Elemental Control - External control

Amelia looked at each and every student present.

"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 than 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? Anyone who is brave enough to answer?" Ms. Amelia asked the class, 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 class. 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 class. Previously, the youngest was a 9-year-old named Tiffany Hawking, nearly 10,000 years ago. No one completely knew her elemental talent, and even the Hawkings family was quiet about it, not saying a single thing. Maybe, it was only their current patriarch at that time and Tiffany that knew what it was. However, there are rumors and unverified evidence that it had something to do with the power of Life and Death, one that is more powerful than what had been recorded at that time, and currently matches the description of the theoretical research on Life-death origin elements that Xander had read.

Sadly, she was said to have died while attempting to breakthrough to Demigod-9, as she was assassinated by their rival clan at that time, the Thorne family. Of course, whether she lived or not was only known by the leader at that time, who had remained silent, even amongst his descendants and fellow clan members.

The Thorne family, on the other hand, did stop its conflict with the Hawkings, but later on fizzled out of existence due to various accidents over the thousands of years to come, completely disappearing 2,000 years ago, along with its inheritance and lineage. Of course, this event did bring about ideas that maybe Tiffany had successfully broken through to Demigod-9, or even reached Divine class, and had begun to target the Thorne family over this period of time until their extinction.

The same way others have assessed Tiffany's usefulness and threat level, these group of people, the selected leaders and representatives of the country, needed to reassess the threat level and the possible usefulness of X-001 to the country.

However, this meeting 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 assassinations or any assassinations that will be born out of competition or jealousy.

Ms. Amelia looked around the class 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 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 assumptive 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 elemental energy?

Also, 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 passed, 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. In fact, Therault and Xander's paper alone had helped resolve the unknown or suspicious targets or cases from the past, answering questions concerning historical figures and their respective elements and power.

Misidentified information was rapidly corrected and refined in this period of time, leading to various new statements of families, historical museums, and even schools and universities correcting and modifying their syllabus and educational programs.

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 comprehension, your thoughts, your primary element affinity to. This is what we currently know about it. 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 analogy of magic spells was not wrong per se, but in this situation, it is. A magic spell is a list of orders that resonates with their rules and representations. It is not because they "understand" the magic spell. It is an automated reaction, rather than an active one."

"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 and 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 class. Adam, Valerie, and some of the members of the class nodded. The others were still looking confused, with the exception of Xander, who was just staring at his smartwatch screen. Seeing them shake their heads in agreement as well as the other's empty faces, she then smiled.

"Ok, some of you got it, but others are still confused. Let's move 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. In this process, you would understand what I am trying to say with actual practical demonstration and control."

"First, 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 control 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 class, this should be a skill everyone can do. This is quite hard as you are roughly commanding and ordering the elements directly, where they are to go, what they should do, etc. It has more flexibility.

The Subconscious control 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 passed. This is the most complex type of control. In other words, you are casting spells through your conscious control of the elements.

This type of control could be when you are casting a magic spell or array, but instead of simply producing 1 effect, it can have 1.5 effects, 2 or more additional effects, or amplification of already existing functions of the spell. This boost or addition would require expenditure of magic energy as its source of power, not just elements or elemental energy.

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 assortment 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 assortment 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.

A common aspect of the spell demonstration was that the effects are all step-by-step, where each step is ushered by the spellcaster and not by a predetermined magic sequence. The benefits were that this allowed high flexibility and modification in the final result of the magic, but little to no automation in elemental transformation or function, as well as being time consuming and can be prone to interruption.