Speed Is King

Ridiculous.

Just how many times had that word been used to describe Elliot and the surprises he had brought with him in just the past few days?

If one actually sat down and counted, it wouldn't be surprising if the number was more than a hundred!

But of all the ridiculous surprises, the clone portal was definitely the most… ridiculous one.

Just what sort of insanely ingenious energy manipulation technique was that?

"How would the portals have enough energy to create so many clones? Creating a few thousand clones would be easily explained. But millions? Billions, even? That's impossible!" Elise Sands exclaimed.

"Hehehehe. You've mastered the first Ascendant Rune too, right? Just take the "absorb" rune and connect it to a beast core, and combine it with a "press" and "contain" rune to create endless amounts of nuclear fusion energy, and then "channel" the energy into a "clone" rune which would create an energy clone of the being passing through the portal. End the process with the "consolidate" rune to stabilize the energy clone and tadaaa! We're done! Simple right?" Elliot explained with no small amount of glee.

"The keys to all of this would be the "press" and "contain" runes, of course which would be the runes providing the endless energy required to create the clones, and to contain said energy to prevent them from exploding out." Elliot went on to explain when he saw Elise Sands' dumbfounded look, which quickly turned into one of deep consternation and then utter disbelief.

"That's a stupid oversimplification of the insanely fragile and intricate balance that need to be achieved if you want to do such a thing! And all that on a NUCLEAR FUSION, no less! The slightest mistake would turn you and your beasts completely into ash!" Elise Sands bellowed.

"Fragile and intricate?" Elliot frowned. "For a newbie tinkering with the runes, yes. But for us who have mastered the runes, the applications are based on rock solid principles. All we need to do is to maintain a flawless precision that would enable the runes to function perfectly as they were intended."

"That's exactly my point! How in all of heavens would you maintain such precision on ALL the runes that needed to be drawn and overlapped and-" Elise Sands stopped her ranting abruptly as Elliot raised his hand and began creating a clone portal right in front of her.

Wood-based Ascendant Rune.

Whoosh!

Elliot's hand moved rapidly with elegant precision.

His dragon soul was an undisputed Rune Master, and it had allowed him to achieve perfect mastery over the Ascendant Rune like a duck mastering how to swim.

Confidence and flair oozed out of his every pore as he quickly finished one hyper complex rune segment after the other, all ingeniously connected with flawless precision.

He was cooler than the most accomplished maestro on a Grand Piano!

Absorb.

Press.

Contain.

Channel.

Clone.

Consolidate.

Everything he had mentioned before was made with mind blowing and fluid grace.

Elise Sands couldn't help but swallow her saliva to relieve her throat which had gone dry because of her lower jaw which simply refused to remain closed.

After a few minutes…

"There. All done. Shall we try it out? I have a beast core right here." Elliot said and produced a lowly Lord level beast core.

Elise Sands merely nodded without saying a word. Her calm and composed heart was roiling once more in excitement.

A spell that would change the course of the known universe's fate was right in front of her!

She took a deep breath and held it in.

Elliot sands gently dropped the Lord level beast core on a spot which he had already designated and it hung there, suspended in midair as the spell slowly activated.

Flash!!!!

A blinding flash of light shone forth from the beast core as though it was a tiny star as the clone portal hummed into life.

"It is done. Let's try with a summoned wolf first." Elliot said as he summoned his most basic grey wolf and sent it across the portal.

Whooosh.

One wolf went in.

Two wolves came out, one with grey fur (the original) and one with blistering red fur, the fire-enhanced clone.

Elise Sands let out her breath.

"It worked." She thought to herself and allowed her imagination to run wild for a moment.

And then…

"BLOODY FREAKING HELL! It worked!!" Elise Sands shouted all of a sudden and caused the two wolves to shirk in fear.

"Hehehehe. Don't get so worked up yet. It's just a wolf. It'll only be considered a success if it can clone Primals. And it will only be a mega success if it can clone… Saints." Elliot looked at Elise Sands meaningfully.

Elise Sands eyes gleamed at the thought of having an army of Saints at her beck and call, and all of them clones of herself at close to 100% power!!

"Go. Test more. And once you've successfully cloned a Primal, I will allow myself to be a guinea pig and try." Elise Sands ordered.

"Of course." Elliot smiled. He was excited too!

The clone portal was truly a brain wave for him, and if it truly worked even with Saints… Hohoho.

Elliot summoned his tamed beasts, his Beast Apostles and his Dragon Apostles to witness the historical event.

"Come on out, all of you, and let's see if this portal truly works!" He ordered.

Space shimmered lightly as his now-powerful personal army appeared.

"Hohoho. Pretty impressive!" Elise Sands couldn't help but praise him.

All around her, a magnificent array of mighty beasts emitting billowing waves of intense auras appeared. Most striking amongst them was a rather quiet young man dressed in simple black robes with a pair of startlingly clear eyes and a horrific aura of absolute majesty surrounding him.

"Hmmm?" Elise Sands raised one eyebrow in interest as she studied Chaos Apostle Kai. "Good seed. He has really good potential."

Kai turned to look at Elise Sands calmly and likewise, studied her.

"His string of fate is very mysteriously shrouded in some sort of gas which I can't see through. I need to ask little Dul Dul what that means." Elise Sands muttered to herself as she frowned at her inability.

"You can't see my fate because I am destined to be a ruler of universes far bigger and stronger than this one." Kai said calmly and caused Elliot and Elise to open their eyes widely in shock.

"Ehm. Kai. What are you talking about?" Elliot looked at him questioningly.

Kai turned to look at Elliot and instantly, visions began to appear in his mind.