"The lightning element is next. There''s no need to rush everything, you know? Aren''t you satisfied already?"


    Amelia tried to stop Orion from exhausting himself. She saw his pained face when he focused everything on the connection between him and the earth element.


    "Of course, I''m not satisfied. If you had the rest of your elements available, I would have tried all of them in one day."


    Orion placed his back on the rock and crossed his arms.


    "This was just mentally exhausting, which is easily recoverable in a few minutes."


    "Just take your time, alright? The sun is still high."


    Orion nodded and slowly slid against the rock until he sat on the ground. He closed his eyes and fell asleep.


    "In a few minutes, he said, but he fell asleep."


    Karteira walked to him and waved in front of his face. Usually, he would react, but not this time.


    "He was playing tough, but he still decided to rest. That''s just like him."


    They both sat together further away and waited for him to wake up.


    ...


    "Karteira, what do you think of Orion?"


    "What kind of question is that?"


    Amelia took her by surprise.


    "I haven''t asked yet, so I was curious."


    Amelia lifted her head and looked at the clouds passing above them.


    "I don''t know what you expect me to say, but I''ll be honest. He is the strongest person I have ever met, unlike those weaklings that I trained until now."


    "He is caring, and he hasn''t shown any bias, even though we are from different factions. Of course, it applies to you too."


    Her mind wandered slightly.


    "I was surprised when he caught us like he promised during the first ''Lord'' fight. Like he promised, he even managed to catch me, although I was sure to be forsaken the moment he caught you."


    Amelia dropped her face and showed a really annoyed expression.


    "Did you seriously think that? I can''t believe it."


    Karteira looked at the ground in shame.


    "I''m sorry, alright? How was I supposed to trust the words of someone I barely knew? This was too good to be true."


    Composing herself, she remembered what Karteira had been through before teaming with them.


    "No, it''s understandable. I''m sorry, too. You haven''t done anything wrong."


    Karteira laughed lightly and began to look at the sky alongside Amelia.


    "After he healed that scar, I felt different."


    "Before, I was bursting with rage and blood thirst because of the pain. But the moment it disappeared, I felt something heal in me. My head felt clearer, and I began to think a lot."


    Curious, Amelia asked.


    "About what?"


    Karteira brought her right hand to her right thigh and rubbed the place where the scar marked her skin.


    "Everything I was missing."


    "I''ve grown considerably during our mission together because of you two, even though my anger was getting the better of me. I''ve improved so much that it sounds ridiculous."


    With a smile, she nodded.


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    "Who would have thought that so many ideas could pop into your head when you worked with incredible people?"


    An imperceptible blush appeared on Amelia''s face. She always liked being complimented.


    With that said, Karteira finally answered the first question she had asked.


    "The way I see him now, it might be admiration regarding his strength and genius. I respect him as much as he respects me, and I''ve been wanting to help alleviate his burden, even if by a small amount."


    "I see, he helped you that much?"


    Amelia was happy to hear that.


    Hearing Karteira''s thoughts, it was clear that even though Orion was capable of causing great horror to the world, he instead kept a level-headed state and helped others.


    ...


    They continued to talk about many things during his nap.


    Half an hour later, Orion stretched. He recovered his mental strength and was ready to tackle another experiment.


    "My bad, I fell asleep and left you alone."


    Both shook their heads.


    "It''s fine. We had time to deepen our friendship."


    A smile appeared on his face.


    "That''s great. Are we ready to continue?"


    "I''m ready; just wait a second."


    Amelia did the same as before and closed her eyes, bringing out one of her elements in the form of a sphere.


    This one was more wild, not staying in a perfect sphere like her other elements.


    "Be careful... I''m pretty sure it''s going to be harder with this one."


    Amelia handed her lightning to Orion.


    The moment the purple lightning made contact with his hands, the sparks turned white.


    "How do you even manage this one, Amelia? What in the world is this infernal entity?!"


    Orion was suffering from the lightning striking his skin. The element burned his skin while it refused to bow to Orion.


    "Orion? Are you alright?"


    Panic took hold of Amelia. She never imagined her element would react so strongly toward him.


    "Don''t worry. I''ll heal after dealing with this one."


    While gritting his teeth, he plunged deep inside his mind and asked his dark element for help.


    A black spike emerged from the center of his palm and pierced the sphere of lightning, immobilizing it with an ailment.


    ''Thank you. It''s easier to deal with now.''


    After thanking the dark element, Orion turned his attention to the foreign element.


    ''Now, listen to me. You don''t have to get this mad. I''m trying to find other ways to use you. I''ll give you back to your master once I''m done.''


    No voice echoed back, leading Orion to think the element was completely shut off to him.


    He tried a few more times to listen for its voice, but he couldn''t hear anything.


    ''No dice, I guess?''


    He was thinking of giving the wild lightning element back to Amelia, but before he did that, he began to imagine the lightning crossbow.


    ''Weapon?''


    The voice finally let itself be heard, and Orion took this opportunity. It wasn''t difficult to understand why it made itself known.


    ''Do you like being a weapon? If so, I''ve been wanting you to take a similar shape, one you would like.''


    ''Like? Shape?''


    Orion once again focused intensely on his connection with the element, building the crossbow in his mind together with the element.


    The girls watched as the dark spike retracted inside Orion''s palm. They expected the lightning to once again hurt him, but to their surprise, it became less rowdy and turned blue.


    A few minutes passed, and Orion suddenly opened his eyes.


    There was something different in his gaze, as if electricity had coursed through his eyes.


    "Electra!"


    Just like with Amelia, the lightning changed shape and took on a clear form. Unlike Maia, the earthen crossbow, Electra''s shape was more streamlined.


    The edges were smooth, and there were no rough parts.


    "I don''t see any lightning on the crossbow."


    Karteira was the first one to closely observe the crossbow.


    "There''s no string either!"


    Amelia noticed the second problem.


    And then everything made sense when they looked into Orion''s eyes.


    "The element... is in you? What?"


    He shook his head lightly.


    "Not quite. It''s in the crossbow, as I''m just a catalyst for its power. It improves my physical abilities while using me to transfer its unbridled power slowly inside the crossbow. Take a look at this."


    Orion exhaled, and blue lightning slid across his arms toward the crossbow. Like an electrical discharge, the somewhat normal crossbow began to pulse with lightning that appeared and disappeared in instants.


    The girls backed away when they saw him prepare to fire.


    Orion jumped a meter back, a trail of light forming from his eyes and following to his new position.


    Using his index and middle fingers together, he pulled an invisible string that only appeared when it was locked in place.


    The blue string stayed visible until he shot an arrow of the same type as the string.


    "This is the lowest power available from this weapon."


    *Click*


    The arrow disappeared. They all saw it get fired, but the moment it left the groove, there was nothing in sight.


    Until Orion pointed in front of him and a cracking sound was heard, that is.


    "Orion... this is the lowest power? Don''t use the strongest, please!"


    "I won''t. I''ll probably die if I do."


    *Crack* *Crash* *Crack*


    A whole forest disappeared from this single arrow. It was slower than his light arrows, but its destructive power was on another level.


    The arrow easily pierced through three trees and made them burst into fire.


    What was truly stupefying was its destructive ability, as shown before. From seemingly nowhere, lightning fell on the forest all around the tree that had the arrow stuck in it.


    "If you ever use its strongest power, what can you do with it?"


    Karteira feared hearing the truth.


    "I could wipe your village and Tiohr-nam with it. I''m pretty sure the entire island would explode, and the realm would be destroyed. I would die in the process because my body is too weak to contain that much raw power. Not even ash would remain."


    Amelia jumped and hurriedly asked him to return the element to her.


    "Then give it back to me immediately! Hurry!"


    "You don''t have to worry about that, since this element refuses to provide me with access to its other powers. Until I''m ready, I won''t use more than necessary. I don''t even know if we''ll ever need that much power anyway."


    "Still, give it back, please."


    Amelia had a distressed face. She wasn''t afraid of Orion unleashing the full might of the light element, but of losing him in case it began to damage him.


    Orion gave the lightning element back to her, and his eyes returned to normal.


    "It''s yours to begin with; I would not steal it from you."


    "Thank you."


    She breathed a sigh of relief, knowing the world and her partner were safer this way.


    Karteira was still looking at the burning forest, her mouth wide open.


    ''I''m sorry, but this power did not come from Orion. It''s coming from you, Amelia. What kind of monster are they?''


    The next sequence of events was pure comedy.


    Hearing the ruckus, the twins left the mansion at their top speed and arrived at the forest in a minute. They immediately noticed Orion and flew to him.


    He got scolded by both Dramia and Drania.


    Dramia was scolding him because he once again destroyed part of the surrounding area, while Drania simply scolded him because he almost gave her a heart attack.


    Thereafter, he got dragged by the two and forced to stop his dangerous activities for the day.