Adrian stepped through the archway, entering the trial zone of the third level.
Instantly, he sensed the difference in the void here.
Usually, the void held nothing, not even mana. But this void churned with chaotic essences, colliding and devouring one another in endless cycles.
He saw in the distance fragments of collapsed suns, their surfaces glowing molten red, generating fire essence that spread through the empty void.
In another direction, floating frozen fragments spun slowly, leaking ice essence.
Between them, the void itself was fractured, bleeding streams of gravity essence that pulled light and distance into distorted knots. Shadows curled around those knots, feeding on the warped space.
Everywhere he looked was like this. A battlefield of elements tearing at one another.
The golden hologram appeared before his eyes once again.
› Kill Quota: 100,000 Essence Beasts
› Condition: Complete within a single continuous run.
He expected that much. But when he turned, he saw the numbers on the other Celestials' holograms. Gary's marked 50,000, Selric's 40,000, and the others similar.
"Different trials for each of us," Adrian murmured.
Gary nodded. "It reads our potential."
Selric gestured ahead, "Come. I'll take you to the nearest phenomenon zone."
Adrian followed them, pushing deeper into the void.
The deeper they went, the essence currents grew so thick they pressed against his skin. Even traveling here was draining.
He watched the others and saw how everyone had to deal with these essences in the void first to even move forward. It was not easy to do.
Every inch of motion required constant essence control to stabilize the body against the erratic pull of shifting gravity fields. He wrapped himself in a thin shroud of fire essence, burning through the interference, but even that consumed mana steadily.
And by the look of it, the Celestials were better than himself in essence control. They spent years here, mastering this environment.
Ilyas moved through a gravity knot, his ice essence coating his body to repel the pull. Max shifted fluidly through a fire current, water essence wrapping around him like a second skin.
They made it look effortless.
Orin chuckled, glancing back at Adrian. "Now imagine doing that for centuries while fighting beasts that can warp space and crush you flat."
Adrian said nothing, but his respect deepened.
These were warriors forged in time itself.
As they advanced, a cluster of shadow and gravity essence beasts appeared ahead, their forms rippling in and out of sight, distorting the void around them.
Immediately, the Celestials moved.
Gary's shadow domain unfolded first, coating the team in darkness to block surprise attacks.
Orin raised his hands, the gravity around him folding sharply, dragging the beasts toward a central point.
Selric's space essence sliced through those caught in Orin's pull, fragments vanishing into compressed distortion before they could react.
Max stood near the center, swirling water essence around him like a defensive vortex, turning every attack into steam before it reached the others.
Elliot's fire essence lashed out in radiant arcs, burning through beasts that slipped the shadow's cover. Each strike landed precisely where the enemy would emerge, not where it was.
Ilyas sealed wounded enemies mid-roar, freezing them solid before shattering them into frozen dust.
The battle was fluid, effortless. Centuries of fighting side by side had shaped them into a single entity, six movements forming one continuous rhythm.
Adrian watched in silence, impressed.
He realized how much experience truly meant. These were SSS-ranks who'd fought for centuries without rest, refining every movement to instinct.
Watching Elliot's flame techniques, Adrian could even feel the weight behind each strike. The fire didn't just burn; it knew where to burn, when to burn, how much to burn.
He couldn't help but smile faintly. "So this is what thousands of years of mastery looks like…"
His fire essence mastery could be comparable to Elliot's now, but Adrian was different from everyone since he could wield multiple essences. His path looked like a very long one…
When the last beast fell, Selric waved them onward without breaking stride.
"That was nothing. The deeper we go, the denser it gets."
He wasn't exaggerating.
Moments later, the black emptiness lit up as hundreds of essence beasts began converging from every direction, fire, shadow, gravity, and ice colliding in a storm of pure destruction.
The Celestials prepared for battle, but before any of them could act, Adrian stepped forward.
He extended his hand.
Fire Domain.
It expanded outward.
The chaotic storm of essence that filled the void was devoured, neutralized, and replaced with perfect stillness. Every beast caught within his domain disintegrated to ash, their forms collapsing into sparks that vanished silently.
The Celestials felt the change immediately.
The crushing pressure that had surrounded them lifted. Movement became effortless, the storm of chaotic essence cleared, leaving behind smooth currents that obeyed Adrian's will.
Max exhaled slowly, half-grinning as he rolled his shoulders. "Well… that saves us much effort."
Orin crossed his arms, a small smile curving his lips. "At least now I can enjoy the view without something trying to bite my head off."
Selric shook his head, watching the stabilized void around them.
Gary clapped Adrian on the shoulder, laughing quietly. "Told you he was powerful."
Adrian said nothing, simply maintaining the domain's spread as they started to move again.
As they continued deeper, from afar, other warriors in the zone stopped mid-battle, staring in disbelief.
A domain, active for this long?
One SSS-rank warrior, his armor scorched and cracked from fighting gravity beasts, pointed toward the distant glow of fire essence.
"Is that… a Stellar?"
His companion, a woman with frost coating her gauntlets, squinted through the chaotic void.
They turned in disbelief as they saw a single Stellar calmly walking through the void with his domain active, surrounded by six others who moved without strain.
Stellars who reached this floor before only used domains in short bursts, never for traversal. It would drain them dry in hours.
"He's… using his domain just to travel?"
"That's impossible. No one has that much mana."
The fire domain's glow faded into the distance, and the warriors returned to their struggles, muttering amongst themselves.
...
Adrian and the Celestials kept moving until they reached a phenomenon zone filled with the Ice Concept.
From a distance, it looked like a crystalline storm, a vast sphere of pale-blue energy where ice essence condensed so densely that it became visible. Snow-like particles drifted in spirals around a frozen core, each flake glowing faintly with the truth of the Ice Concept.
Within that storm, beasts of pure frost prowled, translucent wolves and serpents formed from condensed ice essence.
Selric gestured toward them, "We'll need to clear them before we can even enter."
Adrian didn't hesitate; with a wave of his hand, his fire domain condensed into a single radiant pulse. The storm of beasts vanished in an instant, vaporized before they could even react.
Seeing it, the Celestials felt a strange dissonance settle over them.
"We fought for three years just to clear the shadow zone for Gary."
Max nodded, his grin faint but genuine.
"Three years. And he just… waved."
Orin chuckled quietly, shaking his head.
"I'm not complaining."
...
They entered the zone.
Inside, the environment changed completely.
Streams of pure ice essence flowed through the void. Frozen storms coiled endlessly, forming intricate patterns, each current carrying fragments of truth, the fundamental laws behind the Ice Concept itself.
Adrian felt it was more similar to the insides of a nexus portal than the formation in the Drakenholt Clan. The formations were artificial, aligned properly for one to learn, but here the concept's essence contained the truth in chaotic order, similar to the nexus portal.
The deeper they went, more ice essence beasts started to materialize from the currents, drawn by the presence of living essence.
Gary turned toward Adrian, his shadow domain flickering around him.
"Focus on comprehending the Ice Concept. We'll handle the beasts."
Adrian nodded.
He floated deeper into the void, letting the currents of ice essence wash over him.
Behind him, the Celestials spread out, forming a loose perimeter.
Adrian activated his Temporal Veil.
With his recent comprehension of the Basic Galactic Concept of Time, he could now stretch perception up to tenfold.
The chaotic storm around him slowed; he wanted to comprehend this as soon as possible.
He activated his Source eyes and looked at the chaotic streams.
The Source guided him as it highlighted the Ice Concept truths step by step.
He didn't need the Basic Galactic Ice Concept truths; he'd already comprehended those through knowledge spheres. What he wanted now was the Advanced Galactic Concept of Ice, and the Source highlighted it.
The Advanced Galactic Concept of Ice unfolded before him, layering itself over the Basic truths he'd already mastered.
He saw the truth of Ice not as simple cold, but as the stilling of motion itself, the art of denying change, of halting energy until even fire surrendered.
In the currents, he glimpsed how Ice was more than frost; it was preservation, the eternal memory of a moment locked beyond decay.
Where fire consumed and spread, Ice conserved, constricted, and bound.
The storms whispered that Ice was not weakness against heat, but the strength of perfect stillness, the power to claim dominion over time's advance by holding all things unmoving.
Every truth revealed itself like a page turning in a book written just for him. He only felt like he was reminded of truths he'd forgotten long ago.
It was the same feeling he got every time.
He didn't struggle to connect the dots. The dots aligned themselves, as though his soul had always known and was only remembering.
Not even a few seconds had passed for the Celestials.
They were still fighting the ice beasts when they felt it.
A pulse of essence.
Gary turned, his shadow domain flickering as he sensed the shift.
An ice domain bloomed outward from Adrian, spreading through the phenomenon zone like frost across glass.
The ice beasts stopped.
Then they bowed.
Selric's space blade froze mid-swing, his eyes widening, "Already?"
Max laughed, shaking his head slowly, "Gary told us. But seeing it…"
"We spent years inside the shadow phenomenon zone for Gary to comprehend it. Years. And we couldn't hold, eventually, we'd be sent back to the safe zone. We had to repeat it over and over."
"And he just… did it. In seconds."
...
Even the Guardian Spirit, observing from its hidden layer, froze mid-calculation.
Its golden form flickered, processing the impossible data.
› Candidate comprehension speed: exceeds classification.
› Candidate's growth invalidates predictive framework.
› Probability of Trial Completion: rising beyond parameters.
...
Within the silent storm, Adrian opened his eyes, white-grey light reflecting off frozen eternity.
The Advanced Galactic Concept of Ice settled into him like a missing piece clicking into place, and he felt his liquified mana inside him expand at least by 25%.
Before, he had only comprehended the advanced galactic concept of space and fire, and now, with the third one, his mana pool extended.
He turned toward the Celestials, who stood watching him with expressions ranging from awe to disbelief.
"Let's move on," he said softly.
The Celestials smiled.