No more than a few hours

"They will lose all of their senses upon contact of with their own element ?" Candace questioned, taken aback.

"Yes, that's the case, if you have not the same ability as the element that is released in the air, then nothing would happen to you" explained Lilia

"I see, that would explain why Alex hasn't heard us even though-, wait, if I understood what you said, the released element only blocks our senses if we have the same element, so That means that-" 

Candace came to a stop as she came to a realization.

"Alex has the smoke ability?" Muttered Candace in a surprised tone.

"Hum? What did you say?" Asked Grace.

"Alex has the smoke ability" affirmed Candace after a few moments of thought.

It was after she said this that the others finally put two and two together, when they came to same the same conclusion as she Candace they were stunned, well, Grace and Eleanor were.

As for the others, they weren't as surprised, even though they didn't know that he had the smoke ability, they knew that he can obtain new abilities, so it wasn't as surprising.

"He can control smoke? How's that possible? In just a few months, he jumped from level 1 to level 4 and even got a new ability. He must have found something really amazing to do all that," Eleanor said.

'I guess I shouldn't say that he did all of that in less than a week' Lilia chuckled to herself.

"Sigh, I can't even begin to imagine how he achieved all of this, so I guess I will ask him later. Let's go back to your training. I have a few guesses, but how can he lose all his senses to help him augment his affinity with his element?" asked Grace.

"You see, when you come in contact with the released element, and you lose all of your senses, the released element—in Alex's case, the smoke—wraps itself around you and acts like some prison. To get out of this prison, there are two options: the first one is that someone else shatters the nebula stones, or you need to come out on your own."

"However, it's difficult to break out of this prison if you've lost your senses. Fortunately, you can still sense your element, or rather, the only thing you can feel is your element. It's the only thing you can rely on. So, your way to get out is to take control of the prison you are in. Obviously, it's not that simple, since to do that, you need to have a good affinity with your element. An affinity so strong that you can still manipulate your element even if you have lost all your senses."

"And since the only thing you can feel is your element, it becomes easier to enhance your affinity," explained Lilia.

"That's also why I said that Alex might miss the competition. No one knows how long it will take someone to come out of this state, and if we were to shatter the stones, Alex might never get the chance to use this method to enhance his affinity, since our body gains immunity against those stones' effects after the first time. I think you have been too hasty," said Ava, sighing.

Hearing her words, Lilia just shook her head and replied, "He won't miss the competition"

"And why do you think that ?" Asked Grace with a quite serious tone.

From Grace's point of view, the only person that should lead not only their branch of the family but the whole Eswald family was Alex, but she had abandoned that train of thought when Alex made it clear that he didn't want to be the family head.

However, she knew her grandson well enough to know that the reason he said that he didn't want to become the head of the family was not because he didn't want, but because he deemed himself to be inadequate for the position since he was weak.

But from what she had heard since she came to the mansion, Alex finally had the strength to pretend to the position of family head, if that was the case, Grace couldn't risk letting him miss his chance just because he needed to enhance his affinity with his element, so if Lilia words weren't convincing she was ready to shatter those stones, even if it meant that Alex couldn't use this method ever again, in her mind, if Alex had found something that helped him become more powerful in just a few months, it was not impossible that he might find another method to enhance his affinity.

"There are two reasons why I said that he will come out from this state before the competition, the first one being the density of his element" said Lilia before adding:

"Generally, the less dense is one element, the easier it will be to build an affinity with this element and since the smoke element isn't that dense - generally - it will take Alex less time to get out"

"And what is the second reason ?" Questioned Eleanor.

"Talent, I started training him to better control his smoke element just yesterday, but his level of control is already at a level that I had reached only months later after I started training myself to better control my smoke ability, his current affinity with this element is already off the charts, so I can assure you he will not take that long to come out, in fact..."

Lilia smiled faintly then continued :

"... I believe that it won't take him more than a few hours to come out".