I Can Assimilate Everything

All of surrounding space for dozens of light-years suddenly developed opinion about this punch.

Gravity from distant stars added their weight. The vacuum itself, which should have been nothing, discovered it could be something when properly motivated. Dark matter, usually content to remain mysterious, decided to participate.

It was terrifying…a punch that contained all the weight and support and gravity of space for dozens of light-years, concentrated into a fist moving at speeds that made light feel inadequate!

HUUM!

And yet...

Against such a strike, Achilles felt like he was observing a phenomenon in a controlled laboratory.

Something he could evade at any time, analyze at his leisure, perhaps write a paper about later. His Existential Authority of Fables broke down the attack with the casual efficiency of a master chef filleting a fish!

Prompts materialized in his consciousness on all thr ways he could deal with this punch!

|Quantum Dissolution Method: The punch exists in superposition until observed. By controlling the observation, you can collapse its wave function into a state where it has already missed. The probability of contact can be reduced to statistical insignificance through selective quantum tunneling of the impact point.|

|Spatial Tension Negation: The space being compressed toward you is still space you have assimilated. Adjust the tension framework so that the distance the punch must travel becomes infinite within finite space. The fist will travel forever toward you while never actually arriving.|

|Inevitable Entropy Protocol: Every action degrades toward chaos. Accelerate the entropy of the punch itself. The organized energy will dissipate into heat, sound, and scattered particles before impact. The attack will age a billion years in nanoseconds, becoming nothing but cosmic background radiation.|

|Direct Assimilation: The character 'General Lydia' has been deemed to be Tier 3, Level Null in the view of the Scale of Existence. Her attack carries insufficient narrative weight to resist consumption. You may simply assimilate the attack itself, converting it to your own power.|

…!

Tier 3, Level Null.

Even as General Lydia's terrifying attack continued its approach, still slow enough in his perception that he had time for academic curiosity, Achilles queried his Existential Authority of Fables about this Scale of Existence.

What the hell was that?

Another prompt appeared.

|The Scale of Existence contains Nine Tiers within Level Null. All current existences in these Star Seas are contained below the level of Pre-Civilizational Existence (Level Zero) and exist in the Null Level in terms of Complexity and their ability to affect overall existence. Tier 1 represents basic consciousness. Tier 9 approaches the threshold of Level Zero. Most beings never advance beyond Tier 2. Masters of Regulation typically range from Tier 3 to Tier 4.|

…!

Null Level Scale, Zero Level Scale!

And all those in the Star Seas, including Achilles and the Nar'Thyss…were in the abysmal Null Scale!

Achilles absorbed this information while wondering which tier he would currently be considered in this Null Scale of Existence.

But such contemplation could wait…Lydia's punch had finally arrived at the point where response was required.

He raised his ethereal platinum stellar hand with the casual motion of someone catching a falling leaf!

His palm met her fist, and the terrible weight and gravity of space that had been concentrated into her attack simply... disappeared.

Not blocked, not deflected, but assimilated, drawn into him like water into desert sand.

By the time her fist actually made contact, all that remained was the physical motion itself, stripped of its cosmic weight.

PAH!

The sound was almost insulting…not the reality-shattering impact of forces that could shatter worlds, but the gentle slap of a child's hand against water.

General Lydia became entirely frozen from sheer cognitive dissonance.

Her body remained in its attack position while her mind tried to process the impossible thing that had just occurred.

She pulled back slowly, each movement careful as if reality might shatter if she moved too quickly!

Her gaze toward Achilles carried ashen shock, the kind that came from discovering that everything you thought you knew about power was merely the shallow end of an ocean whose depths contained leviathans.

"You... you..." Words failed her, each attempted sentence crumbling before it could form.

She had no words because she was questioning everything.

The sensation of hitting him hadn't been like striking a barrier or meeting opposing force.

It had been like punching meaning itself…her attack had been recognized, catalogued, and filed away as irrelevant.

Achilles looked at his hand with genuine amazement, the appendage having experienced sensation roughly equivalent to being tickled by cosmic force.

"Thank you for that," he said, his tone carrying sincere gratitude. "I just needed to gauge power. But I really came here to say that your mentor... someone wishes to meet him."

General Lydia breathed heavily, her entire existence churning with implications.

The sensation of having struck him lingered…she had hit an immovable mountain, and worse, she understood with terrible clarity that if this mountain chose to exert even a little bit of power, it could crush her entirely.

This sensation, this overwhelming sense of standing before something beyond comprehension…she did not even get this from the Chancellors!

Fuck.

Fuck!

"Who..." Her voice emerged rough, as if speaking required remembering how to form words. "Who wants to meet a Chancellor?"

Achilles smiled at this question.

"Why, his old friend. A previous Adrastia Emperor King."

BOOM!

The words landed with the weight of reality readjusting its understanding of possible.

General Lydia paled, her stellar armor seeming to dim as blood that wasn't quite blood rushed from her face.

Was the previous Adrastia Emperor King... not dead?

But she was afraid to even ask this, understanding instinctively that some knowledge came with prices that couldn't be unpaid.

Achilles looked at her with something that might have been compassion. "Have your mentor come to this location."

As he spoke, he raised one finger and sent a pulse of information flowing directly into her head.

His figure began to pull itself upward, not through space but through layers of narrative, ascending back to his massive Constellation state.

As he departed, he noticed platinum-colored particles flowing out around General Lydia, and a prompt rose in his consciousness.

|You have altered the narrative course of General Lydia into an unknown direction. +10 Units of Existential Authority of Fables.|

He absorbed this information as his form dissipated in the next moment, leaving behind an ashen General Lydia and her guard, both trying to process what had just occurred.

Around the command center, the dozen or so entities began to emerge from their imposed slumber, consciousness returning like tide filling empty pools. They woke to find their General standing still as stone, staring at nothing with eyes that had seen too much.

The vessel continued its course toward the Chancellors, but now it carried more than passengers.

It carried a message!