Despite spending practically two hours every day training in the space elemental room, Atticus had never actually felt what space was.
Although he knew there was something there, he didn't know exactly what its nature was.
But now, it felt like a tingling sensation that seemed to dance across his skin.
It was as though he could feel the gravitational pull of the distant stars, the swirling currents of interstellar dust, and the infinite expanse of the cosmos all converging within this singular space.
It was both awe inspiring as it was humbling.
Atticus felt small, incredibly small. As though he were a single tiny drop of water in an unending sea.
He felt insignificant.
Atticus took in another deep breath as he tried to steady his breathing.
Regaining his composure in the next instant, he decided to get rid of the unnecessary thoughts and focus on the space element that he had just awakened.
Atticus closed his eyes and focused inwardly, allowing himself to surrender to the sensations enveloping him.
He felt a profound sense of expansion as if his consciousness was reaching out to touch the farthest reaches of the universe.
It was an overwhelming experience, and yet there was a strange sense of familiarity to it as if tapping into a power that had always been a part of him, lying dormant until now.
Atticus stretched out his right arm, and with a slight focus, the air around his arm seemed to distort, his arm leaving afterimages as it moved despite not moving at a fast speed.
"This is great," Atticus muttered with a huge grin, his eyes fixed on his moving hand.
He had finally awakened the space element!
Words could not even begin to describe how happy he was feeling right now.
Atticus shook his head, clearing it once more, 'Now's not the time.'
He could feel a lot of changes that occurred in his body as soon as he awakened the space bloodline. It was as though the world became slower or rather,
'My perception increased,' Atticus realized.
'No, not just that,' Atticus couldn't say for sure, but if Astrion had felt what Atticus was currently feeling with this space element, then he shouldn't have lost to him so easily when they had fought back in the Raven camp.
Atticus had always wondered if his bloodline made his elements special.
He was well aware that a bloodline that could make him practically use all the elements was, of course, special in some way, but he felt like it also somehow made his elements better than what the other Ravenstein family members could achieve.
Atticus had never had any issues controlling large amounts of the elements before.
And he did this so flawlessly that anytime he saw the other Ravenstein youths straining themselves to control what he considered a little amount of the elements, he couldn't help but wonder what was going on.
Apart from that fact, Atticus also felt his connection to the elements, despite having multiple, was better than what the rest of the Ravenstein youth could feel, and they only had one element.
And now that he had awakened the space element, Atticus felt as though a lot of new things had opened up for him.
He experienced a profound shift in his perception of the world around him. As though the boundaries of his awareness expanded, allowing him to not just perceive the physical space that surrounded him but the underlying fabric of reality itself.
On a deeper level, just what was space?
It represented more than just the void between objects. It embodied the interconnectedness of all things, the flow of energy and information that bound the universe together.
'But not yet,' Atticus thought.
He had suddenly gained an important insight into the intricacies of the space element, but Atticus could instinctively feel that he had no access to any of its abilities yet. He wasn't at that level.
'Of course, I just awakened it. The things I can do with it will be very limited,' Atticus realized.
'It looks like it's the same as when I awakened my other elements. I can only control it within the confines of my body,' Just as his other elements, the space element, although profoundly different, also followed the same principles.
'Which means that I can't teleport or even manipulate gravity,' as Atticus realized this, his expression couldn't help but turn downcast.
These were two abilities that he had most been looking forward to having, and seeing as he couldn't use them for now, he couldn't help but let out a deep sigh.
Both abilities would need him to have control and manipulate the space element of a certain range, something he currently clearly could not do.
'Wait!' A thought suddenly struck Atticus, akin to a golden light bulb suddenly lighting up in his head. Atticus didn't even try to ponder it again; he instantly put what he just realized to the test.
Atticus focused inwardly, feeling the newly added tingling sensation in his veins, each coalescing around a small glowing purple orb that was floating beside other glowing orbs of different colors orbiting around his heart.
With a slight focus, Atticus moved a strand of the space element essence from the orb, the purple strand streaming away, moving down towards where a strand of mana was also heading to meet.
The space element essence and his mana met in the middle, and Atticus had to focus all his energy to stabilize the mixture. This was all because it was his first time using the space element for the elemental mimicry art.
As soon as it became stable, Atticus instantly started moving it around his body in the required way.
Atticus immediately experienced a sensation unlike anything he had ever experienced in his life.
It felt as though the very fabric of space was being manipulated within him.
He felt a tingling sensation spreading out through his limbs as though his entire being was expanding to encompass the vastness of the cosmos.