Days blurred together like ripples in starlight.
The galaxy was changing, faster than anyone expected.
Trade deals forged during the Imperial Banquet were now taking shape across the empires.
From Aethelian to Volkrith sectors, from Emberion to Scaelith systems, the Knowledge Spheres of the Origin Clan had become a phenomenon.
What began as a quiet curiosity had exploded into a galactic necessity. Every scholar, every cultivator, every clan wanted one.
Even the Lexarian Empire found ways to secretly get the knowledge spheres.
But prosperity came with its own chains.
...
The Origin Clan's once-spacious territory inside the Solvaris Nexus Hub now overflowed with ships, merchants, and endless caravans of buyers.
Docking bays that once held twenty vessels now crammed in fifty. Queues stretched for miles. Arguments broke out over priority access.
To meet the galaxy's growing demand, they had begun pulling citizens from the twenty-three star systems under their control. Ships came daily, packed with volunteers eager to serve the Origin Clan.
Families who'd never left their homeworlds now worked alongside, all unified under Origin's banner.
But that also meant risk, exposure. Every new worker who learned the Imprint Skill was another chance for the method to leak.
They couldn't watch everyone. They couldn't control everything.
Adrian had no intention of ruling through fear or suspicion.
"Trust is the foundation," he told Varik when he raised his concerns. "If we build this clan on doubt, it'll collapse soon."
Varik's jaw tightened, but he nodded.
Then Varik took charge of legal safeguards. Using the Aethelian trade networks, he filed patent rights for both the Knowledge Spheres and the Imprint Skill, binding them under the Galactic Intellectual Registry.
By law, any attempt to replicate or sell their techniques without Origin authorization would result in severe penalties, confiscation, fines, and in some empires, even execution.
It wasn't perfect protection, but it was something.
Still, the real problem wasn't theft anymore. It was space.
...
The Solvaris Hub was bursting at the seams.
Merchants complained about docking delays. Security grew tighter. And with so many beings packed into one territory, safety was becoming impossible to guarantee.
The Origin Clan had grown beyond anything they'd ever imagined. And it was too much.
Varik stood before Adrian, surrounded by dozens of glowing holoscreens.
"We've hit capacity, my lord. Storage, labor, habitation, it's all full. We can't bring another worker inside without breaking hub protocol."
Adrian stood silent, his gaze fixed on the reports.
Behind him, the noise of the bustling hub filtered in faintly through the window. Crowds of workers, technicians, and envoys rushed through the lower levels.
They had built something massive… but the space that held it was starting to choke.
...
Later, Adrian stood at the highest balcony of the clan hall, hands clasped behind his back, watching the sprawl below.
The view was breathtaking, yet suffocating.
Aurelia's voice came softly from behind him. "Do you think we can pull it off?"
Adrian didn't turn. "Yes. The other clans did it before us. So can we."
"We need our own capital."
The words hung heavy.
It was what every great clan eventually did, create a clan capital, a central star system that would serve as their fortress, homeworld, and symbol of power.
But to move entire worlds… required space essence mastery on a level only Stellars could achieve.
And even then, one mistake meant catastrophe, an entire planet ripped apart mid-transport, millions dead in an instant.
It wasn't something that could be left to chance.
But Adrian had already decided.
He took a step forward and blinked out of the hub.
Space folded around him, the balcony vanished, the noise cut away.
Aurelia followed him. She was a space user too, and she comprehended most of what Adrian gave her, creating her own domain and ascending to the stellar stage.
At this moment, she would be considered one of the rarest stellar stage beings who wield space essence.
But only she knew how much suffering she had gone through to arrive at this stage.
Decades of comprehension. Countless failures.
Without even a spaceship, they traveled in the void just with their body. For a space essence user, the void was more like a home.
They could warp without even requiring a vessel, especially those who were at the stellar stage.
Adrian's form shimmered faintly, outlined in white-grey.
Aurelia drifted beside him, her own spatial essence humming with dark-blue light.
Moments later, they arrived at something small, a lifeless moon floating far from the hub.
Its grey surface scarred by impacts, silent and cold in the void.
Their combined essence expanded, wrapping around the moon like a shimmering cocoon.
Adrian's white-grey light merged with Aurelia's dark-blue glow, creating patterns that rippled across the celestial body's surface.
Adrian focused, manipulating the spatial fabric. The moon trembled, dust scattering from its surface.
For a heartbeat, it held. Then cracks spread across the stone.
Soon, the moon shattered.
Chunks of rock exploded outward, spinning away into the darkness.
Aurelia said softly. "Too shallow."
Adrian shook his head. "No. Too much surface pressure. You didn't anchor the substructure before pulling."
They spent the next several hours attempting it again and again. Each time, the same failure.
Different moons, different approaches. But the structures crumbled before it could stabilize.
Aurelia's frustration bled through her essence, making her movements sharper, more aggressive.
Adrian remained calm, his Source seed pulsing steadily within him.
With each failure, they refined their control, learning, adjusting, and feeling how the flow of essence needed to breathe with the celestial body.
The tenth attempt lasted longer. The fifteenth showed promise.
Then, slowly, they learned to weave their essence deeper, not just wrapping the surface but permeating through the moon's core.
Finally, after countless attempts, something changed.
Adrian closed his eyes. He let the Source seed within him pulse softly, not to dominate, but to guide.
He and Aurelia extended their essence once more, surrounding another moon entirely.
Their power didn't crush or bind. It embraced, following the natural lines of gravity and structure.
And slowly, beautifully, it moved.
The moon drifted smoothly across the void, glowing softly under the touch of their essence.
No collapse. No cracks. Just steady, controlled motion through the darkness.
Aurelia smiled faintly. "You did it."
Adrian's gaze lingered on the drifting moon. "No. We did it."
His voice carried genuine respect. Aurelia's spatial comprehension had grown sharper through the failures.
But Aurelia's expression turned serious again. "That's just a moon. A planet, with life and mana channels… it won't be the same."
"The mana flows will resist."
He nodded. "Then we'll keep practicing."
And so they did, moving smaller celestial bodies, and even some planets with atmosphere but no intelligent creatures for days, until the process became instinct.
Every movement of their essence refined, every calculation measured.
They learned to sense the difference between dead rock and active planets, between dormant cores and thrumming energy.
At last, when both felt ready, Aurelia asked quietly, "Where will we build it? Where will Origin's capital stand?"
Adrian's answer came without hesitation. "In the system where it all began."
She tilted her head. "The planet you saved? The one from the Emerald Serpent Clan's territory? But it's beyond the galactic routes."
The primitive human world suffered from ritual cruelty.
He nodded. "Yes. It's beyond the direct galactic routes, but close enough to the Orion Arm border. If we place our capital there, we can link it to the routes later through a Nexus portal."
"It's close enough for trade and independent from Aethelia's most influenced regions."
Aurelia frowned slightly. "But that system isn't fully registered yet. We still haven't claimed all of the Emerald Serpent holdings."
"The bureaucracy moves slowly. Kaelith's testimony helped, but the Empire's been delaying."
Adrian's eyes hardened, his voice low but steady. "Then I'll claim it now. I killed Veythar. By law, his systems and resources are mine. No one can deny that."
"Let them try to stop me."
Aurelia studied him for a moment longer, then smiled faintly. "You sound more like a clan leader every day."
Finally, she nodded. "Then let's begin preparing. The Origin Capital will rise where your legend started."