Achilles gave a cold glance to the disappearing Corpse Hierophant.
This dumb motherfucker couldn’t save his life to the very end.
Until one figured out how their enemy operated, they shouldn’t be doing too much or drawing attention to themselves. They should observe and learn and calculate before making moves that could backfire catastrophically.
By drawing attention to Achilles and himself, they all learned sothing new.
But the lesson for THE Corpse Hierophant was death.
For Achilles, it was the imnsity and hubris of this being.
This so-called Master.
Anyone powerful had the right to be prideful. They deserved it after all their hardship and advancent and cultivation across eons of dedicated effort. Pride was the natural consequence of genuine achievent.
But this hubris could also beco their downfall.
At this mont, seeing Achilles’s power and understanding his capability through THE Corpse Hierophant’s words, The Oldest Sovereign and any of these Absolutes had certainty in their minds that he wouldn’t be able to do anything against them.
They were that confident in their power.
And rightly so.
If they made advancents on the scale like this, if they climbed from wherever they began to the heights they now occupied, they deserved to enjoy this power. They deserved the confidence that ca from overwhelming superiority.
And even as he stood before them, Achilles felt suffocated.
The weight of thirty-six Absolutes pressed against his transford body from all sides. Eighty-one Fundantal Depths added their authority to the crushing atmosphere. And above all of them, The Oldest Sovereign of Binding Flas radiated imnsity that made breathing feel like labor and thinking feel like swimming through molten stone.
His chest tightened with each mont he remained in this hall. His Inner Dominion strained to maintain stability against pressure that sought to collapse everything he had built.
But even with this suffocation, the more ti he spent here and the more information he obtained, the more he ca to understand that there was a way out of this.
This entity said he appreciated talented Existences who could build grand Civilizations since this would benefit him?
Okay.
Achilles was more than content to provide these benefits.
Because he knew how quickly he could advance. He knew that his Inner Dominion grew with every region he Assimilated. He knew that his Defined and Undefined Assimilation could consu territories that would make his Depth explode upward in ways that conventional cultivation could never match.
In a short period of ti, it was not entirely set who could be sitting on a grand throne looking down on another.
It could be weeks or months or even years.
But the outco was not predetermined simply because this entity held overwhelming advantage now.
So for now, he simply looked toward the being that looked like a prisoner with his broken chains and obsidian garnts and yet sat like an emperor on a throne that dominated everything within perception.
The Oldest Sovereign continued with a voice that carried across the hall with weight that demanded absolute attention.
"All of you will swear to have your Ways and Civilizations under . You will pay respect to The Civilization of Unbound Existence."
His burning eyes swept across every native THE entity present.
"I will lead you all to prosperity. I will show you what advancent truly ans in a reality that is no longer stunted. And in turn, this entire Observable Existence will feed into my Unbound Existence, nourishing my foundations as I guide your growth."
He gestured toward the Absolutes floating on their obsidian lotuses.
"You will learn my hierarchy. You will understand what you can do to advance. And if you wish to beco one of my generals, that is also possible."
His smile held sothing approaching genuine offer beneath the domination.
"These thirty-six Absolutes you see before you, most were not Absolutes before they joined . I made them what they are through the resources and guidance my Civilization provides. And I can do the sa for you."
His burning gaze fixed upon Achilles and Rose and THE Resplendent Paradox with intensity that left no room for misunderstanding.
"So pay your respects."
HUUM!
He wanted them to pay their respects.
But The Oldest Sovereign was looking straight at Achilles, THE Resplendent Paradox, and Rose as he said this. His burning eyes made it abundantly clear that he wanted them to be the first to submit. The most powerful natives of this Observable Existence bending their Civilizations to his authority before all others.
And when it ca to this, THE Resplendent Paradox looked toward Achilles and others with gaze that held calculation beneath her contradictory features.
At this ti, she took the lead.
"My Civilization of Paradox shall back the Civilization of Unbound Existence."
She closed her eyes in a show of respect as the mont she said this, a glimr of golden paradoxical light shone upon her form. A portion of it flew from her being, crossing the distance between where she stood and The Oldest Sovereign’s throne in an instant.
The Oldest Sovereign pinched this paradoxical light between his massive fingers with smile that held satisfaction. The golden radiance beca absorbed into his Existence with ease that spoke of familiarity with this process.
Achilles saw this as he knew at this point, if he denied anything, that was when death and humiliation would begin. For him and for Rose.
This...Prisoner Emperor had demonstrated with THE Corpse Hierophant that defiance resulted in imdiate erasure. There would be no negotiation, no second chances, no opportunity to explain or justify resistance.
So instead, he simply had to bide his ti while he falsely submitted.
In the face of an unstoppable force that one could not win against, they couldn’t be suicidal. They couldn’t throw away their lives for pride that ant nothing if they ceased to exist.
But he also didn’t feel like he could ever place his Civilization of Assimilation under sobody else.
That was his core. That was his identity. That was everything he had built since his first transformation!
But...
How nice was it that he held a partial Claim to Chaos?
And since this being already knew about it because of one dead fucker who couldn’t keep his mouth shut even when silence would have saved his life...
"My Civilization of Chaos shall back the Civilization of Unbound Existence."
HUUM!
He said this with voice that held respect he did not feel.
And monts later, the true Clair of Chaos beside him also spoke up. Rose’s eyes shone with copper light as she voiced her own submission.
"My Civilization of Alchemy shall back the Civilization of Unbound Existence."
BOOM!
Each of them submitted the wrong Civilizations.
Achilles gave Chaos when his true power lay in Assimilation.
Rose gave Alchemy when her true Claim was to Chaos itself.
But because they genuinely held these Civilizations now or had held them before, the submission registered as authentic.
From Achilles and Rose, obsidian and copper lights flashed out to appear before The Oldest Sovereign. He smiled and nodded as he accepted them into his body with the sa ease he had shown when absorbing THE Resplendent Paradox’s paradoxical light.
He did not notice any discrepancy.
He did not sense anything off!
Then he proceeded to look at the rest of THE entities present, his burning gaze moving across Surface Depth and Interdiate Depth and Fundantal Depth entities who all began voicing their own submissions with varying degrees of reluctance.
And Achilles stood in silence, watching, learning, planning.
The hierarchy had been established.
But hierarchies could be overturned.
And he intended to be the one doing the overturning!
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