Around them, Viridian warriors turned, snarling, their voices thundering through the plaza.
"Outsider! This planet is off-limits!" one spat. "Fuck off, now, before we rip you apart!"
But Adrian didn't even look their way. His eyes stayed fixed on the trembling mother at his side.
"Say the word… and I will erase every last one of them."
The woman's lips parted soundlessly. She stared at him in disbelief, too broken to even answer.
One warrior snarled, stepping forward. His hand hovered above Adrian's head, essence condensing into a killing sphere.
Adrian didn't even look. Before the blast could leave his hand, his Source blade flickered into being, thrusting through the warrior's neck.
The warrior toppled, lifeless. Adrian rose, kicked the body, sending it crashing at the foot of Darius' throne.
The plaza froze. Even Luna's mother stared, speechless.
An SSS-rank warrior ended in a heartbeat.
Another warrior screamed and charged. Adrian didn't move his gaze.
His blade swept, and the warrior's head parted cleanly from his shoulders.
The women dragging Luna faltered, fear freezing their hands. Luna stumbled backward, eyes wide.
From the ship above, Aurelia's face hardened. Even Kael sucked in a sharp breath.
"He's… slaughtering SSS-ranks like ants."
Darius shot to his feet, his voice breaking. "Kill him! Tear him apart!"
Dozens of Viridian warriors surged, their steps shaking the plaza. Spells flared across the air, the raw firepower of SSS-rank beings.
Adrian blinked. His blade stretched into a spear, stabbing through one man and lifting him into the air.
Another blink, his weapon became a glaive, severing two arms in a sweep. Another blink, a hammer crushing ribs.
Every flash of white-grey left a body dismantled.
Another blink. An arm flew.
A leg severed. Warriors screamed as their bodies were dismantled piece by piece.
Luna herself stared, lips trembling.
Darius screamed at all of the Viridian warriors. "Attack him! All of you!"
Hundreds of warriors present ran towards him. Some attacking with long-range spells.
They were SSS-rank beings, each one had the power to annihilate the entire planet. But this planet stood still.
Only the people here were primitive. The planet itself was mature enough to handle SSS-rank fights easily.
Luna's mother ran towards Luna to safeguard her. Her bare feet slapped against the dusty ground.
Adrian looked at the hundreds of warriors and attacks towards him. He did not even flinch.
His entire body blurred, white-grey energy consuming his form until only a silhouette of Source remained.
Luna's eyes widened at his form, her heart pounding. She whispered to her mother.
"Mama… the goddess didn't come. Instead… she sent her son for us."
Her mother's tears froze. She turned from Luna and looked at Adrian's glowing form in shock.
For a breath, she believed.
The pressure crashed down on everyone. The air itself seemed to thicken.
The Viridian warriors slowed. Essence flickered from their bodies, cowering, trembling before the white-grey pressure radiating outward.
Drums slipped from hands, rolling across the plaza. Spells guttered, uncast.
Adrian's body blurred fully into Source, no longer flesh. A white-grey silhouette, featureless and absolute.
The warriors' advance faltered. Some stumbled to their knees.
"What... what is this pressure? Stellar Stage?" one gasped.
Then, from the shadows of the houses, a child stepped out. Barefoot, trembling.
She bent, grabbed a fallen drum, and struck it with her small hands. Her eyes blazed with defiance as she glared at Darius.
Another came. Then another.
Soon, women poured into the plaza, beating drums, stamping their feet. Making a primal music of rage.
Adrian stepped forward. His voice boomed across the void.
"Erase."
The Absolute Source Order rippled outward like a wave of annihilation. It swept through the plaza, invisible yet undeniable, touching every Viridian warrior present.
Every Viridian warrior flickered, their bodies, their essence, their very existence dissolving into nothingness. The women flanking Darius vanished mid-breath.
Above the planet, the Emerald Serpent fleet simply ceased. Dozens of ships blinked out of reality as if they had never been.
Only Darius remained, untouched. His body trembled violently, his essence unraveling like smoke in a hurricane.
"No!" he shrieked, voice cracking with terror. "Do you know who my father is?! Do you know what you've—"
Adrian blinked forward. His Source blade materialized in his grip, thrusting upward through Darius's jaw and piercing clean through his skull.
Blood sprayed across the dusty stones. Darius's words died in a wet gurgle as his body went limp.
The plaza stilled. The triumphant drums faltered, one by one, as the villagers stared in stunned silence.
The music died, leaving only the sound of wind whistling over stone and the soft drip of blood from Adrian's blade.
The white-grey silhouette began to crack apart like shattered glass. Each fragment fell away, dissolving before it touched the ground.
Adrian's human form emerged beneath it, shoulders heavy with exhaustion. His breath came steady but labored, the transformation's toll evident in his posture.
He erased so many SSS-ranks without even properly comprehending galactic concepts. The source form using his source essence was too powerful but it took a heavy toll.
Above, the ships that had gathered as spectators recoiled in horror. Their recording lenses zoomed frantically, capturing every detail of Adrian's face.
They scanned the galactic databases, finding only a name with no history. Adrian Blackwood. From an unnamed planet in the outer rim.
Luna's mother crawled forward on trembling hands and knees. She reached Adrian's feet and pressed her forehead to the bloodstained ground.
"Thank you," she whispered, voice breaking. "Thank you for saving my daughter."
Other villagers all dropped to their knees in reverence before the young man who had saved them.
Adrian looked down at them, his expression unreadable. He knelt beside Luna's mother and gently lifted her chin.
"Stand," he said quietly.
The woman's eyes filled with tears as she struggled to her feet. Around the plaza, the villagers slowly rose, uncertainty mixing with hope on their faces.
Above, the spectator ships began transmitting their recordings across the Galactic Net. Within minutes, the footage would reach every corner of civilized space.
A youth. Standing above the corpses of a galactic clan's warriors. Having erased an entire fleet with a single word.
Across the Net, the first whispers sparked, then erupted into a wildfire of speculation and fear.
Adrian Blackwood had annihilated the Emerald Serpent Clan's force on their own hunting ground.
And with that single act of defiance, Adrian Blackwood properly stepped into the galaxy.