16 Manifest

'You see the elementals but, do you know what they are?' Sana asked Icarus who thought a bit before shaking his head. He wanted to say that they were representations of the elements but then why didn't he green everywhere? Air was all around him, yet he only saw it in very specific areas. He knew that there had to be more to them than simple representations. Sana smiled at this, 'good answer.' She shook her head, 'nobody knows exactly what they are. Even some of the smartest people on the planet don't know. Some scholars and sages have called them spirits others have called them souls. All we know is that they are actually alive and have instincts.'

Icarus' eyes shot up when he heard this and his mouth fell open. Never in his life did he consider that these small lights could actually be some kind of living creatures. Giggling, she continued explaining, 'although they are alive, they are only capable of instinctual movements and each kind of light only responds to a very particular stimuli and will react in a very particular way.'

She paused in order to let Icarus absorb all the information before continuing. 'They each have a very particular stimuli and exact nature. For example wind has a very carefree nature. Surprisingly, elements also only respond to the emotion corresponding to their nature' she raised her hand and gentle blew across her palm, 'for example wind will react to a carefree mood. When you don't have that mood, then they simply won't listen.'

She lowered her hand. 'Of course that makes controlling them extremely unpredictable. There are always exceptions however,' she pointed at him, 'you have the Elemental King powers, which means that they listen to you, no matter the case. It is called Absolute Obedience and you definitely have that ability in there. You just have to awaken it.' He nodded nonchalantly but at the same time as his mother mentioned that, he heard a ringing sound go off inside his head. He pulled up the status screen whilst listening to her talk. He knew it was rude but Icarus' curiosity got the better of him;

Hidden Quest: Knowledge is Power

Learn about elementals and the Elemental King.

Reward: Absolute Obedience (Ability), 3 Skill Points

'So, there are two ways to awaken it. One is to wait for it awaken naturally and the other is learning a special skill.' Icarus nodded, trying hard to suppress his grin. 'We are going to try the second approach.' His eyes were practically gleaming when he heard that. Sana laughed before putting on a serious expression. 'Now, this skill is called Manifest. It is used to rally the elementals into a manifest of your choosing.' She held up two fingers, 'it is made up of 3 steps. The first step is to imagine exactly what you want to manifest.' Icarus nodded his head and closed his eyes. Inside his mind, he tried to imagine the wings of a bird. It took some effort but with his high intelligence helping him, he was able to soon have a pair of wings floating inside his mind. 'Now,' his mother's voice echoed through the darkness, 'feel the elementals you want to use for manifestation.' Icarus didn't say anything, just nodded and tried to sense the wind elementals. Wind elementals were the most suited to form wings according to him. As he was experienced with wind elementals, it didn't take much effort from him. Soon, he was able to detect a whole group of mint flavoured, green lights floating all around him. 'For the final step, try to impose the image on to the elementals. You can do this by either cajoling or ordering, it doesn't make a difference to them.

'Time to surprise mom.' Doing his utmost to suppress the huge grin just at the corner of his lips, he used Absolute Obedience. Immediately, he felt the flavour in his mouth intensify a hundred fold as he felt that he could shape and mould the lights however he liked. Imposing the wings design on them, he ordered them to form wings behind. A furious gale was whipped up as he felt strands of wind elementals forming wings behind. As they completed formation, he felt that he had grown another pair of limbs, ones that he could control as well as he controlled his arms.

Sana was happy to see her son excited to learn Manifest. She was also prepared to see him disappointed. This was because Manifest was an extremely powerful skill that required at least six months of practice, even by Elemental King prodigies. They were rare but definitely in existence and even they took at least half a year to manage the manifestation of something small. It would be a lie to state that she wasn't hoping that her son would do another miracle after learning about his previous miracle from Daedalus. Yet, she knew the odds were smaller than hopeless. Never did she ever think that not only will a miracle occur, it will occur in the grandest fashion possible. Staring at the green threads and energy that was eventually forming a pair of wings behind Icarus, her mouth fell open. It was lucky that his eyes were closed otherwise he would burst into laughter seeing her in this state. Shaking herself out of the daze, she admired the realistic wings. Every single feather, every single hair was clearly visible. Icarus opened his eyes to see his mother staring in awe at his folded wings. Although they were a little big for his size, they were still beautiful. 'Did I do well mom?' Icarus' chest was pushed out as he knocked his head back and asked. His mother giggled before clapping. 'Good job! You did a fantastic job!'

Icarus rubbed his nose, 'all in a day's work.' Then he hesitated a bit before looking at her, 'since I did such a good job, then perhaps'

'No!' He was shot down before even being able ask.

'Aww, how come?'

'Because its dangerous honey. Neither me nor your father can look after you up there. We are normal farmers, we can't fly!' Icarus seemed to deflate as he looked towards. Seeing this, her heart seemed to melt as she sighed. 'Okay fine, but you can only hover and that too only at my head height and not more than an arm's distance from me.'