Stanley didn’t even have to think.

"I have multiple powers," he said.

"Multiple? Then you’re a Branching Nova, huh?" the man said.

"Branching... is that what I am called?" he asked.

"Yes," Gray said. "As for me, I am a Evolving Nova," Gray said. "I have a single power that continues to grow and evolve, but I don’t obtain any other powers."

"Oh," Stanley said. "What powers do you have?"

"I’m not the one being tested here," Gray said. His voice sounded like he was smiling, but it was impossible to say if he was or not behind the metal mask.

"What powers do you have?" he asked. "Let’s start one by one."

"Okay," Stanley said. "Uhh... I have 4 different powers."

"Four?" Gray asked with a bit of a surprised look. "Given how many souls you ate, I thought it would be more. But you did only do that 2 days ago, so I guess it makes sense. You had no powers before they, correct?"

"I had the same powers, but they weren’t fully awakened yet," Stanley said.

"Okay, what is your first power," Gray asked.

"My first power is... I don’t know if this is really a power or not as it hasn’t awakened from what I can tell, but its that I have a strong body," Stanley said.

Gray paused for a moment. "A strong body? How strong?" he asked.

"Uhh... very strong," Stanley said. He looked around wondering how he could show how strong he was. There wasn’t an easy metric he could just throw out as he himself had no idea how strong he was.

"Bring out testing decoys," Gray suddenly said and a small part of the room suddenly opened up a bit far away from the two as a humanoid metal robot appeared.

It wasn’t very deatiled from what it could be seen and it had a glowing piece of screen where its eyes would be.

"Go hit that. We can tell how strong you are from that," Gray said.

Stanley nodded. He didn’t question if it woudl break or not, or if he would be held responsible if it even broke. They had testing puppets back at the town all the time and people was never questioned if they destroyed it. Only praised.

As Stanley got close, he saw a shield pop out aroudn the robot which confused him. "How do it hit it?" he asked Gray. "It’s shielded up."

Gray chukled for a moment. "You hit the shiled," he said.

"Ah!" Stanley finally understood why they were acting so freely about destroying stuff. He wasn’t going to destroy it at all. "So, I’ll just punch. That works right?"

Gray nodded.

Stanley got into position in front of the robot and punched. The shield glowed brightly when the punch landed right in front of the robot’s chest. The resulting clash created a bang that echoes through the entire room, surprising both the director and Gray.

The sound was so loud that the vibrations had run through the room itself, making the shield around the walls glow up slightly for a moment, revealing them.

"That’s... strong," Gray couldn’t help but say.

He looked toward the hologram that popped up all of a sudden and checked the number that was written on it.

5123.

That was the number that appeared in the air, which shocked both the director and Gray.

Stanley looked around at the number, unsure what it read. He was about to walk back when Gray spoke.

"Hit it again. As hard as you can this time."

"Huh? Okay," Stanley said and prepared himself before punching the shielded robot. The result was shown in the hologram again.

5356.

Gray couldn’t help but take a deep breath out of complete astonishment.

"What does that say?" Stanley asked curiously.

"50 times," he said. "You are 50 times stronger than a normal human being. You don’t weight too much, right?"

"The elevator wouldn’t have worked if he did," the director mentioned.

"True," Gray said. "You said its not a power you awakened, but just have, right?"

"Yes," Stanley mentined. "Unlike the other powers, I have no idea exactly what it is."

"Well, I do," Gray said. "You have powers that won’t function well without your body becoming strong, so your body is adapting to it."

"It’s how a Fire Nova will be resistant to extreme heat, or an Water Nova wouldn’t drown inside water. Your body adapted to give you strength that is very necessary to using your powers, which makes me curious. What are your powers?"

Stanley answered. "I can see into the future, I can slow down time for myself, and I can tell the rate of flow of time," he said.

Gray paused for a moment. "Wait, wait, wait... your Nova Element is Time?" he asked.

"Yes?" Stanley said. "Nova Element? What’s that?"

"Every Nova has a singular element that they gain powers in. Some have Fire, some have Water, you have Time," the director spoke. "Raven, the Nova you ran away from has the Nova Element of Shadow."

"Oh," Stanley said.

"Wow, you have one outrageous element," Gray mentioned. "Time. Who would’ve thought we would have a Nova with the element of Time."

"Is it that good?" Stanley asked.

"Depends on the person using it really, but it can be good," Gray said. "If you get more souls that is."

"But I don’t want to kill anyone else," Stanely said.

Gray smiled. "That’s the spirit," he said. "Alright, lets focus on your 3 powers now. What do you mean by rate of flow of time?"

"I just got it today," Stanley said. "I think it lets me know if the speed of time changes anyhow, whether it slows or speeds up."

"I see, so it isn’t a useful power on its own," Gray said. "At least in the context of whether it will be useful for a scout or a fighter."

"I don’t suppose it is," Stanley said.

"And the other two. Did you say you can see into the future?" Gray asked.

"A few seconds at most," Stanley said.

"Huh? Its barely seeing into the future then," Gray said.

"I guess, but I can keep it active at all times if I want and be wary of what is happening in front of me," Stanley said. "Also, it gives me warning for anything that could happen in the future."

"Warning?" Gray took note of that aspect. "What sort of warning?"

"I see of vision of what will happen immediately in the future, and if it is possible, I can change it too," Stanley said. "I can dodge small attacks and whatnot."

"Oh, that’s not bad," Gray said. "Alright let’s move on to the last one. What was it again?"

"I can sl—"

Stanley’s vision shifted as he saw something cut his left arm completely. He stopped speaking and jumped to the side to dodge whatever it was that would hit him.

A few seconds passed and nothing came at all, which confused him a lot. ’What was that?’ he thought. ’Did I see wrong?’

"Amazing!" Gray shouted. "You really can see the future."

"What?" Stanley looked toward Gray. "You attacked me?"

"I tested you," Gray said. "And you dodged my attack, just as you said you could."

"I didn’t see any attack," Stanley said.

"No one can," Gray mentioned. "Which is why it is so impressive that you even dodged it. Can you tell me what you foresaw?"

Stanley took a deep breath to calm himself down and nodded. "I saw my left arm getting cut off, so I moved to the side," he said.

"Oh wow! I really did intend to cut your left arm," Gray said before turning toward the Director. "He’s amazing, isn’t he?"

The director had a serious look on his face, and he nodded. "That’s quite good. I wonder if he can improve it."

"And I wonder if he can use it in quick succession," Gray said.

Stanley’s foresight immediately kicked in as he saw his leg get torn off. He jumped to the side and saw another vision of his arm getting cut off.

He immediately employed his futuresight skill, causing the present and the future to align itself to show him all of what was going to happen.

Gray and the director stood where they were, but Stanley was constantly attacked on all four limbs at all times. No attacks landed on his chest and head, but the rest seemed free for Gray to attack.

Stanley couldn’t see any attacks. He couldn’t feel any attacks. All he could do was see his limbs getting cut off in the future and make sure that limb was out of that location.

Stanley moved in impossible ways, his strong body allowing him control that a normal person might not have. He would duck and then pull his leg in, move his arm and then jump a little.

He did whatever he needed to do to remain alive amidst the onslaught of invisible attacks that came his way, none of which were visible in any way at all.

He saw the attacks stop when his limbs were no longer being cut off.

"That’s enough for now," Gray spoke. "We’ll try more later."

Stanley finally got to relax after a whole minute of being attacked and glared at Gray who hadn’t hesitated to mutilate his limbs just to check if he could dodge or not.

He was still vigilant of some random attacks, but Gray seemed to stick to his words and not attack anymore.

"Alright, let’s move on to your next power," he said. "I want to see how you can slow down time."