"Don't try to control them, connect and communicate with them"—these words sounded very simple and normal, but they held immense significance.
Atticus immediately entered a deep state of focus upon hearing Dekai's words. His gaze became unfocused as he pondered.
Dekai, who saw this, smiled slightly before silently exploding into flames and disappearing, only to reappear a distance away from Atticus, giving him time and space to think.
'It'll be up to him from now on,' Dekai thought, his hands holding his walking stick trembling with excitement. In all his decades of learning and teaching people about fire, he had never come across someone like Atticus before.
'Not even that fool could compare,' Dekai couldn't help but remember one hot-blooded man who had attended the fire sanctum in the past: Avalon.
Both Avalon and Dekai hadn't had the best of relationships, mostly because of Avalon's hot-blooded personality, but even Dekai had to admit that his talent was the best he had ever seen in his life.The best… until now.
Now, Dekai had found a monster in human skin, one that none of them could even dream of competing against.
'What were the odds that the boy would be his kid, haha,' Dekai thought, focusing his gaze on Atticus, not even minding the rest of the students who had also begun to ponder his words.
'Don't control, connect with them,' Atticus repeated those words in his head multiple times as if trying to uncover their true meaning.
However, it would seem as though Dekai hadn't been trying to be cryptic in the first place. Atticus had directly taken up the literal meaning.
'He means that I shouldn't try to control the molecules but… connect with them? How?'
Atticus didn't waste time pondering. Instead, he instantly closed his eyes and tried to get a feel for the molecules in the air around him.
Atticus felt like if he wanted, he could at any time stimulate each of them with a single command. But Dekai had obviously advised against doing that, so Atticus chose to do as Dekai had said and communicate.
Immediately, Atticus felt a weird reaction envelop him as he observed the reactions of the molecules. He had always felt a deeper connection to the element, and the next situation just proved that fact.
They appeared… happy? Atticus didn't know how to explain it. Before, when he had been commanding them, he would always send an intense wave towards them. But now, it was as though he was caressing them.
It went without saying that they visibly enjoyed it.
'Move right,' Atticus asked, and they instantly followed his instructions and moved. He repeated the same thing with the other directions, trying to get a feel for everything.
After a few minutes, and when Atticus felt he had gotten a good enough grasp, he changed the game.
'Ignite together,'
The air around Atticus ignited into flames, a tempest of fiery storm. The other students, who had each been trying to follow Dekai's advice, all stopped and shot Atticus stares. Had he done it?
They weren't sure if he had achieved this using Dekai's advice or not, but Dekai himself knew the answer to that.
Both hands holding his walking stick clenched hard.
'I-insanity. Absolute insanity. He actually formed a connection. In minutes!'
Dekai couldn't believe his eyes. He had utilized his other senses too, but he ended up receiving the exact same answer: Atticus had actually formed a connection!
'U-unbelievable.'
Atticus didn't lose focus and kept up his connection with the molecules. He found out that the molecules were like dogs, able to follow simple and direct instructions.
A few moments passed, and he decided to ramp up the process. Atticus asked, and the fire coalesced in front of him.
Then began one of the most annoying and anger-inducing moments of Atticus's life.
Truly, the molecules preferred and followed simple instructions, and this small fact made it difficult for Atticus at first to instruct them into forming a construct of Magnus.
There was a whole lot of complexity that he initially found hard to convey to them, which made him waste a lot of time starting the process all over again countless times.
After about 30 minutes, Atticus finally got the hang of instructing them to move intricately. It was like training an army of dogs. Now that he knew exactly how to handle them, this time wouldn't be wasted again.
Soon enough, the construct formed in front of Atticus, and despite the fact that it had taken close to an hour to form—a stark contrast to the minute he had been given—Atticus was all smiles.
'This bloodline sure is powerful.'
Atticus turned his gaze around, looking at the others who were staring at him with narrowed gazes. But the one with the most intense stare was Dekai.
Dekai said nothing and simply stared at Atticus, his heart trembling.
Atticus averted his gaze. 'What a weird old man.'
He regained his focus and released his control over the construct, its figure getting snuffed out.
Afterward, Atticus rekindled his connection to the molecules and began forming the construct right from the start.
The second time around, it took Atticus exactly 15 minutes to accomplish, shocking the living daylights out of the onlookers.
This was the second summit; they each knew just how long they had spent in the fire sanctum altogether. To them, everything Atticus was doing was unreal.
The third time, Atticus halved the earlier time, finishing at a mind-numbing 7 minutes.
He wasted no time and tried once again, this time finishing in 3 minutes.
At this point, a crowd had gathered around Atticus, each one utterly silent.
Atticus took in a deep breath and focused, connecting with the molecules in the air. Atticus was glad to see that this new way of creating fire wasn't as consuming as the old way.
He still felt energized despite having created the construct multiple times.
In the process of creating these constructs, Atticus kept on learning and adapting, adjusting to the rhythm and tune of the molecules. By the time he finished his fifth construct, Atticus took in a deep breath. 'Let's get it done now.'
Atticus's gaze snapped open, and fire ignited in front of him, coalescing and contorting with finesse.
Bits by bits, and molecules by molecules, a construct started forming in front of him.
However, unlike the other times, exactly 57 seconds passed before the full and majestic construct of Magnus was formed.