"He mustn't be told about this." The 1st warned. Although he sounded like he was warning everyone, the masters knew he was only speaking to one person: the blabbermouth of the group and the one closest to a friend among them to Mane- 6th.
"What are all of you staring at me for? I'm not gonna say anything." The 6th scowled. It was a bit strange that he commented that he was subject to their accusing gazes, when they were all trapped in mountains, with no way to see each other's expression.
"You better hope that's true." The 2nd 'kindly' reminded. Back in his mountain the dark figure of the 6th trembled imperceptibly. He didn't want to have to find out what the consequences of offending the 2nd were. He was certain they were anything but good. And was pretty satisfied being on her good side.
"The boy's burden gets heavier and heavier by the day. And even when we say nothing, he still feels it." The 1st was right, and his voice was filled with sorrow. He sighed when he considered the burden the small shoulders of his student was carrying. This burden was heavier and probably bigger than anyone else's since the inception of the universe. And it was laid upon a small boy of eleven years.
"This boy amazes me every time" 9th sighed. "Oh, what is it this time?" 6th questioned. "Why don't you take a look at it yourself" 9th suggested.
Back in the bathroom, Mane was still seated in the bathtub, except there was something different. Blue flames had engulfed his entire being, from the crown of his head to the sole of his feet. Yet the strangest thing was the flames didn't seem to affect the water. For the bathtub was still filled with water, and the temperature of the room hadn't gone up at all. It was almost as if the flames were just an illusion, a clever trick to deceive the eyes.
"This is elemental harmony!" 6th exclaimed. He was shocked at what he was witnessing. Elemental harmony was a realm of high understanding. It was a stage where a person's insight into two or more elements was so profound that he/she was able to do the unthinkable. Just like Mane was doing now. It was extremely difficult to master and depended upon plain dumb luck. It wasn't something that a person could actively learn.
Mane's state of elemental harmony was a rarity. And he was able to do this with four elements. Fire; water; air; and earth. The flames were in water and yet they weren't extinguished, neither was the water showing any signs of evaporating. The bathtub which was made from earth was fine and remained compact, conceding no cracks and wasn't burnt in any way. The flames were present yet the atmospheric temperature was still normal, meaning that the heat of the fire wasn't transferred into the air around them. Every element was in its own space. It was a miraculous feat, one that rarely occurred.
"As far as I know, no Supreme has ever achieved this level of elemental harmony. But his seems a bit different." 1st analysed.
"It is" 9th confirmed. "This isn't true elemental harmony. It is a false elemental harmony." 9th continued.
"Oh? What do you see 9th?" 2nd asked.
"Mane has had a breakthrough in his time law." 9th answered. "You feel it too, don't you 3rd" 9th asked.
"I do." 3rd answered succinctly. She was a spiritualist, and a powerful one at that. Although she had been sealed in Mane's mind scape, she was still able to sense that Mane's state was different from the more obscure elemental harmony.
"Time law wielders refer to this state as self-time control." 9th explained. The others didn't need to hear more to understand the entire situation now. They weren't time law wielders, but they knew about the time laws. Self-time control was an upgraded version of self-time acceleration- a law that Mane had unwittingly comprehended about 5 years ago. It was a skill that allowed Mane to see an impressive boost in speed. The reason Mane had such impressive speed was because of this skill. Over the years Mane had been able to incorporate this skill into his arsenal of abilities, so as to do away with the limitations that came with it. When he relied purely on the skill, he was able to slow time tremendously for a few seconds- at least that's what it looked like on the outside. But what he was truly doing was increasing his own time. This allows him to be a lot faster than his opponents, and makes it look like he was just exceedingly quick. But this skill was physically draining. All time users were also body wielders. They weren't as adept at body wielding like pure body wielders because they only trained their bodies to accommodate the strain time law puts on their bodies. Just a month ago, Mane had no knowledge of body wielding. And even now that he did, he was only at the peak of the mortal realm. Even before beginning his body wielding journey, Mane was able to utilise the skill known as self-time acceleration. The downside was that once he displayed the skill, he would grow so weak that he wouldn't be able to do anything else. His body couldn't handle deploying it safely two times in a row. So it was a skill that he would only resort to at the last moment. Five years ago, when he had first comprehended the skill, 9th informed him that he would be able to use if safely when he reached the profound realm. What the proud master had failed to tell him was that he would be able to do that only once every day. It was so much more complicated to master. Time law users didn't master many skills, but they were very deadly. Their arsenal was limited, but the power of the skills that filled them was limitless.
When Mane realised that self-time acceleration was so difficult to employ, he didn't give up. Rather, he was challenged to make the skill useful no matter what. After years of studying and experimenting, he was able to integrate the skill into his overall speed, giving himself impressive bursts of speed at regular intervals. It was a tiring thing to do, but it was much more manageable than purely using the skill. Whereas self-time acceleration increased the time flow of the caster, self-time control was a bit more complicated than that. It wasn't just a case of increasing the user's time flow now, but decreasing it as well. But why would decreasing time flow of the castor be of any benefit?
For instance, if a person had been injured severely, speeding up their time would only send them to their deaths faster. But if one slowed down the time around them, their injury will in theory, cease to have an effect on the body, and they would be able to survive longer. Unlike self-time acceleration, self-time control gave the user total control of their time flow. So the caster could slow down injuries, increase rates of metabolism to produce more energy, and do so much more. It basically gave one total control of the body's processes. It was an impressive skill. And that was what Mane was using to achieve elemental harmony. It was a false state, and he had only just touched on it, but with practice he would definitely grow more adept at it. But that wouldn't happen in just a few months. Even mastering self-time control was going to take years, not to talk of the false elemental harmony that was the product of this skill. It was because Mane had just comprehended self-time control that the scene in the bathroom was happening. Once this state wore off, and he returned to himself, he would find it very difficult to truly use self-time control. But at least, he had unlocked a new breath.