Emperor of the Source

Four years had passed within Origin headquarters since the new cultivation period began. Across its inhabited worlds, disciples emerged from training chambers having learned things they had once expected to spend thousands of years pursuing.

Some had completed the Arcane Concepts required by their chosen inheritances, while others had formed their first Rule Cores and begun practicing Low-level Divine Spells. The changes were still small compared with what Origin might become in the future, and Origin still had a long way to grow, but the progress made during these four years was already clear.

Among those following Eternal Continuum, the first successful cultivator was soon joined by others. Time and Space remained difficult concepts even after the danger of the Epoch Crucible had been removed, and learning to combine them properly with Life and Void demanded patience that no amount of accelerated time could replace. Yet more disciples were completing each stage, while the people studying Fate, Devour, and Ruination continued making steady progress through their own demanding concepts.

The miniature Source Seeds within cultivators connected to Adrian greatly improved their comprehension, and Origin's training facilities helped them make full use of that advantage. Phenomenon Zones allowed disciples to experience individual rules directly. Rule Perception Pills helped those who could not yet see those rules, while willforce recovery artifacts shortened the rest they needed between long periods of study.

Instructors helped them correct mistakes before they wasted years repeating them. Many training chambers also had additional time formations, so people studying inside could experience far more years than passed elsewhere in headquarters.

In these four headquarters years, the greatest early progress came from the Crimson Vital Sect. Its disciples had spent far longer studying Crimson Vital Dominion and Verdant Genesis than Origin's newest cultivators had spent on their newly available paths. Many had accumulated centuries of training before the Andromeda war. With Crimson Vital Dominion firmly established, they could turn more of their attention toward Verdant Genesis and the fusion needed to reach the Astral Stage.

Their elders had continued studying while Adrian was away, but difficulties with Verdant Genesis had slowed them. During their recent meeting, Adrian and Hestia had helped them correct those mistakes, and Hestia had told them to make the second concept their priority. They had since devoted longer periods to practice inside the accelerated chambers, building on their earlier years of study and completing the steps that had held them back.

Inside one of Azure Garden's training chambers, Maelis sat cross-legged with her eyes closed as crimson and green light spread across the cultivation platform beneath her. Two Rule Cores revolved within her chest, drawing slowly toward one another while the rules contained within them began joining in the sequence she had spent years learning to control. Blood and Vitality found support within Life and Water, while the remaining relationships settled carefully into the structure forming around them.

Maelis kept her breathing steady and guided the final strands into position. The newly forming core trembled once, sending a brief pulse of crimson-green radiance throughout the chamber, before the fluctuations gradually became even. The pressure surrounding her changed at the same moment, and Maelis felt her consciousness extend beyond the limits she had known throughout the Rule Stage as the essence of Crimson Genesis began flowing through her body.

She remained seated for some time after the breakthrough, examining the completed Astral Core and making certain the fusion remained stable. There was no longer any separation between the two foundations she had spent so long struggling to unite. The rules supported one another naturally, and when Maelis finally opened her eyes, a broad smile spread across her face as she rose from the platform with the last traces of crimson-green essence gathering around her hands.

She had spent hundreds of subjective years within the chamber during this period of training. Caelum had been ahead when the five elders began concentrating upon Verdant Genesis, but the final fusion brought difficulties of its own. Maelis wondered whether he had already succeeded. "Even if Caelum finished first, I should at least be ahead of the other three."

The chamber doors opened, and Maelis stepped into the passage beyond them with her loose dark-crimson hair falling across her shoulders. Lara and Torvain were standing a short distance away. Torvain looked toward her with a small smile, while Lara's gaze briefly passed over the crimson-green essence that still clung to Maelis's robes.

"Hey—" Maelis stopped before continuing.

Something about both of them had changed in a way she now understood very well. The familiar crimson-green essence surrounding their bodies left almost no room for misunderstanding, and the satisfaction she had carried out of the training chamber immediately became mixed with disbelief.

"That's not fair," Maelis said as she looked from Lara to Torvain. "I thought I might be the first!"

"Don't underestimate us, Maelis," Torvain replied, folding his arms while Maelis narrowed her eyes at him.

"I had a good reason. Neither of you was ready to attempt the fusion when I entered seclusion," Maelis replied before turning toward Lara. "How long have you two been waiting?"

"Since the formation showed that your breakthrough was complete," Lara replied. "We wanted to make sure you were well."

"I meant how long you've been Astral." Maelis glanced toward Torvain again. "He clearly has enough time to stand around enjoying this."

"Long enough for me to tell you that Caelum and Varcain have finished too," Torvain said.

Maelis stared at him for several seconds before laughter escaped her. "All four of you? I should have stayed inside until you became tired of waiting."

Lara stepped forward and took Maelis's hand, briefly examining the steadiness of the essence flowing through her body. "You've reached the Astral Stage, Maelis. Don't let him spoil it for you."

"I was very pleased before I opened the door," Maelis replied as she squeezed Lara's hand.

They started walking together down the passage, and Maelis quickly began asking how the others had handled the final stages of their fusions. Torvain joined the conversation from beside them, his earlier amusement remaining while Lara explained where each of them had encountered difficulties.

With Maelis's breakthrough, all five of Crimson Vital's senior elders had successfully entered the Astral Stage. The disciples beneath them were advancing as well. Many who had reached High Rule during the war had since completed Crimson Vital Dominion. Some had only recently formed a second Rule Core through Verdant Genesis, while others were already mastering its higher spells. Each elder's successful fusion gave them more experience to pass on to the disciples following the same path.

Adrian's parents, the Celestials, and the rulers who had accompanied him from the Milky Way were also making progress. Their duties differed, as did the time they could spend cultivating, but all of them continued building on the foundations they had learned within Crimson Vital. Aerin completed Crimson Vital Dominion and began advancing through Verdant Genesis as well. However, Chaos still placed a heavy strain on her body whenever she drew too deeply upon its power.

Twelve more headquarters years passed… The cultivation period had now lasted sixteen years.

Across Origin, the number of disciples capable of using Divine Spells increased steadily. Those who had once needed constant help with their first concepts could now guide newer students through the same problems. This gave the most experienced instructors more time to help with the harder parts of cultivation.

Eternal Continuum cultivators began reaching Mid and High Rule Stages. Those following the Fate inheritance worked through its demanding rules, while the Devour and Ruination cultivators advanced at different speeds. Their earlier knowledge, natural talent, and time spent studying all affected their progress.

Sixteen years had passed in headquarters, but some disciples had already lived through thousands of years inside their training chambers. In the dedicated chambers, four years could pass for every single headquarters day. They left the chambers to rest, seek guidance, carry out their duties, or spend time away from cultivation before returning to their studies. Even with faster comprehension, the hardest parts of their inheritances still took years of work.

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As more Crimson Vital disciples advanced through Verdant Genesis, they could take on larger tasks. Teams restored barren ground on worlds brought into headquarters, replenished water reserves, improved damaged soil, and supported the plants introduced across their surfaces. Work that had once needed Hestia's direct attention could now be shared among many trained cultivators. Restoring whole environments also taught them more about using Life, Water, and the other rules together than they could learn within a controlled chamber.

Another thirty-two headquarters years passed, bringing the total to forty-eight.

More worlds now occupied the folded spatial layers around the Central Origin Construct. Most had been lifeless when they were brought in from other parts of Virelith. Some were now covered in broad green regions where plants and other life were taking hold. Others were used for mining, refining, and the factories being built across their surfaces.

The growing population needed those additional worlds. Willing settlers arrived from the Origin Empire in the Milky Way, along with people from Lysandra's Lexaria and other allied empires. Families travelled with cultivators, technicians, inscribers, alchemists, and ordinary workers who wanted to make permanent homes within Origin. They settled beside the Elyrians and the people already living throughout the headquarters, gradually filling planets that had once contained only a scattering of occupied structures.

Fifty-six more headquarters years passed. One hundred and four years had now passed since the cultivation period began.

By then, Crimson Vital possessed several dozen Astral cultivators. None of these newly ascended Astrals had yet attained Chime of Consciousness, but their successful fusions had carried them beyond the Rule Stage.

Among those following Eternal Continuum, several thousand had reached High Rule, while hundreds had completed the foundation at Peak Rule. Further advancement depended on the second Divine Concept Adrian intended to create. Until it was ready, they continued improving their control, studying the higher spells, and learning to use their existing abilities more efficiently.

The Fate department had grown as well. More trained cultivators were available for gathering information, assessing threats, and coordinating battles, and some had already reached the Astral Stage. The Devour–Ruination department had also produced Astral cultivators of its own.

Some of the most dedicated people across these paths had accumulated nearly ten thousand years inside accelerated chambers. Others had experienced closer to twenty thousand. The amount varied with the time they spent in seclusion and the duties that brought them back into the rest of headquarters. Those years included breaks and periods when progress was slow, but the knowledge, guidance, resources, and improved comprehension helped them advance far faster than they otherwise could have.

Outside the concealed headquarters region, only thirteen days had passed during those one hundred and four headquarters years.

Within it, the seventeen worlds that once surrounded the Central Origin Construct had grown to one hundred and twelve. Inhabited districts, restored landscapes, cultivation zones, mines, refineries, research sites, factories, and transportation systems now spread throughout the folded spatial layers connecting them.

On one of the upper levels of the Central Origin Construct, Adrian stood beside a wide viewport and watched ships travelling toward those worlds. Several planets were clearly visible from where he stood, their curved surfaces illuminated by the glow of nearby formations. Farther away, other worlds appeared intermittently through the folded spatial layers, while transportation routes seemed to cross one another before passing harmlessly into separate regions of compressed space.

Adrian had helped move some of those planets into position himself. On others, he had worked beside restoration teams or adjusted formations that could no longer support settlements whose populations had expanded beyond the limits of their original designs. He had spent time inside cultivation halls as well, answering questions and helping instructors explain sections of the new inheritances their students repeatedly found difficult.

During those visits, Adrian had also begun establishing more connections through the Crown of the Source.

The Elyrians and many of Virelith's people were still recovering from enslavement when he initially brought them here. He had given them time to settle instead of immediately approaching them. For people who had only just regained control of their own lives, even an offer made with good intentions could be difficult to trust.

The technique required full trust and willingness from both sides. As the years passed, more people came to know him through the life they were building within Origin. He visited their worlds and explained the Willforce connection to those who wished to receive it. Many accepted, while those who were not ready continued living and cultivating as before.

By now, even the Elyrians had spent more than two centuries beneath Origin's protection, and many of Virelith's original people had remained with Adrian for considerably longer. Trust had grown naturally through that time, and connections through the Crown gradually spread throughout both populations.

Miniature Source Seeds formed within the willing recipients, granting them the same assistance with comprehension already experienced by Crimson Vital's disciples and Adrian's people from the Milky Way.

Those connections also changed Adrian. Tiny streams of willforce continuously flowed back toward him through the Crown, each contribution insignificant by itself but immense when multiplied across the rapidly growing number of connected people. His consciousness became steadily denser as the years passed, and Adrian spent part of that time adjusting to the greater reserves and learning to control the additional strength without wasting it.

Yet as he watched a vessel disappear into the entrance of one of the spatial routes, his thoughts moved away from cultivation and toward the people travelling aboard it.

When he returned from his journey to Kaalatva, Adrian had discovered that more than a hundred headquarters years had passed in his absence. Hestia had deliberately kept his parents, Aerin, and several of their companions in Andromeda for much of that period, allowing them to experience little more than a month while Adrian was gone. Her decision had spared him from returning to discover that the people closest to him had lived through an entire century without him.

The possibility had remained in his thoughts ever since.

Adrian knew he would need to leave again. Perhaps the next journey would keep him away even longer, and he could not reasonably expect everyone he cared about to place their lives on hold whenever he disappeared in pursuit of another inheritance or piece of knowledge.

That was the reason he had chosen to remain within Origin throughout this period. He wanted to be present while the people he cared about took their first steps along the paths he had opened for them.

It would have been easy to leave immediately in search of greater strength and tell himself that every absence was for their future. But there would always be another danger somewhere beyond the regions he understood, another inheritance he needed to complete, another enemy stronger than the last, and another mystery connected to the Source waiting for him to pursue it.

At this point in his life, Adrian's people needed the safety he wanted to create for them, but they also wanted him beside them.

If Adrian postponed that part of his life indefinitely, he might eventually return carrying everything he had gone searching for and discover that he had missed the very years they had wanted to share with him.

Over time, that realization made him stay. Adrian wanted to know them while they grew, to hear about the problems they faced while he still possessed the opportunity to help, and to share their happiness when years of effort finally produced the result they had been chasing.

During this stay, he had eaten with his parents without another departure already waiting at the end of the meal. He had listened to Aerin talk about her training and watched her proudly demonstrate the things she had learned. There had been evenings with Hestia when their responsibilities were finished and neither of them needed to immediately return to another crisis, along with countless smaller meetings with people whose lives had gradually become intertwined with his own.

He still intended to obtain the missing knowledge of Destruction and find a body cultivation art strong enough to prepare Origin's disciples for the Prime Arcane Concepts in their planned second foundation. For now, He had simply chosen to make that journey later. Perhaps he was allowing his emotions to guide that decision, but he did not mind. He wanted to hold on to them, even when he could find practical reasons to leave.

Even so, Adrian had not spent the entire century simply remaining beside others. He had continued strengthening himself throughout the same period.

The willforce Androxus had released within the Providence Hub had shown him what could happen when an opponent possessed consciousness mastery far beyond his own. Under that borrowed pressure, Adrian had been unable to form even the thought required to summon the Source. Whether the original owner of that willforce had reached the Weave stage or something beyond it, Adrian possessed no reliable method of measuring the difference.

That experience had changed the way he thought about future journeys. Greater mana reserves and stronger Divine Concepts would be nearly useless if his consciousness could be suppressed before he managed to direct them.

Alongside the growth provided through the Crown of the Source, Adrian therefore spent considerable time practicing willforce in situations where he would normally have relied upon mana. During those sessions, he deliberately sealed his Mana Sea and used nothing except intent to lift physical objects, move materials across the chamber, and maintain several separate movements simultaneously.

As he increased the number of objects and gave each a different movement, the exercises demanded far more concentration. He practiced applying different amounts of force, making small adjustments, and keeping each movement steady without disturbing the others.

Even after more than a century of headquarters time, however, his consciousness had not crossed into the next stage.

A quiet sound from the chamber entrance drew Adrian's attention away from the viewport.

Marivelle entered and stopped several steps behind him, waiting until Adrian turned toward her before speaking.

"Master, the delegation from the Ebon Meridian Sect has arrived at Crimson Vital headquarters in Andromeda."

Adrian gave a small nod. Leaving the view of the surrounding worlds behind him, he crossed the chamber and followed her through the open doors.