I Can Assimilate Everything-Chapter 631: Chaos Does Not Share! II

Across Existence, there was a phenomenon called the Tempered Core.

It refers to beings who have faced the crucible of impossible choices and emerged with their identity intact rather than reshaped by external pressure. They are offered power beyond measure in exchange for abandoning what makes them who they are, and they refuse without hesitation or regret.

The Annals speak of this quality with reverence.

They tell of entities who were offered dominion over entire Civilizations if only they would betray the principles they had built their Ways upon. Who were promised advancement beyond their current limitations if only they would compromise the foundations that had carried them to where they stood. Who were given ultimatums by forces so vast that refusal seemed like madness and acceptance seemed like wisdom.

And they refused anyway.

Because they understood perfectly that the cost of standing firm was small, but the cost of yielding was infinite.

True conviction understands that identity is not a garment to be changed when fashion shifts.

It is the skeleton upon which everything else hangs.

A being who abandons their core for power will find that the power they gained has nothing left to empower.

—

Frankly, Achilles was almost offended.

Giving up Assimilation wasn’t even on the table as the sheer audacity of Chaos to think he would even consider it was laughable. This fundamental aspect of reality had looked at everything he had built, everything he had become, everything that defined his existence since transformation had first awakened within him, and had casually demanded he throw it all away.

As if Assimilation was merely a tool he had borrowed rather than the very essence of what made him who he was.

As if he would trade his identity for power, no matter how vast that power might be!

While connected to Rose through their shared transformation, their stellar obsidian forms still spinning slowly around each other in the Primordial realm of Apatheia, he made a decision that required no deliberation whatsoever.

He made sure to give her the vast majority of the immensity of Chaos that had been descending on him.

The Primordial Authority that sought to claim him as its sole vessel found itself redirected, channeled through his existence and into hers with efficiency that his Way of Assimilation made possible. He allowed that full potential Claim to Chaos to wrap around Rose entirely, letting her become the primary vessel while he stepped back from the center of what was being offered.

Prompts bloomed before his awareness with information that confirmed his choice was being processed.

|Claim Redirection Detected|

|The Claim to Chaos is being relayed to the other entity capable of currently laying this claim.|

|Assessment: Her Existence is not strong enough to bear the full weight alone.|

|A remnant immensity of the Claim must be carried by you to stabilize the transfer.|

|Chaos flows in the Claimer, Rose Adrian, and resonates with you.|

|Chaos reluctantly agrees to a partial claim by you as the one with the most likely chance to open future doors for its expansion.|

|Chaos recognizes that half a door is better than no door at all.|

BOOM!

An obsidian pillar of light bloomed around Achilles and Rose as heavy Depth pulsed from both of their transformed bodies. The Primordial Chaos that saturated Apatheia responded to what was happening, swirling around them in patterns that seemed almost celebratory despite the fundamental disorder that defined its nature.

And Achilles felt the sliver of a Claim, the partial claim of Chaos, flow into his existence and settle beneath Assimilation rather than replacing it.

His Way remained intact and dominant while Chaos took a subordinate position, accepting that it would never be his primary Civilization but content with the access this arrangement provided.

Meanwhile, the full Claim on Chaos settled on Rose as her body gave off an ancient air that exceeded even their Jötunn transformation. Her stellar obsidian skin blazed with authority that spoke of fundamental truth rather than mere power, and her eyes opened to look at him with complex emotions that cycled through confusion and gratitude and something approaching exasperation.

She almost wanted to ask him why he had done that, why he had given her the greater portion when Chaos had been willing to accept him as primary claimant.

But she knew.

Assimilation was a core part of him that he would never let go, while for her the Civilization of Alchemy was something she could release for Chaos. Her identity wasn’t built upon Alchemy the way his was built upon Assimilation!

And so this arrangement made sense even if it surprised her.

Even though Achilles did not hold the full Claim, he held a Partial Claim that connected him to everything Chaos represented. At this moment, both he and Rose felt the inflow of information resuming as everything related to Chaos poured into their consciousness with weight that demanded attention.

And the information they were receiving was grand beyond anything they had anticipated.

|Critical Knowledge Unlocked: The Necessity of Chaos|

|Without Chaos permeating across Observable Existence alongside The First Tongue and Paradox and Existence itself, fundamental limitations apply to all advancement within reality.|

|The rise of entities at the First Level of Civilization attaining the level of an Absolute in the First Scale of Existence is nearly an impossibility under current conditions.|

|The advancement of any life forms within Observable Existence to enter the Second Scale of Existence is absolutely impossible.|

|Existence requires the Four Aspects in balance. Existence requires true hardship to forge growth.|

|Without Chaos, there cannot be true hardship. Without true hardship, there cannot be true advancement.|

|This marks Observable Existence as stunted for all eternity unless conditions change.|

|Unless Chaos can permeate across it once more.|

|Unless Apatheia is opened from within to allow endless Chaos to flow across Observable Existence.|

|You now stand within Apatheia. You now hold Claims to Chaos.|

|The door can be opened. The question is whether it should be.|

...!

Achilles absorbed this information with expression that grew more serious with each revelation. The reason Observable Existence was stunted wasn’t some mysterious curse or ancient damage that defied understanding. It was simply that one of the Four Aspects had been trapped here in Apatheia since before differentiation completed, unable to spread across reality and provide the hardship that genuine advancement required.

And he and Rose now stood in the only place where that could be changed.

They held the only Claim that could authorize such a change!