"System tell me, how should we master ice?"
[{Elemental Overlord} — Helps in gaining affinity with new material and ephemeral elements.]
[This is one of your passive abilities.]
[The explanation here is vague, but you have to understand that comprehending ice or any other element out of nothing is no simple matter.]
[Generally, beings in the universe are born with affinities to certain material elements. It can be one element, or many elements it doesn't matter. But the affinities are predetermined.]
[Excluding some exceptional and unconventional ways, there is no such thing as comprehending material elements like ice.]
[But your case is different, because of the blood you assimilated it makes you a blank canvas upon which any element can be painted. Whether it is material or ephemeral.]
[If you ask me it will be very difficult for you to comprehend the ice element, which is a rare element without a suitable medium.]
[But this is the only option for you to get ice affinity immediately.]
"How hard could it be for the both of us to comprehend it?"
[It could be as early as days or it could take years.]
[It is all based on your natural affinity to the said element, but as you have been wiped clean by the blood. I really don't know how long it would take you both to comprehend.]
"We will start immediately, White."
"It's best if we both try to comprehend it, as to combine our efforts so that it is possible in the least amount of time." Master White nodded to Azrael but was still doubtful. He was not entirely sure about whether this was all a waste of time or not.
"White, we are already trapped in Sablewood for a long time now, we have nothing better to do." Azrael pointed out their indirect confinement.
Master White was not able to refute that, so he took one last look at the sleeping Ava, closed his eyes, entering a meditative state.
Azrael, afflicted with curiosity didn't consider much, and following Master White, he also directly transitioned into a meditative state.
When both of them completely shut off their senses and were disconnected from the surroundings, they focused on [Elemental Overlord}.
The world they could still feel, even after the cut off from the physical senses, suddenly disappeared into the background.
And what appeared before them was a black space with glowing particles. These particles were different from the Enos particles, which were omnipresent.
All those glowing particles were of different colors representing different elements, and all of these elemental particles were flowing or floating upwards, forming a makeshift pillar of some sort.
All the elemental particles were twirling, spinning, bouncing off each other, and unanimously were moving upwards like there was no gravity to push them down.
The whole black space was filled with pillars of different colours, one pillar was red, one was green and some others were yellow and blue. It was a consortium of every possible colour known to humans and many more.
The rising pillars were bizarre, as they were not actually pillars. It could be said to be a gathering of elemental particles, structured like a cylindrical pole with no clear boundaries, moving in one direction. All of them were originating from nowhere and were piercing straight to the unknown end. Some were tilted, and many pillars were running into each other. It was chaotic but at the same time carried an unquestionable beauty to it.
Both Azrael and Master White snapped open their eyes and looked at each other in wonder.
They had never seen something so magical and grandiose.
"System, what was that?" Azrael shouted for the system, they never expected to see something like that.
The system didn't answer for a few moments.
Both Azrael and Master White's astonishment slowly began to fade away. The system hesitated to answer, and this was the second time it did that.
The first was when they discovered the law of Life and Death, and now this.
All their fascination with the beauty they had just witnessed vanished, because the system's rare silence meant there was something wrong.
Finally, after a few moments the system answered,
[It was the existence and flow of elements Azrael and Master White.]
"But what is wrong with it, system?" Master White completely forgot about the ice element. He wasn't that much enthusiastic about comprehending it to begin with, and now that knowing something is wrong with the elements he was beginning to completely abandon the idea. He feared only the unknown. And the thing they just witnessed was something unknown and beyond them.
[The flow, Master White.. the flow of these elements.]
[From my understanding of Elemental flow, there is no such thing as elemental particles moving upward or forming a makeshift pillar.]
[There should be no pattern to these elemental particles. They just exist in space.]
[The black space you saw was only a filter to make the material world disappear, by doing that it makes it easy for you to comprehend elements.]
[There is no black space, hosts. Which means the pillar like elemental structure you saw exists in reality. And the most concerning thing is, that they are floating upward towards something. This calls into question the fundamentals of a world.]
[This is not possible in a standard world.]
[There is something fundamentally wrong with Terralon.]
Azrael and Master White didn't know how to respond. They just wanted to comprehend the ice element, never did they think that they would discover the wrongness of this world again.
First it was the crippled cultivation system, now it was the patterned flow of elements. Every new discovery makes them question the functionality of Terralon. But they encounter no problem in reality. So all the more confusion.
Everything is working just the way it is supposed to. Humans, kingdoms, power, civilization, prosperity, suffering, life and death. Nothing is wrong with this world on the surface.
Azrael opened his mouth many times to say something but nothing came out. He didn't know what to say or do. The patterned flow of elements was not something he could interfere with, it existed as a fundamental rule of Terralon, nothing and no one could change it.
The room descended into silence for a long time. Even the system had nothing to say.
After a long time, "Will this affect our comprehension of ice, system?" Master White suddenly asked breaking the quiet atmosphere.
[Looking at it factually, nothing should affect your comprehension. In this world, fire still means burning, water still flows, trees flourish, and earth accommodates.]
[The elements still embody their attributes and no error occurs in their functioning. So, ice should do what it is meant to do.]
"Good. That is all we should be worried about." Master White concludes.
Azrael wanted to say something but was cut off by Master White, "What do you want to do, Azrael?! This is beyond us, there are many things wrong with this world and we choose to ignore it. So, we can do the same for this truth that we learnt today."
"But... " Azrael was still hesitant.
[Master White is right Azrael, anything you do will amount to nothing. And do we even know what to do?!]
Azrael's mouth was shut, his eyes darting from one corner of the cabin to another in contemplation. Like the system said nothing is wrong with this world on the surface. Ava in one corner of the cabin, was living, was breathing, will die one day. So, technically everything is right. But how is everything right even after all that they know?!
No, he was not worried about the well being of this world or Ava, he was far from what you would call a saint.
He was afraid of the unknown. If Master White was only fearful, then Azrael was paranoid. Both of them were control freaks, if there is something they can't control, they become uneasy.
The bigger the variable, the more they fear it.
Master White assured Azrael even more, "Our immediate goal is the ice element and the nobles, Azrael. This world has been functioning with patterned elements for who knows how long, and I believe it will continue to do so even in the future."
"This has nothing to do with us." He said one final time.
Azrael closed his eyes. His breathing had become ragged and erratic without him knowing. His chest rose and fell in uneven motion. His foot tapped against the wooden floor in a rhythm. And that rhythm calmed him down after some time. But he was not completely over it.
"System, how do we find the ice element with that many pillars?" Azrael immediately questioned with impatience. He understood Master White's words, but wasn't able to accept them. Their helplessness towards certain situations made him angry.
Master White also didn't stop him from being angry. Because it was better for his fear and paranoia to be channeled as anger.
[Get back to the black space and find the ice element manually. If you had any suitable medium, you could have attracted the ice particles towards yourself. But that is not possible, so you have to do it one by one.]
[Actually with the elemental pillars, it will be easy for you to find a specific elemental particle. Because they are already sorted out into different pillars and are not present randomly anymore.]
"It's a blessing in disguise then." Azrael said sarcastically. The sardonic smile on his face said, that even if it is easy for the comprehension of elements, it doesn't make it right for the fundamentals of a world to be wrong.
"Just comprehend the ice element, Azrael." Master White said exhausted. He was letting him vent his anger.
Azrael gave one last look to Master White, snorted and activated {Elemental Overlord}. Master White ignored him, as always, and followed him to the black space. Which essentially was a filter, as the system had said.