I Can Assimilate Everything-Chapter 655: Existential Lattice II
Sometimes, one could put in all their effort to do good, and it would not be enough.
There were stories of those who sacrificed everything they had to save what they loved, only to watch it crumble regardless. Of beings who ran toward disaster with arms outstretched, only to grasp empty air where life had been moments before. Of heroes whose greatest victories still left countless unmarked graves in their wake.
Sometimes, good was never enough.
The weight of this truth was not that evil triumphed, but that effort and outcome existed in separate realms entirely. You could move mountains and still find that the village on the other side had already burned.
---
One of Achilles’s bodies crossed the endless Void with speed that defied conventional measurement.
He came across a Star Sea, a region of concentrated existence where countless lifeforms had evolved across years of patient development. Families lived here. Empires flourished here. Beings cultivated toward advancement they believed they would one day achieve!
He waved his hand toward it.
A sea of Chaos erupted from his stellar obsidian form, displacing the entire Star Sea instantly. The region folded into itself and disappeared, drawn into his Inner Dominion where it would be safe from what was coming.
This action he could do with his current power without worry.
And a nanosecond after...
SKEE!
The mutated cancerous crystalline growths passed through the space where the Star Sea had been moments before. Purple obsidian tendrils stretched through the Void with hunger that cared nothing for what no longer remained, continuing their expansion toward distant regions that had not yet been saved.
Achilles had a heavy expression as he disappeared, moving toward the next pocket of life he could sense.
He crossed unfathomably vast distances, searching for more signs of existence that could still be rescued. His perception stretched across light years, feeling for the warmth of organized consciousness that indicated lifeforms worth saving.
He found another Star Sea.
But...he arrived just late.
The Existential Lattice had already reached it. Purple obsidian crystals had already permeated through every corner of this region, their cancerous growth consuming everything that had once lived here. Where families had existed moments before, there was now only crystalline expansion. Where Empires had flourished, there was now only raw material being transformed into resources for beings who considered these lives irrelevant.
Every life lost felt like blood on his hands.
He roared with sound that carried across the Void!
He continued to move.
He had to save as many as he could!
---
At the center of The Existential Lattice.
Another of Achilles’s bodies looked at THE Prisoner with gaze that held cold fury beneath surface compliance. Lamashtu and his forces observed The Existential Lattice with fascination that bordered on reverence, watching their cancerous creation spread across Observable Existence with hunger that would not stop until it had consumed everything worth consuming.
From the Civilizational Convergence Engine they had utilized, something new began to emerge.
Three massive crimson gateways bloomed in separate areas, leading into the heart of The Existential Lattice. They looked like eyes, grotesque orbs of pulsing red light that seemed to watch everything around them with awareness that should not exist in inanimate constructs.
Veins of darker crimson spread across their surfaces like blood vessels feeding organs of terrible purpose. The edges of each gateway rippled constantly, membranes of solidified wrongness that seemed almost organic in their movement.
At that time, multiple Absolutes appeared behind Achilles and THE Resplendent Paradox.
Their bodies were uncontrollably raised, authority pressing against them from all sides with force that made resistance impossible. They floated toward two of the opened crimson eyes with motion that held nothing of their own will.
THE Resplendent Paradox became furious at this manipulation. She felt the waves of authorities pressing all around her contradictory form as her features settled into singular expression of rage.
"What is this?!"
Her voice carried weight that should have demanded answer, but Lamashtu only smiled with an expression that held cruelty beneath the calm.
"The Keys of Civilizations serve many functions."
His voice emerged cold as he watched them float toward the grotesque gateways.
"Inside this place, you can serve as beacons to draw in the most dangerous mutated lifeforms. Your existences will be bound to The Existential Lattice in a manner that prevents your full destruction."
His burning eyes held no sympathy.
"Mutated lifeforms will continue coming to the nests your bodies will form. They will devour you again and again since you are so weak compared to what the Lattice produces. But you will reform with the nature of The Existential Lattice. This will give us time to freely enter and harvest as much as we want."
His smile widened.
"While for you two, I suppose this can be considered a form of adversity. You will die again and again, yes, but that is a sacrifice I am willing to make."
His chained hands spread with gesture that dismissed their suffering as irrelevant.
"This is the purpose you will serve as the Keys of your Civilizations. You will continue this cycle until you have collapsed so many times that your cognizance loses definition and identity, and you simply become part of Observable Existence. Absorbed into the very fabric of reality you once inhabited."
His burning gaze held something approaching satisfaction.
"A glorious fate, is it not?"
...!
Achilles looked toward THE Prisoner with a gaze of defiance and cold rage that he made no attempt to conceal!
In the distance, THE Resplendent Paradox audibly cursed him out with words that would have made lesser beings flinch. Her contradictory features blazed with hatred!
But THE Prisoner only laughed.
"Yes, yes. You can look at me like a villain here. You can hate me with everything you possess."
His voice held dismissiveness that made their rage seem almost quaint.
"This is simply existence. Sometimes existence is unfair. Sometimes existence is hard. We do our best with the circumstances that we are given. And we hope for a better tomorrow."
His burning eyes fixed upon them with finality.
"You two can continue to hope for a better tomorrow until your very definition has disappeared. Go now."
...!
Achilles experienced the terrifying sensation of his body being pushed into the opened gateway that looked like a grotesque crimson eye.
The membrane parted around him with feeling that made his existence shudder, wrongness pressing against every aspect of his being as he passed through the threshold. He felt his existence beginning to fuse and forcefully integrate with the expanding cancerous process of The Existential Lattice!
Purple obsidian crystals reached toward him with hunger that seemed almost eager.
An instant later, he was pulled fully into The Existential Lattice.
Prompts bloomed before his awareness with information that confirmed the horror of what was happening.
|Forced Integration Detected|
|Your existence has been forcefully integrated into a taboo cancerous malformed construct of existence.|
|Your existence is mutating to form a Nest within The Existential Lattice with Chaos as the base ingredient.|
|The full effect of the Nest is currently unknown. Mutations are ongoing.|
|Warning: Your body will be bound to this region and unable to exit the boundaries of the Nest.|
|Warning: Mutated Anomalous Weavings will be drawn to your location as a beacon.|
|Warning: Death within The Existential Lattice will result in reformation rather than true collapse.|
|This process will continue until cognizance loses definition.|
...!
Achilles felt the weight of his new prison settling around him like chains forged from the very fabric of Observable Existence!
