"IMPOSSIBLE," Elder of Air trailed off as she stared at Ram, who had now became The Old Man, The Previous Elder of Time.
Ram watched in horror as his whole body suddenly felt like he was in battle against an enemy, wounds appearing all over his body from time to time.
But Ram was standing all alone, just staring at himself then at Elder of Air and back at himself. Again and again.
Blood leaked all over him as new wounds appeared over the older ones, and Ram flickered for a moment, then a wound appeared at his stomach, right where he had stabbed The Old Man when he had met him for the first time.
Ram was horrified as he felt his power leaving him too quickly and then his whole body felt like he was pricked by tiny needles — which would seem harmless when done at one place, but agonizing when it was done for the whole body — then he was disintegrating starting from his finger-tips.
Ram felt a presence behind himself. He was too scared watching himself disappearing to have enough sense to turn back to see to whom the presence belonged to.
Ram felt someone hit the back of his head, a brief flash of pain and Ram lost consciousness.
When Ram regained his consciousness, he saw that Elder of Air. Her face was paler than it had been before he transformed himself into The Old man. "You Must Die," she said, pointing her shaky fingers at him.
Ram remembered Elder of Air using her hands to block air from him earlier. And now that he was in a weakened state, with almost watching himself disintegrate just before he lost his consciousness, Ram was scared of her. Scared for his life so much so that he raised his hands as a shield and screamed.
If there was a competition to determine who would scream the loudest and making it seem that he were genuinely scared, Ram would've won the first place, beating every living being out there by a huge margin.
But When Ram realized that he was still breathing, he stopped screaming and glanced at the Elder of Air, whose hands were being held by another female.
Ram realized that he had seen a brief flash of her as she opened the door and walked away to get the Elder of Air.
He hadn't observed this in that brief flash but now that the whole room was lit with light, he could clearly see a special feature of her.
Her right eye is much smaller than her left one.
She was Aunt El.
What was she doing here?
And they way she behaved with Elder of Air seemed like they knew each other. But Ram didn't know what their relationship might be.
He wanted to dig deep into their relationship, but all Ram wanted to do now was to save himself from Elder of Air.
He tried again and again, and failed repeatedly to convince her that he was not a threat to her or the Institute, and that she should not kill him.
She pushed him into a corner, used her powers to block air for him. The only good outcome was that he was able to figure out how to use his powers. Even though some technicality of it was still blocked from him, he didn't bother about it so much.
Despite him using his powers, she repeatedly tried to block air for him, which threw him in such a desperate situation that his memories of Aunt El teaching him how to user The Power of Light were triggered.
And he used the first image appeared inside his mind, that of the previous Elder of Time to perform illusion upon himself.
He thought it would work as the Elder of Time was the leader of their Faction of Hope and that she would calm down once she realized that he was in disguise for a secret mission.
But who would've thought that not only did he failed to keep the illusion for a long time, but it felt like he relieved the last moment's of Elder of Time's life.
Ram felt that as he used the Power of Light to perform the illusion this time was drastically different from what he could remember from his memories. As if they are evolved or corrupted?
No. Not corrupted.
He shouldn't jump into conclusion. He should first discuss this with Aunt El.
Now that he thought about it, Aunt El might have saved his life by knocking him down when Ram was about to disintegrate earlier. Ram didn't know how he was ever going to repay his aunt for that. But he should be alive to do that.
If he couldn't change Elder of Air's opinion about him, he would die soon.
What should he do?
He couldn't try to use the Power of Light to perform an illusion to change himself into The Elder of Light. With Aunt El's involvement, there would be a chance that Elder of Air knew that the old man had died.
More over, he didn't want to put himself into another situation where he could be disintegrated. He had to learn more about how his powers worked and he want Aunt El's help for that.
Should he ask Aunt El to use her relationship with Elder of Air to tell the truth about him and clear the air of misunderstanding Elder of Air had about him?
But the way they are glaring at each other seemed more like they not on friendly terms with each other, that they seemed like they were enemies and would do anything to infuriate each other.
Ram felt helpless.
Even though they are not on friendly terms, Elder of Air seemed to trust Aunt El as she hadn't thrown Aunt El out of the room yet. Or blocked the air for her as she did to Ram.
No matter how tiny of a chance it might be, Ram had to seize it.