I Can Assimilate Everything-Chapter 656: You Call This Adversity?! I
Achilles had the consciousness of this body flicker in and out, cognizance slipping through his grasp like water through fingers.
By the time he came to, even his sense of time was distorted. Hours could have passed, or days, or weeks. When he opened his eyes and expanded his existence, he found himself standing at the center of a region pulsing with morbid life and corruption.
He was inside something living.
The surroundings stretched around him like the interior of a vast organism, biological despite being constructed from crystalline growth. Countless thin veins and arteries connected to his body, shining weird purple and obsidian-white, all flowing toward his form as if he were a heart pumping corruption through a circulatory system he never asked to join. They pulsed with organic rhythm, carrying something through channels that spread into darkness beyond his perception.
His consciousness was partially fused to these surroundings. Whenever this region beat, it released the glimmer of his partial Claim to Chaos all around, spreading outward like a scent designed to attract unsavory things.
A beacon. That was what he had become. Bait!
At no point did he panic. His eyes remained clear, analyzing every detail he could perceive. The structure of the veins. The composition of the crystalline walls. The rhythm spreading his Chaos outward through channels leading into regions he could not yet see.
THE Prisoner thought he had committed him and THE Resplendent Paradox to a horrid end, acting as batteries to be continuously killed by whatever monstrosities would be attracted.
This might be the case for THE Resplendent Paradox. But for him? He would not be so sure.
Prompts bloomed before his awareness.
|Existential Lattice Analysis|
|Less than one percent of The Existential Lattice has been mapped out and comprehended due to being fused to a portion of it. Your forced integration has provided baseline understanding of this construct’s nature and composition.|
|Assessment: If you can map out the vast majority of The Existential Lattice, it may be possible to Assimilate it completely.|
|Current Status: The portion of your existence here has been bound and cannot leave this designated location. The weavings of your Chaos are constantly being transmitted to act as a beacon, carried across the crystalline walls of The Existential Lattice.|
...!
Information flooded into his mind alongside sensory awareness of all the changes occurring to his bound existence. The plans of THE Prisoner were becoming clear. His other body was discussing everything with Rose, learning how their group had been given constructs to spread Corrupted Growths across existence. Now he and THE Resplendent Paradox served the emergence of The Existential Lattice, then as bait to reduce difficulty for THE Prisoner’s forces during harvest.
The Existential Lattice was spreading across Observable Existence, tremendously vast and horrendous. But as ridiculous as this adversity was, it was also an opportunity to turn it into the very blade that could cut THE Prisoner.
KI! KI! KI!
A clicking sound echoed through the crystalline channels. Weavings of Chaos sensed something surging through the mine-like corridors spreading in different paths across this central region. Within seconds, he sensed something approaching that made his gaze turn sour.
Its Depth registered first. Upper bounds of Fundamental Depth, monstrous in power and presence!
The creature emerged from one of the crystalline channels, its movement combining insectoid precision with animalistic hunger. It was bipedal but wrong, body elongated in ways defying natural anatomy.
A sleek obsidian-purple carapace covered its form, ridged and segmented like armor grown from nightmare. Its head swept backward into a crown of crystalline growths, a smooth dome of corrupted chitin hiding crimson eyes set deep within its skull.
Those eyes burned with corruption, seeing everything despite their strange placement. Its limbs bent at angles suggesting pain rather than function, claws dripping something that hissed against the crystalline floor.
When Achilles truly looked at it approaching like predator toward prey, he could see unfathomable pain within its crimson eyes. Its entire existence was burning from the inside, every moment agony demanding relief it could never find.
And yet it came toward him for the sole purpose of destroying him!
He shook his head.
"Assimilate."
He whispered calmly as multicolored brilliance smashed into the creature. Its mass and volume decreased by almost a third in an instant, flesh and carapace dissolving into authority flowing toward him with hungry efficiency. The beast roared in horrid pain, yet surged forward even faster.
"Assimilate."
Another third disappeared. Bones and muscles deformed, snapping painfully as its entire back curved into a V. The carapace cracked and fell away in chunks dissolving before hitting the ground. Its elongated head twisted at an angle that should have killed it instantly.
And yet it still tried to reach him, crimson eyes blazing with pain and hatred and something that might have been relief.
"Assimilate."
CRUNCH!
Multicolored brilliance washed over the beast entirely. Its body collapsed into nothing, existence unraveling into pure authority flooding his foundations. His bound form radiated light pulsing through the veins connecting him to his surroundings, eyes shining with unfathomable glare.
This dumb motherfucker. This Prisoner. He had just isolated one of his bodies to act as a beacon drawing in monstrosities that would feed him endlessly.
That dumb fucker.
—
At the entrance of The Existential Lattice.
Lamashtu floated before one of the grotesque crimson gateways, his massive form radiating authority that made the membrane-like surface ripple in response. Behind him, multiple Absolutes and Fundamental Depth entities gathered in formation, their obsidian garments and broken chains marking them as his!
The Civilizational Convergence Engine pulsed in the distance, feeding the cancerous growth that now spread across this reality like a tumor consuming healthy flesh.
Lamashtu turned to face his forces, his burning eyes sweeping across them with an expression that combined anticipation and warning. His chained hands spread wide as his voice carried across the gathered masses.
"What lies before us is not a simple harvest."
His words settled into their consciousness with weight that demanded absolute attention.
"The Existential Lattice is reactive. It responds to authority with authority, to power with power. The stronger one is, the more dangerous this place becomes. Mutated Anomalous Weavings will sense your presence and converge upon you with hunger that matches your own."
He gestured toward the crimson gateway behind him, the grotesque eye pulsing with light that seemed almost eager. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎
"We have cast out bait to draw the most dangerous creatures away from our harvesting paths. The Keys of Chaos and Paradox will reform endlessly, attracting threats that would otherwise target us. But do not grow complacent."
His smile held cruelty beneath the surface calm.
"This Lattice feeds on the lifeblood of Observable Existence itself. The ingredients it produces are beyond anything natural cultivation could achieve. Natal Pieces of the Ingredients that make...Primordial Architects. Undivided Ones. Formless Terrors. All compressed into crystalline form, waiting for those bold enough to claim them."
His burning gaze intensified with hunger that he made no attempt to conceal.
"So be safe. Watch each other. And let us harvest Existence itself!"
HUUM!
His forces roared in response, authority flaring from their combined presence as they surged toward the crimson gateway. One by one, they passed through the membrane and disappeared into The Existential Lattice, spreading out across its cancerous channels to claim resources born from the suffering of an entire Observable Existence.
Lamashtu entered last, his massive form swallowed by the grotesque eye without resistance!
