The rivers of light rippled endlessly around them. Kael still sat rigid, eyes locked on the torrent of space essence outside the viewport, as he tried to seize even a fragment of meaning from the chaos.
Selena and the others could only watch as the minutes slipped by.
But within Adrian, time was different.
The Temporal Veil surged, perception multiplied sixfold. Each second stretched. Where Kael saw only confusion, Adrian's eyes burned with clarity.
At first, he comprehended only the basics, tracing the bends and folds of distance. The pebble floating in void, inertia's gentle push, gravity's invisible hand. But now… now he saw deeper.
Patterns emerged, and the chaos unraveled. What seemed like meaningless floods of energy became threads, each leading to the truth behind them.
He watched the birth of black holes, the bending of light, the shattering of void into wormholes.
Stars spun invisible webs across light-years, their gravities tangling in cosmic dances. Every collapse sang of compression, every expansion whispered of release.
Ten minutes passed in his world of slowed time. For Kael and the others, only two or three. But in those minutes, Adrian conquered what others would spend lifetimes bleeding for.
He exhaled softly. This place was no longer a mystery. Every current of space essence had meaning. Every stream whispered a truth he now understood.
A thought stirred within him. "Let me test it."
Adrian drew on his liquefied mana, pushing it into the seed within him. The seed pulsed, hungry. His mana was remade into Source Essence, but instead of stopping there, he willed it further.
The white-grey essence shimmered, shifted, turned deep blue.
Space essence.
And in the heart of the ship, a ripple spread outward from Adrian's body.
A domain bloomed.
The ship groaned under the weight of it. Runes flickered along the walls like dying stars. Space inside the cabin stretched and folded, distances becoming fluid, directions losing meaning.
Selena staggered back, her golden tattoos flaring as they fought against the distortion. Thomas and Elara froze, Kael's jaw fell open, his own space affinity trembling in recognition of something infinitely greater.
Aurelia's breath caught in her throat. Her eyes widened until they ached, her hands trembling against the console. The readings on her instruments went haywire, unable to process what they detected.
She had spent millennia chasing this threshold, clawing at concepts, yearning for the moment her comprehension would cross from fragments into wholeness. She had never reached it. None of the Eleven had.
She whispered, almost reverent, "A Domain. That is a space domain."
The word sent a shiver through the others. Thomas reached for Elara's hand instinctively. Selena's face went pale beneath her tattoos.
Kael's lips parted. "That… that means…"
Aurelia stood rigid, voice trembling with something rare for her, fear and joy intermingled. "This means Adrian crossed into Stellar Stage."
The declaration hung in the chamber, heavy and impossible. Outside, the portal streams seemed to bend toward their ship, drawn by the gravitational weight of Adrian's presence.
"I was able to see the basics, then the flows beyond them." Adrian's voice was soft, almost wondering. The domain pulsed around him like a heartbeat.
Aurelia shook her head, still unable to accept it. "No, no one comprehends so quickly. Even if you found the fundamentals, even if you had guidance, it should take years and decades."
Her voice cracked. "What you did in minutes… it's impossible."
She stepped closer, her own SSS-rank presence dwarfed by the spatial distortions around Adrian. "And space, of all domains, only a handful across the galaxy wield it. You don't realize what you've done."
Even in her disbelief, there was a flicker of pride and relief. Earth already had its first Stellar Stage. The clan could be born.
Adrian blinked, the shimmering domain folding back into his body. The ship's instruments stabilized. His features were calm, but his thoughts churned.
To Aurelia, this was Stellar. To him… not yet. Yes, he had woven space essence into a domain, but his heart knew the truth.
Only when he could forge such a domain from his Source itself, the origin of all, would he consider himself truly Stellar. Still, he now saw the path clearly. Concepts were the road, comprehension the key.
The galaxy itself would be his teacher.
Then he noticed Kael, still straining, cursing under his breath. The man hadn't even found the basics. His frustration was etched plain on his face.
Adrian's gaze softened. He raised his hand. White-grey light bloomed at his fingertip, condensing into a sphere.
A copy of what he had learned.
Another sphere formed, he sent one to Kael, one to Aurelia.
Selena's eyes lit up immediately, her lips curving into a knowing smile. She recognized this, the same technique Adrian had once used to share his understanding.
But this time, it wasn't runes and planetary concepts. It was a galactic concept, space itself.
"This," Adrian said simply, "is everything I've comprehended of space concepts. Take it."
Kael jerked back in his seat, staring at the approaching sphere. "Wait, what are you—"
The sphere pressed into his forehead before he could finish. Knowledge poured through him in floods, planetary space, galactic basics, then layers far beyond.
His mind reeled, too shallow to hold it all. The sphere sealed itself, locking the excess, storing it within him to be unraveled slowly, safely.
Kael's body convulsed, his space affinity surging wildly. Thomas reached out to steady him as spatial distortions flickered around his form.
"Easy," Thomas murmured. "Let it settle."
Aurelia gasped aloud as her sphere merged with her consciousness. Even with her vast experience, the torrent was staggering.
The breadth, the purity, her very essence quaked. She gripped the console, knuckles white, forcing herself to steady.
The sphere also sealed, waiting for her to unfold it at her own pace. But what she had already absorbed made her legs tremble.
She gasped, clutching her chest. "This... there's no method like this in the galaxy. How... how did you do this?"
Adrian's voice was calm, almost casual. "A technique I created long ago. A way to pass knowledge directly, like a skill book, but better."
He paused, watching their reactions. "My affinity makes it possible."
Truth. Yet even he understood now how reality-breaking it was. The galaxy used scrolls, language, and written fragments.
But he had just given them comprehension itself.
Selena leaned forward, her golden tattoos pulsing with excitement. "Adrian, do you realize what this means? You've just solved the galaxy's greatest bottleneck."
"Knowledge hoarding," Elara whispered, understanding dawning in her eyes. "The empires control advancement by controlling information."
Thomas nodded grimly. "But if Adrian can share comprehension directly..."
Aurelia stared at him, the weight of it crushing down on her. Her heart pounded against her ribs.
What he had just done wasn't a trick. He had just rewritten the rules of how knowledge could be shared.
"The empires will either worship you," she said slowly, "or destroy you for this."
Kael finally straightened, his breathing ragged. When he looked at the portal streams again, patterns emerged where chaos had reigned.
"I can see it," he breathed. "The fundamentals. The way space bends and flows."
His voice cracked with wonder. "Adrian, this would have taken me decades to comprehend on my own."
Adrian simply nodded. In his mind, the calculation was simple, stronger allies meant Earth's survival.
But Aurelia's thoughts raced in darker directions.
"What kind of monster did Earth give birth to?"