I Can Assimilate Everything-Chapter 592: A Dreamer’s Gamble!

THE Endless Dream.

Eyyanah.

She had many names before these, titles accumulated across eons of existence and achievement, but these were the two that she went by the most in this current era of collapsed civilizations and desperate recovery.

Her whole life she was a dreamer, and she had dreamed so profoundly and with such absolute conviction that she attained the Level One Scale of Existence through sheer force of vision made manifest. Dreams were not escapism to her but rather the forge where reality was shaped before it hardened into concrete form, and she had wielded that understanding to build a Civilization that once rivaled any other in Observable Existence.

Even after she was collapsed eons ago during THE Corpse Hierophant’s catastrophic war against all other Civilizations, she still persisted in dreaming. She was one of the more powerful among those with Collapsed Civilizations when it came to how quickly she was returning to her former glory, her connection to the fundamental weaving of Dreams allowing her recovery to proceed at rates that others struggled to match.

Most of the collapsed leaders were currently awake and beginning to move, working to collect the scattered parts of their Civilizations with varying degrees of success. Many of them were capable of manifesting portions of their power like she could, projecting authority across vast distances to influence events without risking their recovering cores directly.

Like she had done.

Like the two entities who had met their unfortunate end here not too long ago, devoured by an insane creature who should not have been capable of threatening them regardless of circumstances.

Which brought her to what her mind was currently buzzing about with intensity that bordered on obsession. The entity that she had dreamed about who would become the bane of existence for some of the Collapsed Civilizations.

At least, this was what she used to dream and obtain information about.

As of this moment, she could no longer see the potential dreams of the future that involved this being. Where once her perception had shown branching possibilities and probability clouds surrounding his existence, now there was only fog and uncertainty that her authority could not pierce.

More often than not, that limitation only occurred when one was at the same level as her in power, their own significance creating interference patterns that disrupted her prophetic sight. Or they possessed some unique anomalistic feature that she did not understand, something that operated according to principles her Dreams could not adequately model.

Achilles.

This monstrous devourer floating before her with that innocent smile should not be fitting in the category of being more powerful than her. At most, he possessed something that even she did not understand, some capability that defied conventional analysis and made prediction impossible through mechanisms she couldn’t identify.

And yet, even when she wanted to refute that he was more powerful than her, because naturally and logically he absolutely should not be given that he hadn’t even achieved THE distinction, he did just manage to accomplish what she would not have been able to do in the span of the last few minutes.

He had managed to effectively collapse two manifestations of THE Surface Depth entities. THE Corpse Hierophant and THE Sovereign Catalyst, beings whose power should have been utterly beyond his reach, consumed as if they were nothing more than particularly nutritious meals.

Now, depending on how one defined power, would this not make him more powerful than her even though he had not grasped the authority of a THE Surface Depth of Absolute Sovereignty entity?

Power, after all, was a concept that defied simple measurement across different contexts and methodologies. A poison that could kill a king was not stronger than the king in any conventional sense. It possessed no army, commanded no authority, wielded no blade. And yet the king would be dead all the same while the poison remained.

A disease that felled empires was not more powerful than the emperors it destroyed, and yet their crowns lay forgotten while the pestilence continued spreading.

Was power the capacity to impose one’s will, or was it simply the ability to end those who possessed such capacity? If an entity without any Depth of Absolute Sovereignty could consistently kill other entities who had achieved that Depth, did their lack of formal distinction matter when the results spoke for themselves?

Depending on how one viewed power, did this not put them on the same stage regardless of technical classifications?

Because right now, as she stared at this monstrous entity that she thought she could work with seamlessly, she found herself utterly baffled and somewhat hesitant on how she should continue from here.

In the past, due to her own power, she believed that if anything should go wrong between them, she would be able to defend herself if their alliance broke down.

She had approached him from position of strength, offering resources and protection to someone she considered useful but ultimately manageable. If he proved treacherous or his capabilities became inconvenient, she had assumed she could simply withdraw or eliminate the threat through application of superior authority.

But right now, if he had any different tendency that she did not know about, if his friendly demeanor concealed intentions she hadn’t anticipated, what stopped him from doing exactly what he just did to the manifestations of two entities just like her?

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing that she could identify with certainty.

Because of this realization, she remained where she was with face regal and majestic despite the turmoil churning beneath her composed exterior. Her jeweled eyes held a hint of hesitation when she looked toward Achilles, a wariness that she couldn’t quite suppress despite knowing that showing such weakness might itself be dangerous.

And as she continued to look at him, he smiled in that calming and innocent way as if he was not a monstrous creature that could devour manifestations of THE Surface Depth entities with casual efficiency.

"Do I seem more unpredictable to you now than I seemed before?"

His voice carried genuine curiosity rather than threat, as if he was sincerely interested in her assessment of the situation rather than attempting intimidation.

"Because I do not want you getting cold feet when it comes toward me. I have just grasped a power that you have glimpsed in what it can do, alongside the memories of the two that I just devoured." He paused, his purple-gold eyes holding warmth that seemed entirely inappropriate given what he’d just accomplished. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

"I know a whole lot more now, even if it’s a slow integration of memories. I know where to find them. The rest of their manifestations, the rest of their Sacred Holy Lands. I could effectively say that I no longer need you."

The words hung in the air with weight that made THE Endless Dream’s manifested form tense despite her best efforts to remain composed.

"But I’d like to repay the good that others have done for me."

His smile remained gentle, almost kind.

"You went out of your way and sought an alliance with me when you could have simply observed from safety or joined those hunting me down. You protected me somewhat during the initial stages of our cooperation and gave me access to another Civilizational authority that led to the events which gave me this power."

His gesture encompassed the fallen citadel around them, the consumed manifestations, everything that had occurred since their partnership began. "You brought me here into this raid that unlocked the terrifying capability I have just obtained. So I do wish to give back somewhat and take care of you, if you can take a leap of faith and trust me."

His expression shifted toward something that looked remarkably like sincerity.

"You will be the first among the Collapsed Civilizations to fully return to your prime once more. You just need that leap of faith." His smile widened with warmth that seemed entirely genuine. "You just need to dream."

...!

’Hah...’

THE Endless Dream nearly laughed as she heard these incredulous words, her mind buzzing with a sense of danger and possibility that warred against each other with equal intensity. She found herself asking the question that had been building since the first THE manifestation had been consumed. Just what monstrous being had she connected herself to?

Because at this moment, the question of what power he held had long since been answered in the most definitive way possible, demonstrated through results that could not be argued with or rationalized away. And he talked to her as if they were mere peers or beings on the same stage, if he didn’t secretly think himself to be higher.

But either way, what choice did she truly have?

She had already committed to this alliance, already provided him with resources and authority that had contributed to his current impossible state. If she withdrew now, she would have gained nothing from her investment while potentially making an enemy of something that could apparently consume THE entities without meaningful resistance.

And if she continued forward, if she maintained the partnership and trusted that his stated intentions were genuine...

THE Endless Dream sighed with sound that carried weight of heavy significance, and she took a step forward toward the impossible creature who had just rewritten her understanding of what power meant.

In for a penny, in for a pound.

She went all in.