Chapter 438
Together with his new friends, Adrien lived through many extraordinary adventures in that new world.
They fought against threats that came one after another, protecting cities from destruction, saving ordinary humans who possessed no powers like theirs.
Adrien's light-blue lightning element grew stronger over time, sometimes surging with such ferocity that it could split the sky and shatter mountains.
The artificial intelligence in his brain helped him analyze situations rapidly, calculate possibilities, and formulate precise strategies within seconds.
The peak of those adventures occurred when Adrien had to face an elder who controlled the fire element.
That elder, along with four other elders, were beings from beyond Earth who had descended to this planet thousands of years ago.
They had come with a mission to teach Earth's creatures how to master elemental powers, to guide them in developing the potential hidden within them.
However, as time passed, those elders became entangled in a fierce conflict among themselves, a conflict fought using the tremendous elements they controlled.
Fire clashed against water, earth clashed against wind, while cosmic energy became the mediator that sometimes could not restrain both sides.
And that conflict, that epic battle among the rulers of the elements, caused an unimaginable catastrophe.
The dinosaurs, which at that time ruled the Earth, were wiped out in an instant—burned, drowned, buried, swept away by uncontrollable elemental forces.
The world entered an age of gloom, an era in which dust covered the sky for years, where only the smallest creatures were able to survive.
The elder of the fire element that Adrien faced was the strongest among the five elders.
His flames were slightly more devastating than the lightning element controlled by the elder of wind, which was actually the highest stage of the lightning element.
His power far surpassed that of his three siblings—the rulers of water, earth, and spirit.
With those flames, he had burned ancient forests to ashes, melted mountains, and turned oceans into vapor.
And now, thousands of years after that conflict, he was still alive, still powerful, still capable of creating the same destruction if not stopped.
Adrien, with his light-blue lightning element, was actually no match.
His strength was merely a speck of dust before the elder's colossal flames.
But in the final moments, just as the fire elder was ready to unleash a finishing attack that would incinerate everything, something happened.
From within the Earth's core, from the center of the planet that had never been noticed before, a power awakened.
The Authority of Perception Alteration.
That power did not come from Adrien, nor from anywhere else except the Earth itself.
It had resided within the planet's core for thousands of years, waiting for the right moment to emerge.
And now, seeing that the five elders who once caused the extinction of the dinosaurs and the age of gloom were still alive and still fighting, the Authority grew disgusted.
It was disgusted to see beings who should have been teachers instead becoming destroyers.
It was disgusted to see elemental power abused for destruction rather than creation.
It was disgusted to see a cycle of violence that never ended.
And with that disgust, the Authority of Perception Alteration chose Adrien as its vessel.
Not because Adrien was strong.
Not because Adrien was special.
Not because Adrien was worthy.
But because Adrien, with all his imperfections, with his half-robot body, with his sealed memories, was the only one pure enough to receive that power without misusing it.
The Authority flowed from the Earth's core, rising through layers of rock, piercing the planet's crust, and entering Adrien's body in the blink of an eye.
And at that moment, when the Authority fused with the light-blue lightning element already within him, Adrien changed.
His eyes burned with a new light.
His metallic body trembled with unimaginable energy.
And when he raised his hand, when he looked toward the fire elder who was preparing to strike, the reality around them changed.
The elder's fire was no longer fire.
It turned into flowers scattered by the wind.
The elder's rage was no longer rage.
It turned into deep confusion.
The elder's power was no longer power.
It turned into a weakness he had never felt before.
And within that confusion, within that weakness, within that total shift of reality, the fire elder fell.
Not dead.
Not destroyed.
Not erased.
But cast into another dimension, another reality, into a place where he would never again be able to disturb the Earth.
"Five elements are now within his grasp."
That victory did not merely change the battlefield—it changed everything about Adrien Valtheris himself.
When the dust began to settle and silence crept over the area that had just witnessed that tremendous battle, Adrien felt something strange within his body.
Something flowing, something pulsing, something far greater than the light-blue lightning element he had always known.
He felt fire—not ordinary fire, but primordial flames once used by that elder to burn the world.
He felt water—not ordinary water, but ancient waters that had once drowned continents.
He felt earth—not ordinary earth, but primordial soil that had swallowed mighty civilizations.
He felt air—not ordinary air, but cosmic winds that connected this world to other worlds.
And above all of that, he felt a presence deeper, more mysterious, more absolute.
The Authority of Perception Alteration—the power that had just saved him—had now become a permanent part of him, merging with every cell, every atom, every particle of his existence.
Those five elements now resided within him, rotating in perfect circulation alongside the Authority of Perception Alteration.
Fire, water, earth, air, and cosmic.
The five elemental forces that were once possessed separately by the elders, which once became the source of conflict and destruction, had now united within a single body.
The body of a half-robot man who did not know where he came from, who could not remember who he truly was, who only knew that he was Adrien Valtheris—a Human Change with a light-blue lightning element that had evolved into something far greater.
The air element he now possessed was no ordinary wind.
It was air infused with the dense aura of lightning within it—air that could strike like thunder and roar like storms, air that did not merely move the wind but also controlled electricity within the atmosphere.
That evolution occurred naturally, without his awareness, without his understanding.
The light-blue lightning that had once been his signature had now fused into the air element, creating a unique combination no one had ever possessed before.
Within his half-robot body, those six powers rotated in astonishing harmony.
The metals supporting his body did not become obstacles—instead, they acted as conductors that strengthened the flow of those powers.
The artificial intelligence within his brain did not become interference—instead, it helped him understand and control those new forces in ways ordinary humans could never achieve.
Fire, water, earth, air, cosmic, and the Authority of Perception Alteration all worked together in perfect symphony, creating something that had never existed before in this world.
Adrien stood in the silent battlefield, staring at his half-metal hands, feeling the surge of power vibrating through every fiber of his being.
He did not know how all of this had happened.
He did not know why the Authority of Perception Alteration had chosen him.
He did not know what all this power meant for his future.
But there was one thing he knew for certain.
That from this day onward, from this victory, from this union of powers, he would never be the same again.
To be continued…