Chapter 457: Glory! III
In the vast cathedral of outer space, where darkness provided the canvas for stellar glory, Achilles proceeded to gauge and analyze his own power with the attention of soone looking at impossibilities.
The sensation of having assimilated the terrifying components of existence itself was unlike anything conventional power scaling could describe!
At this mont, he truly could not be given the outlines of the realms of power that many in the Star Seas adopted…their fraworks were too limited, their asurents too crude for what he had beco.
For the most part, the Star Seas designed stages of power based on spatial survival and dominance.
The progression was elegant in its simplicity: beings began by reinforcing themselves with a singular stellar body, containing its power within their existence like a heart made of nuclear fire.
From there, they expanded…multiple stellar bodies contained around a massive superstructure of their own design, each one adding exponential power but also exponential complexity to maintain.
Eventually, many chose black holes as the ultimate cores of their existence, surrounding themselves with spiral arms of stars, building systems of stellar components around their being like armor made of light and gravity.
The staging continued through various permutations…so chose quantity, controlling thousands of lesser stars, while others chose quality, binding themselves to singular massive stellar phenona like black holes or quasars.
But even these beings paled before beings like General Lydia.
She and other Generals within the empires of the Star Seas went beyond rely constructing and reinforcing their bodies with stellar matter.
They had beco astute masters of Regulations…the fundantal rules that reality operated by!
A Regulation proceeded to overco many other forms of power because, in addition to one’s personal might, a Regulation was extrely capable of altering the surrounding space and existence itself.
The power of a single General could overco multiple other existences at the sa stage who lacked understanding and usage of a Regulation. It wasn’t about raw force.
It was about rewriting the rules of engagent itself.
If one ca to grasp and truly understand how to utilize a Regulation- be it Ti or Space, Entropy or Carnage, Probability or Causality…they would beco like existential nuclear warheads all on their own, capable of distorting reality with their re presence.
Such beings went by different distinctions across different civilizations, but the most common distinction was that of a Master.
Masters of Regulation.
Achilles’s power at this mont was sothing even he was unsure of.
Because comparing him to a General was like comparing ownership to rental.
While they understood how to alter their surrounding reality with a Regulation, treating it like a tool or weapon they had mastered, he had beco one with it.
He had assimilated it, made it part of his fundantal existence. How he could utilize the Regulation of Space or Quantum would far exceed how any other entity who rely understood it could utilize it.
It was the difference between speaking a language and being the language itself.
General Lydia or any other Generals of her caliber…he would have to fight them to see where he truly stood in power.
So only clung to a single Regulation, mastering it to perfection but limited by that singular focus. Others were unique enough to be capable of altering multiple Regulations, though usually at the cost of mastery in any single one.
There were many factors, but only ti would tell the extent of his power. One thing that remained true was how it would beco even grander as the seconds passed and he continued assimilating the very makeup of existence itself.
As Achilles was contemplating these impossible asurents, a familiar presence approached through the void.
“My son.”
The voice carried across vacuum that shouldn’t have conducted sound, but Regulations cared little for such mundane limitations.
His father floated toward him, the restored Eighth Adrastia Emperor King moving through space with the casual grace of soone for whom physics was optional.
His gaze was somber yet filled with pride as he looked at his son….not the child he rembered, but the force he had beco.
They faced each other in the vastness between stars, two Emperor Kings whose very existence in the sa era violated precedent that had stood for millennia.
“I need to speak with you,” Adras said, his purple-gold hair moving in stellar winds that existed in dinsions most beings couldn’t perceive. “About what cos next.”
Achilles nodded, sensing the weight behind his father’s words.
“I know what drives you,” his father continued, his voice carrying the wisdom of soone who had walked similar paths. “The nas of those who wronged us, the faces of betrayers, the hunger for justice that burns like the fires in your chest. I know because I carry the sa fire.”
He paused, floating closer until they were within arm’s reach…two beings who could shatter planets having a conversation that needed proximity for emphasis, not volu.
“But I do not wish for you to be lost in vengeance and revenge.” The words erged with careful deliberation. “I know clearly all those who wronged us…every na, every face, every betrayal large and small. And I will take care of it myself.”
Achilles’s eyes narrowed slightly, not in anger but in consideration.
“You want to step aside?” he asked, his tone neutral.
“I want you to be free,” his father corrected. “Free of obligations that should never have been yours. Free to live your life happily, to raise your daughter, to love Rose without the shadow of vendetta hanging over every mont. You’ve already done the impossible…you’ve brought us back, given us a second chance. Let handle the darkness so you can live in the light.”
The nobility of the offer was clear, the paternal desire to shield his son from the corrosive effects of a vengeance quest that could consu centuries. But Achilles shook his head with a small smile.
“I understand your wish, Father, and I’m grateful for it. But I will still be there to aid and support you if need be.” His voice carried the certainty of stellar formation…slow, inevitable, undeniable. “Because that is what a son does- he supports his family. And that includes you.”
The pause that followed was filled with unspoken understanding, generations of Adrastia stubbornness recognizing itself across the divide of age!
“We don’t have to walk the path of vengeance alone,” Achilles continued. “Neither of us. We can share the burden, divide the nas, ensure that justice is served without either of us being consud by it. Together, we’re not just stronger…we’re more likely to rember why we’re fighting in the first place. And also, there are enemy Outsiders far more powerful thann either of us, so working together is a must. ”
His father’s stern expression cracked, a smile breaking through as he sighed.
“You always were too smart for your own good…enemies will always be there. You just have to make they dont beco the reason for your everything.” Adras said, the words carrying fond exasperation.
“I understand this, Father” Achilles replied, the formal distance between them dissolving into familiar warmth.
His father nodded, accepting the compromise with the grace of soone who recognized when they’d been outmaneuvered by their own blood. Then his expression shifted to sothing more curious, his eyes taking in Achilles’s form with new attention.
“Speaking of learning,” Adras said, his tone lighter, “just what crazy things have you been assimilating anwhile? Your existence feels… strange. Not wrong, but like you’ve been eating concepts that shouldn’t be edible.”
Achilles couldn’t help but laugh at the description. “That’s actually accurate. I’ve been assimilating unique Regulations others may not know about- Spatial Tension, Quantum, Inevitable Entropy…”
His father’s eyes widened with these new nas as he continued.
“My Existence Corruption Value keeps climbing. I have to balance assimilation with genetic optimization to keep stable as the Bloodline Refinent Technique is key to keep the level of Corruption down while assimilating more and more…”
…!
He revealed wonders as his father’s eyes shone brightly and…
“Show ,” his father commanded, the tone of soone used to being obeyed but asking out of genuine interest rather than authority.
What followed was perhaps the strangest academic discussion in the history of the Star Seas…two Emperor Kings floating in the void, exchanging information about their various assimilations like students comparing notes.
Adras revealed his own accumulated abilities from centuries of conquest and experintation, while Achilles demonstrated applications of Regulations that shouldn’t have been possible.
They were father and son, Emperor Kings of the sa era, scholars of impossibility itself!
And they were just getting started.
—
The Star Seas were vast and endless, but even they had a boundary.
Across countless light years of stellar matter and brilliance were the…Butchering Grounds.
And past thr Butchering Grounds…one could see the Edge of Space!
Where space ends..and the Void begins.
There should be no form of life in the edge of space.
There should only be murky weavings of Entropy.
But at this mont, a region of the Edge of Space connecting to the Star Seas showed…an overabundance of life!
1/1 One chap today!
User Comments
0 comments from readers