The clash of domains ripped through the arena, fire and space colliding like storms of different worlds. The runes etched across the walls screamed, holding the battlefield intact as waves of force shook the void.
Spectators gasped, their disbelief echoing louder than their cheers. Many had expected the boy's domain to crumble instantly against Tharion's millennia of experience.
But Adrian stood equal, his space warping reality around him. The crowd murmured in shock, a newly awakened Stellar matching a patriarch thousands of years old.
Even the Imperial Overseer frowned from his hidden vantage point. This was not what anyone had predicted.
What they did not know was that Adrian comprehended the advanced galactic space concept, so his domain stood equal to Tharion's.
Adrian held back his Source Form, knowing ten seconds wouldn't be enough. The toll was too heavy, the risk too great at the start.
He wanted to test his space domain properly. To see what he could truly accomplish without relying on that overwhelming power.
Distance bent around him like flowing water. Blades of warped space shimmered through rifts, strikes that should have been impossible landing in heartbeats.
His domain folded attacks aside, twisted paths so his blows arrived faster than sight. Reality became his weapon.
But Tharion was no novice fighter. Flames roared through distortions, burning away Adrian's spatial tricks like paper.
Rifts collapsed under walls of fire. A flaming hand caught one of Adrian's warped blades and snapped it like kindling.
"You think space is untouchable?" Tharion mocked, his voice carrying across the void. "All I see is a child hiding behind tricks."
Every warp, every bend, every hidden strike, he predicted them with centuries of experience. His flames carved through Adrian's domain like it was mist.
"You've read the book but never lived the war, boy!" Another blade shattered in his burning grip.
A rift opened behind Tharion's shoulder. Adrian's strike lanced out, only for the patriarch to seize it without looking and crush it to nothing.
A wall of flame erupted, collapsing another spatial warp before it could form. Step by step, Adrian's advantage crumbled like sand.
The crowd roared, sensing the shift in momentum. The patriarch pressed forward, merciless and experienced.
Adrian's body shuddered under the relentless assault. His domain bent slower, lost its sharp precision with each failed attack.
He twisted, folded space, dodged, but weaker now, every counter less effective than the last. Blood trickled from his mouth.
"Is this it? Is this the power of your precious space?" Tharion's laughter boomed across the arena.
"You're nothing but a child to me. I've slain Stellar fools who had stood for centuries."
His eyes blazed brighter, scales gleaming with heat. "And you? You barely learned to crawl."
Then came the barrage. Dozens of flaming fists rained down like meteors, each one wreathed in dragon fire.
They crashed into Adrian's chest, bones cracking audibly across the void. Blood sprayed in crimson arcs that froze instantly in space.
The rhythm of the blows echoed like war drums. Each impact drove Adrian deeper into the arena's center.
Spectators roared their approval, some laughing at the brutality. Others flinched at the sight of such overwhelming violence.
In the stands, Elara's golden eyes burned with tears she couldn't stop. Her hands pressed against the barrier, light flickering desperately around her fingers.
Thomas's fists trembled, every instinct screaming to intervene. His jaw worked silently, muscles coiled like springs ready to snap.
Draven surged to his feet, only to be yanked back by Aurelia's iron grip. "Let me—"
"You'll doom us all," Septimus hissed, his staff crackling with suppressed power. His face was pale but resolute.
Cassian's quiet murmur chilled the air around them. "The thread tightens."
Adrian staggered, each punch dragging him closer to death. His space domain flickered like a dying candle.
Yet something stirred in his chest. Not defeat, but understanding.
He had mistaken his rapid rise for invincibility. He had devoured power too fast, killed SSS-ranks too easily, comprehended volumes too quickly.
Slowly, overconfidence had taken over him without him noticing.
Now the galaxy punished him. A Stellar Patriarch, forged in thousands of years of fire, was showing him what mastery meant.
He realised comprehension is not always supremacy, but mastery is. Someone with more experience could defeat him, even with an element like fire, which is lesser than space itself.
Even if he had comprehended the advanced galactic space concept, Tharion was also in his element. The patriarch's flames danced through the void as naturally as breathing.
Another flaming fist slammed into Adrian's chest, rattling his ribs. The impact sent shockwaves through his bones, blood spraying from his lips.
"Pathetic whelp!" Tharion's voice boomed across the arena.
The crowd roared. Bets shifted heavily toward the patriarch as Adrian stumbled backward.
In the stands, spectators leaned forward hungrily. Many had wagered fortunes on this outcome.
"I'll burn your domain to ash, boy. And when I'm done with you, I'll take that woman you respect, and then scour that nameless dirt planet you came from until nothing remains." Tharion's eyes blazed with malicious promise.
"Not even dust."
The words cut deeper than the fists. Adrian's vision blurred as rage and desperation warred in his chest.
Pain drowned his senses. Yet in the darkness, images burned.
He saw Aurelia standing tall even when Valerius threatened Earth. Her defiant stance against impossible odds, protecting billions who would never know her name.
He saw his parents watching silently as he vowed to carry their world into the stars. Their faith in him, unshaken despite the danger.
He saw billions on Earth who did not even know their fates rested here. Children playing in peaceful streets, families living without fear.
If he fell now, Earth would fall with him. Everything he had fought for would crumble to ash.
A final flaming fist descended, roaring like a comet. The air itself ignited around the strike, reality warping from sheer heat.
And then his Seed roared.
From the pit of his soul, the Source erupted. White-grey essence tore through his veins, devouring weakness, filling his shattered body with blank, merciless energy.
His right arm dissolved into pure Source, a silhouette of absolute energy. The transformation spread up his shoulder, consuming flesh and bone.
The void trembled. Stars flickered in the distance as reality bent around his presence.
The fist crashed into his palm and stopped. The impact shook the arena, ripples distorting space itself.
Fire howled against his Source-wreathed hand, but it could not move forward. The flames parted like water against stone.
The crowd fell silent. Gasps echoed through the stands as spectators witnessed the impossible.
The Overseer's eyes narrowed, his casual demeanor replaced by sharp attention. This was no ordinary transformation.
Tharion's confident sneer faltered. His fist, capable of shattering moons, trembled against Adrian's palm.
Adrian's voice rose, hoarse but carrying across the battlefield, through the void, into the ears of every witness. "You can break my bones, you can burn my flesh."
His body fractured into a silhouette of white-grey energy, his features dissolving into the blank purity of Source.
"But you will never touch my people." The words resonated with power that made the arena's foundations groan.
"And you will never destroy my world."
The arena froze, as Adrian's essence shifted into something far greater than fire and space. Something that made even Stellar domains seem like pale shadows.