A sphere of white-grey radiance bloomed outward from him, a translucent halo only thirty metres in diameter, not expansive, but dense, pure, absolute. Unlike the Demon Emperor's domain that stretched across the sector, Adrian's remained compact, concentrated, every centimetre saturated with his essence.
Inside that space, the rules trembled, then calmed. They recognized him, they welcomed him, and they obeyed.
The Guardian Spirit's perception widened as it immediately sensed the shift. Its golden form pulsed erratically, aura flickering between disbelief and awe.
Normally, when two divine domains clashed, the rules inside reality resisted both, leaving a fixed amount of authority to be contested. Even two beings with identical divine concepts would only share the authority, and reality always maintained its own share. The Guardian Spirit had witnessed such clashes countless times.
Mortals usually thought a divine domain had everything under their control, but the Guardian Spirit knew the reality. The divine concept wielded by the Demon Emperor was a mid-tier-ranked and only had seventy percent authority over the rules; the remaining thirty percent remained with reality.
So if the Demon Emperor clashed with another who wielded a mid-tier divine concept, that seventy percent would be divided, and each would wield thirty-five percent authority. The remaining thirty percent of authority would still be with reality itself, trying to fight back the divine concepts.
A clash might look like 35% vs 35% vs 30%, the final portion always belonging to reality itself.
And this authority was really important, because no matter how powerful one's spell was, if one had higher authority, they could make use of that to control reality, basically their surroundings, to slow the enemy's spell or break it.
So the one who had higher authority always had a higher chance to win the fight, and that is why in the universe, everyone wanted a divine concept with high-tier, and that is why the different ranks even existed.
And here… the Guardian Spirit witnessed reality fully yielding.
In the moment Source Domain appeared, the rules inside the thirty-metre sphere bent in reverence, as though greeting a master returning home.
Authority flowed in fully, completely.
It took forty percent authority of reality's rules from the seventy percent the demon emperor's divine concept held, stripping it away. Then the thirty percent, the portion reality hoarded, also submitted to him, making his authority seventy percent.
The Demon Emperor's authority plummeted to thirty percent within Adrian's sphere, his divine concept reduced to a fraction of its power. Even though Adrian's sphere was small, within it, now the clash was like 70% vs 30%, and there was no third portion, which always existed!
The Guardian Spirit stared, stunned beyond anything it had ever witnessed. Its voice came out barely above a whisper, trembling with shock, "Impossible… utterly impossible… not even an Ultimate-tier divine concept could strip reality of its authority. How… how can he command everything…?"
Even an Ultimate-tier divine concept's base authority was ninety percent; the remaining ten percent was always with reality; it never submitted everything to others, like it had its own will and protected it jealously. Yet here, reality itself bowed completely, surrendering its share without resistance.
Within the Source Domain, Adrian too felt the difference. This was something he felt back when he first got the source domain, that the reality yielded to him.
This was basically the Source Influence, yet unlike before, he had not transformed into his source form. The authority flowed to him simply because the domain existed.
And he couldn't quantify it the way the Guardian Spirit could. He didn't know anything about authority percentages or universal standards. He didn't know how unnatural this was, nor how impossible it should have been. He simply understood instinctively that he held control over the rules within this space.
The sensation reminded him of standing in the centre of a vast ocean where every current, every wave, every ripple moved at his command. The language of mana wrote itself across his perception, dense symbols forming chains of logic that described how essence should behave, how concepts should interact, how reality should function. And within his domain, those symbols waited for his approval before executing their instructions.
He tested the boundaries and discovered quickly that the divine concept the Demon Emperor wielded pushed back against his control. Unlike the pure devour concept, which had submitted to just to his pure source essence without resistance, this fused divine concept did not break easily, even though he was wielding source influence now. It resisted, strained, fought against him, managing to keep a fraction of authority intact.
Adrian narrowed his eyes, observing his overlapping domain against the demon emperor's divine domain. He felt he didn't have full authority; the divine domain fought for authority with him.
Interesting.
Adrian also tested its limits. The domain radius was barely thirty metres, compared to the Demon Emperor's divine domain, which engulfed the entire sector; this was minuscule. Compared to Adrian's other domains, it was unimaginably small.
He willed the sphere to expand, pushing outward, but the boundary resisted. It moved, inch by agonizing inch, stretching to thirty-one metres before the strain became unbearable. His mana reserves dipped noticeably, and he released the pressure, letting the domain snap back to its natural size.
So there were limits.
Yet inside this space, the rules of reality obeyed him. And again, it was not full authority, Adrian only had 70% as the demon emperor's divine domain, which overlapped with his took 30%, Adrian just didn't know about this number exactly.
And the distinction between this and his source form grew clearer to him as he observed the flow of influence. The source form had no range; if he could see something or sense it, he could impose his authority upon it. But that freedom came at a price, colossal mana consumption that drained him rapidly.
The Source Domain, on the other hand, cost him almost nothing. He felt as if he could keep it active for days if needed.
And he didn't yet know whether the nature of source influence had changed inside the domain, compared to how it was with the source form. Answers would soon be revealed when he fights the demon emperor with this! He would test them against the divine concept, see how far his authority truly reached.
Across the field, the Demon Emperor also felt the shift, and the impact shattered whatever confidence he once held. A crushing sense of suppression pressed against his divine concept, suffocating it. His prismatic essence dimmed inside Adrian's sphere, struggling to maintain form. The seamless fusion of his six concepts began to fracture at the edges.
For the first time, true fear flickered in his eyes.
"What… what are you?" The words came out hoarse, stripped of their earlier triumph.
Adrian stood calmly inside his sphere of white-grey, threads drifting like strands of fate around him. His expression remained neutral, almost detached, as he watched the Demon Emperor's divine concept struggle against his authority.
"You wanted to devour me," Adrian said quietly, his voice carrying across the void, "You said you cultivated me as your perfect anomaly, I'm not sure how…"
"But since you said so, now see what you created."
This was the moment the Demon Emperor understood: He was facing something he could never devour. He was facing something that should not exist. Something that stood not above divine concepts through brute force, but beyond them through fundamental superiority.
And for the first time in millennia, he regretted his hunger. He regretted starting the war; he regretted noticing the anomaly at all.
But most of all…
He regretted ever letting Adrian grow.