Strange

"Haha, if so, then as your husband, I will also be gunning to become a true sovereign".

'I said that I will also become a sovereign, but I still feel bad about the idea of subduing my element when it reaches out to me' thought Alex, his mind drifting back to his current situation.

'No, I shouldn't think like that, I need to have the true sovereign level of control' thought Alex firming up his heart.

'Let's get started'

Alex concentrated on the feeling of the chain binding him to his element, wanting to shatter the said chain when he could clearly take hold of it. He didn't know how much time had passed, but eventually, he managed to clearly sense what linked him with his element.

'Here we go' Alex sighed inwardly before grasping the chain and shattering it.

Immediately after doing this, he could no longer feel anything; now, the only thing really with him were his thoughts.

'I guess that's the moment of truth' thought Alex.

Now that he had shattered the chains, he could only wait and see, if he had a decent affinity with his element it will reach out to him, if not, then he would lose his element and get out of this state, since the smoke actually covering him will disperse if he no longer possessed the smoke element as ability.

He waited and waited, his mind becoming restless with each moment that passed, he even started counting the seconds that passed to try and take his mind off the fact that he may have actually lost his ability, the only thing comforting him was that he didn't get out of this state, which means that the process isn't finished, well, even if it was the case, he would still be here as it would take a few moments before he completely loses his ability even if he severed the chain linking him to it.

He kept lamenting the fact that he couldn't measure his affinity before starting the process, but unfortunately, that wasn't possible. The only moment one could know if their affinity was enough was when they shattered the chain binding them to their element.

Although Lilia had assured him that his affinity would be enough to make the smoke element reach out to him, Alex was still nervous, and his nervousness kept increasing with every second that passed.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, he felt his element reach out to him.

Weirdly enough, the moment his element reached out to him, the feeling of it being a part of his being's increased, at this moment it felt less like it was a third arm that he never had but knew how to use, and more like it was a vital part of his being, like his head or heart.

He also sensed, in a strange way, that he could feel some sort of emotion, as if the smoke element was genuinely glad to have reunited with him.

Slowly the smoke element made contact with him and tried to wrap around him like hugging him, but the moment it tried to do so, Alex stopped it.

'I can't let it wrap around or else I might become a false sovereign, I should either try to subjugate it'

Although he thought this, Alex felt like he couldn't bring himself to do so, there was a feeling of guilt welling up within him each time he tried to subjugate the element, and this feeling of guilt kept increasing each time the smoke element tried to make contact with him.

'Maybe, I should just give up, being a false sovereign doesn't sound that bad'

Slowly, thought like that started to appear in his mind, making the whole ordeal even more difficult.

It was then that Alex realized something.

'The mind battle has already started!'

This realization startled him because from what Lilia said, the mind battle started only when you tried to subdue your element, but here it clearly wasn't the case, he didn't act against the smoke element yet.

'That means that it started to attack me from the beginning and I didn't even notice it, but now that I know, I won't let you do as you please' Alex thought, pissed off.

Here he was, feeling guilty about subjugating his element because he felt like it was a bad thing to do, but the bastard was actually using that feeling of guilt to attack him mentally.

Alex steeled his heart, and when the element attempted to envelop him once again, he didn't merely repel it; instead, he sought to subjugate it.

'SURRENDER TO ME!' practically screamed Alex in his mind, making it clear to his element that he didn't want a friendship relationship but one of master and slave.

Feeling his intention, the smoke element tried to fight against his will, but it clears after a few moments that Alex was winning the battle of willpower, even he was shocked as it seemed too easy.

Unbeknownst to him, his possession of a powerful soul also played a role in his current situation.

After a few back and forth where the smoke element tried to resist his will, Alex finally managed to overpower his element.

'Finally!' Thought Alex as the battle of mind finally came to an end.

He could feel the element bending to his will, becoming his subordinate, slave or whatever he wanted it to be, but instead of him being glad about it, the feeling of guilt that he had cast away came back again.

However, this time he was sure that it wasn't a mind attack, this time he was sure that it was his own emotions.

'Why am I feeling so sentimental?'pondered Alex with an inward frown.

At the moment where his emotions were in a turmoil, and he was torn between releasing his hold over the smoke element or keeping it like that...

"You are quite a strange one, you took the sovereign route, yet, it seems that you can't bring yourself to enslave me".