I Can Assimilate Everything - Chapter 552
Chapter 552: Emergence! I
Achilles had entered this grand hall, taken control through mere presence alone, and exposed Vel’tharion as a Living Necrocracy all within a span of minutes. The speed of events left most of the gathered Members struggling to process what had just occurred.
At this moment, Vel’tharion gazed upward at Mycelle with tremendous hatred burning in his obsidian eyes. The transformation had stripped away every pretense of civility or diplomatic restraint, revealing the raw contempt he’d been forced to conceal during years of maintaining his cover.
His lips curled into expression that combined loathing with bitter satisfaction at finally being able to voice thoughts he’d suppressed for so long.
Then he looked at every single Living Life gathered in the hall with venomous glare that promised he would remember each face, would carry knowledge of their identities back to his true masters if given any opportunity for escape. His gaze lingered on each being individually, cataloguing their reactions to his exposure.
When he finally spoke, his voice carried weight of accumulated resentment that had been festering beneath false loyalty for what must have been considerable time.
“I detest life,” Vel’tharion began, and his tone was conversational despite the venom in his words. “I detest the qualities of life with every particle of my existence. The endless striving, the desperate clinging to continuation, the pathetic insistence that growth and vitality represent something noble rather than simply postponing inevitable conclusion.”
His obsidian wings spread wider as he continued, seeming to draw strength from finally voicing his true philosophy without concealment.
“The Primordial Civilization of Dreams with their delusions about possibility and potential. The Primordial Civilization of Light with their blinding radiance that only reveals how much darkness they’re desperately trying to ignore.” He laughed, and the sound was bitter and mocking. “All of them smell and seem like such vile filth compared to the grandeur of Necrocracy, compared to the elegant truth of endings and the peace that comes from accepting rather than fighting the natural order.”
Several of the gathered Living Lives shifted uncomfortably as they listened, clearly disturbed by hearing their fundamental principles described with such contempt by being who had pretended to share their values.
Vel’tharion’s expression grew more intense as he leaned forward despite the chains still binding him, his voice rising with fervor that suggested genuine conviction rather than simple antagonism.
“Across existence, do you know why all Civilizations were collapsed during the Age of Endings? Do you understand the fundamental truth that THE Corpse Hierophant revealed through his glorious campaign?” He paused for effect, letting the question hang before delivering his answer with satisfaction that bordered on religious ecstasy.
“It is because things have a natural tendency for disorder. For chaos. For death. Your precious order and cultivation, your desperate attempts to impose structure on reality… they’re all fighting against the fundamental nature of existence itself.”
His eyes blazed with obsidian light that pulsed in rhythm with his heartbeat.
“THE Corpse Hierophant won because he aligned himself with cosmic truth rather than comforting lies. And his emergence into full existence is closer than ever before because reality itself recognizes and supports what he represents. Your fallen leaders understood this at the end, when their precious Life and Light and Dreams couldn’t save them from the inevitable conclusion.”
…!
These words shocked Mycelle and the other gathered Members. Mycelle’s face became grave as concerns overrode her emotional response to his contemptuous philosophy, and she focused on extracting actionable intelligence from his declaration.
“Emergence,” she repeated, her voice carrying sharp urgency. “The Emergence of THE Corpse Hierophant!?”
Achilles frowned as he processed this revelation while his consciousness made connections between seemingly disparate observations.
He thought about THE Slumbering Genesis and the parasitic mechanism he’d discovered within the inheritance system, the way that entity had been attempting to extract half of each candidate’s Natal Foundation of Life through coercive branding.
It seemed that all the powerful entities who’d had their civilizations collapsed during the Age of Endings were attempting to return at this moment through various resurrection methodologies.
THE Corpse Hierophant was not the only fallen leader working toward restoration, but it seemed their Civilization might be fastest to achieve full emergence due to being the most widespread and most powerful. Their dominance across observable existence provided resources and operational capacity that other collapsed Civilizations couldn’t match.
If multiple fallen entities bearing the distinction of THE were all attempting simultaneous resurrection, then the current impasse between Life and Necrocracy was merely calm before a storm.
In the next moment, the figure of Vel’tharion proceeded to grasp the chains surrounding him with both hands. His obsidian wings flared wide as his body instantly erupted with terrifying waves of power that made the hall’s ambient authority recoil from contact. The chains that had seemed unbreakable moments before, restraints designed specifically to hold even powerful beings, began to crack under pressure of concentrated necrocratic energy.
The sound was like breaking glass amplified across dimensional layers. Fractures spread through the crystallized Life that formed the binding chains, and obsidian light leaked from each fissure as Vel’tharion’s true power, no longer suppressed by need for concealment, began manifesting with full intensity. His aura climbed rapidly upward through scales of capability that shocked the gathered Members who’d served alongside him without recognizing his actual strength.
He’d been holding back considerably during his infiltration, maintaining power levels that suggested competent Member rather than revealing he operated at tiers approaching Mycelle’s own formidable capability!
The chains shattered completely, and fragments of broken restraints dissolved into ambient authority as Vel’tharion stretched his neck with casual motion.
He looked toward the floating Mycelle with an expression that combined predatory anticipation with genuine desire, and his voice when he spoke held implications that made several gathered Members visibly recoil.
“I’ve always wanted to feel the life on your skin,” Vel’tharion said, and his tone was almost conversational despite the disturbing nature of what he was describing. “To grasp that radiant vitality you emanate and proceed to collapse it completely, watching the light fade from your eyes as death claims what you’ve fought so desperately to preserve.”
His obsidian wings spread to full extension as he rose from the floor, hovering at height that put him level with Mycelle’s position.
“I’ll stop playing around just to get a glimpse of what your life truly is, to measure its quality before extinguishing it permanently.” His smile widened into something vicious and hungry. “And I’ll show all of them gathered here how grand and glorious Necrocracy truly becomes when we stop pretending to share your pathetic values and embrace the elegant truth of endings.”
BOOM!