‘Kalium’ and ‘magnesium’ glowed with a bluish light.

Only the light that made the word ‘kalium’ shined brighter than the other ones, it was almost twice as intense.

Satoshi’s eyes noticeably shrank when he saw those words. He recognized those words very well, those were the elements he failed to manipulate and blew back on him instead!

‘Oxygēnum’ pushed Satoshi’s body to be able to perform beyond its limitations.

‘Carbo’ and ‘Ferrum’ strengthened and hardened his constitution to be able to launch a devastating attack while protecting him from damage at the same time.

‘Magnesium’ gave him explosiveness.

‘Kalium’ enhanced his electrical impulses, set his neurons on fire, and basically turned them to eleven, pushing his reaction time and agility to the limit!

The figure shook his head and waved his hand again. As he did so the light that came from ‘kalium’ grew a portion dimmer and was now as bright as the rest of them.

This seemingly simple action was quite surprising for Satoshi. Not only the strange figure could name every element Satoshi used correctly, but it was also able to tell that there was an extra portion of 'kalium' involved, which it just dispelled.

Satoshi held his own speculation on why the experiment failed on him and when he saw the figure dispel a portion of light from ‘kalium’ to the darkness, he got his confirmation. It failed due to a lack of balance.

The figure wasn't done after he expelled a portion of ‘kalium’, the five glowing words now began to slowly float up higher and settled on different positions. Faint rows and columns also appeared above them with multiple words that glowed with a faint white light.

There were exactly 113 of these faint white lights, and together with the other five lights with different colors, there were now 118 lights in equal proportion.

Satoshi looked at the glowing lights above them and the array of the table. He instantly noticed the array as this was his source of ideas for the hand wraps!

Satoshi looked at the figure as he tried to understand its intention. He had a hunch of what it might try to achieve but it was too bizarre to think about.

In the end, Satoshi couldn't hold back from asking, ‘Are you going to teach me?’

The figure gave Satoshi a wide smile and nodded. It began to move its hands alternately and suddenly various scenes and images appeared around them. It was exactly the same as Satoshi’s predictive learning technique, the only difference was in each of these scenes were different elemental techniques.

Satoshi was flabbergasted at what he saw. There were at least a hundred of these scenes and each one of them was unique and completely shocking! In those scenes, the mysterious figure could be seen performing different techniques with ease and proficiency.

Glows of elemental lights came from those scenes. Some of them gave off one colored hue, but some gave off multiple colorful hues. There was even one that gave off five different hues!

As he looked around Satoshi noticed that there were also techniques that gave off a single colored hue, but it shone with such intensity that eclipsed all the others.

Even though Satoshi was just a consciousness within his mental realm right now, he could feel the hair on the back of his neck stand up. The techniques he saw in those scenes with intense lights were so shocking, to call them world-ending wouldn't be an exaggeration, it was simply shocking beyond compare.

Satoshi shifted his gaze from the scenes toward the enigmatic figure in front of him. It was still smiling at Satoshi, but right now Satoshi felt like he was looking at a monster.

Satoshi was about to ask the nature of its existence, but before he can “say” it, a particular scene popped up between the two of them. Four hues were coming from this scene and Satoshi recognized these elements, they were the same five elements he failed to manipulate.

The scene was playing on repeat and Satoshi was watching it being replayed again and again attentively. This was the perfect version of what he was trying to achieve. Satoshi saw the figure on the scene suddenly move with explosive speed toward a stone mountain. It came to an abrupt stop just before the mountain and sent out two palms. The palms shone with a greyish and purplish hue.

A terrifying explosion went off at the exact instance those two palms touched the stone mountain. it was instantly obliterated into a conflagration of dust and fine stone particles. There wasn't even a roaring sound that accompanied the explosion as if the air itself was forced into a vacuum and blasted into nothingness.

There was nothing left of the stone mountain at the end of the scene, only fine stone particles that drifted away from the figure that just cast the technique.

Satoshi was absolutely shocked at what he saw and he found it hard to believe. The stone mountain in that scene was even bigger than the volcano that housed Istindi's Old Luster, whose explosion forced the whole province into lockdown. But it was instantly reduced into a fine powder!

Of course, he had his own hypothesis that combining these elements would result in a devastating attack, but not to this degree. Judging from what he saw from the scene, were he to succeed in executing the technique, never mind the bunker, the whole palace museum complex would be no more!

Satoshi let out a proverbial breath after he saw the technique. To think that he just naively tried to perform a technique of such magnitude, him being in a comma was already extremely fortunate.

Satoshi looked around at the other techniques playing all around him, he wanted to see all of them and commit them to memory. Although he didn't understand where all of these were coming from, he knew he shouldn't let go of such an opportunity. He wouldn't know if he would ever have the same chance.

Just as Satoshi was about to observe the other scenes, the figure made a gesture as if trying to stop him.

It mouthed something and Satoshi could barely read from its lips ‘come later, to study.’

The figure then waved its hand again and the five lights that it gathered from the darkness around them before came down from the array above them. They landed on the figure’s palm and merged into one. After that, it broke off into two equal parts that gave off glimmers of four colored lights, with the purplish hue being slightly brighter than the rest.

The two parts of light floated toward Satoshi and the figure made a gesture with its hand. It raised two of its fingers. Then it sent out a palm and the two parts of light landed on Satoshi’s chest.

As the part of light landed on him, Satoshi felt his consciousness begin to waver. He knew exactly what this meant, he was about to exit the mental realm.

Satoshi tried to resist but his consciousness within the mental realm faded out faster than he could imagine. Before he could say anything more to the enigmatic figure, Satoshi was expelled from the mental realm.

At the same time, Satoshi's consciousness returned to the real world.

—---