I Can Assimilate Everything-Chapter 620: Why did you do that?
What qualitative jump did one need to go from THE Surface Depth of Absolute Sovereignty to THE Intermediate Depth?
Some profound epiphany that restructured how one understood their relationship with Existence itself?
Some deeper understanding of THE Level One Scale of Existence that unlocked capabilities the Surface Depth could never access?
Or perhaps the answer lay with that fucker named Vakochev who put his name on the very Scales of Existence, whoever or whatever he actually was?
Achilles couldn’t say for sure, but he was definitely heading in the right direction as he entered the next stage of whatever this mysterious Cavern of Existence held. The boundary between the First Region and the Second had passed without fanfare, reality simply shifting around him as he crossed a threshold that his accumulated power made trivial to traverse.
Prompts bloomed before his awareness with information about where he now stood.
|Region Entered: The Fractured Manifold|
|The Second Region of The Cavern of Existence.|
|Reality here is broken into shards that do not connect in logical ways. Stepping forward might move you backward, rising might send you deeper.|
|Gravity shifts without warning, sometimes reversing entirely or pulling in multiple directions simultaneously.|
|Pockets of compressed time exist where moments stretch into perceived hours, alongside regions where hours pass in heartbeats.|
...!
Achilles absorbed this information as he looked around at his new surroundings with eyes that had grown sharp enough to perceive what this place tried to hide.
The air and pressure here should have been intimidating for any entity at his technical level of distinction. The atmosphere pressed down with weight that exceeded The Blind Depths significantly, reality itself seeming to resist the presence of organized consciousness with hostility that went beyond simple environmental hazard.
But to him, it felt like a breeze.
After devouring so many Surface Depth entities whose accumulated immensity exceeded what most THE entities could dream of possessing, the pressure of this region registered as mild discomfort rather than genuine threat. His compressed Depth absorbed the environmental hostility without conscious effort, his existence simply too heavy to be meaningfully affected by forces designed to challenge beings far less dense than himself.
He had seen a lot in the past few months on his rise to power. Star Seas that stretched across distances that defied comprehension. Voids that held nothing but endless darkness between scattered points of light. Sanctuaries where entire Civilizations huddled against the chaos of the Shattered Folds. He had witnessed wonders and horrors in equal measure as his advancement carried him from insignificance to existential relevance.
But the higher up he went, Existence seemed to lean more toward simplicity rather than increasing complexity.
What he could see in front of him were mountain ranges shining with heavy obsidian light, their peaks disappearing into mists that seemed to swallow perception itself. The landscape stretched in directions that didn’t quite align with conventional geometry, distances expanding and contracting based on principles that his mind struggled to fully process.
It was meant to be hard for him to see. Obsidian gray mists surrounded entire areas where lesser beings would likely not be capable of seeing even a few meters ahead of them, the visual obstruction serving as another layer of challenge for those attempting to traverse this region.
But he was no lesser being.
His perception cut through the mists with clarity that came from having consumed so many Malformed Collapsed Existences that their hunting instincts had become his own. He could see for miles in every direction, mapping the Fractured Manifold with efficiency that would have been impossible during his first hours in The Cavern.
It was quieter here than The Blind Depths had been. The oppressive silence of that first region had given way to something different, a vastness that swallowed sound not through suppression but through sheer scale. He felt like an ant standing in a cathedral, his existence significant only to himself while the architecture around him stretched toward infinities he couldn’t fully comprehend.
He didn’t come across anything for what felt like hours of careful exploration.
Oh?
He blinked and turned toward a certain mountain range where he sensed the aura of someone heavy. Someone powerful. Someone whose presence registered against his expanded perception with weight that exceeded the Malformed Collapsed Existences he had been consuming.
His eyes flickered with interest as he proceeded toward this presence, taking a single step that covered vast distances through the fractured geometry of this place. In a matter of nanoseconds, reality folding around his movement rather than forcing him to traverse it conventionally, he arrived.
He was a few meters away from an entity that turned toward him at this moment.
A woman with dark hair that fell past her shoulders in waves that seemed to absorb the obsidian light surrounding them. Her eyes were green, sharp and cold, holding wariness that spoke of long experience with threats approaching from unexpected directions. She was adorned in a simple black robe that might have seemed humble if not for the authority radiating from her every feature.
In her hands was a black blade that she held tightly, her grip suggesting someone who was jumpy, ready to strike at the slightest provocation. Her power pressed against his perception with weight that confirmed what he had suspected.
This had to be Intermediate Depth, right?
"Hello."
He sent a silent greeting toward this entity, his words carried through Assertion rather than sound in this place where conventional communication remained difficult. She had long since locked onto him the moment he entered within a few miles of her position, and he had sensed her tensing with every step he took toward her location.
Her cold eyes remained fixed on him as she replied with hostility that seemed disproportionate to a simple greeting.
"Who the fuck gives a greeting in this place? Why even bother when we will all die here with no way out?"
Her voice dripped with bitter resignation.
"What did The Groundskeeper promise you? Glory? Power? Ruling over Existence itself?"
...! 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮
He had just begun talking to her, but she came off so strong.
Achilles gauged her power as she spoke, his Way of Assimilation providing assessment. She was definitely Intermediate Depth, her weight exceeding what any Surface Depth entity should possess by a significant margin. But the gap between them was not as vast as it might have been if he hadn’t spent the last day consuming everything The Blind Depths had to offer.
"I entered here out of my own accord," he replied with tone that remained friendly despite her hostility. "I got really lucky in The Blind Depths as-"
"Oh?"
Her eyes flickered with something that might have been suspicion or interest.
"You came over here so fast that you should have Intermediate Depth, yes? Otherwise you wouldn’t have been able to sense me and come toward me with such purpose..."
Achilles nodded as he waved his hand, revealing very clear authority of a THE Surface Depth entity. But what he showed was actually barely a sliver of his actual power, a carefully controlled display designed to appear less threatening than the truth warranted.
"Yeah, just Surface Depth. I got lucky to come-"
BOOM!
He didn’t even finish talking.
The humanoid woman in front of him had already arrived inches from his face, closing distance that should have been impossible to traverse so quickly. Something even heavier than an Assertion wrapped around her blade, authority that exceeded what Surface Depth could produce by orders of magnitude, and it thundered down toward his neck with intent to sever his Way entirely!
The blade was sharp. It carried weight that would have bisected any conventional Surface Depth entity without meaningful resistance.
It aimed at his neck with precision born from experience killing others who had wandered into her territory.
And...
DING!
The blade, empowered by an Intermediate Depth entity’s full authority, vibrated as if it had struck metal far harder than anything it was designed to cut. It stopped completely, unable to pierce his existence despite the tremendous force behind the blow.
His compressed Surface Depth, accumulated through consumption that defied conventional understanding, simply refused to acknowledge that the attack warranted reaction.
Achilles instantly reached out and grabbed the blade with his bare hand, holding it in place despite the woman’s attempts to pull it free. He looked at her astonished and horrified expression with devilish smile that transformed his features from friendly traveler to something far more dangerous.
"Now, why did you have to go and do that?"
His purple-gold eyes blazed with light that made her instincts scream warnings her pride refused to acknowledge.
"You’ve now given me a reason to kill."
...!
BOOM!
