The void trembled.
Adrian's body dissolved, flesh and bone unraveling until only pure white-grey essence remained. This time, the source form was not based on affinity-forged Source energy, but something higher, Source Essence born from his seed.
His form became a silhouette of pure energy, blank and absolute, stripped of rage, hesitation, and fear.
In this state, the unfamiliarity of the void was gone. No longer fragile, he stood like a being who had wandered the stars for ages.
Every soul around him froze. Valerius, his fleet, Sentinel, even Aurelia.
The pressure pressed on them like a sun that judged their existence unworthy. Space itself warped around Adrian's silhouette, bending reality to his will.
"Th-this power level… Stellar Stage…" someone whispered in terror from within Valerius' fleet.
Aurelia's lips parted. "Stellar stage? How…?"
Even Sentinel stiffened, his golden radiance dimming in comparison. Valerius' arrogance shattered, disbelief searing across his face.
"This is… impossible," Valerius hissed, though his sneer quickly returned. "No matter. Even if you rise above SSS-rank, your planet is still fragile."
He raised his hand with deliberate malice. "A single strike will erase it."
A dragon's claw of crimson essence coiled into existence, crackling with the power to rend continents. Behind him, the fleet's weapons roared to life, lances of light fierce enough to char Earth's surface.
The barrage launched, not for Adrian, but for Earth itself.
Adrian did not rush, He did not panic.
He simply raised his hand, and the space itself folded, and the attacks never came.
The barrage, the claw, the destruction that should have reached Earth simply… unhappened, erased from reality as though they had never existed.
Valerius screamed, his voice cracking with disbelief. "No! You cannot—"
Adrian appeared before him, white-grey radiance pouring from his silhouette. His voice was calm, heavy with inevitability.
"You should never have come here."
The strike was simple. No clash, no storm, no spectacle.
Adrian's hand pierced Valerius' chest, unraveling flesh, mana, and essence into nothingness. The heir's eyes went wide, his mouth opening in a silent scream.
Then he turned towards the fleet.
"Erase."
His absolute source order activated, and the command spread like ripples through space.
The fleet, dozens of ships, each housing warriors and SSS-ranked beings, flickered out of existence.
Even their essence dissolved.
No explosion. No debris. Not even lingering mana.
They were erased as though they had never been here, Not a trace touched Earth.
Only Valerius' final scream lingered in the void. "The… Drakenholt clan… will never forgive this…"
Then silence.
Aurelia stared in shock, her hand pressed to her mouth. Sentinel's golden light flickered faintly as he, too, measured what he had just seen.
Adrian himself stood still, staring at the stars. For a heartbeat, he was as shocked as they were.
His Absolute Source Order had erased not just A-ranks or S-ranks, but SSS-ranked beings. He felt instinctively that it was possible only because of this form.
This Source Form.
And this form, powerful as it was, devoured him. He felt his liquefied mana reserves collapsing, drowned by the cost of maintaining such a state.
Ten seconds, that was all it allowed.
The white-grey silhouette cracked like shattering glass, fragments peeling away until his human body stood once more beneath it. Adrian floated in the silence of space, his eyes lifting to the endless stars.
"Demons aren't the only threat," he murmured. "The galaxy itself is…"
...
At this same moment, far across the stars, the entire galaxy stirred.
This started minutes earlier, when Adrian had first blinked into the void.
In the throne room of the Empire of Lexaria, the oldest of the six empires, the Empress sat upon her dais. Draped in silks woven of starlight threads, she was the sovereign of the oldest and most neutral empire.
It was Lexaria that had codified the Language of Mana, the Volumes that ruled civilizations. Their silence was law, their word, authority.
Then suddenly the stars shook.
Constellations flickered, essence rippled through the cosmos. The nobles stirred as the chamber quivered.
Not from weapons, not from war, but from the stars themselves.
An aged minister fell to his knees. His voice was a whisper that grew into a tremor.
"...The Astral Omen…"
The Empress' eyes narrowed. Her fingers gripped the armrests of her throne.
"Explain."
The old man's lips quivered. Sweat beaded on his forehead despite the chamber's chill.
"It is said… when one who will alter the destiny of the galaxy takes their first step into the void, the Omen resounds."
Murmurs rippled through the court. Some nobles exchanged nervous glances while others leaned forward, hungry for details.
"Once before, the stars trembled like this… when a little demon who later became the Demon Emperor first entered the void."
Fear rippled through the court. To most, it was myth.
To the old man, memory.
"This resonance…" he whispered, his voice cracking. "…it matches his. The galaxy shudders, for another has arrived."
The Empress leaned forward, her expression unreadable. The starlight silk of her robes seemed to dim in the flickering chamber.
But then the tremors spiked. Not fading, but rising.
Stars flared like gasping breaths, the chamber shook harder, scrolls tumbling from their shelves. Crystal chalices shattered against marble floors.
In that instant, across the galaxy, the Omen's intensity spiked. It was no coincidence, It was the exact moment Adrian Blackwood unveiled his Source Form in the void. The galaxy itself bore witness, and the stars trembled.
The minister collapsed fully, clutching the floor as if it might break apart. His robes pooled around him like spilled ink.
"N-no… this is beyond… Demon Emperor's Omen was never this strong. This… this is greater."
His voice became a rasp. "Whoever they are… their existence alone will decide the galaxy's fate."
"If this being stood with the demons, or against us, then no one would survive!"
The chamber was filled with silence and terror.
The Empress' command cut through the terror. Her voice rang with absolute authority.
"Summon the registrars. Monitor every new soul entering the galactic net."
She rose from her throne, starlight cascading from her form. "Track every anomaly. We will find the one who caused this."
...
Elsewhere, under a bleeding sky, the Abyssal Citadel writhed. A black throne of bone and ruin rose at its heart, and upon it sat the Demon Emperor, crowned in shadow.
His crimson eyes rose as the Astral Omen tore through the abyssal skies. The very air around him seemed to burn with malevolent energy.
For a long moment, silence.
Then a grin split his face. Fangs gleamed like polished obsidian in the hellish light.
"So… another anomaly." His voice rumbled like collapsing stars.
"Good. The galaxy grows dull."
He leaned forward, shadows writhing around his throne like living things. "Let's see if you bring ruin… or entertainment."