I Can Assimilate Everything-Chapter 621: No Need For Epiphanies!
Why would someone attack another in The Cavern of Existence?
The question actually had a simple answer that Achilles could already speculate, but he asked it anyway as he held the blade of this entity before him.
"Why attack me?"
...!
His existence radiated the heavy weight of his Depth, the accumulated immensity of too many Assimilated THE Surface Depth Malformed Collapsed Existences pressing down on everything nearby with authority that made the fractured reality around them groan in protest.
And as his power unfolded, he observed what happened to the entity before him.
Her Depth actually vibrated as if it had received contact from something of heavier immensity than itself. The Intermediate Depth authority that had seemed so formidable moments ago trembled under the weight of his compressed Surface Depth, her foundations shaking despite technically occupying a higher category of distinction. Her expression changed from confident aggression to confusion and then to something approaching shock as she realized that the Surface Depth entity she had attacked was not what she had assumed.
She had a higher Depth than his technical category suggested, yes, but her foundation seemed much poorer than what her distinction implied. Her advancement to Intermediate had likely come through some qualitative trigger rather than accumulated weight, leaving her with the category but not the density that should accompany it.
She was Intermediate Depth in name but hollow in substance.
He measured all of this in but a moment as the entity before him gritted her teeth and processed the reality of her situation. Her grip on the blade he still held tightened, then loosened as she recognized that pulling free was impossible without his permission.
"It is kill or be killed in here," she said with voice that held defensive justification. "I have not been able to advance for the last decades. You represented an opportunity for me to check and see if I could gain something to help me move forward."
"Oh?"
Achilles nodded at these words with expression that remained unreadable. His purple-gold eyes studied her with calculation.
"So what do you think we should do from here? You tried to collapse me after all."
The entity before him smiled with an expression that attempted to project confidence she clearly no longer felt. Her green eyes held ferocity that might have been intimidating under different circumstances, and her posture shifted toward something approaching conciliation.
"Well, let’s not turn this into a life and death battle, yeah?"
The suggestion was reasonable on its surface. Two entities meeting in hostile territory, a misunderstanding leading to conflict, both choosing to walk away rather than risk mutual destruction. It was the kind of pragmatic arrangement that had probably saved her life before when she encountered beings she couldn’t easily overcome.
But Achilles could see a light of brutality within her eyes that her reasonable words couldn’t hide. She wasn’t suggesting peace out of genuine desire for cooperation.
His eyes turned cold. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢
"You made it life and death the moment you tried to kill me."
His voice carried finality that made her smile freeze on her face.
"Assimilate."
HUUM!
The manifestation of his Assimilation erupted with terrifying intensity that exceeded anything he had displayed in The Blind Depths. Existence itself seemed to distort around the entity before him, reality bending toward his Way as if acknowledging that everything within range belonged to him by right of power.
Her Depth withered terrifyingly under the assault.
The Intermediate Depth authority that had seemed so significant moments ago began draining away from her existence with speed that defied her attempts to resist. Her immensity, the weight that defined her position in the existential hierarchy, was ridiculously cut by half in the span of a single heartbeat.
Achilles observed her look of terror with clinical detachment.
He analyzed how she lost half of her Depth through that single command, how her foundations crumbled under consumption that treated Intermediate Depth authority as simply another resource to be integrated. The power flooded into his existence with weight that exceeded what dozens of Surface Depth Malformed Collapsed Existences had provided combined.
This was what Intermediate Depth tasted like!
Dense. Heavy. Carrying qualitative difference that Surface Depth accumulation alone could never achieve. A heavier meal like...ribs or lamb chops that could make one full with a few bites!
With half of her power stripped away, this entity roared with desperation that replaced her earlier calculation. She tried to exert her remaining Depth, tried to break free from his grip and flee into the fractured geometry of this place where she might lose him among impossible angles and contradictory passages.
But well...
"Assimilate."
...!
WAP!
The remainder of her existence vanished with sound that seemed too soft for the magnitude of what had just occurred. One moment she stood before him, green eyes wide with terror that would never fade, and the next moment there was simply nothing where she had been.
No corpse. No remnant. No trace that she had ever existed at all.
Only the weight of her Depth settling into his foundations with finality that made his entire existence shudder.
Achilles closed his eyes and felt the heavy Depth of an Intermediate Depth entity coursing through him. It was different from Surface Depth consumption in ways that went beyond simple quantity. There was quality here, a fundamental shift in how authority interacted with reality that Surface Depth entities simply couldn’t access regardless of how much weight they accumulated.
And through this consumption, he found an answer to a heavy question that had been plaguing him since his advancement stalled despite continuous feeding.
How did one enter THE Intermediate Depth? Did they need a profound epiphany about the nature of Existence? A glorious understanding of one’s Way that unlocked capabilities that had always been latent but never accessible? Some mystical trigger that defied logical analysis?
Well, for him, it seemed like it was none of that.
He just had to Assimilate.
His Surface Depth immensity felt like it took a heavy step forward, crossing a threshold that had seemed impassable through accumulation alone. He attained an even grander type of Depth that allowed him to interact with surrounding Existence in ways that went beyond purely Assertions.
He felt like he could impose his Existence now, not just assert it.
Where Assertion was a request that reality considered before potentially accepting, Imposition was a statement that reality acknowledged as fact without deliberation. The difference was subtle but profound, the gap between asking and imposing, between suggesting and commanding.
Prompts bloomed before his awareness with comprehensive detail about what he had achieved.
|Advancement Achieved: THE Intermediate Depth of Absolute Sovereignty|
|You have Assimilated and integrated an immensity at THE Intermediate Depth.|
|Your own Depth has undergone elevation in response.|
|Your foundation is erupting to establish a heavy and unbreakable Intermediate Depth.|
|New Capability Unlocked: Imposition|
|Where Assertion requests reality’s acknowledgment, Imposition declares truth that reality accepts without deliberation.|
|Your Impositions carry the weight of your Intermediate Depth and cannot be contested by entities of lesser distinction.|
|Warning: Imposition consumes significantly more authority than Assertion. Use judiciously.|
|Current Status|
|Depth: THE Intermediate Depth of Absolute Sovereignty of Assimilation|
|Foundation: Establishing. Full stabilization will require time or continued consumption.|
...!
