Adrian's consciousness surfaced slowly, dragged up from depths of exhaustion by the steady thrum of medical equipment. White light blazed overhead, sterile and unforgiving against his nerves.
Every muscle screamed. His mana channels felt scorched, like molten metal had been poured through his veins and left to cool.
The outpost's medical bay materialized around him, gleaming surfaces, the soft hum of healing arrays, and the antiseptic smell that clung to all military facilities. His body lay encased in a regeneration pod, blue energy cycling through transparent tubes.
"You're awake." Helena's voice cut through the haze. She stood beside his bed, arms crossed, her expression unreadable.
Commander Voss stepped into view, datapad in hand. The man's face carried lines of concern that hadn't been there before.
"How did we get here?" Adrian's throat felt like sandpaper. Speaking sent fresh waves of pain down his spine.
"I called for extraction after you collapsed," Helena said. "The others needed medical attention. You needed more than that."
Voss moved closer, his presence filling the small space. The datapad's screen glowed with Helena's mission report, dense blocks of text that Adrian couldn't quite read from his angle.
"Adrian, I need you to explain something to me." Voss's tone carried no accusation, only the weight of a man who shouldered humanity's survival. "How does a boy who awakened less than a month ago kill a D-Rank Alpha?"
Adrian's mind raced.
"The spell you created," Voss continued, "merged fundamental principles from multiple affinities into something entirely new. Our combat analysts have never seen anything like it."
Helena shifted beside the bed. "Echo users replicate. But this was not replication."
Adrian met their gazes, weaving truth around carefully hidden lies. His voice remained steady despite the pain.
"Echo doesn't just copy affinities. It gives me comprehension of their underlying principles. In that moment, facing death, all those concepts merged instinctively."
"Instinctively?" Voss leaned forward.
"I'm not even sure I could recreate it," Adrian admitted.
His faint whisper before collapsing—When did I say Echo?—likely lost in the chaos. Unheard by most, if anyone at all.
Voss studied the datapad again, hope flickering in his eyes before dimming. "So this isn't a method we can teach others?"
"I don't think so." Adrian's voice carried genuine regret for the lie.
The commander sighed, shoulders sagging slightly. Another breakthrough that couldn't be replicated, another hope for humanity's advancement slipping away.
But then Voss's expression softened. "Still, what you accomplished..." He shook his head in wonder. "Even our greatest prodigies need years of combat experience to create a single original spell."
"You did it in weeks," Helena added, her professional mask cracking to reveal something like admiration.
"If this pace continues," Voss said, "you could reach A-Rank in record time. That alone would be a victory for mankind."
Adrian nodded.
"However," Voss's tone grew serious, "your body paid a severe price. The healers have worked around the clock, but the damage runs deep."
Helena stepped closer. "Your mana channels were nearly destroyed. You'll need days of recovery before you can even attempt basic spells."
"The others?" Adrian's concern was genuine. Images of Marcus crumpled against stone, Lyra clutching broken ribs, flashed through his memory.
"Injured but stable," Voss replied. "They'll heal much faster than you will."
"Once everyone's recovered," Helena said, "we return to the Academy. This mission is over."
Leaving him to rest, the two departed.
Helena's turned toward the exit. Voss followed.
"Rest well, Adrian," the commander said over his shoulder. "We'll check on you in a few hours."
The door sealed, leaving Adrian alone.
Adrian forced himself upright despite the protests from every muscle. Each movement sending fresh waves of agony through his core.
The regeneration pod's blue energy and defenders with healing affinity had done their work on the surface wounds, but deeper damage lingered. His mana channels throbbed with each heartbeat.
He closed his eyes and began to meditate, drawing breath deep into his lungs. Slowly, carefully, he guided the first trickle of mana through his battered pathways.
Pain stabbed at him like a thousand needles. His channels were scarred, torn from forcing impossible power through them.
But then he froze.
His mana pool stretched before his inner sight, vast and deep. The capacity had grown beyond anything he'd experienced before.
Not just refilled. Doubled. Not from the start of his journey, but doubled from the moment before he fainted.
Adrian's eyes snapped open, shock flooding through him. He traced the expansion back to its source, understanding dawning like cold fire.
Comprehension of affinities had grown his capacity steadily. But creation, the act of fusing concepts into something entirely new, had triggered an explosion of growth.
Each step brought him closer to the Source itself.
His thoughts darkened with clarity. In that life-or-death moment, all the scattered techniques he'd absorbed had meant nothing.
Kai's spatial blinks, Seraphina's stellar flames, Elena's ice constructs, were useful but not decisive. What had saved them was one overwhelming spell that could reshape the battlefield.
That impossible fusion had proven the path forward. But it had also nearly destroyed him.
Adrian's jaw tightened as his future got clear before him. He would forge unique, devastating spells as his true weapons.
He would employ other skills solely for supplementary functions.
Different affinities would merely act as foundational elements, pieces for grander creations.
And above all, he would strengthen his body until it could endure the full weight of the Source and his powerful skills.
Only then could he stand above all others. Not as a mimic echoing the past, but as a creator forging the future.