In the Nyseren Sector, Adrian sat alone in his private chamber. His eyes were still adjusting to the threads of the Language of Mana that wove through reality.
Then his node pulsed sharply.
› Enemy Breach Detected!
› Origin Capital Under Assault
Adrian's expression tightened, "It's started."
The vision he saw through Fate resurfaced in his mind, the Aethelian Emperor attacking the Origin Capital while Adrian remained trapped. In that vision, something had prevented him from returning.
But now he felt no obstruction, no distortion anchoring him in place, no invisible force redirecting his path.
"The future has changed," he murmured, rising.
In the next heartbeat, he vanished.
Space folded around him as he blinked forward, covering vast distances with each step. The Edge's distorted void tried to resist, tried to slow him, but Adrian's comprehension had deepened far beyond.
With this speed, he could reach the Drakthor sector in a few seconds, even in the Edge, where space was distorted.
...
Arcton hovered before the Origin Capital, preparing to tear apart the barrier—and then he froze, sensing a presence streaking toward him.
He turned, eyes narrowing.
Adrian emerged from a tear of displaced space, the aftershock of his arrival rippling outward.
Arcton studied him with open interest, his gaze sweeping across Adrian's form as though appraising a rare artifact. "Here you are," he said, "You carry a presence that shouldn't belong to a Stellar! No wonder Arkan couldn't even touch you."
He tilted his head, genuinely curious, "But your speed… You should still be in Nyseren. Even I cannot cross the Edge so quickly."
Adrian did not answer the curiosity. His attention was fixed sharply on the man before him. This being radiated a sense of danger deeper than anything he had felt before. This was the kind of presence that could have held him back in the vision.
Adrian's voice was calm, "Who are you? And why are you trying to break into my capital?"
Arcton smiled, amused, "Your capital? How adorable. A lesser being daring to claim ownership over something so magnificent."
Adrian's eyes sharpened, "Lesser being? My clan is mine, my people are mine to protect. Who are you to decide anything?"
Arcton chuckled, "Since you will die soon, I will indulge you with the truth. I am Arcton, the founder of Aethelia."
Adrian's eyes hardened, "So this is the root of the empire's arrogance, if this being was the founder, he should be one of those ancient cultivators I hear about all this time."
Arcton continued, voice dripping with disdain, "I forged the empire to gather resources, talent, knowledge and everything the galaxy offers. Every clan born under Aethelia is mine to claim, and that includes you."
Adrian's jaw tightened, "So that's it, you think of us as your livestock. We should bow to you, or else we will die, huh?"
Arcton didn't bother hiding his agreement, "Correct! A livestock that refused to bow… naturally must be culled."
Adrian felt anger coil within him; Aethelia had never aided him, never supported his clan's rise, never offered anything but interference and coercion, and yet they claimed dominion over his very existence.
"You believe you can decide who lives and dies?" Adrian asked.
Arcton laughed, "The weak exist to be shaped by the strong. And you, boy, are beneath me."
Adrian's tone didn't shift, but his words carried an edge sharper, "If you truly stood above all beings, you wouldn't need to call others 'lesser' to remind yourself."
Arcton's aura snapped outward, "You dare provoke me?"
Adrian had been patient, he had reasoned, tolerated, and endured… For the sake of safety for his people, he had swallowed his fury again and again.
But his patience has its limits. Aethelia had crossed every line, and now they threatened every life he swore to protect. He didn't care anymore…
"You planned to kill us anyway," Adrian said, "So tell me, if you were truly superior… why does a 'god' covet the work of mortals? Why steal when you're the so-called 'god'?"
Arcton's expression twisted, "You dare speak that word in my presence?"
Adrian met his gaze without flinching, "Does truth hurt you that much?"
Arcton was truly angry now, "You defy the empire I built, you refuse the order I imposed, and you dare to stand before me like an equal. You do this because you think yourself strong, right? I shall tear down your illusion of strength; I will show you what a god can do."
Arcton's domain unfolded; it enveloped Adrian and the entire Origin Capital in an instant, a vast expanse of silver light that bent space and thickened the void itself. Reality reluctantly allowed a higher rule to overwrite it, folding beneath the weight of something beyond ordinary concepts.
Adrian felt its weight crash against him and the Origin Capital behind him. He activated all fifteen of his domains, layering them one atop another.
But for some reason, he couldn't expand it further; they were too small, too weak.
Arcton saw the little domains overlapping around Adrian and laughed, "Oh, so many domains? Haha! But quantity doesn't matter in front of my divine concept!"
Adrian looked at Arcton's domain. It was merely a single domain, but it was somehow suppressing all fifteen of his domains together. And the suppression was strong to the point that his domains could not even expand much.
How is this even possible? What is a divine concept? He couldn't understand.
Adrian stopped using all his domains. Rather, he started to sense the concept of Arcton's domain, studying it with his Source Eyes.
He saw the rune symbols around the domain, and these were a little different. He could see the rules of concepts like fire, ice, water, earth, and wind.
But these concepts were not present individually; Rather, they were woven into harmonised unity, fused and merged perfectly.
Adrian thought back to when he tried merging plant and wood. Even though the sections were combined, they behaved independently. It felt like using two different concepts at the same time, even after they merged.
Arcton, however…
His domain was no longer elemental. It was something above elemental. A higher-tier concept birthed from unity rather than coexistence.
What Adrian created was like pouring water and oil into a single container. Even if both existed inside the same container, both remained as separate forms of liquid; they didn't mix together. But Arcton's domain was like a concept created from mixing multiple concepts, and the mix was done perfectly to create something entirely new.
All his domains got suppressed because Arcton's concept stood as a higher tier of existence. Even if he had fifteen domains, they merely overlapped, contradicting each other. Thus, it could never fight against a concept which was merged perfectly.
Arcton spread his arms, basking in superiority, "Now do you understand? Your domains contradict each other. They overlap, clash, and weaken each other. Mine forms a single truth. You stand beneath a divine existence."
Adrian didn't know how Arcton merged his concepts and created a high-tier concept, and he didn't have the time now to research it. He needed to defeat him or else he and his clan would be destroyed today.
The divine concept kept crushing against him, and he stood in front of a higher existence. But still, he didn't feel overwhelmed, like how it would have felt to one who would have seen a divine concept for the first time.
Adrian knew the reason: it was because he had the Source, the origin of everything. Nothing could be higher than it, not even what Arcton possessed.
He still respected the danger Arcton posed. After all, the ancient cultivator had somehow bound him in the Fate vision. Maybe it was Arcton's divine concept suppressing even his Source Form, or maybe it was because he didn't have enough mana to sustain his Source Form longer.
But now?
Now he was not the same one as in the vision; the future had already changed, and his comprehension and mana expanded drastically. And now, he was not alone; the Origin Capital floated near him, feeding him mana through the formation's streams. His Source Form could last far longer, and this changed things compared to what was in the vision.
And with all the recent actions from Aethelia, it broke his patience; he was done playing the role of the defender, constantly reacting, constantly guarding. Today, he would not just protect his people; he would pass judgment on those who dared to threaten them.
It was time for the Galaxy to know what would happen when they touch the origin!
"Is that what you call divine?" Adrian said, activating his Source Form.
"Then let me show you what divine truly is."