"Now that we are alone," Hestia began as she walked forward, "Tell me how it actually went. All of it. What happened after you slipped back into the Providence Hub?"
Adrian walked beside her, his robes brushing the lush grass. He didn't hide anything from her. He began to recount the events of his return to the intergalactic hub.
"Within their sanctuary, I analyzed and comprehended the Prime Arcane Concept of Severance," Adrian explained.
Hestia listened silently, her pale golden eyes widening slightly at the mention of another Prime Arcane Concept, but she let him continue.
Adrian glossed over erasing the Ethereal Providence Sect's army, simply stating that he had utilized his special authority technique to strip Navira's authority and clear the plaza.
Hestia understood it, since she had felt his authority technique plundering her own authority before.
Then Adrian detailed the unknown silver-skinned alien, the clash of their wills, and the golden light of the ancient intent.
"After the alien fled and that ancient will vanished," Adrian concluded, his tone casual, "I needed to know who we were dealing with. So, before I teleported the Elyrians out, I reached down and devoured Tenyz's entire physical body and extracted his memories to learn more information."
Hestia stopped walking.
The serene atmosphere of the Azure Garden seemed to freeze around them. The ambient mana in the air stilled, instantly reflecting the sudden spike in her emotions.
Adrian took another step before realizing she wasn't beside him. He turned around, a faint look of confusion on his face. "Hestia?"
"You... you did what?" Hestia asked, her voice dangerously quiet.
"I devoured his memories," Adrian repeated, genuinely flabbergasted by her reaction. "It was the fastest way to understand the political structure of the sect and the identity of the alien. I needed intelligence, and—"
"You promised me!" Hestia snapped, her voice suddenly echoing sharply through the quiet garden. She closed the distance between them in two furious strides, her pale golden eyes blazing with a mixture of disbelief and terror. "Adrian, before you left, you promised me that you would use your brain before doing anything reckless!"
Adrian blinked, completely caught off guard by her sudden outburst. "I did use my brain, Hestia. I didn't engage the ancient will. I made a calculated retreat. Devouring Tenyz was a tactical decision to secure—"
"Devouring the memories of a being who has lived for millions of years is not a tactical decision," Hestia interrupted, her hands clenching into tight fists at her sides. "It is something only a completely insane being would do."
Adrian opened his mouth to defend himself, but the fear radiating from her aura silenced him.
"Do you even understand what memories are, Adrian?" Hestia demanded as she stared up at him. "Memories are what make a 'self'. Your identity, your morals, your love for your family, your drive to protect your people... all of it exists purely because of the sequence of experiences you have lived. Without your memories, you are nothing but an empty shell!"
She took a shaky breath, stepping even closer, her voice trembling with a rare vulnerability. "You are an anomaly. You possess a Prime Arcane Concept, an Anchor-stage mind, and a billion units of mana. But chronologically? You have not even lived for a thousand years. Tenyz was a sovereign's heir who had lived, schemed, tortured, and murdered for millions of years. If you pour an ocean into a teacup, the cup doesn't just overflow, Adrian. The original water is entirely washed away."
Adrian stood silently, the weight of her words crashing into him. He hadn't thought about it from that perspective. To him, the Devour concept was just another tool in his arsenal, a utility he had previously used on Morka without losing his sense of self. But Hestia was looking at the fundamental, psychological horror of the act.
"Ever since my UNI-OS account was upgraded to Privileged Authority, I have spent nights reading the restricted historical archives," Hestia continued, her tone laced with deep dread. "Do you know how many news reports and historical warnings exist about idiots attempting to devour the memories of ancient beings? They think they can handle it. They think their will is strong enough. And every single time, their 'self' is overwritten. They go completely insane, lost in a labyrinth of thousands of lifetimes, unable to remember who they originally were."
She pointed a finger at his chest. "That is exactly why cultivators who primarily use the Arcane Concept of Devour have such a vile, feared reputation across the universe. They are viewed as unstable monsters. And you... you just did the same thing."
Looking into her eyes, Adrian finally understood the horror she had felt upon hearing his casual admission. She wasn't angry because he had taken a risk in combat. She was terrified because he had risked erasing the very person she loved.
Adrian's expression softened. He reached out, gently taking her trembling hands in his own.
"Hestia, look at me," Adrian said, "I am still here. I am still me."
She looked up at him, her eyes searching his face for any trace of an alien coldness, any flicker of a Yiphraen aristocrat. She found only the familiar depths of the man she knew.
"When the flood of his memories hit me," Adrian explained gently, refusing to let go of her hands, "it did overwhelm me at first. The sheer volume of it nearly drove me to my knees. But I used my consciousness to compartmentalize the data. I rapidly filtered through the chaotic noise, discarding the useless centuries of mundane life, and extracted only the specific intelligence that mattered to us. I shoved the rest of his existence into a locked abyss."
Hestia stared at him, momentarily stunned by his explanation. The fear in her eyes slowly gave way to baffled disbelief.
"You... you just filtered it?" Hestia asked, her voice dropping into a bewildered whisper. "Adrian, I saw discussions on the Astral Archive Pavilion network regarding 'memory extraction willforce techniques'. Many Sects have spent eras developing highly classified techniques specifically designed to safely siphon and categorize memories without damaging the host's mind. And you are telling me... you did it without a technique? You just brute-forced a million years of data compartmentalization with raw intent?"
"It started to overwhelm me, yes," Adrian replied, offering a helpless shrug. "But then... I just did it. The golden dot within me, the chime, pushed itself and forced the memories into order. I honestly couldn't give you a step-by-step technical explanation of how I managed it."
Hestia closed her eyes, letting out an exhausted sigh. When she opened them again, the terror had subsided, replaced by a lingering exhaustion.
"You are a monster," Hestia muttered, though the edge was gone from her voice. She squeezed his hands before pulling away slightly. "But I am warning you, Adrian. Do not ever act like this again. Relying on raw mental density to survive memory absorption is playing a lethal game with your own self. The next time you try this on someone even older, it could permanently destroy your sense of self."
She crossed her arms, her mind already churning with solutions. "Perhaps in the next Universal Auction, if I find a memory extraction willforce technique, I will purchase it. At least then you won't be using your own mind as a raw filter."
Adrian smiled warmly, recognizing her way of showing care. He stepped closer, deliberately lightening the heavy mood that had suffocated the pathway.
"You know," Adrian said, "I finally understand how Aerin and your other disciples must feel every single day. Sect Leader Hestia just never stops lecturing!"
Hestia's eyes narrowed playfully, and she immediately reached out, slapping his arm with a sharp, resounding smack.
"I lecture because my disciples have a terrible habit of trying to get themselves killed," Hestia retorted. She shook her head, the last remnants of her fear dissipating into the peaceful air of the garden.
"Alright, Supreme Emperor," Hestia sighed, falling back into step beside him as they continued their walk down the garden. "Since you risked your sanity to steal a dead man's thoughts... what did you actually discover from his memories?"
"A lot," Adrian answered, his tone turning serious. "The Ethereal Providence Sect is not merely an independent Lesser Major Sect."
"Tenyz's memories revealed that the ancient ancestor of their race is an entity named Damian. And Damian was taken in by a Great Sect. He is currently an elder within a Great Sect."
Hestia's steps faltered for a fraction of a second. She turned her head, her pale golden eyes blinking in slight shock.
"A Great Sect elder?" Hestia repeated, processing the staggering political weight of the revelation. "So the silver-skinned alien..."
"Was Damian's disciple," Adrian confirmed. "A proxy sent directly from a Great Sect to investigate the Providence Hub. That is why his willforce was so overwhelming, and that is why his concealment technique bypassed my initial perception."
For a moment, Adrian expected Hestia to panic. Finding out that they had just humiliated the bloodline of a Great Sect elder and fought a Great Sect proxy was the kind of news that would normally cause a minor sect leader to flee to the edges of the universe in terror.
But Hestia merely absorbed the information. She looked forward, her expression thoughtful, before a soft, amused laugh escaped her lips.
"Well," Hestia mused, shaking her head as she glanced sideways at him. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. You have only been an Astral Stage sovereign for a little over a month, and the Origin Emperor has already started to play with the Great Sects of the universe."
Adrian stared at her, slightly taken aback by her sheer nonchalance. "You aren't worried?"
"Worrying won't change the board," Hestia replied, her confidence shining through. "Besides, we are already building the Origin Sect specifically to challenge the UNI-Sect and the cosmic hierarchy. Whether we draw the ire of a Great Sect today or a thousand years from now, the destination remains the same. As long as we keep our true foundation hidden in the shadows, let them chase phantoms."
Adrian couldn't help but laugh. "You are right," He agreed.
They walked together in comfortable silence for a while, the ambient, life-rich mana of the Azure Garden washing over them.
"So," Hestia asked softly, "what is our next move?"
"We wait for the Elyrians to wake up and recover their senses. Especially the Crown Prince." Adrian replied.
"There should be a reason the universe guided me to him. Once he is back to normal, we will find out what kind of fate is leading me to that prince."