I Can Assimilate Everything Chapter 747: Directive! I
Previously on I Can Assimilate Everything...
He needed to feed THE Akashic Seed more and more, and eventually he would elevate it enough to bloom with a terrifying rarity of Intent.
All he had to do was swallow more decimated Fourth Scale beings!
If he kept it up, it became a loop that fed itself. His Prime Cause of Assimilation grew grander, which made his body generate Eridarch Ore faster, which gave him more means to elevate whatever Intent he eventually formed, which made his Cause grander still, on and on. And his real goal sat at the end of that loop, far past Intents and Scales. He wanted to grow his Cause until it became a First Cause. Like THE First Cause that gave way to an Observable Existence!
If pathways to more Prime Causes opened along the way, fine. But a singular focus felt grander to him than spreading himself across nine truths.
Assimilation. Above everything else.
As he was thinking it, Taylor shook her head.
"Your ambition isn’t even hidden in your eyes, big guy," she said. "Be careful. Take things a step at a time. Existence is vast and you have all the time you need. You can always be patient."
She said it like some wise old being who had seen a hundred ambitious fools come and go.
Achilles smiled.
"Ambition is never a bad thing," he said. "And I am patient. I can be very patient."
His eyes were bright as, ahead of them, the war kept producing what he wanted.
BOOM!
Another Fourth Scale Gilded One cried out as two Swords of Existence bore down at once. The Gilded One threw up a second tier Intent, a Nereid, the record of its existence reaching out to push back, and for half a moment it held. Then the two Swords overwhelmed it together, their own records grinding the Nereid flat, and the Gilded One’s body was almost pulverized as they rushed past it deeper into the settlement without a backward glance.
Achilles sent his spores the instant their attention moved on.
|An additional Fourth Scale being has been Assimilated.|
|Record and Intent integrated. THE Akashic Seed has been fed.|
|THE Akashic Seed growth: progressing toward the next tier.|
|Eridarch Ore generation frequency: increased.|
He and Taylor and the other Attendants moved further into the settlement as the army advanced, and the loop turned exactly as he had pictured it, one corpse at a time.
Then Taylor tilted her head and blinked, confusion crossing her face.
Achilles looked at her. "What is it?"
"Uhh." She frowned. "Existence nearby is giving off a sensation of fear? Why would existence be scared?"
HUUM!
She asked. Oh, she asked!
And...
In the next instant, everything froze.
Every single lifeform in the area stopped exactly where it was, mid-step, mid-strike, mid-breath. The Swords. The Relictus. The Gilded Ones still fighting for their nest. All of them locked in place at once, the whole brutal war going still as a painting.
|An Intent belonging to an unfathomable Lifeform, exceeding any bounds recognized by Vakochev’s Scales, has been unleashed.|
|All those within the surrounding domain are unable to move or exert any authority whatsoever.|
...!
Achilles’s eyes went somber.
He could not move. Not his body, not his Cause, not the spores he had spread across the battlefield. Something had reached down and simply decided that nothing here would move, and existence had agreed without argument. He looked ahead and saw even Sir George frozen, even the other Swords of Existence, every one of them caught with incredulity and shock written plain across their faces.
These were Fourth Scale beings. Source Lifeforms. And they were frozen exactly as helplessly as he was!
WAA!
In the deeper part of the settlement they had pushed into, three Ealdor Gilded Ones stood frozen as well. And in front of them, one more Ealdor Gilded One stretched his neck, unbothered, casual, the only thing in the entire domain still moving.
"Well," the figure said. "This little camp of mine has been ruined. So now all of you will have to join the working force." He rolled his shoulders. "Ah, whatever. I always need more workers."
...!
Achilles’s eyes buzzed as he looked at the thing, because his mind was screaming one thing at him with total certainty.
That creature was not a Gilded One!
It felt ancient. Its eyes felt unfathomably old, older than the Source Lands, older than anything he had stood near, a depth of age that made even Sir George and others feel young.
In the next moment, the being tapped out.
BOOM!
Crimson light covered everything. Achilles saw crimson chains snap into being around the necks of every being present, his own included, and then, all at once, they all disappeared. Every single one. The Swords, the Relictus, the Attendants, even the frozen Gilded Ones who had been defending the settlement, all of them gone, swept away without regard for which side they had been on.
Only one lifeform remained where everything had stood.
The one who had sent them all away yawned and spoke to no one.
"Now now. Onto grander matters. My potential perfect Vessel, Osmont...How can I torture you? How can I get my hands on you? A budding True Lifeform with those authorities fused all by his lonesome...Hmm. You have gone to meet the little Queen Regnant of the dull Swords...well, not too problematic. Lets take things step by step...always, step by step..."
...!
---
An instant after he disappeared, Achilles felt his existence cry out in defiance as bindings he had not chosen wrapped around it.
The information came heavy.
|THE Directives of have been imposed upon your existence.|
|First Directive: You cannot speak of THE Sealed One, nor share any information concerning it, by any means, to anyone. The knowledge is sealed behind the seal. You may acknowledge that something is wrong. You may not say what.|
|Second Directive: You must procure and mine a set Unit of Existential Biomass every day and offer it to the Altar of THE Sealed One. If you do not meet this requirement, a tenth of your Existential Biomass will be devoured every day.|
|You are arriving at THE Elvarna Mining Expanse in THE Infinite Carcosa. Pray for a quick death. Pray for salvation.|
...!
What the fuck?
THE Sealed One?
What the fuck was a Sealed One?!