I Can Assimilate Everything

The air was blistering in a region far from the Adrastia Continent, but it was eerily silent.

A silence thick with terror shrouded the Cenotaph Wild Lands, where eight Neuronova Stage Ancient Ones formed a tight perimeter around a single man. A single man, whose outline blurred against the background of melting ground and warped space.

Achilles' main body stood at the center of it all.

His eyes moved slowly, almost lazily, taking in the mythical figures that surrounded him. A White Tiger whose nine tails burned with icy flame. A Royal Panthera Lion with silver fur and a crown of bone horns. A serpentine Dragon with molten crystal scales coiled high into the clouds. A high elf woman whose body shimmered with radiating arcane patterns, her gaze ancient and cold.

Atlantians…Phoenixes!

They were legends. The kind of beings spoken of in fearful awe, etched into the collective memory of civilizations. And yet they had come as executioners for him.

And yet, he did not feel fear.

He could see their power. It flowed through them like rivers of burning starlight, especially through Selamira.

She stood tall, the epicenter of the pressure that held even the sky still. Her power... it did not entirely feel like her own. Something else pulsed inside it. A shadow. A light that should not be. The Primordial Light of Darkness.

His breath left his chest with calm certainty even with all these factors.

Because in the next moment…

BOOM!

The sound broke apart the stillness. A wave of purple-gold light exploded outward from his body.

Behind Achilles, a brilliant Crown burst into existence, resplendent and sovereign.

Alongside it, a small but terrifyingly real Sun formed, spinning slowly, eerily, and casting waves of starlight and gravity that rippled through space.

The Neuronova Stage Ancients reeled and were blasted backwards from the force.

Selamira…was the only one who remained!

The Crown spun like a wheel above Achilles' head, as the Sun behind him unleashed its essence.

A layer of frost cracked across Selamira's fur. Her claws shifted uneasily. The heat. The pull. The sheer existence of that star- miniature though it appeared, was undeniable.

Luminblood Stage Ancient Ones screamed in the distance, their bodies blistering beneath the heat.

Even Celestbone-tiered beings pulled away, their celestial bones groaning as if they were placed too close to the forge of a terrifying titan.

Selamira narrowed her feline eyes.

"Just what exactly are you?" she asked, her voice barely above a growl. "Even with Planar Destiny in your favor, you should not have been able to achieve this in such a short time."

Achilles looked at her.

Someone who thought she was always in control. Always the planner.

He wanted to break that thought process.

A flick of his hand conjured a screen of Primordial Energy. An illusion, but one tied into memory and reality both.

"Let me show you what I really am."

The image shimmered, then displayed the moment from not long ago. His Primordial Avatar, facing another monstrous foe.

Azuryan.

Achilles turned slightly to meet Solmyron's furious eyes in the distance.

"I was fighting one of the rulers of the Everburn Aerie Continent," he said coolly. "And then I wondered... what about the other one?"

On cue, the screen displayed her radiant, wrathful entrance.

"She…stupidly delivered herself to me."

The Ancient Ones' expressions changed. Eyes that had witnessed eras now dimmed with caution.

The screen continued.

Azuryan, brilliant and majestic, was suddenly nothing.

A collapsing body of crimson-gold. Melted, imploded. A being of unimaginable age and power reduced to a droplet of history.

Achilles' voice followed.

"What I am, little tiger Selamira..."

He didn't need to finish it.

The images did.

The Ancient Ones were visibly shaken. Solmyron let out a heartbroken, rage-filled screech as his wings burned bright.

Achilles turned off the display.

"I am someone who kills Rulers of the Nine Supreme Forces."

His voice did not rise.

"And wouldn't you know it… there are more gathered here before me. So what do you think I'm planning on doing next?"

...!

The fear that crept into their hearts was new. Alien.

They had enslaved his kind. Had ruled. Had crushed humanity beneath claws and wings and laws. And now they saw him.

A human. But what he was doing…was inhumane!

Achilles, the Last Adrastia Emperor King, half-human from the side of a mother killed by the same beasts who now cowered- floated still.

His voice rang one last time.

"I will now proceed to do to you all what I did to poor little chicken-shit Azuryan."

He extended his hand.

"Wouldn't it be a thing of glory if multiple Rulers of the Nine Supreme Forces died here, after the Triarcan Keep?"

A wave of golden-purple sunfire crackled in the air.

Many Ancient Ones moved back unconsciously.

The Crown spun.

The Sun burned.

And Achilles moved!

—

Far above the shattered battlefield, perched atop a drifting clouds of scorched flame and floating roots, a golden figure sat cross-legged.

Sun, the Monkey King.

His golden fur rippled as wind howled past, his long, radiant tail curled beside him like a banner of power. Eyes that had seen the fall of skies and the rise of empires narrowed in disbelief.

He had watched the entire battle unfold.

And all the while…

He never intervened.

He wanted to. Many times. His muscles had tensed with each clash, every time Achilles had vanished and reappeared in the heart of danger.

But then, every time, he had held himself back.

Because the boy never needed saving.

Well, not the boy.

The King.

Not once.

Sun scratched the side of his head, golden hair shimmering under starlight. "You damn freak," he muttered, half in awe, half in annoyance. "You're going to make me look bad."

His vibrant golden tail flicked once, twice.

Then he leaned forward.

His gaze focused on Achilles' figure, blazing like a titan with a floating Crown and a miniature Sun behind him.

So much majesty. So much damn presence. A human standing against legacies that should have crushed him before the first strike.

But in the next few seconds…

Sun's shocked smile slowly faded.

Because now…

He saw something Achilles did not.

Far behind him.

Beyond the view of Ancient Ones, beyond the sea of stars and gravitic pressure, beyond even the swirling rivers of starlight still cascading around the battlefield.

There, in a patch of stillness too quiet for this war…

Something moved.

Something wrong.

Something ancient.

And as the Monkey King's golden eyes locked onto that thing…

His mouth slowly opened, fangs bared in pure instinctive terror.

He stood, tail lashing wildly now.

And he roared with all the fury and warning of the Long Slumber broken.

"WATCH OUT!"

...!