Conscious of a conflict of energy (5)
I believe the answer is:
aware
'conscious of' is the definition.
(being conscious means being aware of something)
'a conflict of energy' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'a' is present in the answer.
'conflict' could be 'war' (war is a kind of conflict) and 'war' is found within the answer.
'energy' could be 'e' (physics symbol as in E=mc2) and 'e' is found in the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for aware that I've seen before include "Having knowledge (of fact)" , "Conscious, sentient" , "Apprised or informed" , "Cognizant" , "Acquainted with or conscious of" .)