Adrian strode out through the broken wall, mist still coiling from his hands. The battlefield hit him in an instant, the clash of steel, the endless roars, the stench of salt and blood.
But something else struck him harder. Silence within himself.
Before, every battlefield had fed him. Every spell cast, every affinity wielded, the Source absorbed and translated it, deepening his comprehension. But now... nothing.
Wherever his gaze fell, whatever patterns of fire, lightning, or water flared, the Source no longer stirred. He had already grasped them all.
The realization sank into him. Volume Three had expanded him so far, so quickly, that there was nothing left here to learn. He had already absorbed the entirety of humanity's knowledge through the volumes of the Language of Mana.
That was why he could now shape the mist into a blade. Why the Source bent at his command like never before. His growth had already pushed him past what even he could measure.
But this was no time for reflection.
He saw the walls breached again. Defenders falling, blood soaking the stones. An A-rank beast slipped a claw through the narrowest gap between Renard and Scarlett's defenses, carving dozens of lives away in an instant.
"Fall back to the inner walls!" Renard's voice boomed across the chaos.
"We can't hold this position!" a defender screamed, his arm hanging useless at his side.
Against such overwhelming power, even his legendary runes seemed fragile. And still they stood.
Formations reformed around broken shields. Bloodied healers lifted their hands again and again. Defenders who knew they had no chance still locked arms to buy one more second for their comrades.
They stood because humanity demanded it. Because they refused to kneel before despair.
Helplessness. The same crushing helplessness Adrian had felt in the Board's chamber, when he watched thousands die in a recording. Now he saw it mirrored in the defenders around him.
Rage boiled in his chest, mixing with fury until his breath came in ragged bursts. The Source answered his fury.
The mist surged, not soft and curling, but vast and oppressive, like a storm breaking open. The pressure rolled across the battlefield.
Every defender, every monster, and even both commanders froze as their bodies trembled. Even Scarlett's water manifestation flickered.
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"What... what is this?" a defender whispered, his knees buckling.
Then Adrian felt it. every affinity, every spark of mana in every creature, resonated with him. It was as if all of existence leaned toward him, waiting.
He felt like he could command anything, and the affinity itself would do it!
Instinctively, he commanded.
"Blast."
The word carried no force, yet reality obeyed. Monsters convulsed. Mana within their bodies twisted, detonated, ripping them apart from within.
D-ranks, C-ranks, B-ranks, all obliterated in a single instant. The battlefield turned into a sea of ash and collapsing flesh.
Only the three A-rank beasts remained.
Time itself seemed to stop. Defenders gawked in open horror and awe.
"Impossible," Scarlett breathed, her manifestation wavering completely.
"By the Sentinel..." Renard's voice cracked.
Even the three monstrous titans froze at what they had witnessed. The abyssal leviathan's darkness writhed uncertainly. The kraken's tentacles trembled.
Adrian stared down at his hands, chest heaving. He understood. This was [Absolute Source Order], a command from the very origin of affinities, a command that affinities themselves could not deny.
The more he understood many affinities, and more he got closer to the source, many usages of the source were revealed to him! This was just one of the things he got due to his recent growth.
But it wasn't truly absolute. The A-rank monsters still stood, their eyes burning with intelligence and defiance. Their wills were strong enough to resist, their cores unwilling to bow.
Adrian understood. It was not that the Source had failed him. His strength was not yet great enough to subjugate such towering wills.
Then he stepped forward.
The stunned defenders unconsciously parted before him. The mist pressure forced them aside, but more than that, it was instinct. Like subjects clearing the way for their emperor.
He emerged beside the commanders. Scarlett's eyes widened, her battle-honed instincts faltering under the pressure he radiated. She, one of humanity's strongest, could not fathom how this boy had erased legions in an instant.
"Adrian!" she barked, voice hard despite the tremor beneath it. "This isn't your place! Three A-ranks, this is not a battle you can join!"
Her water manifestation flickered again as his presence overwhelmed her senses. Even Renard, bloodied and exhausted from his prolonged battle, stepped back involuntarily.
"You don't understand what you're facing!" Scarlett continued, desperation creeping into her tone.
Adrian didn't look at her. His gaze fixed only on the beasts before him. The abyssal leviathan's darkness writhed with malevolent intelligence, while the kraken's tentacles slashed through the air in calculated patterns.
Their colossal forms towered above the waves, their combined pressure heavy enough to crush armies. He felt it, the truth of their strength. Stronger than anything he had fought before.
The frost jormungandr exhaled, ice crystals forming in the air around them. Its breath alone could freeze entire battalions solid.
And yet... His lips curled into a smile.
"A-rank monsters, huh?" Adrian muttered. Source blade flickering to life in his hand, his aura devouring the battlefield.
The weapon hummed with power that made the very air tremble. White-grey energy coiled around the blade's edge like liquid starlight.
"So what?"
He raised the blade, eyes burning with determination that had carried him through every impossible battle. This was who he was, the one who refused to accept limits.
"Let's see just how powerful they really are."
This was no longer just a battle. This was the measure of his growth, the first step to remove helplessness from humanity. This is the path he had sworn to walk.