Time resumed its natural flow, and Solanky's consciousness returned to his body. He stirred awake to find the grand elder staring at his own body in stunned amazement — and he wasn't alone. Every being nearby, Gido included, wore the same look of shock. Solanky rose from the floor unnoticed; none of them registered that he'd even woken. He walked toward a towering statue of a figure holding a scroll in one hand, its other palm raised skyward, as though holding back the heavens themselves from collapsing.
Solanky settled beneath the statue and waited for the others to snap out of their trance. When he looked up again, the words on the scroll began to shine, and he read them aloud: "The Source-Defying Body Technique." The characters lifted from the scroll and hovered above him for a moment before plunging down with blinding speed, sinking into his skull and spreading through every inch of his body. They flared with golden light before vanishing entirely into his cells, into his very blood.
Solanky staggered back from the statue and stumbled into the grand elder — the collision was enough to shake the others from their daze, one by one.
The grand elder caught him and felt it immediately: a shift in Solanky's strength and durability, now comparable to a half god. Elation surged through him — Solanky would only grow more powerful once he began true cultivation. He asked Solanky to throw a punch, curious to see something for himself. Solanky nodded and stepped forward, driving his fist into the air.
The instant the punch landed, the space around him trembled. The grand elder and the others stared in shock — by rights, Solanky's level should have made him only fifty times stronger than a high-level mortal, the mark of a half god or half devil.
But the force he'd unleashed was a hundred and fifty times stronger than a high-level mortal — three times what a being of his level should be capable of, even on a casual strike. Gido's eyes widened in delight. "Now that I've reached the dimensional god level, I recognize this technique," he said. "I'm honored to witness a being training in the Source-Defying Body Technique." His laughter boomed through the fortress, and being a dimensional immortal, the sound alone sent violent tremors through the castle and its independent spaces.
A dragon emerged from one of the vast chambers, and the moment the grand elder, Solanky, Gido, and the others laid eyes on it, they spoke as one: "A primordial ancient dragon emperor." Though the dragon's form still lingered deep within its own independent space, the pressure radiating from it was enough to bring every being present to their knees in reverence — every being except Solanky. The dragon shrank its massive body, once five hundred thousand light-years long, down to a mere five hundred kilometers, and settled beneath the towering statue.
She introduced herself as Elena — the only female primordial ancient dragon in existence, and mother to every dragon across the known and unknown worlds and dimensions.
Elena studied Solanky, surprise flickering across her features. "How are you this strong, at your level?" She never finished the thought — she'd sensed that the scroll in the statue's hand had gone dark, its power and aura spent. Confusion crossed her face, but she let it go and continued. "Any being who trains in the Source-Defying Body Technique is considered an anomaly in this world. The technique unfolds across eight phases, each one making the practitioner stronger relative to their peers. The first phase triples one's strength."
She studied him a moment longer. "You've already completed the first phase, I see. But I'd advise against attempting the second just yet — it would draw attention you don't want." Solanky nodded, thanking her, then asked what each phase amplified. Elena continued. "The second phase multiplies strength sixfold. The third, ninefold. The fourth, twelvefold. The fifth, fifteenfold. The sixth, eighteenfold. The seventh, twenty-one fold. And the eighth—" she paused, shaking her massive head. "The eighth is legend. Rumored to amplify strength eighty-four times over. Even beings with a third-grade bloodline rarely reach it."
Solanky thanked her again, and the grand elder bowed low in gratitude, his excitement growing — Solanky would make a far stronger guardian when the day came for the grand elder to ascend to the god realm. Sensing that Solanky's newly risen strength needed a third-grade bloodline to stabilize the surge of energy within him, Elena offered a drop of her own blood for him to merge with.
The moment Solanky sat to begin the merging, Elena sealed off an entire dimension, cutting it away from the outside world completely. Within that space — ten thousand light-years wide — only she, the grand elder, Gido, and Solanky existed.
Then Elena spoke, her voice edged with disbelief. "Who is this boy? Why does he carry the third-grade perfect limit bloodline — and the highest tier of it, no less?" The grand elder reeled; he'd assumed Solanky's blood sat merely at the first stage of the third grade. He pressed her for details on the ranks and power levels within that grade.
"The third-grade bloodline holds three stages," Elena explained, "and each carries what some call the great bloodline taboo — I trust you already understand what that means. The first stage is called the god of mysteries, or devil of obviousness — fifty million times stronger than a dimensional god, with bodies stretching tens of thousands of light-years. The second stage is the god of creation, or devil of destruction — five hundred million times stronger than the first stage, with bodies spanning hundreds of thousands of light-years, like my own. Beings at this stage can create life that defies the natural order the instant it comes into existence."
She turned back to Solanky. "And your young friend here belongs to the final stage of the third grade — the source god. The most noble of all creation. They draw no energy from the world around them, because they are the source — a boundless spiritual energy that stabilizes the very world they inhabit. Even I couldn't claim to absorb ten percent of their power. Their true bodies stretch beyond five hundred billion light-years, and they hold the fate of every living being beneath them in their hands."
The revelation left the grand elder and Gido speechless. "At first I couldn't sense his bloodline at all," Elena continued. "But the instant he merged with my blood, I lost every trace of the connection I'd had with that drop. I assumed someone had sealed away his memories and power — but I was wrong. He sealed it himself. That's why he's been so careful." She smiled as the grand elder rubbed the back of his head, embarrassed, and she offered him quiet praise for teaching Solanky such caution — because she knew all too well how others would exploit a secret like this.