Chapter 1046 - 1045: A Simple Stone (Spacecraft Bonus - )

[A/N: This bonus Chapter is all because of Azdal!!!]

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Creating an element was different from manipulating something that already existed.

A demon with Fire affinity could form a fireball without having a flame nearby. Someone with Ice affinity could create an ice spear even while standing in a desert.

But doing so required more demonic energy, better control, more mental energy, and a high enough affinity.

The weaker the affinity, the more difficult it became. Drawing water from a river was much easier than creating enough to fill one.

Earth users rarely bothered with creation.

There was almost always solid ground nearby. Even above a sea, their first instinct would be to reach toward the seabed and manipulate the rocks beneath the water.

Simon understood that instinct. He possessed the affinity himself.

Why create a stone when there were dozens beneath his feet?

He rolled Sonya’s sphere between his fingers.

The answer seemed reasonable. Yet the longer he considered it, the more he wondered why he had accepted it so easily.

He could understand choosing the easier method during a battle. But outside a battle? When trying to understand an affinity or develop a technique?

Surely creation should have received more attention than that.

His gaze moved toward the spear and axe floating beside Sonya.

She had formed all three without any visible difficulty.

Ammor was staring at them too.

He looked almost dazed.

Simon shifted the sphere into his left hand and raised his right.

He decided to try it himself.

Demonic energy gathered above his palm. His connection to the surrounding stones and ground answered immediately, but he ignored it.

He wasn’t trying to lift something from the floor.

He wanted a new stone.

His Earth affinity guided the gathered energy, and a few brown grains appeared.

Then nothing.

Simon raised a brow.

He supplied more energy.

The grains trembled, drew together, and formed a fragment smaller than his fingernail.

His expression changed.

That had taken considerably more demonic energy and attention than it should have.

He was still recovering from Sonya’s awakening, but he knew how much energy he was using. Exhaustion alone couldn’t account for this.

With the amount he was supplying, it felt as though he should be trying to form several mountains rather than a few pieces of stone.

"Little kitty?"

Sonya leaned closer, watching his hand with interest.

Simon didn’t answer.

He adjusted the circulation of demonic energy through his heart, then carefully brought Chaos into the process. The power gathered above his palm became steadier.

The fragment grew.

Slowly.

His gaze sharpened.

He had approached this out of curiosity. Now he wanted to know what the problem was.

He reduced the flow, examined the effect, and increased it again. Rather than allowing the energy to spread across the entire shape, he concentrated it around the existing fragment.

Another layer formed.

Akaza stopped watching Sonya’s weapons and looked at him. Virella followed his gaze, while Enigma’s attention settled on the growing lump above Simon’s hand.

Even the elders on the terrace were watching.

Simon paid them no attention.

He kept adjusting the flow, joining each new layer to the last and compressing the gaps between them.

About thirty seconds passed before he finally stopped.

An uneven brown sphere settled into his palm.

Simon stared at it.

One side bulged. Several small pits marked the surface, and a thin crack ran through the part he had finished last.

He lifted Sonya’s sphere beside it.

They were roughly the same size, but his was noticeably lighter. Even without breaking it open, he could feel how poorly the material inside had formed.

He rubbed his thumb across a raised edge.

It crumbled.

"What the fuck?"

Sonya looked between the two stones with a frown.

Simon turned toward Ammor and discovered that he wasn’t the only one holding an unimpressive result.

A smaller sphere rested in Ammor’s hand. He had finished before Simon, but sweat still covered his forehead, and his breathing was slightly laboured.

He looked as though he couldn’t decide whether to examine the stone or throw it away.

"You tried it too?" Simon asked.

Ammor nodded.

"How much energy did you use?"

"Far too much for this tiny thing."

He turned the sphere over.

"I thought I was doing something wrong."

"So did I."

Simon looked back at his own creation.

He had expected his lower Earth affinity to make the task harder than it was for Sonya. That would have made sense.

But this... this was excessive.

"I used to think it was supposed to be that difficult. That it was normal," Sonya said.

Both of them turned toward her.

"You’ve tried before?" Simon asked.

"Of course. Do you think this Honourable spent all her time throwing whatever happened to be under her feet?"

Simon glanced at the ruined platform.

Sonya noticed.

"That doesn’t count. The lightning was trying to kill me."

Akaza’s mouth curved slightly.

Sonya raised her hand toward the floating spear.

"Even before I evolved, my affinity was better than most. But making a few rocks from nothing still took far too much effort from me. Sometimes what I made wasn’t even worth throwing."

She nodded toward Simon’s sphere.

"That looks familiar."

He lowered it slightly.

"What did you find out?"

"I asked questions and searched for records. Everyone seemed to have the same problem. Some were better at it, but none thought it was worth the trouble."

"So you stopped trying?"

"Eventually. There were other things I could learn that didn’t leave me exhausted while holding a pebble."

Ammor gave a quiet, disbelieving laugh.

He was still looking at the one in his hand.

"What bothered me," Sonya continued, "was how easily other people could create their attacks from thin air. Fire, water, ice, lightning. Even wood. Their affinity could be worse than mine, and they still had an easier time."

"What did you think caused it?" Simon asked.

"The weight. The solidity. A rock isn’t a flame."

She held out her hand, and the stone axe drifted closer.

"Creating metal objects is difficult too. But from what I found, making rocks and stones was worse."

Simon examined the axe.

Its head was thick and solid. Nothing about it suggested the weak, poorly formed material in his own hand.

"Metal can be heavy," he said.

"I know. It wasn’t a very good answer."

Sonya shrugged.

"But there were rocks everywhere. I could spend my time trying to make one, or learn to use the ones already around me. I chose the second."

Simon couldn’t fault that decision.

He had done much the same, without spending nearly as much time questioning it.

Sonya rested a finger against the axe’s edge.

"Now I can make this without struggling. It’s still a solid object. It still has weight. Those things haven’t changed."

"But you have," Virella said.

"Yes. Far more than I expected."

Simon’s attention returned to Sonya’s golden markings.

He had initially thought creation was simply another advantage of her new bloodline. Something the Firstborn Titans were exceptionally good at.

Perhaps that was all it was.

But Sonya had mentioned something else.

"Could this have anything to do with the curse on the Titans?"

Her finger stopped moving along the axe.

For a moment, she didn’t answer.

"I don’t know," she said. "Grandpa disappeared before he could explain it. But I have a feeling it does."

Simon frowned.

Ammor slowly lowered his hand. Akaza and Virella exchanged glances, while Enigma looked toward the objects suspended beside Sonya.

The broken stones around them lay undisturbed.

Simon could lift those pieces, crush them, and form something far larger than the pitiful sphere he had just made. Yet creating a little more of the same material demanded an absurd amount of power.

Why?

A curse on the Titans was one thing. He wasn’t a Titan, and neither was Ammor.

If the two matters were connected, what had actually been cursed?

The race? Their affinity? Something involved in creating new stones and rocks?

And why would anyone want to make that so difficult when there was already so much of it?

He looked at the sphere Sonya had given him.

He had no way to answer those questions yet.

"Sonya."

Ammor’s voice drew their attention.

She turned toward him.

"You keep saying rocks and stones."

Her brows rose slightly.

"When you were explaining what you tried before, and what you can do now," Ammor continued. "You haven’t called it earth. Why?"

Simon looked up.

He hadn’t paid much attention to her choice of words but now that he thought about it, it was slightly strange.

Sonya studied Ammor for a moment, then gave him an approving nod.

Ammor was usually the quiet one, but now, he was curious to know about the earth element.

"So you noticed."

Ammor waited.

She let the spear turn slowly above her palm.

"I realised something a while back and it was what impressed Grandpa the most," she said. "We’ve been calling the element by the wrong name."

Her gaze moved between them.

"Its true name is Terra, not Earth."