Sacral Clone questioned himself in disbelief. Am I seeing this right? A child wielding this level of power? And without any cultivation base at all? He shook his head.
No, this is different. He can't control it. Let me see its root.
But before starting his research, he decided to return to the sanctuary construction area, just as he was ready to go, he sensed a spike of terror from the crowd below—different from the general fear. One person's dread burned like his life depended on it.
He mummer, "This person likely know something."
He doesn't waste his time, he reached down with a thought, plucking the man from the ground and placing him beside the child in his palm. He put both to sleep with a wave of power so they wouldn't interfere when he starts his research.
After returning, He began his research immediately. He didn't yet know about the child situation, the trauma that had awakened this force in the child. For now, he didn't focus on the child's situation—he focused solely on the powers themselves.
____
And Now, after the research, with his questions mostly answered—though doubts still lingered—he understood the truth. What had happened to the child was the new magic of essence flow itself.
Human bodies were built from uncountable atoms—some ancient, forged in stars billions of years old; some newly formed; some unique.
These atoms had existed across epochs, splitting, fusing, enduring without vanishing.
Same as the fire element, water element, space element etc had existed in the universe, long before essence flow arrived, the atoms also exists.
And When the Essence Flow swept through the world, it changed the elements nearby. Fire turned into fire essence—stronger and more powerful, after influencing with the Essence Flow. The atoms changed too; they stopped being normal atoms.
And there is one more thing. Even before the essence flow came, these atoms have a property.
These atoms got shaped by whoever owned them. An atom from a star carried that star's burning heat inside it. An atom from a river or sea carried the watery nature instead.
One atom could hold more than one nature, because it got influenced by different owners before.
Just like a cat finds a new owner after its old one dies, these atoms moved on when their owner died. They became part of someone or something else. Atoms almost never died—they just kept existing, passing from one owner to the next.
No one knew how many owners a single atom had already had.
Tiny traces of every past owner stayed inside the atoms. Those traces were so small and weak that the atoms could not awaken them. The atoms stayed quiet, just normal matter that made up a person's body.
But sometimes because of the strong influence of their previous owner, atoms could awaken the nature. A atom can awaken only one type of nature or can Awaken multiple type of nature at the same time or fusion of multiple elements.
And, The awakening often depended on the current owner's emotions. An angry person usually awakened mostly fire traces. Of course, it was not that simple—other things besides emotions could influence the awakening as well.
But even if the atoms awakened their nature because of the owner emotions, their owners could not notice, feel, or use them. Because their numbers were too few. They lacked the power to affect reality. They were far too weak to get noticed.
But the child had awakened more than half of his atoms, with darkness and fire natures making up the majority. That amount was enough to cause massive destruction, like what had happened before.
This was everything he knew about these atoms so far. He had learned it from the internet through Sphera. She gathered knowledge about the human body and gave it to him, allowing him to discover this.
Now, after scanning the child's body with his divine senses, he saw the truth. The child resting in his palm had awakened half of his atoms. Most carried darkness and fire natures, with only a small number holding other natures. In his body, a atom only carries a single nature, not multiple. Otherwise, the power generated would be more terrifying and devastating.
He decided to dig deeper. He reached out with his thoughts to connect with the main body. His own form was pure energy, without atoms, so he could not study himself.
The main body had just returned from an ancient world. It gave permission, then stepped back into the mirror.
He started his research. He discovered that his Main body had awakened only two hundred thousand atoms. Unlike the child's, they showed no dominant nature—they were all different in nature.
He also examined the captured person's body. That one had around ten thousand awakened atoms, mostly shadow element. The rest held various other elements.
Then he used his divine senses to gather more information, scanning other humans and beasts.
Some time later, the sacral clone spoke.
"Normally, only a small number of atoms can be awakened. But now this has happened—how?"