Chapter 25: The Weight of Victory Part 2: The Man Behind The Emperor The days after the battle became strangely quiet. Too quiet. Adrian returned to his normal life. The same room. The same house. The same world he had lived in before everything changed. But Adrian himself was no longer the same. He sat beside the window. Rain continued falling outside. The formation above Myanmar had already stabilized the weather, but the remaining clouds still covered the sky. The sound of rain filled the room. Normally... It would have been peaceful. But now... Every drop reminded him of the battlefield. The ocean. The storm. The fallen warriors. The Celestial Golden Sky Citadel. Adrian closed his eyes. A memory appeared. An old Garuda warrior standing with a broken wing. Even after knowing death was certain... He still charged forward. Another memory. A young warrior protecting the retreating civilians. Another. The three ancient elders standing together for their final battle. And finally... The children. The crying children who watched their homeland disappear. Adrian opened his eyes. His expression became complicated. He had experienced countless battles after regaining his Immortal Emperor memories. But this battle was different. Because this time... He saw the aftermath. He saw what remained after victory. The price. His phone suddenly rang. Adrian looked at the screen. It was one of his classmates. A friend from university. A normal person. Someone who had no idea about the battles happening beyond human understanding. Adrian answered. "Hey, Adrian." "Are you free today?" "Let's go drink coffee. You disappeared after the seminar. Everyone is wondering where you went." For a moment... Adrian remained silent. A simple invitation. A normal conversation. Something that should have been easy to accept. But his mind returned to the battlefield. He remembered blood. He remembered destruction. He remembered the fear in the eyes of the survivors. "I'm tired." His friend laughed. "You always say you're tired." "Come on. Just one coffee." Adrian looked outside the window. The rain continued falling. After a few seconds... "I'm sorry." "I don't feel like going out today." The other side became quiet. Then his friend replied. "Okay. Maybe next time." The call ended. Adrian placed the phone down. A strange loneliness appeared. Before. He wanted power because his body was weak. He wanted strength because he was tired of being unable to protect himself. But now... He had strength. More strength than anyone in this world could imagine. Yet he felt heavier than before. Adrian walked toward his desk. He opened his computer. Normally, he would read novels. Play games. Do things from his old life. But even those things felt distant. The person sitting there was still Adrian Voss. But the memories of Aetherion had changed everything. He no longer viewed the world the same way. He understood too much. He had seen too much. Adrian put on music. A quiet melody filled the room. He closed his eyes. For several hours... He did nothing. No cultivation. No training. No research. Only silence. Eventually... Sleep took over. ... Inside his dream. A battlefield appeared. Not the Garuda battlefield. Another era. Another universe. Aetherion stood above countless stars. Enemies surrounded him. Millions of powerful beings. But none dared move. The Immortal Emperor looked down. Cold. Calm. Unshaken. The scene changed. Countless civilizations collapsed. Countless enemies disappeared. Aetherion's sword destroyed everything before him. Then another scene appeared. Adrian saw himself standing among those ruins. Not as a witness. As the one who created them. He woke suddenly. His breathing became heavy. The room was dark. Adrian sat up. The dream disappeared. But the feeling remained. The power. The loneliness. The coldness. The existence of the strongest being. Adrian looked at his hands. The power inside his body was becoming unstable. A breakthrough. He immediately understood. His cultivation had reached the limit. The battle. The memories. The emotions. Everything had pushed his cultivation forward. He had been suppressing it. But now... He could no longer stop it. Adrian stood. A deep breath left his mouth. "Even now..." "I cannot avoid it." He walked outside. The night sky was silent. He sat down and entered meditation. The Originless Path within his body began moving. The energy that had accumulated after awakening his memories finally erupted. Boom! The entire area shook. The clouds above Myanmar moved. The stars disappeared. A powerful aura spread into the sky. Adrian's cultivation began transforming. The foundation changed. The energy inside his body became purer. The laws surrounding him trembled. Divinity Transformation Realm. The realm where a cultivator's existence began changing. The breakthrough continued. One hour. Five hours. Ten hours. Adrian remained unmoving. Inside his mind... The memories of the Immortal Emperor merged deeper. But this time... He did not reject them. He accepted them. Because those memories were not another person. They were part of his existence. Finally... The breakthrough ended. The sky returned to normal. Adrian opened his eyes. A new power flowed through his body. He had entered the Divinity Transformation Realm. But there was no excitement. No happiness. Only calmness. He looked at the sky. Then quietly returned inside. The next morning... Adrian woke up. The first thing he thought about was not cultivation. Not revenge. Not battle. It was creation. After the Garuda battle... After seeing destruction caused by power... He wanted to create something different. Something that could protect. Something that could continue growing. Something beyond a simple weapon. Adrian looked toward the materials collected from the Garuda treasure vault. Ancient metals. Divine crystals. Rare resources from the Naga clan. His eyes became focused. The first guardian. The first existence created through the Originless Path. The beginning of the Twelve Originless Guardians. Adrian whispered. "The first one..." "Will be the Originless Emperor."