Danger?

After a few more minutes of constant worrying, Old man Reid saw the elemental nodes were getting dimmer by the second and the five brothers were still furiously absorbing the elemental energy from the pool at an insane rate.

"I don't understand. Is the vortex a manifestation of their talent?" Old man Reid pondered loudly.

"But it still doesn't make sense..."

*Clack Clack*

Old man Reid turned around and saw Head Instructor Zoe rushing towards them with numerous elemental nodes following behind her as if she was controlling them.

Without wasting any time, Head Instructor Zoe placed the elemental nodes in the pool. Immediately, the vortex above the five brothers starting spinning more rapidly, devouring crazy amounts of elemental energy generated from the new elemental nodes.

The five brothers thought that they were running out of elemental energy for the elemental core as the flow of the elemental energy inside their body got progressively thinner. When Head Instructor Zoe placed the elemental nodes, their body gained a sudden influx of elemental energy, pushing their body to their limits.

"Vice-Director, at the rate of their absorption, I don't think the elemental nodes I brought are enough." Head Instructor Zoe said in uncertainty.

"It should be enough, Zoe. I can feel that the absorption of the elemental energy is slowing down after the initial burst." Old man Reid said with a sigh of relief. Due to the sudden situation, Head Instructor Zoe didn't have time to relax and think.

"I've never seen something like this ever before..." Head Instructor Zoe said in slight shock.

"No one has!" A rough but powerful voice sounded out behind the two spectators. Old man Reid and Head Instructor Zoe turned around to see the Director walking in large strides.

"Waylon, Zoe." The Director nodded at them.

"Greetings, Director." Head Instructor Zoe greeted respectfully.

"Alexander, this is a surprise." Old man Reid was mildly surprised.

"Haha, I'm finished with my business." Alexander laughed lightly.

"Wha-"

"We can talk about that later. Now, let's focus on the five young monsters." Alexander interrupted Old man Reid. Old man Reid smiled and shook his head.

"The more elemental energy they absorb, the stronger and purer the elemental core they construct. If they need more elemental nodes, we give them more." Alexander calmly spoke.

"You're right. We can care less about the elemental nodes later." Old man Reid nodded.

Alexander turned to Head Instructor Zoe and said, "Zoe, you can tend to your important unfinished business. We'll take care of it from here."

Catching the subtle hint, Head Instructor Zoe nodded and left the two in charge of the five brothers. Just before leaving the advancement hall, she turned around to look back at them, more specifically the five brothers for a second and then left.

"Waylon, do you think this has to do something with their birth?" Alexander pensively asked.

"I'm not sure but let's not dwell on it any longer." Old man Reid was confused as well.

"You're right, we'll know in the future." Alexander nodded.

Meanwhile in the pool, Algo could feel that it was about time for his elemental core to be formed. Giving a final push, his elemental core was at last formed. The core stopped absorbing the elemental energy and gently floated in his chest.

'I feel different...' Algo thought in wonder. He could feel an immense power flowing through his body. The elemental core not only dramatically increases your strength, it also eliminates any kind of impurities affecting the body. While Algo was taking in and understanding what changes occurred, Asif finished forming his elemental core soon after.

'Amazing...' Asif could feel his entire body brimming with strength. His body also felt lighter as if he could run three times faster than before.

"Algo and Asif are done forming their elemental cores." Old man Reid said while observing them.

"It seems they are assimilating their changes." Alexander said.

"I'm proud of them." Old man Reid sighed.

"We should be!" Alexander said solemnly.

*Ugh*

"I feel like I gave birth to my self." A groan resounded from the pool. Evidently from the words, Ash just entered the Elemental Conclave realm too. Alexander and Old man Reid looked at each other and smiled wryly.

Algo, Asif and Bryan opened their eyes and looked at Ash with a deadpan stare. Ash could feel someone looking at him and he opened his eyes.

"Yoo, you guys finished too?" Ash was excited.

"Fuck me, why did I have to finish at the same time as him?" Bryan groaned.

"Hahahaha, I've literally said this a thousand times, you cannot escape from me." Ash laughed at Bryan's misfortune.

"Ugh!"

"How do you guys feel?" Asif asked them.

"Amazing and powerful." Algo answered.

"Although we don't know how to use the elemental core." Bryan said.

"We'll wait for the old man to tell us." Asif nodded at Bryan and said.

"Yeah, might as well." Algo agreed.

"By the way, Ray isn't done yet and why is there a fucking vortex above his head?" Ash pointed out.

"Oh what the fuck..." Bryan opened his mouth. Algo and Asif looked at each other and were confused.

"Don't worry about that." At this point, Old man Reid and Alexander stepped forward to reveal their presence.

"Oh shit! The old man and the director." Ash was surprised. The other three greeted them both.

"You do not have to worry about the vortex. In fact, you four had the same phenomenon as well." Alexander explained.

"Us too...?" Bryan was confused.

"But why?" Asif questioned.

"We do not know." Old man Reid answered.

"Is that the reason why we were constantly absorbing elemental energy?" Algo tentatively asked.

"Yes, the vortex forced you to absorb more energy. Do not fret, I believe this is a good thing for you." Alexander reassured them.

"Your cores have been constantly baptized by the enormous streams of elemental energy making your core extremely sustainable and powerful. As a result, you kids have a higher stamina and a higher capacity to store elemental energy compared to the others making you extremely powerful." Old man Reid explained.

"I see..." Asif understood the benefits.

"There's one more important reward you get from forming your cores." Alexander stated.

"What is it, Mr. Director?" Algo expectantly asked.

"Your lifespan have also increased. Now, you are no longer shacked by the realm of the ordinary men." Alexander smiled and said.

"Woah..." Ash and the others looked at the Director in disbelief.

"The higher you go, the longer your lifespan will be." Alexander continued.

"Sorry to interrupt but I'm worried about Ray." Bryan pointed out in worry.

The others turned to look at Ray. Right now, there is a steady flow of elemental energy being absorbed by the vortex above his head into him.

"Relax, he should be fine." Ash said although he was scratching his arm erratically.

'It looks like I'm done forming the core.' Ray thought as he could see his elemental core gracefully spinning at the center of his chest. 'But I'm not done.'

Ray poured more elemental energy into the elemental core, making it spin more rapidly. At this point, his elemental core should have been formed but since he fed it more elemental energy, Ray could feel a dangerous sensation that he should stop now but he gritted his teeth and continued.

"What is he doing?" Alexander suddenly shouted in worry.

"What happened?!" Asif concernedly asked.

"His elemental core should have been formed by now but he's forcing more energy into it to make it stronger." Alexander explained.

"Shouldn't we stop him?!!" Algo anxiously asked them.

"We can't touch him otherwise everything he did will go to waste and cause an irreversible damage to his body." Old man Reid explained in apprehension.

"RAY, STOP WHATEVER YOU'RE DOING!!" Ash shouted hoping to reach his ears.

"SNAP OUT OF IT!" Bryan yelled out in fear for his brother.

They tried yelling but all of their voices were drowned out in Ray's mind. He started to feel an intense pain coursing through every part of his strained body. The elemental core was rotating shakily, almost as if it was ready to explode.

'COME ON!!' Ray withstood the extreme pain.

'LITTLE BIT MORE!!'

'I CAN DO THIS!!!'

Right at this time, he suddenly stopped pouring in more elemental energy. As a result, the elemental core free of burden, stopped revolving and gracefully floated. If one could look closely at his elemental core, there are small wisps of energy slithering around the core.

'Fuck! I almost fucking killed myself!' Ray was breathing heavily as the intense feeling of danger he felt before slowly subsided.

"THIS FUCKING FUCKER!" On the outside, Ash was still yelling at Ray.

*Sigh*

Alexander and Old man Reid sighed in relief after seeing Ray stop absorbing more elemental energy.

"Relax kids, he stopped." Old man Reid reassured them.

"I need to give him a beating later." Asif solemnly said.

"I'm glad he's doing fine now." Algo comfortingly said.

*Cough cough*

Suddenly, Ray coughed out blood with a pale face and it scared the living shit out of the others. Immediately Alexander rushed forward and placed his hand on his back, covering him with a gentle aura.

"He will be fine. He just overworked his body trying to do something foolish." Alexander comforted them and focused on healing Ray.

"He is going to scare us to death one day." Bryan shook his head.

"Not before I beat him to death for being so stupid." Ash annoyingly said.

Soon, Alexander stopped the healing and Ray opened his eyes. He could feel everyone's eyes on him and understood that they know what he'd done.

"Uh, I'm sorry?" Ray feeling sorry looked down and said.

"How could you do something stupid like that?" Old man Reid came forward and said in a reproachful tone.

"I don't know, I felt like I could do it."

"Doing that almost killed you. How would we feel? How would your brothers feel?" Old man Reid pressed on.

"Alright, I understand!" Ray annoyingly said.

"You still don't understand..." Old man Reid shook his head.

"Ray?" Ash called out.

"I don't think As-"

"Let him!" Bryan interrupted Asif and let Ash handle it.

Ray turned to Ash, "Yeah?"

"Do you want to make us sad?" Ash calmly asked.

"Of course not!" Ray said.

"Then why did you do that?" Ash calmly asked again.

"Because I want to get stronger." Ray replied.

"Why do you want to get stronger?"

"To protect you guys."

"And how would you do that if you were dead?" Ash looked him dead in the eye and asked.

"..." Ray didn't know what to say.

"That's all I have to say."

'Aw man, how could I be so stupid?!' Ray felt angry at himself.

"I understand I made you guys worry about me. It's my fault, and I shouldn't have done that. I promise I won't try to do anything like that next time. I'm sorry!" Ray genuinely felt bad.

"As long as you remember what you just did." Bryan said. Asif stared at Ray for a second and came forward to hug him.

"Aww, so cute!" Algo said while joining them.

"Oh what the hell!" Bryan and Ash joined too and soon they started smiling.

"Ray, be careful the next time." Old man Reid smiled.

"I got it, old man." Ray smiled back.

"How do you feel now, Ray?" Algo asked.

"I feel great." Ray said while inspecting his body.

"With all that yucky stuff over, we actually fucking did it!" Ash said in joy.

"Yeah, it was intense." Bryan added.

"Wait a minute!" Asif interrupted.

"What happened now?" Ash asked.

"Since when could we visually see the elemental core?"

"What the fuck! You're right..." Ray could see it too.

"It's because forming the core allows you to perceive your elemental field in your body. As to what an elemental field is, it's where your elemental core resides in. It's the haven for your elemental powers." Old man Reid explained.

"Interesting..." Asif muttered.

"That's fucking awesome!" Ash was thrilled.

"Before we proceed any further, congratulations to you five on finally reaching the Elemental Conclave realm." Alexander and Old man Reid praised them.