Energy Branches

Merlin arrived an hour later with the car he let Miles drive on the day of the auction. There wasn't any car park in Miles's apartment, so Merlin left it outside of the building. He climbed on his floor and rang the bell.

"Aren't you still in the army? How come you are so free?" Asked the youngest Cross after letting his brother in.

"My squad has no task, so we are free for the time being. Parliament limited the space ventures for the time being lest we alert our neighbors." Merlin shrugged his shoulders as he found his way into the kitchen and took two cold drinks. He jumped on the couch and opened one to drink.

"Thanks!" Miles thanked and waited for him to pass the drink for him.

"Why? I took these two for myself. If you want, you can get on your own." Merlin said as he finished one of the drinks.

"They were the last two I had, you bastard!" Miles muttered silently, but let it go. "So, why did you come all the way over here?"

"Let's move to a more secure location," Merlin said and grabbed the second drink, and walked to the isolated room in Miles's apartment. In the isolated room, there wasn't anything electronic but there were simple cushions on the ground. Merlin sat on the ground and placed the can of drink in front of him, waiting for Miles to sit as well.

"What do you know about energy?" Merlin asked after both brothers were seated with a serious look on his face.

"Not much. Only the things you said and a few things I heard before." Miles answered. He only spoke to his father and Merlin explained a little before. Besides those, energy was still something foreign to him. For a reason, people were avoiding disclosing it.

"Alright, since you are getting the peak of this rank, it wouldn't harm to tell you more about the energy." Merlin nodded then started to explain.

"There are four branches of energy. These four branches are Heart, Body, Mind, and Mystic.

The Heart is mastery over the essence of the elemental energy. If you master this branch, you will be able to bend and create elements with energy. For example, a fire elemental user mastered at this branch, doesn't matter what their powers are, can use the fire element as they will. They can reshape their superpowers in every form.

As you already know, superpowers are limited with element and form. For example, not all fire elemental users can use fire as they wish but can do it in one form and with one attribute. Can you understand that?"

"Yes, I guess. I have a friend with the Lightning elemental superpower who can only stun and heal people through it." Miles thought of Xavic and answered. Most people were the same. Olivier Holmes could only use fireballs, but couldn't change the form of his powers to, let's say fire whips. While Tian Ling could only use water dragons which he was proud of. While Mihr Orril could form the Sword of Lights.

"Exactly. Ancient genes, as we put them, are the source of our superpowers. Unknowingly, we circulate our pitiful energies through ancient genes to use the pre-recorded form of attack, in the end, it is single-layered and cannot be changed.

As you know, to advance tiers in Grace-Rank, one has to change the form and power of their superpowers and in the end, merge them. But it is never true freedom of forming, just bending in a sense.

Of course, there are some exceptions to these. For example, Marcela and I can use other elements thanks to our ancient genes, and our limits are wider than others.

But when we start to use the energy, the limits on the ancient genes are unlocked, or you can put it as the library of forms gets diversified. So, in your friend's case, for example, he can only use lightning bolts and can only stun and heal.

But when he starts to use energy, he will be able to separate two forms from each other, and will even be able to add more attributes to his element when he advances further. But that doesn't mean the separation between superpowers is unimportant because they are still the most basic form of ancient genes, thus it will be the strongest he could use.

So any other lightning elemental user can in fact learn how to stun or heal through the same element when they advance to Extol-Rank, but their masteries at these two attributes will never be as good as your friends.

But when your friend tries to learn how to form other lightning attributes, he will have them easier. Because his superpower is a rare form of the element, and not the basic one. That is why superpowers are deciding factors for human talent." Merlin's explanation caused Miles's brain to explode with a new world and possibilities. He was already guessing some of the things, but the thing Merlin said caused Miles to see the world in a new light.

"There are sub-branches in every branch, and you can choose which one you want to master and which others you want to take as secondary, but the difference between secondary branches isn't that big compared to the main branch.

Let's continue with the second branch, the Body. The body indicates flesh, muscles, bones, nerves, and anything physical. If the heart is the creation of elements, then the body is the creation of everything solid.

Before I further explain, you have to understand this, everything is formed of energy, and everything can be formed from energy. If you have enough energy and mastery, you can create a universe and become its god. Of course, it is just a hyperbole metaphor, but you get what I am trying to say.

The Body Branch is related to anything solid. If you master this branch, you can enchant your power, speed, defense, weapon, et cetera. Do you remember the leaf I used to cut steel? That is an example of this branch. By amplifying the sharpness of the leaf through energy, and making it more durable, you can use a regular leaf like a sword.

But it isn't the limit of this branch. Like how you can create or reshape the elements through the Heart branch, you can change your limbs and skin to form weapons or reshape the weapons you have with mastery over this branch." Merlin said and held his palm upward. A wind blew in the isolated room out of nowhere, and a light shone on Merlin's palm. After a few minutes, Merlin's hand turned into a claw. Merlin gasped profusely and bullets of sweats covered his face.

"Because Body is my tertiary branch, I am not good at creating solid materials. If you master at this branch, and a further master at the sub-branch of creation, you can turn your arms into real swords out of nowhere without shedding a drop of sweat."

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