The chamber was silent after Lucian's words.
Aurelia exhaled slowly, then reached into her robes. "It's difficult to explain in words, better you see for yourselves."
She produced a slim tablet, unlike the Nodes tied to the Net, this was sealed, a private archive of her journey. She slid it across the table.
The four leaned forward.
First came Earth. Images of its outposts, the rune hall, the fortress cities. Humanity standing strong, not as victims but as warriors. The four watched in silence as defenders wielded scrolls, barriers holding, healers regrowing limbs.
Draven's scarred brow arched. "By the void… they're not flailing in chaos like other newborn worlds. They're… organized."
Septimus' lips parted, his eyes glowing faintly. "And efficient, too efficient."
Adrian watched their faces shift from skepticism to wonder. Their expressions reminded him of his own when he first saw the galactic footage, the shock of discovering how vast the galaxy truly was.
Then came the Blackwood Ink. Reports of its universality, scrolls activated by anyone with pure mana.
Septimus shot to his feet. "A medium that translates? So pure mana is enough to activate any rune?"
His voice cracked with disbelief. "This overturns centuries of inscription theory! No affinity, no binding… impossible. Impossible! But—"
He pressed a trembling hand against his staff. "How?!"
His hands trembled as he scrolled further, muttering to himself. The tablet shook in his grip.
Cassian's golden threads pulsed rapidly. "I sense truth in these records. No deception mars them."
The next reports chronicled Adrian, his awakening, his Echo affinity, his unearthly comprehension. Piece by piece, it fit together. The Four exchanged looks heavy with disbelief, yet the evidence stacked until denial became silence.
Adrian felt their gazes settle on him. He remained still, letting the records speak.
The tattoos followed, the strengthening runes etched into flesh. Selena's discoveries were cataloged.
Draven barked out a laugh that shook the table. "So Earth can mass train its warriors faster than most clans train theirs."
He slammed his fist down. "Hah! A backwater turning out armies!"
The others nodded, grim recognition dawning. It wasn't just ink, it wasn't just scrolls, it was a system, a foundation.
Lucian's dark eyes narrowed. "This changes everything. If word spreads…"
Then came the confrontation with Valerius of the Drakenholt clan. The Celestials stiffened at the sight of the arrogant heir, at his smug cruelty.
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Draven cursed loudest. "That arrogant worm got what he deserved."
Cassian, however, frowned, "Valerius was still of a great clan. His death will not fade quietly."
His voice carried prophetic weight. "Consequences will ripple to us soon."
Still, their focus returned to Adrian himself. His strength, his impossible speed of growth.
They saw Aurelia's questioning words, Adrian's own answer, that he had not merely learned the language of mana from the Volumes but comprehended every concept within them.
A silence settled. To them, it was beyond myth. No one in the galaxy's history had ever managed it.
Septimus dropped into his chair. "The Lexarians created those Volumes, their greatest scholars study fragments for lifetimes."
His voice became a whisper. "And you absorbed everything?"
Lucian's voice was quiet, heavy. "No one… no one has ever done this. Not the Lexarians, not even the Emperors."
Cassian's golden-threaded pupils rippled, "And yet… here he sits."
Adrian felt the weight of their stares, the magnitude of what his achievements meant to them. These were legends who had fought across the galaxy for millennia, and even they seemed awed.
But still, how Stellar? Their fingers swiped, the report flowed.
And there it was.
Adrian inside the Nexus Route, drawing upon the currents of space essence itself. They saw him manifest a domain, the mark of Stellar ascension.
Septimus nearly dropped his staff. "Space? Of all concepts… Space?"
His voice cracked with disbelief. The inscribed runes along his robes flickered, responding to his shock.
Draven slammed his fist on the table. "Is he even human? To comprehend so fast, to leap so far!"
But it wasn't the last shock.
The four scrolled further, until the moment Adrian had created the glowing spheres of knowledge. The way comprehension itself was transferred.
Septimus dropped the tablet entirely, fingers trembling. His lips barely formed words.
"He… he can transfer comprehension itself. Not just knowledge written in the Language, but directly."
The old inscriber's face had gone pale. Sweat beaded on his forehead despite the cool chamber air.
"Do you understand? He bypassed the entire framework of the galaxy. He can give comprehension like a gift."
The staff clattered against the floor as he muttered, "This alone… this alone makes him…"
Lucian finished coldly, "…Not just a Stellar. But a threat."
His eyes fixed on Adrian, "He is a threat to every monopoly of knowledge. No clan, no empire, will allow such a being to remain unbound."
Cassian's gaze drifted distant, his voice heavy. "You mock my foresight, but I warned you of the Astral Omen."
The golden threads in his eyes pulsed faster, weaving patterns of possibility. "The stars themselves shook. Perhaps it was not myth after all."
"Perhaps… he is the anomaly every empire is hunting."
Draven only laughed, breaking the tension. He clapped Adrian's shoulder so hard it made the table quake.
"Danger? Good! About time Earth had its own monster. With him, we'll carve a clan into the galaxy's throat!"
Whack!
Septimus' staff cracked against his head. "Fool! Do you even know how much it costs to register a clan? Much less the foundations to hold it!"
Draven winced, rubbing his skull where a red mark was forming. "The mana crystals alone will beggar us. This is too sudden!"
"Still worth it," he muttered under his breath.
But none of them truly disagreed.
They all looked at Adrian, each face reflecting something different. Septimus saw revolutionary potential that could reshape inscription theory.
Cassian glimpsed threads of fate converging on this young man. Draven saw a weapon that could shatter empires.
Lucian saw a target that would draw every predator in the galaxy.
Because they all knew the truth. With Adrian, with the Ink, with this terrifying comprehension speed and the way to pass comprehension itself… everything had changed.
Aurelia's voice cut through the tension.
"You understand now. This knowledge cannot leave this room."
"If even a whisper of the Ink, the tattoos, or Adrian's gift spreads, Earth will not last a week."
"Not even Adrian will survive."
The four met her eyes. Slowly, they nodded.
But in their eyes, the truth lingered. Awe of Adrian's impossible ascent, pride in Earth's resurgence… and the shadow of danger curling ever closer.
For Earth's clan could now be born. But so too could its doom.