To tell the truth, when Ian heard Elan say those words, he felt that Elan's Spirit Energy talent might even be better than his own.
He awakened his Innate Wisdom and Spirit Energy at the brink of death, activating this gift only under the horror of approaching death—perhaps also with the joy and anticipation of coming to the Otherworld.
After all, such intense emotional turmoil, comparable to a mountain collapse and tsunami, if others experienced these things, awakening Spirit Energy wouldn't be strange.
But Elan merely wanted to know his own condition, and that stimulated his Spirit Energy Potential. As he grows, there is a very high probability of awakening Spirit Energy.
Comparing the two, there's no need to say whose talent is higher, right?
But feelings, these things, they just don't follow any logic.
