I Can Assimilate Everything-Chapter 602: Emergence of Civilizations! II

Achilles couldn’t really say that he hated THE Corpse Hierophant or any of the other THEs.

There wasn’t hatred, not in the personal sense that drove vendettas and consumed rational thought with burning desire for revenge. There was simply the issue of safety!

They hadn’t truly bothered with him until he had embarked on the path of grander Scales of Existence, and things had played out since then to make them his enemies through circumstance rather than any fundamental incompatibility of values.

Since then, it became a race against time of exactly who would have enough power to eliminate the other.

Either those with Collapsed Civilizations recovered immensely and obtained enough power to move across Observable Existence and wipe out anything they deemed dangerous or had been encroaching upon their Civilizations, or the thing that was considered dangerous, which in this case would be Achilles, would grow powerful enough to encroach upon all of these Civilizations first.

He was trying to survive, and they were trying to survive as well.

It was exactly the same as all those who had been surviving in the colony cities of his world. Survival of the fittest. And to survive, one had to adapt to the changing environments rather than clinging to strategies that no longer applied to current circumstances.

Which was why the moment that he attained THE Surface Depth, he began to move. He had to adapt because effectively his status and position in the grand scheme of Existence had changed dramatically.

Before he attained the Level One Scale of Existence, he was tiny. A creature that THE entities could afford to send manifestations after rather than dealing with personally. A nuisance that required attention but not genuine concern.

But at this moment he was big, and he had to act accordingly!

It was why at this moment...

BOOM!

The skyspace above a hidden and veiled domain shattered with violence that sent shockwaves rippling across countless layers of protective formations. This region had been concealed through mechanisms that should have been impenetrable to anything below THE distinction, wards built across eons of careful cultivation designed to hide the recovering heart of a Collapsed Civilization from enemies who might seek to strike while weakness persisted.

Those wards meant nothing to something that had achieved THE Surface Depth and possessed memories of exactly how they had been constructed.

From the breach in reality, a glorious figure shining in purple-gold brilliance descended like judgment made manifest. Achilles appeared as a massive titan whose presence pressed against the domain with weight that made the very foundations of this hidden realm groan in protest.

Illusory suns and moons orbited his form while stellar particles of THE Civilizational Authority of Assimilation painted the surrounding space with light that didn’t belong in a realm dedicated to death and endings.

...!

His gaze was heavy and imperious as he looked upon the endless swathes of Living Necrocracies stretched out across a vast necropolis below him. Countless beings who had embraced death as philosophy and transformation through endings as highest truth now trembled where they stood as his billowing power spread out in all directions with the genuine immensity of an entity on entirely higher Scale of Existence.

Beings at the caliber of Mycelle trembled as they looked up and saw him as if he was some great demon that had broken into their home. Their existences quaked under pressure that they had no capacity to resist, and many fell to their knees simply from proximity to authority that exceeded anything they had evolved to withstand.

Because he had arrived in the abode that was the veiled domain of THE Corpse Hierophant himself.

Achilles frowned as he spread his senses out across this region and covered it in its entirety, his perception washing over obsidian structures and rivers of death authority and the countless Living Necrocracies who called this place home.

But he sensed absolutely nothing of the aura of THE Corpse Hierophant.

As if this fucker had just left.

Achilles took a single step and appeared at the center of this endless citadel of death, his figure materializing above the skull of a THE entity that THE Corpse Hierophant had killed eons ago and transformed into his personal dwelling. The massive cranium stretched for distances, and its surface still radiated faint echoes of the power it had contained when its original owner yet lived.

The residual aura of THE Corpse Hierophant was concentrated here more than anywhere else in the domain, traces of his presence soaked into every surface through eons of habitation. But the being himself was nowhere to be found, his actual existence having departed through means that left no obvious trail. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

At this moment, brilliant light radiated from Achilles as his perceptive eyes blinked and looked around with transformed sight that perceived reality as waves and strings of fundamental code.

He could see multiple Grand Principles related to death permeating throughout this domain. The Grand Principle of Cessation hovered with obsidian weight that spoke of absolute endings. The Grand Principle of Transition shimmered with dark silver light that promised transformation through termination. The Grand Principle of Persistence whispered of things that endured even after death claimed them.

Achilles reached his hand out and pulled while calling out with voice that carried the weight of his achieved Depth.

"Come."

The single word was not request but command, and the Grand Principle of Cessation responded!

Obsidian light began flowing into him as he Assimilated the Principle with seamless efficiency. The fundamental truth of absolute endings poured into his existence and integrated with what he already contained, adding new understanding to the Phonemes he was gradually mastering.

As he did so, he spoke to the Principle as if it were entity capable of conversation rather than abstract truth underlying reality.

"Show me where the one who used you not too long ago went. Show me where THE Corpse Hierophant went."

...!

BOOM!

Obsidian light exploded outward from his form as he began using unique means to find exactly where his enemy had fled. The Grand Principle of Cessation had been wielded by THE Corpse Hierophant for eons, had been called upon and utilized and connected to his Way of Necrocracy through countless applications across his long existence. That connection left traces that the Principle itself could reveal to someone with sufficient authority to ask.

In the back of his mind, Achilles was already thinking about his discussion with THE Endless Dream regarding Keys and whatever place they led to. That mysterious destination that every single entity at the Level One Scale of Existence had been fighting over during the Age of Collapse, the secret that THE Resplendent Paradox had left behind when she departed toward unknown fate.

Had they all of a sudden found such a place just as he attained THE, or was he actually the pressure that forced them toward it?

Had his consumption of their manifestations and his rapid advancement toward THE distinction frightened them badly enough that they finally set aside eons of conflict to cooperate?

His eyes shone sharply as he processed the irony of that possibility.

At this moment, he deciphered information from the Grand Principle he was Assimilating. Images and impressions flowed into his consciousness, traces of where THE Corpse Hierophant had directed his attention before departing this domain entirely. A direction became clear, a path through layers of reality that led toward something that the Principle itself could barely perceive.

Achilles shot out toward that direction with speed that only THE entities could achieve, leaving behind an endless citadel of death and the countless Living Necrocracies within it who remained shocked and utterly dazed by what had just occurred.

Uniquely, he had chosen not to Assimilate even a single one of them.

They were not his enemies at this stage as he had far surpassed them, with him even stopping the raids on Sanctuaries a little while ago. They were simply beings trying to survive under leadership that had made choices bringing them into conflict with something they had no hope of resisting.

When he eventually claimed the Civilization of Necrocracy for one of The Adrastia Emperor Kings, these Living Necrocracies would become subjects of his encompassing authority rather than victims of his hunger.

There was no need to consume those who would soon belong to him anyway!