I Can Assimilate Everything-Chapter 625: The Theory on Chaos I
In a unique area in the Seas of Tian.
In a region very few others could actually arrive to, where the golden rivers that connected the Nine Seas converged before diverging again toward their respective destinations, there was an obsidian sea filled with rivers of gold flowing all around.
The obsidian was very potent as it distinguished nothing else other than Chaos.
Chaos... in its most primal and terrifying state was not disorder. It was the absence of the necessity for order, the raw potential from which all possibilities emerged before differentiation forced them into specific forms. It was the state before states existed, the condition that preceded conditions, the formlessness that contained all forms within its infinite lack of definition. True Chaos did not destroy order. It simply existed in a way that made order’s presence or absence equally irrelevant.
At this moment, that definition of Chaos seemed to be swirling in the eyes of The Groundskeeper.
He stood in the center of this obsidian-gold sea with posture that held weight beyond his already unfathomable Depth. His golden crystallized features reflected the darkness surrounding him while his gaze remained fixed upon something that commanded his complete attention.
An encased crystalline structure rose from the obsidian waters before him, its surface perfectly transparent despite the chaos that should have corrupted any attempt at ordered form. Within this crystalline prison lay the body of an obsidian serpent that was eating its own tail, the ancient symbol of infinity made manifest in flesh that radiated wrongness so profound it made reality itself uncomfortable.
An ancient and heart-shaking air of Chaos radiated from this slumbering serpent, pressure that would have collapsed any THE entity foolish enough to approach without sufficient protection. The figure of The Groundskeeper actually had a complex gaze as he stared at this body, emotions flickering across his features too quickly to identify.
Around this time, in the surroundings, one could notice faint forming flickers of Corrupted Growths that were actually much more numerous in this area than the Sea that Achilles and the others had been privy to. The proximity to concentrated Chaos seemed to accelerate their generation, corruption blooming from the tension between order and its absence.
When these Corrupted Growths reached critical enough levels, The Groundskeeper would simply wave his hands with casual authority that made the gesture seem almost unconscious. They became golden streams of stability that flowed into Existence and into himself, purification achieved without apparent effort or attention.
And yet at this moment...
A phenomenon occurred that made The Groundskeeper pause his contemplation.
The Corrupted Growths that were forming actually flickered and blazed with intensity that exceeded their normal emergence. Then, in the next moment, they became extinguished even before anything exerted Depth on them. They simply ceased, not purified but negated, as if something had erased the corruption before it could fully manifest.
The Groundskeeper was barely paying attention to this routine maintenance, but his perception was heavy and unfathomable enough that he still caught the anomaly despite his focus being elsewhere.
He got out of his musings about the slumbering serpent and looked over while tilting his head with curiosity and confusion that seemed almost out of place on features that usually held only ancient patience. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞
What exactly was that?
---
In the First Sea, Abzu.
Rose was heavily focused on the Corrupted Growth in front of her as she tried many things within the Alchemical barrier she had constructed. She prodded at its fundamental structure, attempted to replicate its patterns, tried to understand the codes that made corruption what it was.
And in the next moment...
BZZT!
An obsidian flash of light emerged from the Corrupted Growth she was messing around with, her experiments triggering something she hadn’t anticipated. An instant later, dozens of Corrupted Growths bloomed from the single source she had contained, multiplying with speed that shattered her boundary as they began to swirl around her in patterns that seemed almost hungry.
She was shocked and alarmed as the corruption she had been studying suddenly became corruption that was studying her.
She quickly waved her hands and exerted her authority.
Her THE Surface Depth pressed down upon the swirling Corrupted Growths with weight that refused to acknowledge their attempts at expansion. All the corrupted formations around her instantly shriveled under her Civilizational Authority, geometric wrongness collapsing into simplicity before transforming into rivers of golden light.
The light flowed into her and the surrounding Existence with warmth, her Depth very noticeably increasing from the concentrated corruption she had just processed.
...!
Nearby, THE Endless Dream looked over with expression of astonishment that made her jeweled eyes widen dramatically.
"What did you do?"
Her voice carried concern alongside curiosity, the foreboding she had felt earlier seeming justified by what she had just witnessed.
And Rose, as if she had been caught doing something she shouldn’t have been doing, looked over seriously as she shook her head with expression of innocence that fooled no one.
"Nothing. Nothing at all."
She waved her hand dismissively.
"You hang tight."
Even though she was saying this, her eyes seemed to be glimmering with immense profundity of light and brilliance. A riot of fascination and calm shock was being stifled within her gaze as if she had understood something significant, something that her casual denial was designed to conceal until she could process the implications fully.
She waited briefly over the next few seconds, her attention fixed on the surrounding waters with intensity.
The moment she saw a distant Corrupted Growth forming from the golden depths, she swept her hands as she scooped it up inside a circular barrier of her authority. She remained utterly still, observing, calculating, her mind working through possibilities that her earlier experiment had revealed.
---
Far from the Nine Seas of Tian.
Inside one of the few Seas of Thalassara that Achilles had relocated under his protection, life continued with peaceful cultivation that contrasted sharply with the trials his other bodies faced elsewhere.
The figure of Rose, her main body that always remained inside the Sea of Thalassara for safety, had been resting in meditative cultivation when information from her other self flooded through their shared consciousness.
Her eyes snapped open with light that held discovery rather than alarm.
She appeared inside a wide hall where Achilles was talking with his grandfather Thalsian, the two of them discussing the implications of their newly achieved THE distinction. Around them, the other Adrastia Emperor Kings were surrounded by waves of buzzing Civilizational Authority as they familiarized themselves with power that had been gifted rather than earned.
Rose burst into such a place with urgency that made everyone present turn toward her with expressions of concern.
She was looking at Achilles with heavy gaze, her copper-green eyes twinkling with excitement that she made no attempt to suppress.
"I discovered something."
Her voice carried weight that demanded immediate attention.
"Come!"
...!
