Time Twister - 101 Repulsion and Attraction

Xander said to the students watching,

“I will be demonstrating a simple spell called [Meteorite Shatter Rain], a fire and earth type of spell. I will demonstrate the non-instantaneous version of the spell.”

He then placed the area he was in a magic barrier. This spell wasn’t one of his spells, but rather, a spell he derived under [Elemental Dominance], roughly showing the power of a master class spell.

For this demonstration, he purposely slowed down and began to inscribe the runic writings and the magic symbols with his magic energy through externalization, all of which were heading up above him but still within the transparent barrier.

The other students were recording the scene, of course, so they could easily review it for later purposes.

As he launched the symbols and runic writings up, he began to speak.

“This spell takes about 5 minutes to prepare and cast without instantaneous casting steps being used. This meant that it follows a different set of steps:

The first step is formation and power supplication, where power is supplied as you form the runic writings and magic symbols externalized or internalized.

The second step is to chanting the complete line of the spell.

The third step is spell release, the same as the 5th step in instantaneous casting.

This kind of spellcasting was very common until around 300,000 years ago when we began to experiment with different methods of casting.”

After 4 minutes and 30 seconds of preparing, Xander created the last runic writing, before saying in his childish, sonorous voice,

“Let the skies fall asunder, let the broken earth fall into the ground, burning and destroying everything in its wake. Let there be no peace, may the meteors continue to fall, shattering and scattering all over the wasteland.” Xander momentarily took a pause, before aiming both his hands above his head, towards the collected spell formation in the barrier.

“I beseech the elements! [Meteorite Shatter Rain]!” he uttered in a calm, cold voice.

The spell formation glowed, assembling into a series of concentric magic circles above, and the elements inside the barrier acting up, the fire and earth elements rapidly increasing in the area, forming irregularly-shaped stones of varying sizes, and began to fall to where Xander was.

This all happened within 5 seconds after the chant. This was the 3rd step, the spell release.

After a while, the barrage of meteorites calmed down, and the area inside the barrier calmed down. They could see the figure of Xander, unharmed and in one piece.

Xander quickly recovered the ground, the earth elements rapidly sublimating into the matter and filling the depressed area.

“As you can see, it took 5 minutes to complete the spell in the traditional model. When I chanted, I had to add the spell layers in the chant itself, which is the scattering and the burning effect of the meteors, making the chant longer. The problem was that in the 5 seconds after the chant, anyone skilled enough can interrupt the activation by magical means, such as disturbing the elements in the area, destabilizing the spell formation, or even attacking the caster, thus destabilizing the caster’s control over the spell. In an instantaneous cast, you can skip this addition if you can visualize and control the elements consciously as you are releasing the spell. If you can’t, what you can do is use keywords in the shortened chant.”

“I will now demonstrate the same spell, instantaneous cast version.”

Xander repeated the steps, this time, with variations.

For one, the flow of runic writings and magic symbols being released from his hands were continuous, and in a matter of seconds, the spell formation was done. It was then Xander began to speak.

“Shatter the sky with falling stones, [Meteorite Shatter Rain]!” This was done in less than 2 seconds.

Xander channeled his magic and elemental energy into the spell formation, taking up a second.

He then released the spell, consciously controlling the elements in the spell to demonstrate the spell layers he had placed, which were the burning and scatter effects.

This time, the spell was negligibly weaker; if one was to be specific about it, if the previous spell showcased 100% power, this spell released by Xander showcased between 95-100%, the strength fluctuating as the spell went on.

After a few seconds the spell ended, Xander was seen standing inside the barrier, and the ground quickly recovering.

“Ms. Lim, I have demonstrated the steps to instantaneous casting.”

“That’s right! Thank you, Mr. Cloverfield, for your wonderful demonstration. You may return to the rest of the class.”

Xander nodded, waved his hand and the barrier disappeared, and everyone felt a very hot wave of air escaping from the barrier, roughly 80 degrees Celsius. It didn’t affect them that negatively, as their bodies were fortified by the elements, but they noticed that Xander looked unaffected staying in such an area for a long period of time, roughly 15 minutes in total.

Ms. Lim began to discuss it once again.

“Students, please know that the 5 steps of the instantaneous casting are the generic format for practicing instantaneous casting. It is possible to go lower, skipping a few steps, or even reducing it to one step. It really depends on three things: Spell type, Spell difficulty, and Comprehension of the elements related to the spell.”

Ms. Lim continued the lecture for the next hour, while Xander was just checking his communicator for news online.

He saw some interesting news in the Galactic Empire. Accordingly, the Elema planet, one of the largest trading hubs of the empire, is going to host its once in a decade Empire-wide Auction, one that lasted for a total of 3 days.

The catalog they had up for auction was quite diverse, and it was going to be released tomorrow evening.

Xander’s attention was piqued, and for the rest of the class time, he was browsing the net. One reason was he needed to dispose of the numerous artifacts he made yesterday, as some of them were quite useless for him and were just practice material.

This is a good plan, hehe.

The bell rang, and Xander, like clockwork, stood up and bid farewell to his classmates, and headed to the building behind. He then went straight to the second floor, ordering his lunch set meal, the second most expensive one on the menu.

As he has begun to eat his meal, Carly and the rest of Xander’s close friends went upstairs as well and sat with Xander. They began to talk about different things, from sports, science, and economic issues.

Xander stayed silent during the conversation because he had been hatching a plan to completely modify the path of development of the planet. However, he needed to take two of the three sectors of Economics, Research, Politics to proceed with his plan.

He honestly wants the planet to be under the protection of the Galactic Empire in the near future. After all, a planet alone in this dark universe is not enough to survive.

Hmm, maybe, after college and a bit of exploring, I’ll time-travel to the future, and withdraw the money I deposited in the bank, Xander thought to himself as he took a bite of the Wagyu Burger he had been eating.

He had a current theory that once he moved forward in time, he would have a hard time returning to the past unless he managed to gain higher comprehension of the space-time elements.

Right now, with his improved space-time comprehension, he could only travel 2 days back in time, an improvement from his 60 seconds and 60 minutes before. The space-time reversal which happens when he is critically injured can now reach up to 10 years back in time, a big improvement from his original ‘up to 6 months back’ in time.

Xander was quite supportive of James’ business acumen and creativity, thus he had decided to give him a helping hand by investing 1 billion Etas. He had signed the contracts with the help of his parents’ consent, thus becoming a major stockholder in James’ company, occupying 12% voting power, a tad lower than James’ 20%.

Xander, seeing them quite busy in discussing the different aspects of future development, he then said to them between bites,

“Guys, can you all come over to my house after class? I plan to give you all each a gift.”

“Eh, sure no problem for me.”

“Yep, same here. Wait, where is your villa, anyways?”

“Uptown of Callows City.”

“Ah, the fancy district! Alright. Can one book transportation services from there?” Alexa asked, with Carly looking at Xander for his response as well.

“I think so? I’ve never tried it before, though.” Xander responded a bit hesitatingly.

Before Alexa could say anything, James offered, “I can take you back home afterward. We live in the same district, anyways.”

“Really? Thank you so much, James!”

“Uh, c-can I also tag along? I also live in the same district.”

“Sure, no problem.”

“Faykes has been in Xander’s villa right? How is it? Is it really very, very big??” Alexa curiously asked. Valerie and Carly were listening quietly for Faykes’ answer.

Faykes looked at Xander, who didn’t really care how he would respond. Seeing there wasn’t any danger, Faykes said,

“It’s quite big. Roughly the size of the field plus the two buildings for our classes combined. It has 2 floors, a garden, and an open field.”

“Waah, that big, huh?” Alexa said, mumbling the last bit. Xander, finishing the last morsel of his food, smacked his lips, and said,

“I’ll have you 5 join me in the car on the way back to the villa, ok? So we can have a lot of time. The gift will be quite long to process.”

They all nodded in response to Xander, who, upon seeing their response, nodded and then stood up and placed his tray into the clean-up area and headed downstairs. He wanted to go to the library, but he didn’t want to interact with that librarian, who, for some reason, is not even in the database of the Galactic, Nemean, Helennic, and Cerulean empires. Heck, even in Eteria, that being’s identity is not listed at all. He was curious whether this librarian was a fugitive or from the pseudo-universal empires.

Once he reached his mat on the first floor, he fell asleep, sinking into deep meditation. He wasn’t in the mood to talk with his other classmates, and the rest could sense his different mood.

After 20 minutes, Ms. Amelia appeared, and the class visibly quieted down.

“Ok, class, we’ll now focus on two topics related to Elemental Control: Repulsion and Attraction. For the next 4 weeks, this is what we are going to talk about. For this week and the next, we’ll focus on theoretical principles and understanding the basic knowledge about these two topics. The 2 weeks after, we’ll focus on application in different fields, before doing a practical.”

“So, let’s talk about the two topics individually. Repulsion: What constitutes the act of repulsion? Is it simply the removal of elemental particles from a target or a certain area, being repulsed by some sort of energy?”

A young lady in red raised her hand, causing Amelia to call her.

“Yes, Ms. Belmont, what do you think about the term repulsion when its placed into the element control setting?” Amelia asked her.

Veronica Belmont stood up, pondering for a bit before responding clearly,

“Ms. Wineheart, I think that repulsion is the manipulation of the invisible force that controls the elemental particles, producing a ‘push’ type of force, similar to the one that we understand from physics as well.”

“Ma’am, I have a question! About the topic, of course.”

“Yes, Mr. Dragić?” Amelia asked patiently at the young man. Klement Dragić replied,

“Ma’am, I don’t get what Ms. Belmont was insinuating. Don’t we have elements that fall under the Physics series? Is she saying that these immaterial elements are the invisible force that controls the elemental particles? If they are, doesn’t that mean that according to Roger’s and Therault’s frameworks, the Physics series is on a higher rank?”

“Not necessarily, Mr. Dragić. Ms. Belmont only suggested that the effect it has on elements is similar to the push type of force we see in the world of physics. For all we know, we are limited to what we perceive of the phenomenon due to dimensional restrictions. It’s possible that the ‘push’ we are describing is how the force manifests itself in the physical realm.” Ms. Amelia patiently explained, making the two students nod their heads in understanding. As she continued to explain the topic, the others were beginning to be absorbed into the discussion, with the exception of Xander.

Xander felt bored. Their idea of the “pushing” type of force is not wrong per se but is quite limiting to understanding the universe.

For starters, repulsion of elements can happen in two types: Natural and controlled.

Natural is where there are aspects of the elemental particles that repulse/reject one another, causing them to gravitate away from one another. The movement is facilitated by the immaterial elements of Order and Chaos, pushing everything to a structured or random movement.

For the controlled type, there are many factors involved, the notable ones being: the comprehension and general mastery of these elements, the innate capabilities of the life essence dolls, the elements themselves, and the area where they are in.

The comprehension of the elements you are trying to repel in a controlled setting is a vital aspect; if you don’t know what makes up the element you are trying to control, why attempt controlling at all?

General mastery of the elements, on the other hand, focuses on the overall understanding of the representations of these elements. This is tied to the comprehension of the elements since to comprehend is to understand the representations and their embodiments in the universe.

Innate capabilities of the life essence dolls mean as such: Does your life essence doll have the capacity to agitate or control the mechanism of order and chaos that every elemental particle has in their structure? This capability is subdivided into two: Macro and micro-control.

Macro is similar to the outward control of elements, whether one particle acts a general marker for every other particle to follow, or en masse control by manipulating certain similarities present in their representations.

Micro control, on the other hand, is the more refined elemental manipulation and control. One’s control can extend to the individuals, making the possibilities of repulsion and attraction, outward and inward control endless.

Some life essence dolls can innately control individual particles, but not a group, and vice versa. This usually translates to their outward and inward control of elements as well.

The third aspect of controlled repulsion is the elements themselves. Is/are the element/s you are trying to repulse the opposite of your element, or a complementary element, or just a neutral element/s?

If it was the first one, one can take advantage of a natural-controlled repulsion. If it was the second one, one can take advantage of the “follow the leader” property of elements, wherein they can follow an element higher than their rank, or follow an element that is a complement of them.

If it is the third type, this is where the problem lies; mostly, one cannot control the element to be repulsed if they do not have the affinity or understanding for them.

For example, an elemental vacuum cast by someone proficient in the 5-elements series would not get rid of space-time, life-death elements and their derivatives, unless they had already reached the point of returning to the origin and their primary elements can now give birth to other elements.

In Xander’s case, since his space-time origin element can actually control and dominate over the other elements of the yin-yang and life-death elements, so casting [Magic Rejection] allowed him to remove the elements in an area completely, with the exception of Yin-Yang and Life-death origin elements, as well as Order and Chaos elements.

This changed when he derived [Void Rejection] and his other spells that involved origin elements, as he was able to comprehend the other origin elements, thus allowing a semblance of control over them.

The last aspect to take note of was the area they were in. One thing that magicians and cultivators should remember: The universe precedes everyone’s control unless you control it. If the area is very, very, very stable, it’s likely impossible for someone to affect or destabilize the elements in the area. In fact, one can be suppressed in such an area, because one would not be able to agitate the elements out of their ordered state. Thus, they are no different from normal beings. The same goes for an area very, very, very chaotic. The elements in such a place are superseded by the command of chaotic movement and disorder.

Xander didn’t want to listen to the class which was filled with inaccuracies, however, he didn’t interrupt Ms. Wineheart in her discussion, because her understanding and the current understanding of the magic researchers in Eteria and even in the Galactic Empire wasn’t really wrong, but was quite limited in thinking only.

I should publish a paper or two about these in the future, Xander thought to himself.

For now, he doesn’t have any problems with his friends learning this.

“So, let’s talk about Attraction.”

___________________

Time passed, and the class reached its end.

Xander and his 5 close friends left the building and walked together towards the campus gates.

Xander called Michel that there would be 5 other passengers on the way home today, who replied affirmatively.

When they reached the campus gates, they finally saw the car waiting for Xander, a Camo Limousine that can fit up to 10 passengers. Xander and the others went in one by one. The others were quite amazed by the car’s interior, as it felt roomy and comfy inside.

“Wow, Xander, you have such a nice car!” Carly exclaimed, genuinely shocked at how the car looked inside. She actually had a secret hobby that most of her friends wouldn’t know about: She was a car hobbyist and has a fascination for them.

At one glance, she recognized that the materials used were customized for Xander, as she recognized the model of the car, but the interior was quite different.

Xander merely shook his head.

“It’s just used to transport me to school. Rarely do I have this model used; today is an exception.”

Carly was piqued with the materials used for the interior and exterior of the car.

“Hey, Xander, if it’s not inconvenient, can you tell me what’s the materials you used to replace the interior and exterior of the car? I noticed that the Camo-L1000 model of yours has been heavily customized.”

“Oh? Carly, I didn’t know you like cars!” Valerie exclaimed, quite surprised that Carly, her meek friend, would be quite passionate about cars.

“A-ah, it’s just a hobby, just a hobby!” Carly said, waving her hands out and about.

Xander, hearing Carly’s question, shook his head.

“I can’t tell you what the materials are, but I can tell you they are quite rare.”

“For example, the seats used real leather from a certain extinct magic beast. They are durable and can withstand wear and tear for the next 150,000 years. Not only that, but they can also handle attacks below Demigod class, not leaving a mark in the leather at all.”

“The other interior parts, such as the frame and the windows, are synthetic alloy combinations of metals and glass. These materials can withstand impacts of a Divine-9 cultivator or lower, as well as isolate magic and elemental fluctuations.”

“Not only that, but the car is also connected electronically into my communicator, meaning that I can remotely control the car if ever I needed to do so. It is also unhackable in the current standards of Eteria because it uses a private channel to transmit and receive information to/from my communicator.”

Seeing their dumbfounded looks, Xander stopped, before feeling a bit embarrassed.

“A-ah, sorry about that, got into too much into describing the car,” Xander said shyly, scratching his head.

“N-no, that’s not really why we looked like that. It’s the safety measures of the car that we’re shocked about!” Alexa said emotionally, shaking her head. The others were quiet, but inside their minds, they were nodding their heads furiously.

You tell him, sis!

Why is there too much security?? You’re not transporting the president of Eta, are you??

Xander was surprised, before asking,

“Eh? I think its the norm. After all, were geniuses and many, many people would want to ‘form’ bonds of relationship with us, by legal or illegal means.”

The others were silent because what Xander said was true. But hey, don’t you think you’re overreacting? You have a strong backing after all! With the Morningstar and Cloverfield clans behind him, who would dare do so?

However, James and Valerie could see what Xander was trying to get across. Although they were from rich and influential families, these things can only do so much before an actual crisis. He was being prepared, just in case.

For Faykes, however, he felt it was quite hilarious. After all, he faintly guessed that Xander can actually control space and time elements. Doesn’t he have the ultimate protection because he just needed to stop time in an area or create an impenetrable space barrier?

Xander didn’t know what was going in their minds, so he redirected the conversation to other matters instead, distracting them.