I Can Assimilate Everything-Chapter 608: The Blind Depths! II
He heard nothing and sensed nothing, but there were enemies here.
As a few more inches of vision opened up through his continued Assimilation, he was able to see the creature that had silently skewered him.
It pulsed with immense heaviness at THE Surface Depth, but it felt many times more powerful than him despite operating at theoretically the same level of distinction. The thing before him was a writhing mass of half-formed features that should not have been able to coexist on the same form.
Faces that never finished developing emerged from its surface at random angles, mouths open in silent screams that would never be heard in this place of absolute quiet. Limbs sprouted from locations that made no anatomical sense, ending in fractal impossibilities.
Its body was obsidian and pulsing with collapsed Existence, hardened into something that looked like it would reject any attempt to affect it through conventional means. Eyes that held no intelligence but endless hunger fixed upon him from multiple locations across its writhing form.
And its single strike was unfathomably heavy and painful. His whole being was grievously injured, the appendage still lodged through his chest and preventing any attempt to heal or regenerate while it remained in place. The creature was not sitting still either, roaring soundlessly toward Achilles while moving another limb to finish tearing him apart entirely.
Booming prompts cascaded through his awareness with information about what he faced!
|You have encountered a Malformed Collapsed Existence (First Tier) (THE Surface Dept)|
|These creatures are born from distorted Existence and those who failed attempts to cross the Cavern. Entities whose Existences collapsed during trials and reformed into predatory abominations.|
|They appear as writhing masses of half-formed features, faces that never finished developing, limbs that end in fractal impossibilities.|
|They carry terrifying weight of resistance that makes them difficult to damage through conventional means. Their collapsed nature has hardened into something that rejects external influence.|
|They hunt through vibration and Existential resonance, drawn to any organized consciousness like sharks to blood.|
|If one remains stationary for more than brief moments, they begin swarming from all directions as more and more are drawn to the presence.|
|They do not communicate or coordinate but instinctively converge on targets through shared predatory drive.|
|Killing them is possible but costly, and for every one destroyed, the disturbance attracts others from greater distances.|
|Warning: You are currently impaled and immobilized. Additional Malformed are likely converging on your position.| 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢
...!
What the fuck was this?
Achilles’s gaze was livid with pain and fury as he processed the situation. Against such a monstrous thing, against this creature that had ambushed him in absolute darkness and now sought to finish what it had started, why did conventional concerns matter?
For causing him such pain, for daring to treat him as prey when he had consumed THE manifestations and achieved distinction through impossible means, there was only one appropriate response.
He grasped onto the limb piercing through his chest with both hands, feeling the obsidian surface pulse against his palms with collapsed Existence that seemed to reject his very touch.
"Assimilate!"
His roar emerged with conviction that transcended the silence swallowing all sound, his Way responding to his will with desperate intensity born from genuine threat to his survival.
And...
And...!
...!
His eyes opened wide with shock.
The creature remained right where it was. An obsidian light flashed over its form as something was torn away from its Existence, some fragment of its accumulated power ripped free and drawn into Achilles’s being. Its ferocious eyes, all dozen of them scattered across its writhing mass, became enraged with fury that exceeded its previous predatory hunger.
But it had not been consumed. It had not collapsed into his Way like so many others before it!
Prompts bloomed before his awareness.
|The Malformed Collapsed Existence resists your Assimilation due to its profound distorted Way and Civilization.|
|Only 5% of its immensity has been Assimilated.|
|It has sensed this violation of its being and is now remarkably enraged.|
...!
Five percent.
He had only managed to consume five percent of this creature despite direct contact and desperate intent. His Way of Assimilation, which had devoured THE manifestations and Principles of Existence and everything else he had ever attempted to consume, had been largely rejected!
Even though he was only able to Assimilate five percent of this being with his initial attempt, the boons were heavy beyond what that percentage suggested. He felt his Weight shooting upwards again as if he had just eaten a really heavy snack, the creature’s accumulated Depth far exceeding his own!
Five percent of something three times denser than himself was still substantial nourishment.
And what he had to do at such a time was obvious.
"Assimilate!"
His Existence roared out again as he targeted this being for a second time, his Way of Assimilation latching onto the collapsed creature with desperate hunger that refused to acknowledge the resistance it encountered. Another fragment of obsidian power tore free from the Malformed and flowed into his being, perhaps another four percent given the creature’s heightened resistance to repeated consumption.
The thing’s countless eyes blazed with fury that transcended its previous predatory hunger.
"Assimilate!"
A third time his voice rang out with conviction that the silence could not swallow, and another portion of the creature’s immensity ripped away from its collapsed form to join with his own rapidly growing Depth.
ROAAR!
The creature kept feeling its Depth being depleted with each successive consumption, and it roared with brutality that expressed itself through vibration rather than sound. It grabbed Achilles’s right side with limbs that ended in fractal impossibilities, gripping flesh and Existence alike as it pulled from the point where it had impaled him.
Achilles felt his very body and Existence being torn apart by the motion!
The appendage lodged through his chest twisted and widened the wound as the creature attempted to rip him in half through sheer physical force and Malformed Assertions!
Pain beyond anything he had experienced since his transformation into Malformed Abomination flooded his consciousness.
But so what?
"Assimilate."
He uttered out again, and he reached an impasse of brutality with this creature that could only end with one of them ceasing to exist. He stayed in contact with this being despite the agony, despite the way its grip was literally tearing him apart, because he felt like the closer he was, the more he could Assimilate its terrifying Depth.
Distance mattered. Proximity amplified consumption. And right now, impaled on the creature’s appendage and held in its fractal grip, he was as close as physically possible.
So he got closer.
Achilles grabbed onto the Malformed head of this creature with both hands, his fingers sinking into half-formed features that writhed beneath his grip. The motion impaled him even further on the appendage through his chest!
Blood that shone with purple-gold luminescence poured from wounds that should have been instantly fatal. His Civilization screamed with damage that threatened to collapse everything he had built. His vision, already limited to mere feet of vague impression, flickered with darkness that had nothing to do with the environment.
But his grip on the creature’s head remained absolute, and his voice remained steady despite everything.
"Assimilate!"
Others used swords to cut down their enemies. Others called upon fire or lightning or cosmic forces to destroy what opposed them. Others developed skills and abilities and techniques that represented eons of accumulated martial wisdom.
He simply needed to devour.
The creature thrashed with desperation that grew more frantic as it felt its Existence being consumed piece by piece. It tore at him with every limb it possessed, ripping chunks from his body that regenerated slower than they were removed. It tried to pull away, to disengage from this enemy that had transformed from prey into predator through sheer refusal to die.
But Achilles’s grip was absolute, and his consumption was relentless.
"Assimilate."
Another portion of collapsed Depth flowed into him.
"Assimilate."
The creature’s form began shrinking as its accumulated immensity drained away.
"Assimilate."
Its thrashing grew weaker, its resistance less effective, its rage transforming into something that might have been fear if such creatures were capable of that emotion.
"Assimilate."
Achilles’s wounds began closing even as new ones were inflicted, his healing finally outpacing the damage as the creature’s strength faded.
"Assimilate."
The Malformed Collapsed Existence was half the size it had been when this brutal exchange began, its obsidian form compressed and diminished as everything that made it powerful flowed into the being it had attempted to kill.
"Assimilate."
It stopped thrashing. Its limbs fell limp. Its countless eyes dimmed as the hunger that had driven it for eons finally encountered something hungrier than itself.
"Assimilate."
The creature’s form began dissolving entirely!
"Assimilate!"
The last fragments of the Malformed Collapsed Existence disappeared into Achilles’s being, leaving nothing behind except the gaping wound through his chest and the obsidian light now blazing in his eyes.
He fell to whatever passed for ground in this place of absolute darkness. The hole through his chest showed everything behind him through its terrible diameter, organs and structures that should have been hidden from view exposed to the oppressive atmosphere.
But he was alive, and the creature was not, and his eyes flashed with terrifying obsidian light that had not been there before this brutal exchange!
A THE Surface Depth entity was fully swallowed!
