The streams mingled, creating a new, shimmering cosmic essence—far more potent and versatile than any single type before.
This cosmic essence flowed through the thirteen thousand pathways, cleansing his body from crown to toe.
Impurity dissolved instantly.
Flesh, bone, meridians, even soul—all refined to a new level.
His body grew several times stronger, denser, more resilient, yet lighter and more harmonious.
A subtle cosmic sheen settled over his skin, visible only to divine sense.
No new clone emerged from the process.
Ankit felt no disappointment.
He already possessed his clones—extensions of himself, born from earlier essences.
Cosmic essence was different: a perfect blend rather than a pure fragment.
It carried no separate piece of his consciousness to birth independence.
He understood this clearly and accepted it without regret.
With cleansing complete, Ankit turned to the true purpose of Stage 5.
He began with fire—the element he understood deeply.
Drawing upon his long-perfected mastery from earlier stages, he formed a flawless copy of the universal fire element—not stealing from the universe, but mirroring his own comprehension of stellar flames, combustion laws, and transformative heat.
The integration into the Crown Core was smooth, almost welcoming, guided by his absolute control and familiarity.
The moment the fire integration finished, a surge of power coursed through Ankit.
He could feel the fire element on a far deeper level than ever before—no longer just controlling its flames or heat on the surface, but truly commanding its core essence, its underlying laws, and its fundamental nature.
Even though this was only a low-comprehension integration in Stage 5, something remarkable happened.
Back in earlier stages—probably Stage 2 or 3—Ankit had already mastered fire completely at the level he could reach back then. His understanding and control had been perfect for that realm.
But now, after completing Stage 4's Nexus Unification and creating the Crown Core in Stage 5, everything about him had grown vastly stronger: his senses, divine sense, insight, soul quality, and overall perception.
This higher realm opened his eyes to new depths of the same fire element—subtler principles, finer details, and higher truths that he simply could not see or grasp before.
What he once thought was "perfect" mastery now felt like only the surface layer. There were deeper laws, more profound interactions, and greater manifestations waiting to be understood.
Because of this rock-solid foundation from the past, his current "low comprehension" of fire in the Crown Core was actually much stronger and more advanced than a beginner's low comprehension would be.
If he wanted to, Ankit could focus only on fire and quickly climb the substages.
His prior mastery would act like a springboard, letting him fast-track through the levels—potentially jumping straight to Substage 3 (high comprehension) or even Substage 4 (peak comprehension) with fire alone, in a relatively short time.
It was a tempting shortcut to rapid power growth.
But Ankit rejected it.
One element, no matter how deeply mastered, was not enough for him.
He wanted everything—every universal force, from the basic ones like fire, water, and gravity to the highest and most profound ones like time, chaos, fate, and beyond.
This choice showed his strategic patience.
He was not chasing quick, narrow power spikes.
Instead, he was building a broad, unbreakable foundation that would make him vastly more powerful in the long run.
Every new breakthrough in the future would unlock even deeper layers of all the elements he integrated now.
His prior hard-earned mastery would keep acting as a springboard—each higher realm letting him refine and elevate his understanding of every force again and again.
This compounding growth was the true strength of the broad path.
When he finally mirrored the full spectrum of universal forces inside his Crown Core—and raised them all to perfect comprehension—no power in the universe would stand above him.
Ankit's golden soul pulsed quietly with satisfaction.
The journey had only just begun, and the rewards waiting at the end were beyond imagination.
And the feedback loop thrilled him.
Even this low-level fire integration strengthened the Crown Core, which in turn fed back into his body and soul, elevating his overall power noticeably.
More elements would bring greater feedback.
Higher elements would bring exponentially stronger benefits.
And raising comprehension levels—low to middle, high, peak, perfect—would multiply those benefits beyond imagination.
Quantity of elements mattered.
Quality and depth mattered more.
Combined, they would rocket his strength to unimaginable heights.
Ankit's golden soul pulsed with quiet anticipation.
The Crown Core hovered above him, already brighter from the first integration.
He had only just begun.
Years of patient mirroring lay ahead.
But when he finished—when every universal force reflected perfectly within his Crown—the Universe itself would become an extension of his will.