I Can Assimilate Everything

In the floating expanse of the Adrastia Continent, there were few beings who could claim to speak with their ruler as equals.

The hierarchy of power that had evolved in this place was as natural as gravity…Ancient Ones who had commanded respect across millennia now deferred to the authority of one who had achieved the impossible in mere weeks!

Thrones like Aliya and Lancelot found themselves speaking to Achilles with the careful formality reserved for forces of nature too vast to fully comprehend.

They could not truly talk to him normally…nor could Nyxeria, Major David, or all the others!

But there was one being who had somehow maintained the peculiar privilege of casual conversation, who could approach the Ninth Adrastia Emperor King without the weight of formal protocol crushing the life from their interactions.

The Monkey King remained, as always, an anomaly.

Achilles left the Sea of Thalassara and materialized above the cultivation fields through white flames of teleportation that left reality slightly singed around the edges of his arrival.

Below him stretched endless rows of trees whose branches bore fruit that gleamed like captured starlight…Primordium Evolutius Fruits that represented the concentrated essence of evolutionary potential itself!

The sight was breathtaking in its scope, an agricultural operation that dwarfed the production capabilities of entire Worlds in what these fruits could accomplish…and they all stemmed from Achilles.

Among the orderly rows moved figures that represented the full diversity of life that now called the Adrastia Continent home.

Thalassarians with their distinctive blue-tinged features worked alongside Ancient Millennium Phoenixes whose feathers caught and refracted light in patterns that painted the air itself.

Humans and Atlantians moved with the efficient purpose of beings who understood the value of what they harvested, while other species contributed their own unique capabilities to the endless task of cultivation.

At the center of this organized activity, the Monkey King looked on with his typical enthusiasm.

"Be careful with the good stuff!" Sun bellowed toward a group of harvesters who were handling particularly large Fruits with what he considered insufficient reverence!

His voice carried across the fields with the authority of someone who had appointed himself quality control supervisor through sheer force of personality.

As he spoke, he took another bite from one of the purple-gold fruits in his own hands, juice running down his chin while power visibly coursed through his enhanced physiology.

The Empyrean Star forming within his core blazed brighter with each bite, his transformation approaching the critical threshold that would elevate him to realms of power he had only dreamed of achieving.

Achilles appeared beside him with the silent precision of folded space, his presence registering in Sun's peripheral vision like a sudden shift in atmospheric pressure.

The Monkey King nearly choked on his mouthful of fruit, jumping sideways before turning to stare at his unexpected companion.

"Damn," Sun managed between coughs, "can I not even sense when you appear now?"

The question carried genuine bewilderment alongside its humor. Sun's enhanced senses should have detected Achilles' approach long before his arrival, but instead he had simply materialized as if reality had decided he belonged in that location and adjusted accordingly.

Achilles smiled at the reaction.

Around them, the workers in the fields had noticed his arrival, and their behavior shifted rapidly. Backs straightened, voices quieted, movements became more precise and deliberate!

Very few among them truly understood who Achilles was beyond the titles they had given him.

King Primal, the mysterious ruler who had somehow convinced Ancient Ones to abandon lineages that stretched back millennia in favor of transformation into something new and unprecedented.

They knew he commanded power that operated beyond conventional understanding, that his mere presence could change many things!

But they could not comprehend the scope of what he had accomplished, the cosmic conflicts he had already resolved, the threats he had eliminated before they could manifest into catastrophe.

Achilles observed their expressions of awe and respect with a mixture of satisfaction and melancholy.

Weeks ago, he reflected, he had been nothing more than an unremarkable human with an unawakened lineage, spending his days in mundane pursuits while powers beyond imagination moved through the darkness around him.

The transformation from that person to this one seemed impossible even to him, a series of escalating impossibilities that had somehow crystallized into a new reality.

The speed of change was staggering when viewed from this perspective!

From hospital corridors trying to save Rose, to outer space in a span of time that could barely be measured. From saving a single life to preserving an entire World.

From powerlessness to authority!

And throughout, his Lineage began burning unfathomably bright.

He sighed softly, the sound carrying weight that seemed to bend the air around them, before turning his attention back to Sun with an expression of casual satisfaction.

"Oh," he said with the tone someone might use to mention the weather, "the Crimson Eyes and the other threat they allied with are gone. I just finished them off recently…there's nobody looking for this Plane of Existence anymore."

…!

The words dropped into the space between them like merely minor bombs detonating in slow motion.

Sun blinked once, then twice, as if his enhanced perception was struggling to process information that defied rational thought.

His mouth opened and closed several times before he managed to form coherent words.

"Brother," he said slowly, "what?"

The incredulity in his voice was absolute.

He stared at Achilles with an expression that suggested he was questioning the basic reliability of his own senses.

Achilles waited patiently while Sun's consciousness worked through the implications, watching as understanding gradually replaced confusion in the Monkey King's features.

"You are a true monster," Sun finally declared, shaking his head with a mixture of admiration and existential bewilderment. "And everyone else here, even the Ancient Ones, all of them…they don't even have the slightest idea what's happening!"

He began to chuckle, the sound building into full laughter as the absurdity of the situation struck him with full force.

"Hey, you know they're still moving earnestly and preparing for a massive battle with the Primordial Light of Darkness? They don't know he's dead, and now the entire force behind him is wiped out too! Hah! Ridiculous…"