18 Elemental Control 2

The class was silent. After all, most of these students had thought they would just begin with an introduction to the course. They didn't realize that the class would already begin. No one had read the materials for them. Of course, there were exceptions. Xander had read the books for this class as well, and could answer it based on what he understood from the book, but that would put him to the limelight.

He waited for others to raise their hands, and after a few seconds, a few hands rose up, and his was one of them.

Amelia pointed at a girl.

"Yes, you. You are?"

"Maryann Dykes, Miss. Amelia." Maryann replied calmly, her voice steady. Maryann was the same as Faykes, who was at Elite-4 stage. She was younger than Faykes, being 15 years old. She hasn't decided which pseudo-spells to select for her seeds because her elements were giving her quite a problem; they were opposing elements of Ice and Fire.

"Ok Maryann, so what is an element?" Amelia asked her. Maryann quickly responded, her voice even, and her speed not fast nor too slow.

"An element is a general representation existing anytime, everywhere. For example, the fire element. The fire element is produced through many ways using chemical and biological processes. One can say it is the combination of oxygen, fuel, and energy, which is the form of heat, one would produce fire."

At this point, another voice sounded in the classroom.

"Maryann, according to your line of answer, the ice element is also a general representation. If ice element is a general representation, then the ice cubes we make at home by freezing water can be said to be a product of the ice element, and not necessarily the ice element itself. But the thing is, the ice element is not a reaction to something, it is something physical, unlike fire element which is classified as a reaction and considered intangible, like energy."

"What do you propose then?" Maryann wasn't flustered or angry, but curious at the perspective her classmate had.

"My name is James Corde, and I think an element is simply a particle that exists in a different dimension to ours. These particles, like the table of elements that we have, are the link to creating chemical, biological and physical reactions and processes. For example, the water element; although we have the chemical structure of water, is water simply just that, H2O? One can consider hydrochloric acid as a combination of 3 elements: Air, Corrosion, and water. Although their chemical structures are made up of molecules, these molecules exist in our dimension. I believe this idea holds some ground because there are numerous research papers published concerning the inter-relationship of the physical to the elemental domain." James said proudly, acting like an intellectual amongst a group of commoners.

James was from the Corde family, who are renowned to be descendants of nobles.

Before he could even revel, a snort interrupted him, followed by a feminine voice.

"James, your thinking is quite limiting to the term 'element'. Let's go back to your example, hydrochloric acid. if it is a combination of 3 elements, does that mean if I remove the air element in a hydrochloric acid solution, it would stop being hydrochloric acid? Does that mean it wouldn't evaporate? If I remove the corrosive element, does that mean it would be like normal water, not damaging you the slightest, making you able to drink it? Without the water element, it would become a corrosive gas? They had made a study relating to the removal of the element particles in a certain area where they made the acid. Do you know the results? They were still able to produce the acid! Mind you, this was done in an area forcefully devoid of elements. They did a similar study, this time, looking at one of the naturally devoid of elements, or deadspots, located at a hillside. They began doing chemical reactions, even biological processes such as cell replication in vivo, and they all succeeded." A girl who looked like she was 17 years of age spoke all this in rebuttal to what James just said, a bit scornful at his dumb response.

Before James could even retort back, Amelia clapped her hands twice, causing everyone to stop and be silent. Amelia smiled at them again.

"Everyone, your ideas do hold some truth, but there are things these ideas fail to encapsulate. First, Maryann: general representation is true, yes, but that is generally only true for the element particles in the earth and air series. Second, James: the idea that elements are in another dimension is false, as it has been proven that they exist in the same dimension as ours. At the same time, it doesn't mean that if you mix these elemental particles, you would cause them to react and form into a compound; these aren't molecules that are reactive to one another, or even inert like our table of elements from chemistry. Those elements, like oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur, when you mix them in their purest states, they begin to react and produce products and precipitates, as well as energy lost. Can you notice the problem here?" She asked, looking around the class.

Seeing no one raise their hands, she wanted to answer but then she saw someone raise his hands. Upon seeing who it was, her eyes twinkled as if seeing a gem.

"Yes, you. What's your name?"

Xander smiled and replied, "Xander Cloverfield. The main problem with the theory James had was that the physical elements in chemistry follows the law of energy conservation. From the materials + energy to the product + precipitate + energy loss, both sides must be equal in terms of energy. The problem with elemental particles is that they don't follow this law of energy conservation. Since we can say, for example, water element is on a higher series than the ice element series, meaning water element particles can actually produce ice element particles, where do they get the energy to produce the ice elements?"

Xander raised his hand, and showed a clump of water element particles transform into ice element particles. The class was astounded; even Amelia was a bit surprised. She knew what Xander just did, but she was surprised to see someone at the Elite class do it.

"Here, you can see the transformation water element particles to ice element particles. The energy of the water element particles is the same level as that of ice element particles. Now look at this next example."

Xander raised his other hand, and another clump of water element particles appeared, this time, bigger. On his other hand, now devoid of ice element particles, started forming them again. Xander earlier showed the quick transformation, but this time, what he was doing was forcing the water elements to propagate. Between his two hands, one could see 1 water element particle splitting into two, yet remaining the same size. one of the particles slowly turned into ice, while the other returned to the clump of water element particles.

He began demonstrating the elemental propagation theory! Amelia shouted in her heart. She couldn't believe it; after all, years after the theory was proposed, no one was able to prove it in such a manner.

He dispersed the elements on his hands and continued speaking in a leisurely manner.

"What I showed you all proved the elemental propagation theory; however, this doesn't resolve the issue of energy: Where do they get the energy to do the elemental replication? At the same time, look."

Xander this time controlled wind particles to appear on his hand, and raising his other hand, slowly, ice began to form not from the environment, but from the particles that came from the wind element. The students and Amelia could observe that they were rapidly transforming into another type of element, specifically, the ice element!

"Ele...elemental conversion! How can you even do such a thing! You're not even Legendary magician!" Amelia stuttered, her body frozen in shock.

Xander merely looked at her puzzledly.

"Miss Amelia, you do realize, with your experience as a magician, that elements have hierarchies, correct? If you read the works of Fitzgerald, Simones, Mythesia, Romano, and Therault, understand their works, and combine your understanding by filling up the gaps of their theories, it can be said that they have been pointing to this idea of elemental conversion." Xander replied, his voice calm and sure of what he just said.

Miss Amelia, on the other hand, froze harder upon hearing the names Xander mentioned. Even Maryann and the girl who rebutted James were stupefied.

Aren't they college students? Why are they hearing the names of ancient, well-known revolutionary researchers and philosophers of their fields? Aren't their works usually studied for post-graduate and even doctorate students? What do you mean about combining their theories? What do you mean understanding? How could you even completely comprehend what they were researching on, hey!

No one spoke for a few seconds. However, Miss Amelia suddenly disappeared and appeared in front of Xander, her eyes mad with excitement.

"Do you mean, you managed to apply the elemental hierarchy: Suppression and supplementation theory that Therault, the latest revolutionary researcher and the one of those still alive, managed to formulate after studying the works of thousands of other element researchers??" Amelia asked, her voice quivering and filled with joy. Therault managed to formulate the theory 4 years ago, causing an international furor in the elemental research field.

Xander nodded, quite puzzled by her reaction.

"Yup, uncle Therault often came to our house to talk to my dad, and he had these papers lying around in the table while they talked. I took a peek and saw his writings. Weirdly though, he had some misconceptions about the tiers so I pointed it out to him." he responded to Amelia.

Upon hearing this, Amelia didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the unfairness of the world. She, a woman of standing, someone praised to be a genius to reach Legendary Class before the age of 50, wasn't even able to understand even 10% of the theory Therault had posed.

Some of the students even checked the paper Therault published and was surprised to see Xander's name as one of the lead authors.

"Oh my god, it's true, he's one of the lead authors of the paper!"

"Wait, this was published 4 years ago, doesn't that mean Xander was just 3 years old?What the F*ck?"

"The heavens are truly unfair! How can we even compete with a genius??" one of them bemoaned, and all of them, even Amelia, agreed wholeheartedly.

Xander looked at the kid who shouted his age puzzledly.

"I was actually 4 years old at that time when he came visit. The website you visited probably inputted the date the paper was submitted for peer reading and revision, which was a year before he went to visit our house." Xander calmly said, focusing on that point.