The cycle of death and resurrection continued with rhythm that beca almost familiar in its horror.
Twenty-three tis he died. Forty-seven. Seventy-two. Each death carved new understanding of pain into his consciousness, each reformation bringing him back to face the creature that had just destroyed him. The Absolute Mutated Corrupted Terror killed him with claws and teeth and Corrupted Embodints, finding new ways to end his existence each ti he returned.
But each ti, he took sothing from it.
Assimilate. Assimilate. Assimilate!
The word beca his defiance, spoken or thought in the monts before oblivion claid him. Ninety-one deaths. One hundred and three. One hundred and nineteen. His Inner Dominion grew heavier with each cycle, territories expanding and strengthening as they integrated the Depth of an Absolute that was slowly being devoured piece by piece.
On the one hundred and twenty-third ti, he noticed the creature’s movents had slowed.
On the one hundred and twenty-fourth ti, the Absolute Mutated Corrupted Terror lunged toward him with attack that should have ended his existence instantly.
Achilles raised his hand.
And stopped it.
...!
The impact traveled through his arm, pressure settling into bones that held firm against force that had shattered them over a hundred tis before. His palm pressed against the creature’s claw, obsidian stellar flesh eting corrupted scales without breaking.
The mont hung suspended in crystalline silence.
The creature looked toward him with astonishnt burning in its crimson eyes. This prey that had died so many tis, that had been reduced to mush and ash and poison-eaten ruin over and over, was now stopping its attack with a single hand.
It tried to establish an Embodint.
Only an Absolute could manifest Embodints, concentrated expressions of authority that could reshape reality itself. The creature reached for that power with instinct born from its corrupted existence, pulling upon Depth that should have been overwhelming.
What erged was a Declaration.
The authority of a Fundantal Depth entity, not an Absolute.
It had been devoured so much that its strength had fallen. Its Depth had been consud piece by piece across one hundred and twenty-three cycles of death and assimilation. What remained was a shadow of what it had been, a creature that had descended from Absolute to sothing far less through the simple act of trying to kill sothing that refused to stay dead.
And now Achilles emanated wild and beastly waves of power.
His obsidian stellar body stood in the corrupted light of the domain, muscular form grand and toned from foundations that had integrated the Depth of an Absolute. His features held cold fury that had been building across every death he endured, every reformation that pulled him back from oblivion, every mont of agony that this creature had inflicted upon him.
He looked at the beast that had killed him so many tis.
And he raised both hands like hamrs.
The first blow landed against the creature’s skull with force that cracked crystalline growths erupting from its spine. The second shattered scales that had once been impervious to anything below Absolute authority. The third drove the creature downward, its massive form crashing against the biological floor of the domain with impact that sent tremors through the surrounding channels.
He did not stop.
Blow after blow rained down upon the Mutated Corrupted Terror, each strike carrying the weight of his expanded Inner Dominion. His rage poured through his fists as he rembered every death. The tis his jaws had been clamped shut. The tis his body had been lted or scorched or poisoned into ruin. The pain that had carved itself into his consciousness across one hundred and twenty-three cycles of destruction.
The creature tried to fight back, claws scraping against his obsidian form without finding purchase. It tried to roar, but the sound erged weak and desperate. It tried to flee, but his hands found it again and again, hamring down with fury that would not be denied.
He continued until the beast twitched beneath him, a massive form reduced to broken ruin.
Only then did he look at it coldly.
"Assimilate."
Multicolored brilliance washed over what remained of the Absolute Mutated Corrupted Terror. Its existence unraveled completely, authority and Depth and corrupted power flowing into Achilles with weight that made his Inner Dominion shudder from the magnitude of integration.
All of it disappeared.
...!
Achilles stood in the central space of his domain, chest heaving from exertion. His obsidian stellar form radiated power unlike anything he had possessed before entering The Existential Lattice.
He had just decimated an Absolute.
Even if he died one hundred and twenty-three tis before being able to do so. Even if the process had carved pain into his existence that would take lifetis to fully process. He had faced sothing that should have been insurmountable and erged victorious through sheer refusal to accept defeat.
And not just that.
He had Assimilated everything of that Absolute.
Every fragnt of its Depth. Every piece of its corrupted authority. Every aspect of its existence that had made it powerful enough to kill him over and over without effort.
His Inner Dominion had grown trendously.
The territories within him pulsed with integrated power, foundations strengthening. The gap between him and THE Prisoner had narrowed ever so slightly!
—
Rose floated through the Void alongside other natives of their Observable Existence, the obsidian dipyramid pulsing in her hands as it released Corrupted Growths into regions that had never known such corruption before.
THE Slumbering Genesis moved nearby with his massive draconic elephantine form, verdant scales still dimd by circumstances none of them had chosen.
Others filled out their group, Surface Depth and Interdiate Depth entities performing tasks they despised under supervision they could not escape.
The Fundantal Depth Master overseeing them floated at the rear of their formation, his obsidian garnts and broken chains marking him as one of THE Prisoner’s long-serving forces. His burning eyes swept across them with casual contempt, watching their progress with the bored attention of soone who had perford this duty many tis before.
In the distance, Rose could see The Existential Lattice.
From their perspective, it appeared as a single extending crystal stretching across the Void, purple obsidian brilliance that pulsed with corrupted light. The cancerous growth continued its expansion through Observable Existence, consuming everything in its path.
She looked at it with eyes that could perceive the codes of Existence in all things.
Then she looked at the Fundantal Depth Master overseeing them.
He noticed her gaze and his expression twisted into sothing ugly.
"You dumb bitch, why are you looking at like that?"
His voice carried contempt that made several Surface Depth entities flinch.
"Keep a move on."
...!
Rose’s stellar obsidian features remained perfectly calm as she processed his words. The dipyramid continued pulsing in her hands, Corrupted Growths still erging from its surface with geotric wrongness that spread outward into the Void.
"I’m the dumb bitch?"
Her voice erged soft, almost gentle, but sothing beneath it made the surrounding space grow cold.
"Aren’t you the dumb bitch who is separated from others?"
The Fundantal Depth Master’s expression shifted from contempt to confusion.
He was isolated?
Rose’s obsidian eyes blazed with Chaos that she had been suppressing since this entire ordeal began.
"Do you know what I can do to a dumb isolated bitch like you now?"
...!
THE Slumbering Genesis and THE Sovereign Catalyst and others looked over in astonishnt as seas of Chaos rose all around them. The authority Rose had been hiding beneath surface compliance erupted outward with force that made reality itself tremble, obsidian brilliance flooding the surrounding Void with power that exceeded what any of them had witnessed from her before.
And from above, a cold-faced body of Achilles descended brutally.
His stellar obsidian form moved with speed that defied perception, arriving before the Fundantal Depth Master could even begin to react. His hand grasped the head of this being who had called his wife a dumb bitch, fingers closing around the skull with grip that cracked bone beneath obsidian flesh.
His authority ford a spore-like nature as it forcefully flowed into this being.
Particles of Assimilation flooded through the Fundantal Depth Master’s existence, spreading through his foundations like infection through healthy tissue. The creature thrashed against Achilles’s grip, trying to establish Declarations that would free him from this violation of his being!
But Achilles held firm.
And the spores continued spreading.
"You...have sothing we need."
Achilles’s voice erged cold as his authority penetrated deeper into the Fundantal Depth Master’s existence.
"Information. Understanding. Knowledge...and entry. You have a lot to give."
His grip tightened!
Oh!
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