I Can Assimilate Everything - Chapter 583
Chapter 583: Ambush! II
THE Sovereign Catalyst was actually working with THE Corpse Hierophant!
The reveal hit like a physical blow, but Achilles didn’t waste time on this betrayal or outrage.
He couldn’t afford to care whether collapsed entities formed alliances with each other, they could do whatever the hell they wanted in their desperate scramble back toward relevance. It only became a problem when his comparatively modest figure and Rose found themselves standing amidst these titans directly.
Even if these were merely manifestations rather than true bodies.
Even if this represented only a glimpse of their actual power.
The overwhelming might radiating from both entities exceeded the normal level of a Pre-THE Existence by a factor of five or ten times at minimum. No entity who held the same power as the Mercury Guardian or Jornaga or even Achilles himself would be able to stand against these beings in direct confrontation.
THE Corpse Hierophant’s manifestation towered above everything else in the fallen citadel, a massive skeletal titan whose form writhed with shadowy smoke that made his full appearance impossible to perceive clearly. Every time Achilles tried to focus on specific details, the darkness shifted and obscured what lay beneath.
Bones of impossible size formed the framework of something that had once waged war against all other Civilizations simultaneously, and the empty sockets where eyes should have been blazed with obsidian fire that promised endings without redemption.
Beside him, THE Sovereign Catalyst’s manifestation took shape as something equally terrifying but fundamentally different in nature.
His form appeared as a humanoid figure constructed entirely from flowing transmutation circles that constantly rewrote themselves in patterns too complex for mortal comprehension. Liquid metals of every variety coursed through his body like blood, and his features shifted between states of matter that conventional physics refused to acknowledge.
Copper-green fire wreathed his head like a crown, and formulas burned across his skin in scripts that hurt to look at directly.
Two collapsed leaders of Primordial Civilizations, manifesting together in coordinated assault.
THE Corpse Hierophant’s hollow gaze swept across the scene before settling on Achilles and Rose, then shifting to the manifested figure of THE Endless Dream. His voice when he spoke was the sound of civilizations dying, of endings made audible.
“You would question my alliances when you bring the taboo that has begun devouring our Civilizational authorities here?” The accusation dripped with ancient contempt. “Who is really the worst among us, you sycophantic bitch? This is why I always detested you, and it is why I will fully collapse you once more.”
…!
BOOM!
The moment those final words left his manifested form, THE Corpse Hierophant moved.
THE Civilizational Authority of Necrocracy erupted from his skeletal frame in quantities that made the surrounding reality scream in protest, and chains of bony skeletal tendrils surged toward Achilles and Rose at speeds they couldn’t even fathom.
The attack crossed distances that should have required measurable time in what felt like negative moments, as if the assault had already arrived before it was launched.
Achilles had his entire body shining with brilliance already. A brilliant Sun of Adrastia filled with THE Civilizational Authority of Dreams surrounded him as he utilized Dream Manifestation to form millions of silver barriers of silver-gold sandy light around himself and Rose.
Layer upon layer of protective dreamscape crystallized into existence, each one reinforced with everything he could pour into defensive configuration.
Rose stood beside him defiantly even in the midst of this catastrophe. She continued devouring the barrier of Alchemy behind them without pause, her focus split between survival and acquisition as radiant green flames leaped from her transformed form like hungry tendrils.
Those flames reached toward the rivers of THE Civilizational Authority of Alchemy gushing out from the compromised containment, and she Assimilated this grand authority even as death itself descended upon their position.
But the power of THE was too far beyond them.
Any defenses Achilles raised were akin to paper before these terrifying entities. His millions of barriers shattered in cascading sequence as the skeletal tendrils punched through each layer without meaningful resistance, and he knew with cold certainty that these two bodies of theirs were likely ruined.
What he absolutely could not allow was for the power of THE entities to transfer damage back toward their main bodies through whatever esoteric means such elevated beings possessed.
But wishes were wishes, and dreams were dreams.
Before the terrifying might of THE Corpse Hierophant could reach them, the figure of THE Endless Dream came to float directly in front of Achilles and Rose.
Her gaze burned with lividity and desperate seriousness as seas of THE Civilizational Authority of Dreams spilled from her manifested form in endless torrents, crashing against the advancing assault with force that actually managed to slow the skeletal tendrils.
But her attention remained split. She kept watching the manifestation of THE Sovereign Catalyst as he laughed wildly while circling toward her flank, his liquid-metal form shifting into configurations optimized for devastating assault. The moment her focus became fully occupied by THE Corpse Hierophant’s attack, he would move decisively to collapse her manifestation here.
After all, she wasn’t as strong as the entity who had waged war against all other Civilizations simultaneously and emerged from that conflict as the greatest threat Observable Existence had ever known.
By all means, catastrophe was about to unfold here.
They all knew it.
At this time, Achilles felt like everything moved in slow motion.
He watched the seas of THE Endless Dream crash into the tendrils of power belonging to THE Corpse Hierophant, observed as a massive skeletal hand wreathed in concentrated death surged out to grab THE Endless Dream herself.
She could only raise her own hands while roaring out in defiance, her manifested form straining against power that exceeded her current diminished capacity.
THE Sovereign Catalyst was coming from the side. The moment he arrived, everything would be over.
Achilles saw all this. Felt it all playing out before him as temporal perception stretched into crystal clarity. And he knew what he had to do.
He couldn’t Assimilate anything. He couldn’t. The restriction was absolute, his Existence Corruption Value already dangerously elevated, and violating that limitation would invite consequences his consciousness couldn’t fully calculate.
But if THE Endless Dream collapsed again here and lost a significant portion of her remaining power, if he became this visible to THE entities without her protection and alliance…
It would spell catastrophe for everything he valued.
So.
He moved by instinct rather than calculation.
He took a single step forward, much to the shock of Rose who roared out behind him in desperate protest. That step carried him between the clash of THE Endless Dream and THE Corpse Hierophant, positioning his comparatively insignificant form directly in the path of power that could unmake civilizations.
His hand reached out toward the massive skeletal hand of THE Corpse Hierophant in this moment of frozen time.
In femtoseconds, half of his body deteriorated into a golden skeleton just from proximity to that death-wreathed appendage. Flesh dissolved, muscle unwound, organs collapsed into nothing as the fundamental authority of endings pressed against his existence with weight that should have been instantly fatal.
But he persevered. The moment before instant collapse, even though he couldn’t Assimilate, even though he absolutely should not attempt what his instincts were screaming for…
‘ASSIMILATE!’
His existence cried out with fervor that transcended conscious command.
And…
BOOM!
The shadowy skeletal expression of THE Corpse Hierophant shifted to show utter incredulity and shock. Those empty eye sockets that had witnessed the collapse of countless civilizations widened with something that looked almost like incredulity, as if something that should absolutely not be possible was occurring directly before his perception.
How could this insignificant creature be drawing upon his THE Civilizational Authority?
How could anything at such a pathetically low Scale manage to establish connection with power that existed at fundamentally different level of reality?
And in the next moment…
WAP!
The entire majestic visage of THE Corpse Hierophant shockingly disappeared. His manifestation didn’t fade or dissolve or retreat, it simply ceased to exist as if it had never been present at all.
The skeletal tendrils that had been descending toward destruction vanished mid-motion, leaving only empty space where apocalyptic power had been concentrated moments before.
The manifestations of THE Endless Dream and THE Sovereign Catalyst froze in absolute shock, their conflict momentarily suspended as they processed what had just occurred.
And Achilles…
His body that remained was just a decaying golden skeleton at this moment, half-collapsed and barely maintaining coherent form. But before his failing perception, an extremely ominous red-bordered prompt bloomed with warnings that his existence recognized as catastrophic.
|Existence Corruption Value has exceeded 50% for the first time.|
|Existence Corruption Value stands at 85%.|
…!
The words were heavy with implications that his deteriorating consciousness couldn’t fully process.
And an instant later, Achilles blacked out completely as his Constellation Dream Body collapsed into unconsciousness, leaving Rose screaming his name in a battlefield where the impossible had just occurred.