Chương 43: A BOLT FROM THE BLUE

The crisp, biting air of late autumn had settled over Blackwood Keep, sharpening the edges of Aina's already relentless training. Days blurred into a punishing cycle of Flow Infusion precision drills. Aina, convinced that the bizarre sprouting of the wooden stick was merely a symptom of Elias's raw, untamed power, pushed him harder than ever. She demanded absolute, precise output, a surgical control over his Flow that felt impossible for his small frame.

Elias gritted his teeth, forcing the energy into objects, trying to strengthen them without causing them to shatter, or worse, to bloom with impossible life. In secret, Elias continued his own, desperate experiments. He tried, time and again, to replicate the sprouting effect on various organic and inorganic objects – a fallen leaf, a smooth, a normal stone, a splintered twig even a shirt, out of boredom. He pushed his Flow, trying to find that elusive balance, that precise quantity that had triggered the anomaly.

But each attempt yielded only failure: the objects either remained inert, or shattered into dust, or simply strengthened as Aina intended. The sprouting remained a unique, baffling mystery, an accidental miracle he couldn't reproduce. After a while he succeeded in being able to infuse his Flow but he still couldn't replicate the Sprouting effect. If ce couldn't find the exact balance to do that then he couln't transilate it into Ant-Flow.

He also persisted with his 'Flow Constructs' in the dead of night, shaping the black water of his Spirit-Domain growing more proficient with each attempt. He tried to make them more solid, more durable, to imbue them with the kind of permanence that Flow Infusion offered to mundane objects though they remained ephemeral, shimmering ghosts of weapons, dissipating after a few more uses, reinforcing the frustrating limitations of his current abilities.

His infinite Flow felt like a raging sea trapped in a fragile glass bottle, unable to fully express its might. He wanted to test its limits and implications, to truly understand what this boundless energy could do. But every attempt to tap deeper into his vast Spirit-Domain for these complex experiments put significant mental and physical strain on his young body, draining the Flow he could currently accommodate, leaving him with throbbing headaches and a bone-deep weariness.

One mild afternoon, a rare respite from Aina's direct supervision, Elias sat cross-legged in a sun-dappled corner of the garden. He was practicing Flow Circulation, letting his internal energy flow smoothly, effortlessly, through his body and into his Spirit-Domain. His mind, for once, was quiet, wandering aimlessly, thinking about nothing in particular, simply enjoying the rhythm of his breath and the subtle hum of his own Flow.

Nearby, Miss Eleanor Gable, her kind face flushed from exertion, was meticulously hanging freshly laundered white sheets on a clothesline, their crispness snapping gently in the breeze. She hummed a tuneless melody, entirely absorbed in her task. Unseen by her, and by Elias's undirected Flow Perception, a sleek, dark form slithered through the tall grass at the edge of the garden. A venomous snake, its scales glinting, its eyes fixed on the unsuspecting maid, its body coiling, preparing to strike.

Elias's mind, still in its meditative wanderings, drifted. He wasn't thinking about Flow, or Aina, or even the lurking dangers of Aerthos. Instead, random thoughts from his old world surfaced, a fragment of scientific knowledge he hadn't considered in years. He remembered lessons about how lightning is formed: the separation of positive and negative charges in clouds, the immense buildup of electrical potential, the sudden, violent discharge that equalized the imbalance.

It was just a random memory, a fleeting intellectual exercise, a test to see if his old knowledge still held. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. But as he idly entertained this thought, his Flow, boundless and ever-present, unconsciously responded. Without a conscious command, without a deliberate act of will, he began to infuse the ambient Flow around him with those precise parameters.

He wasn't trying to do anything really; he was simply, instinctively and unconsciously, applying the scientific principles he understood to the universal medium of Flow. He was, without knowing it, programming reality. Just as Miss Gable turned, her eye catching the glint of scales, just as a small, terrified gasp escaped her lips, a sudden, sharp bolt of lightning shot out from the seemingly clear sky.

It wasn't a flash from a distant storm; it was a localized, concentrated strike, a brilliant, terrifying spear of pure energy. It hit the snake with a sickening CRACK, instantly charring its body to a crisp, a smoking, blackened coil on the vibrant green grass. Miss Gable shrieked, a sound of pure terror, and collapsed to the ground, startled and bewildered. She stared, wide-eyed, at the smoking patch of earth where moments ago the snake had been.

She had seen the snake, felt the terror, then a blinding flash, a deafening crack, and now… nothing but smoke. She had no idea what had happened. Elias's eyes snapped open as a result of her shriek. A sharp, throbbing headache immediately bloomed behind his eyes, and a profound mental drain washed over him, leaving him feeling utterly depleted, as if every ounce of his energy had been squeezed out.

He looked in the direction of the sound noticing Miss Gable, trembling on the ground, then at the smoking, charred remains of the snake, and finally, at the clear, blue sky above. Hadn't he heard a thunderclap just now? Confusion warred with a dawning, terrifying realization.

'Did I do that? How though?' He replayed the moments leading up to the strike: his idle thought about lightning, the scientific parameters, the sudden, inexplicable manifestation. The pieces clicked into place, agonizingly slow at first, then with a sickening rush of clarity.

'I did this.' He hadn't consciously willed it. He had used a Trait, his first Resonant. But how did he activate it? He had simply thought about the scientific principles, and his Flow, guided by that understanding, had manifested it. This wasn't just Flow manipulation. He was influencing the very fabric of reality, programming it with the laws of his old world. The potential was immense, terrifying.

He could create fire, ice, wind, perhaps even manipulate gravity like Aina or light – anything he could break down into its fundamental scientific parameters. This was a power beyond anything he had ever imagined. He decided to keep this to himself for now. It reinforced his earlier theory about Flow existing in his old world, but people simply couldn't tap into it or understand it for some reason. Elias quickly assessed the situation. Miss Gable was still on the ground, bewildered. He needed to act innocent.

He pushed himself up, feigning confusion, rubbing his head as if the headache was the only thing on his mind.

"Miss Gable!" he called out, his voice small and bewildered. He rushed to her side, his movements clumsy with feigned exhaustion. He helped her off the ground, his small hands carefully picking up the laundry basket she had dropped, the crisp white sheets now slightly smudged with dirt.

"Are you alright, Miss Gable?" he asked, his innocent face turned up to hers, his eyes wide with a carefully constructed bewilderment.

"Oh, Young Master Elias! I… I don't know what happened! A… a flash, and then… that snake… it was about to…oh...." She trailed off, still trembling. Elias nodded solemnly, maintaining his facade.

"It was very scary, Miss Gable. Let's go inside." He took her hand, his small grip surprisingly firm, and accompanied her back towards the manor an internal grin behind his mask of innocence.