Adrian and the Celestials drifted through the chaotic void of the third level, searching for other phenomenon zones.
Eventually, they reached a vast area shrouded in darkness.
No light escaped it, even their essence senses dulled near the edge, as though the void itself devoured their perception.
Adrian extended his hand toward the boundary, feeling the shadow essence recoil from his touch, then curl back hungrily.
Selric said, "This is the one."
"The Shadow Phenomenon Zone. Gary broke through here."
Gary's voice held a tinge of nostalgia, "Feels like a lifetime ago… and in a way, it was."
He stared into the darkness, his expression distant.
"We held the perimeter for three years. Three years of rotating shifts, fighting shadow beasts that reformed from the darkness itself."
Adrian looked out across the black expanse. The darkness wasn't still; it moved like something alive.
Where the ice phenomenon zone had been beautiful in its frozen stillness, this was more darkness in the void.
They entered the zone after Adrian took care of the shadow essence beasts that were roaming here.
Gary had already ascended, so the reason they entered this now was more for Adrian's personal comprehension.
The Celestials already got to know that a being could comprehend other affinity concepts, but seeing Adrian comprehend the concepts like he was just strolling, flabbergasted them.
Ilyas shook his head slowly as they settled near the boundary.
"In all our time here, we've met warriors who trained for centuries to grasp a single advanced concept. Millennia, even."
Selric's gaze tracked Adrian's movements deeper into the zone.
"And he's collecting them like… like they're just scattered across the ground, waiting to be picked up."
"It's not natural," Max muttered.
Gary's shadow domain flickered around him, a faint smile crossing his face.
"Nothing about him is."
Adrian floated deeper into the zone. The more he got deep, the more dark it became.
Light ceased to exist beyond a certain threshold. His fire essence, normally radiant, dimmed to barely a spark. Even his spatial sense struggled, the darkness pressing against his perception.
He could feel nothing beyond the cold embrace of shadow.
For the first time since entering the trial, Adrian felt truly isolated.
The Celestials' presences faded entirely, swallowed by the phenomenon zone's overwhelming essence.
He stopped, suspended in absolute darkness.
Adrian activated his Temporal Veil and Source eyes to comprehend it.
His eyes ignited with white-grey radiance, even in this darkness.
The Source guided him, and he started to comprehend shadow concept truths step by step.
First came the Basic truths, already known to him through knowledge spheres, but here they revealed themselves with more clarity. Shadow as the absence of light. Shadow as concealment.
Then the Advanced Galactic Concept unfolded.
He realized, Shadow was not mere absence of light.
It was the memory of light's passing, the echo left behind when brilliance faded, the permanent record of what once burned bright.
Shadow was the veil between existence and erasure.
Where light proclaimed and revealed, shadow concealed and preserved. It was deception woven into truth, survival carved from vulnerability.
In shadow, the weak became invisible. The hunted became the hunter. Even the strongest flame could be left blind, groping uselessly against the dark.
Adrian saw how shadow moved, not as darkness spreading, but as light retreating, surrendering its claim to space.
The truths cascaded through him, each one settling into place with the same strange familiarity he always felt.
Like remembering rather than learning.
Moments later, a wave of darkness erupted outward.
A Shadow Domain unfolded, silent and endless, swallowing even the faint glimmers of light beyond the phenomenon zone.
The Celestials saw as Adrian's silhouette vanished entirely into the black.
Selric's hand moved instinctively toward his blade.
The darkness pulsed once, twice, then receded.
When it cleared, Adrian floated in the same position, shadow essence trailing faintly from his hands.
His eyes still glowed white-grey, but now darkness coiled within that radiance, twin concepts existing in perfect harmony.
Orin exhaled slowly.
"Blessed void…"
Adrian sensed his mana pool expand more and more as he comprehended different concepts.
But something else shifted.
He also felt his source seed was starting to expand in density.
Not in size, the seed remained the same, a condensed point of white-grey brilliance, but its weight increased, its presence magnified.
For other beings who comprehend multiple concepts, they bloom a new essence seed within them.
A fire wielder who mastered lightning would grow a second seed. A space user who grasped shadow would cultivate another seed.
Multiple seeds, multiple concepts, each requiring separate advancement.
But for Adrian, he only had his source seed.
Comprehending more concepts only affected his seed, pouring new truths into the singular origin point, compressing everything into one infinite well.
Each concept he mastered didn't fragment his power, it unified it, folding new understanding into the Source until the distinction between fire and ice, light and shadow, space and time became meaningless.
All were branches of the same tree.
All flowed from the same root.
When the domain faded, he emerged, shadow essence trailing faintly from his hands.
The darkness clung to him briefly before dissolving back into the phenomenon zone, reluctant to leave.
Adrian drifted toward the Celestials, as though he'd simply finished a routine exercise rather than comprehending an Advanced Galactic Concept in mere moments.
...
They traveled, searching for other zones.
They soon saw whole asteroids twisted into spirals as they approached a gravity phenomenon zone, a black field of coiling energy that bent even light into looping trails.
Orin's jaw tightened as they approached, "This was where I almost lost my mind."
Gary grinned, "You had a mind to lose?"
Their laughter faded as Adrian moved ahead, his fire domain rippling outward to clear the essence beasts prowling the zone's perimeter.
The Celestials watched him drift deeper inside.
Even though they'd accepted his power, watched him comprehend concept after concept with impossible ease, every time he moved it still felt otherworldly.
Inside the zone, Adrian floated toward the center of the swirling gravity storms.
The pressure here was unimaginable. Mountain-sized fragments compressed to dust under invisible weight. Even an SSS-rank would have been flattened instantly, since he came here alone.
He could feel the pull on his mana, his body, even his thoughts, dragging everything toward singularity.
A point where all things converged.
Adrian activated Temporal Veil and Source eyes, letting the Source guide him.
His eyes ignited white-grey, cutting through the distortion.
He began to see gravity differently.
Not as mere pull or weight, but as the shaper of worlds, the quiet will that gave chaos form.
Where fire consumed and ice preserved, gravity commanded. It was like the hand of creation itself, drawing the scattered into harmony, binding stars into eternal dance.
"Gravity decides where stillness begins…" Adrian murmured, "…and where motion ends."
The truth unfolded before him, layer upon layer.
Basic concepts first, attraction, mass, orbit. Then the Advanced Galactic Concept revealed itself.
Gravity was inevitability made manifest. The certainty that all things fall, all things converge, all things bow.
It was dominion without proclamation, power without need for display.
As he comprehended its truths, his Source Seed pulsed deep within him.
His mana pool expanded, swelling outward like a tide.
The Celestials, watching from a safe distance beyond the zone's edge, shielded their eyes as the space around Adrian distorted.
Adrian felt the surge building.
His mana flared, his body resonating as his Source Seed condensed further, compressing into something denser.
The five Advanced Galactic Concepts within him, Fire, Space, Shadow, Ice, and now Gravity, resonated together, harmonizing into something beyond their sum.
Then he felt something new form inside him.
Veins.
Not blood vessels, but channels carved from pure Source essence, spreading slowly through his body.
For now, they covered only his hands, threading beneath skin and bone.
Adrian looked down at his palms. From the outside, they appeared the same as before, but he could feel them.
The veins weren't made of tissue and blood, but pure Source essence, glowing faintly beneath his skin.
He clenched his fists experimentally.
His essence responded faster, smoother, flowing through the new channels with twice the efficiency.
This was something that only happened when he activated Source Form, his body transforming entirely into essence.
Now, without transformation, he had it in his hands.
The veins acted as conduits, bridging flesh and concept.
Source Form was slowly becoming part of him.
Permanent.
Then, his Source Seed pulsed again.
Harder this time.
A wave of energy flared outward, and for a single heartbeat, a field emerged around him.
Translucent, Undefined, and Impossible to describe.
It wasn't fire, shadow, ice, gravity, or even space.
It was everything.
The storm of gravity essence around him recoiled, fleeing from the presence like prey before a predator.
Even the phenomenon zone itself seemed to bow.
Adrian whispered, almost in awe, "Source Domain…"
It faded after a heartbeat, collapsing back into his body.
But that single instant burned in his mind.
For that instant, the void had obeyed him completely. Essence, gravity, even the flow of time yielded to his will without question.
And then it was gone.
He could feel it, the domain had only projected far enough to cover his body, and it had lasted barely an instant.
In the future, this could evolve into a proper Source Domain, a unique domain unlike any elemental one.
For Adrian, even with his fire, space, ice, shadow, and gravity domains, he'd never truly considered himself Stellar.
Only when he'd create a domain with his Source affinity did he feel he'd truly reached it.
This was the first step.
He tried to summon it again, focusing his will, pouring mana into the seed.
Nothing.
The domain refused to manifest, as though it had spent all its strength in that single projection.
Adrian clenched his fists, feeling the Source veins pulse beneath his skin.
"One day…"
...
Adrian floated back toward the Celestials.
They studied him carefully, searching for any sign of change, but from the outside, he looked normal.
Just Adrian, drifting through the void as though he'd finished a routine exercise.
Gary tilted his head.
"You good?"
"I'm good."
Selric's eyes narrowed slightly, but he said nothing.
They continued searching for other phenomenon zones, navigating the chaotic currents and battling scattered essence beasts.
Hours passed.
Eventually they found two more zones, one radiating spatial distortions, the other burning with fire essence so dense it melted asteroids into molten rivers.
Adrian cleared the beasts around each zone and entered.
But neither helped him.
He'd already comprehended both Space and Fire concepts. The zones held nothing new, no deeper truths he hadn't already grasped.
So they returned to the safe zone.
...
The Celestials rested near the platform, their bodies sprawled across the metallic floor.
They traded quiet laughter and stories of Earth, reminiscing about places they hadn't seen in millennia.
Adrian stood apart, gazing at his hands.
The Source veins glowed faintly beneath his skin, visible only to his eyes.
He flexed his fingers, feeling the hum of essence flowing faster, smoother, more efficient.
He could sense it now, how close he was to the next threshold.
Flesh and concept merging into something beyond mortal definition.
And somewhere, far above in the structure, the Guardian Spirit observed his progress.
Its golden light trembled.
"Unquantifiable…" it whispered into the dark, its voice echoing through empty chambers. "He is evolving beyond definition."