Arnie visited a house and knocked on its door. "Judge Sean? Judge Sean? Are you there?"

Arnie furrowed his brows and tried to open the door, only to find it unlocked.

"Hmm?" Arnie narrowed his eyes and entered the house carefully. He spread his energy around the house, trying to locate anything moving inside the house.

It looked like the house was empty, as he couldn’t find anything moving. Nevertheless, Arnie looked around the house.

The moment he entered the bedroom, he suddenly found the judge who he wanted to meet.

"Ah, shit." Arnie let out a sigh, realizing that the situation had just become even more complicated. "It looks like the organization is bigger than we know. They silenced a judge who was supposed to be on their payroll?"

"I don’t like where this is going..." Arnie shook his head helplessly. He took out his phone to call for backup while checking the judge’s body for injuries. "A clean stab in the chest."

...

Meanwhile, Auric and Maya were studying the creation of battle techniques.

"Are you sure you don’t know how to create a battle technique?"

"No." Auric shook his head. "I have altered techniques, and I have manifested power in one way or another. However, I don’t think they can be considered as creating a battle technique, can they?"

"Well..." Maya sighed. "All right then. I will give you the basic method to create a battle technique. Creating a battle technique is actually pretty simple. Creating a powerful and versatile battle technique is the problem."

Maya raised her finger and formed a dark ball at her fingertip. "To create a battle technique, you first need to know what you actually want. What kind of ability do you want? Let’s take this black ball as an example. I first created a black ball. This is a simple manifestation. I’m sure you can do this easily."

Auric nodded with a serious expression.

"Then what do you want from this ball? One of the simplest ways is just discharging this black ball like a bullet." Maya pointed forward, making a pistol gesture with her hand. Then, she released the black ball forward. "It’s this simple."

"However, the black ball doesn’t seem to have enough strength or other properties."

The black ball flew slowly. It didn’t seem to pack a lot of punch. So, this was just the manifestation part.

"Correct." Maya nodded with a smile. "Now, what do you want from this black ball? Speed? Strength? Maybe unique forms? I will demonstrate everything."

Maya released the black ball one more time. This time, the black ball flew faster.

Auric could see the flow of energy in her arm. It looked like she was using the flow of energy and releasing it into the black ball to help her push it forward.

Then she continued with the next demonstration. She channeled the energy into the ball first, making the energy more concentrated inside. As a result, the black ball carried even more energy. If it hit the target, it would cause a big eruption of energy.

"See that? Let’s continue." Maya proceeded with the third demonstration.

This time, Maya strengthened the outer layer of the ball by pouring even more energy into the outer layer. This should increase the strength, but the purpose was different this time.

Once she had reinforced it enough, she channeled her energy into the ball one more time, this time filling the ball to the point that it started expanding.

After that, her energy started to move in a slightly different way, which caused something to poke out of the ball.

Because of the strengthening of the outer layer from earlier, the ball managed to contain it. She repeated it a couple of times and formed a massive black crystal.

"Can you spot the difference between these three demonstrations?"

"Yes." Auric nodded while squinting. "The first one must be the speed. You are using the flow of energy to push the ball forward, like you’re discharging high-pressure water onto something to push it."

"Very good."

"The second one is strength. You concentrate even more energy into the ball so that it will burst once the outer layer is destroyed."

"Indeed. What about the third one?"

"You strengthen the shell so that you can fill the ball with energy and shape it."

"Pretty simple, right? Once you have reached this stage, you are done with the first phase. Now, into the second phase. If you want to increase its power or speed, you need your energy to flow accordingly. That’s why you have to program the flow properly. For example, if you let the energy flow to your hand first and discharge it, you can push the ball as soon as it’s formed."

Auric looked down, contemplating. "This is the accumulation part?"

"Yes. The accumulation part consists of two things. The circulation of your energy and the flow of energy into your ability. Meanwhile, the release part is simply how you want your ability to manifest itself."

Auric crossed his arms. "It looks like you’re customizing everything."

"Indeed. The flow of energy in each element is different. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that."

Auric agreed.

"If we include the properties of the elements, each person will circulate their energy differently."

"Yes. I can see that."

"However, that’s not the end of it. For example, try to let your energy flow into your hand and then discharge it like a hose."

Auric pointed forward and did it. A small breeze hit Maya. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"Now, try to first move the energy into your left hand." Maya snapped her fingers, gesturing for him to continue. "Then discharge it from your right hand. Let the energy flow from one hand to the other so that it can pick up speed in your body."

Auric channeled his energy into the left hand and then redirected it back to the right hand. With a longer distance to travel, he could accelerate the flow of energy.

The discharge formed a more powerful breeze that slightly flicked Maya’s shirt up, revealing her belly.

"Can you not hit me, or is this intentional?" Maya pointed down.

"Ah. I was too focused." Auric looked away. "Sorry."

Maya sighed. "Anyway, you now understand how it works, right? The longer the distance, the more time you can use to accelerate the flow of your energy. However, this is not the only way to increase your speed. You can also create a massive lump of energy, let it flow into your hand, and release it all at once."

"Like what I used to do?" This was what Lindwurm taught him in the Training Hall.

"Indeed. People continue to try to see how they’re going to control the flow of their energy. Some people think that creating a loop in your body during the circulation and releasing it in a straight line will produce a faster speed."

"So, that’s why there are so many ways to circulate the energy." Auric looked down. This was the concept of how much energy he could absorb from his gathering techniques.

The more explosive the technique was, the more energy he could gather. This was indeed the principle, but the difference would be the flow. Some people might not find the loop more comfortable to use, so they might want to circulate it around the body first to increase the length.

"If you want to spin your ability, you just need to create a spiral during the release," Maya continued.

Auric understood that depending on how the energy flowed, the battle technique could change.

At the same time, he noticed that they had been treating the energy like a flow of water. They thought energy was a wave.

Auric treated the energy as particles because he was the only person who could see their particles. This was what allowed him to create gathering techniques as well as the artificial heart methods in the first place.

However, if he wanted to, he might be able to treat the energy as both waves and particles. If he combined his understanding of it and watched how they flowed, he might be able to create an even more amazing battle technique.

"Of course. Circulating like this is not the end. You also need to think about how to let this energy flow into your ability. After all, you also need to know how to power up your ability before releasing it."

"So, you create two flows." Auric nodded, recalling all the battle techniques he had learned about.

"Some create two flows, some create two systems. Some just create one system and let the other one free flow into your ability manifestation. It will depend on how you are going to use it. That’s why you need to complete the first step before thinking about the flow of energy. How do you want your ability to manifest? Then, try to create an accumulation part that allows you to achieve it."

Auric crossed his arms. "Still, each element has its own attributes. The way they manifest will be different, right?"

"Yes. That’s also what you need to consider while thinking about the manifestation part. You can’t try to manifest your fire element the way you manifest your water element. Unless you can do elemental fusion. After seeing how you’re able to do it, I believe that creating your own technique will be much more beneficial for you in the long run."

Maya’s goal was to create a battle technique that contained two elements or more. This way, Auric’s power would get even stronger. In addition, once he got used to this process, he could produce more and more battle techniques for different element combinations.

It would benefit him in the long run.

At the same time, Auric understood why Lindwurm taught him the two advanced techniques in the Training Hall.

Pumping his energy all at once was another form of circulation. The concentration of one power would strengthen the ability.

By combining all these parts into one, he could create a battle technique that suited him the most.

Maya asked, "Now, what kind of circulation do you feel most comfortable with? Do you like to create a loop? Do you like to move it around your body?"

"I actually..." Auric thought for a moment. "...prefer none of them. They are the same as me."

As someone who could see the particles, Auric didn’t necessarily have any problems with all of them. That was why he thought none of them felt special to him. He might have a flow that suited him the most, but he had yet to figure it out, and he might not have the best one because he could master all of them just fine.

Nonetheless, Auric understood the rough idea of the process.

"Now, let’s start with something simple. How do you want your ability to behave? Just create something simple. I know you can do it on the spot."

"Let’s see..." Auric first picked an element that he wanted to test. After thinking about it, he picked the weirdest one that he had yet to completely understand, the chaos element.

"A unique element out of the gate? Okay, I guess..." Maya smiled wryly. It was easier to just mimic one battle technique on the first try, but if Auric wanted to do it, she didn’t mind.

"How do you want this power to move? What’s its shape? Why would you activate it? When is the right time to release them?"

Auric closed his eyes. His original plan for this chaos element was to obtain its property to disrupt the flow of someone else’s energy.

The best way to do it was by creating the barrier. Hence, Auric formed a screen by using this element. The particles were lining up to create a rectangle. Then, he stacked this one layer on top of the other until there were a total of ten layers, creating quite a thick screen.

"A barrier? Not a bad choice." Maya nodded, satisfied. "Now, you have a barrier. How strong do you want it? Can you unleash it right away? For a barrier, it needs to be fast and strong, so you have to solve the problem through the circulation."

Auric smiled. An image finally formed in his head. This was going to be his first battle technique, Chaos Shield.