"Adrian!"
Aurelia's voice cut through Adrian's thoughts.
She was already moving toward him, Aerin held protectively in her arms, while Sentinel followed close behind. His expression was tight, emotions restrained only through sheer discipline.
Aurelia stopped a few paces away, her eyes searching Adrian's face as if trying to confirm his existence was real.
"Are you hurt?" she asked. Her voice was steady, but the faint tremor beneath it betrayed how close she had been to losing control.
Adrian shook his head slowly. "No."
The single word seemed to drain something from Aurelia. Her shoulders sagged slightly as relief washed over her features. The tension drained from her posture, but only for a moment. Her gaze drifted downward, settling on Varkas's corpse, and her expression hardened once more.
Sentinel studied the lifeless body as well. He did not speak, but the weight in his eyes said enough. Back there, inside the sealed space, they had been helpless. That realization struck them both with uncomfortable clarity.
They both had lived for thousands of years. They had stood at the brink of annihilation more times than they could count. They knew this feeling well. It was the same sensation they had felt the first time they faced demons back on Earth, powerless, outmatched, forced to rely on nothing but resolve.
They had once been warriors who trained relentlessly, who sharpened themselves every day because weakness meant death. And yet, somewhere along the way, peace had softened them, just as it had softened Adrian.
Aerin squirmed slightly in Aurelia's arms, her white-grey eyes fixed on Adrian.
"Uncle Adrian," she whispered.
Adrian met her gaze.
For a brief instant, something flickered within those eyes. Something that reminded him of the Source itself. The sensation pressed against his awareness like a distant echo, faint but undeniable. Before he could examine it further, Aerin blinked, and whatever he had felt vanished as if it had never existed.
"You're safe now," Adrian said quietly.
Aerin nodded, then buried her face against Aurelia's shoulder. Her small hands clutched at her mother's robes.
Around them, the crowd continued to celebrate in disbelief and relief. UNI Enforcement forces had already arrived, their formations activating as they secured the area. Officials moved efficiently through the street, examining Varkas's corpse with grim professionalism.
Adrian ignored them all.
His attention shifted to the unconscious woman lying nearby.
Lyra.
She lay motionless on the ground, her pale blue skin marred by burns and deep lacerations. The backlash from her aborted transformation had ravaged her body, and her willforce had clearly been depleted to the point of unconsciousness. Faint wisps of dissipating energy still clung to her form, remnants of the divine concept she had been preparing to unleash.
Adrian stepped toward her.
This woman could easily be blamed for everything that had happened, but Adrian was not so shallow. He had seen how she stood her ground for strangers, how she had tried to protect everyone, even at the cost of her own life. That kind of resolve was rare, especially in the universe. In fact, she was the first such person he had encountered since entering the universe.
And Varkas had mentioned her sect, implying that others like her existed. If her sect truly consisted of people like her, then wasn't that exactly the kind of sect Adrian had been searching for all this time?
He looked down at her unconscious face, then made his decision.
"We're taking her with us," he said.
Aurelia hesitated. Adrian didn't need to tell her why; she could already guess his reasoning. Her expression shifted through several emotions before settling on acceptance. Finally, she nodded. "Alright."
Sentinel stepped closer, lowering his voice. "The officials will want answers. They'll want to know who killed a Rule Stage cultivator."
Adrian glanced at the approaching enforcement officers, and his thoughts spiraled.
What should he say if they questioned him? If they asked about his power level? About the details of the fight? About the enemy's power level?
To be honest, Adrian himself was just getting to know about his own strength and general power level within the universe.
When he first entered the universe, he believed his strength was at least around the Mid Rule Stage, based on defeating the Demon Emperor, whom the guardian spirit had classified as such.
He thought his mana and willforce reserves stood at that level at least. In some ways, his thoughts were not an overestimation of himself. Adrian had comprehended an abnormal number of concepts, inflating his mana reserves far beyond conventional limits.
Still, even with this, he made sure that no arrogant thoughts went into his mind. He expected that the Peak Rule Stage or even the High Rule Stage beings should have more mana and willforce than him.
But the moment he learned about the Mana Sea was when things started to break his understanding.
That discovery shattered his assumptions completely. Mana sea meant that with enough resources and time, any cultivator could possess terrifying amounts of mana. Longevity alone could turn someone into an anomaly.
Before, he thought based on divine concepts. Comprehending concepts increased one's mana, so the divine concept should give them the same or higher right? That was his only assumption.
But with Mana Sea, even an Early Rule Stage being, if they lived long enough, could possess reserves surpassing Adrian's. The perfect example was the Varkas he fought just now.
This showed that, by mortal standards, his reserves were legendary. But by universal standards, they were merely… little.
So what was his true strength now?
Back in the fight, if Adrian had relied solely on the Ruination divine concept, he would have wielded only 18% authority, the same as Varkas. In a clash, that authority would have been split further, leaving both sides with roughly nine percent, while the remaining eighty-two percent belonged to reality itself.
This split was because a Mid-tier divine concept wielded by an early rule stage being is only powerful enough to claim 18%. The remaining 82% of authority will always be with reality itself, trying to fight back the divine concepts.
So now, the clash would be like 9% vs 9% vs 82%, the final portion always belonging to reality itself.
This would have made the fight more dependent on Divine Spells, Authority techniques, and the total energy fuel one had. And Adrian couldn't have been able to overwhelmingly negate the enemy's spells or authority techniques, since the enemy wielded the same authority as him.
This meant Adrian would be in complete disadvantage. He wouldn't even have enough mana to equal the enemy.
Adrian won the fight only because he had the source. It granted him 100% authority by default, and even though the enemy's divine concept can fight against it and claim some authority, the clash was like 9% vs 91%.
On top of this, Adrian's source was an Ultimate-tier concept, which suppressed the enemy's Mid-tier constantly, so even the 9% the enemy had was slowly stripped away little by little. Because of this, no matter what authority techniques the enemy tried to use, Adrian had been able to negate them with his overwhelming authority.
And he didn't let Varkas to even use any of his spells and quickly killed him as fast as possible.
He succeeded in this even with his low mana reserves because the enemy was only in the early rule stage. If maybe the enemy was on high or peak rule stage, things could have gone differently since the enemy would have managed to have higher authority even against Adrian's source.
Overall, Adrian's situation was like he had a machine gun, but only a handful of bullets.
So if the officials pressed him now, what clear answer could he give? He can't just show the ruination alone. It would not answer how he killed Varkas in a few seconds.
He had just resolved to grow stronger, but that did not mean acting like a fool. So how could he navigate this without turning the situation into a disaster?
The approach of a UNI Enforcement official pulled him from his thoughts.
The officer wore dark grey robes embroidered with golden symbols that shifted across the fabric. Four eyes, arranged vertically along his forehead, fixed on Adrian. Behind him, two more officers hovered at a respectful distance, their hands resting near formation tokens at their waists.
The official stopped before Adrian and bowed respectfully.
"Esteemed sir," the official said carefully, "the situation has been secured. You and your companions should return to your residence and rest. UNI Enforcement will handle the aftermath."
Adrian was momentarily stunned.
What was going on here?
He had expected interrogation. Questions about the fight, about his methods, about his identity. The kind of scrutiny that would force him to navigate dangerous half-truths.
Instead, the official spoke as if Adrian's presence alone answered every question.
Such deference was not given lightly in the universe. It seemed like the official had already investigated the scene and concluded that Adrian had eliminated Varkas with overwhelming ease. And thus, he seemed to assume Adrian to be a powerful cultivator backed by a formidable force, and showed him respect.
Sentinel shifted slightly beside Adrian, his expression carefully neutral. He understood what was happening here as well.
Taking advantage of the moment, Adrian said, "I'll be taking the woman with me."
The official glanced at Lyra, then nodded without hesitation.
"Of course. There will be no issue."
One of the officers behind him stepped forward, producing a small formation token. A gentle pulse of mana washed over Lyra's unconscious form, stabilizing her injuries enough for transport. The officer bowed and retreated without a word.
Adrian studied the official's face, searching for any hint of suspicion or doubt. There was none. Only professional courtesy and barely concealed wariness.
"Is there anything else you require, esteemed sir?" the official asked.
"No."
"Then we will not disturb you further."
The official bowed again, deeper this time, and gestured to his subordinates. They moved, dispersing the remaining crowd and erecting barriers around Varkas's corpse. Within moments, the street began to empty.
As Adrian turned away, one truth settled firmly in his mind.
In this universe, strength was everything. If he had been weaker, today would have ended very differently.