I Can Assimilate Everything-Chapter 638: Malice! I

Achilles felt the eruption of his brilliance echo out as a moment after it did so he exerted his power to rein it back in. The multicolored and obsidian radiance that had burst from his body compressed and withdrew, but the damage was already done.

Near his body that was within the First Sea, there was the old man who had told him about Everythings, who called himself Brother Lobo the moment Achilles had traded his tiny portions of authority of Assimilation to him for his weapons. Achilles had been extracting more and more information from this old man regarding the workings of the Seas of Tian, trying to grasp just how many THE entities could be stretched out across this Sea and the overall stunted Observable Existence.

So when his aura leaked out, the face of Lobo became ashen as he moved back in shock. His hair whipped behind him as he scrambled away from Achilles.

And before another second could even pass...

HUUM!

Achilles felt Existence fluctuate as above them, space tore apart with violence that made the golden waters of Abzu churn and recoil. Auras of two terrifying beings descended with weight that pressed against everything in the surrounding region!

The first was a serpent eating its own tail, its obsidian form manifesting from the torn space with presence that exceeded anything Achilles had encountered since arriving in Tian. Its body coiled through dimensions that shouldn’t exist, infinity made flesh through the ancient symbol of endless consumption. Its eyes blazed with Chaos that had been festering for eons.

The second was a woman whose features refused to settle into singular configuration. Sometimes golden hair, sometimes dark. Sometimes curved, sometimes angular. She radiated Paradox with weight that made reality around her bend in contradictory directions.

The serpent eating its own tail looked toward Achilles with an expression of incredulity and shock and betrayal that seemed too personal for a being he had never directly encountered. Its obsidian eyes held hatred that had been building since the moment it felt its Claim slipping away!

THE Resplendent Paradox looked toward him with expression of interest that held no hostility, only curiosity about what she was observing. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

Achilles looked up at these beings as he felt the aura of the serpent above seemed oddly familiar. It matched The Groundskeeper in weight and texture and fundamental nature, as if they were the same existence wearing different forms.

As for the woman, his eyes shone with seriousness and solemnity as she seemed to match the features of the woman he had seen in the memories of THE Corpse Hierophant. THE Resplendent Paradox herself!

Her appearance here and the aura of the serpent eating its own tail were truly terrifying. The moment they came, any THE entities in the surrounding light years and Gigaparsecs could feel it. Even from far distance, THE Corpse Hierophant and others looked over in shock from their positions across the Sea!

In the heavy silence that ensued, the one who broke it was actually the serpent eating its own tail. It looked toward Achilles with hatred that dripped from every word it spoke.

"For years I have remained within the Seas of Tian and guided others to where they needed to be. I have kept these grounds safe when no one else would shoulder that burden. I have provided opportunities for beings like yourself to enter The Cavern of Existence and pursue Claims that would otherwise remain forever beyond your reach. I have done this without complaint and without expectation of gratitude because it was the role I chose to fulfill."

Its coiled form tightened as its voice grew heavier.

"But sometimes Existence rewards goodness with malice. Sometimes you can do everything for others, pour eons of dedication into maintaining the very foundations that allow reality to continue functioning, and in the end obtain absolutely nothing for yourself. You sacrifice and you serve and you wait for the moment when your patience will finally bear fruit, and then someone else arrives and takes what should have been yours!"

The obsidian eyes blazed brighter.

"For all that I have done, for someone else to squeeze in and steal my Claim to Chaos? For what reason was it that I did all that I did? To watch another feast upon the harvest I spent eons cultivating? To see eons of careful positioning erased in moments by circumstances I could not have predicted?"

The serpent’s voice dropped to something colder.

"No. I do not believe it. I do not accept it. I refuse to accept it!"

Its form uncoiled slightly as authority erupted around it with weight that made the golden waters below evaporate entirely.

"If the Claim I held has absolutely any meaning at all, if my dedication to these grounds and my service to Existence itself carries any weight whatsoever, then I stake all of it right here and right now. Every fragment of authority I possess. Every ounce of Depth I have accumulated across ages of patient waiting. Everything."

Its obsidian gaze fixed upon Achilles with finality.

"I challenge you over the Claim. I challenge you over Chaos itself. You will face me, and we will see which of us Existence truly intended to hold what you have stolen from my grasp!"

...!

Achilles listened to every word of the speech as the familiar aura of oppression matched with the words of this being. They were somehow The Groundskeeper, the same entity who had welcomed him to Tian and pointed him toward The Cavern of Existence and explained the Oldest Paradox.

He did not know that The Groundskeeper had been seeking to lay the Claim to Chaos. But even if he had known, that would not have changed anything. Rose had experimented and brought them where she brought them. He would not have turned away Chaos just because someone else was trying to lay a claim to it.

But as he processed this, he thought about the level of power that was being unleashed by the sheer aura of The Groundskeeper and THE Resplendent Paradox. It was astonishing!

It spilled above the Intermediate Depth with weight that spoke of something grander.

These were beings... at the Fundamental Depth. A stage that Achilles had not reached yet.

And yet, even as he found this out, he actually felt a sense of disappointment settle into his consciousness.

He knew that their Observable Existence was stunted, but he had at least envisioned that THE Resplendent Paradox had succeeded in whatever she had planned to do and potentially achieved the Absolute Depth if not higher. Was this her true body right here, or had she actually achieved the Absolute Depth and was merely showing a fraction of herself?

As for The Groundskeeper, even though he was just challenged by him, even though this entity held a higher level of Depth of their Civilization than he did, Achilles did not actually feel any sense of fear toward the immense raging aura descending all around.

Because inside his Existence, an Inner Dominion was blooming!

He wondered how it would hold up against someone of an entirely higher Civilizational Depth.

His journey had been smooth so far, relatively speaking. But as Chaos spread across Observable Existence, would he begin to have that so-called hardship and adversity that apparently forged the pathway toward the higher Scales of Civilization?

He looked at the serpent eating its own tail with expression that held neither fear nor acceptance.

This challenge would be his answer!