I Can Assimilate Everything

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 someone looking at impossibilities.

The sensation of having assimilated the terrifying components of existence itself was unlike anything conventional power scaling could describe!

At this moment, he truly could not be given the outlines of the realms of power that many in the Star Seas adopted…their frameworks were too limited, their measurements too crude for what he had become.

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…some chose quantity, controlling thousands of lesser stars, while others chose quality, binding themselves to singular massive stellar phenomena 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 merely constructing and reinforcing their bodies with stellar matter.

They had become astute masters of Regulations…the fundamental rules that reality operated by!

A Regulation proceeded to overcome many other forms of power because, in addition to one's personal might, a Regulation was extremely capable of altering the surrounding space and existence itself.

The power of a single General could overcome multiple other existences at the same stage who lacked understanding and usage of a Regulation. It wasn't about raw force.

It was about rewriting the rules of engagement itself.

If one came to grasp and truly understand how to utilize a Regulation- be it Time or Space, Entropy or Carnage, Probability or Causality…they would become like existential nuclear warheads all on their own, capable of distorting reality with their mere 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 moment was something 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 become one with it.

He had assimilated it, made it part of his fundamental existence. How he could utilize the Regulation of Space or Quantum would far exceed how any other entity who merely 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.

Some 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 time would tell the extent of his power. One thing that remained true was how it would become even grander as the seconds passed and he continued assimilating the very makeup of existence itself.

As Achilles was contemplating these impossible measurements, 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 someone for whom physics was optional.

His gaze was somber yet filled with pride as he looked at his son….not the child he remembered, but the force he had become.

They faced each other in the vastness between stars, two Emperor Kings whose very existence in the same 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 dimensions most beings couldn't perceive. "About what comes 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 someone who had walked similar paths. "The names 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 same 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 volume.

"But I do not wish for you to be lost in vengeance and revenge." The words emerged with careful deliberation. "I know clearly all those who wronged us…every name, 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 me 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 moment. You've already done the impossible…you've brought us back, given us a second chance. Let me 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 consume 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 names, ensure that justice is served without either of us being consumed by it. Together, we're not just stronger…we're more likely to remember 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 become 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 someone who recognized when they'd been outmaneuvered by their own blood. Then his expression shifted to something 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 meanwhile? 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 names as he continued.

"My Existence Corruption Value keeps climbing. I have to balance assimilation with genetic optimization to keep stable as the Bloodline Refinement 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 me," his father commanded, the tone of someone 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 experimentation, while Achilles demonstrated applications of Regulations that shouldn't have been possible.

They were father and son, Emperor Kings of the same 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 moment, a region of the Edge of Space connecting to the Star Seas showed…an overabundance of life!