I Can Assimilate Everything

Near the Sea of Thalassara, where luminescent waters met the void of space, a meeting was about to occur that would reshape many things.

The vessel of the Infinite Radiance Sovereignty approached with the grace of power announcing itself.

From its crystalline hull, two figures emerged into the vacuum of outer space.

General Lydia stepped out first, her stellar armament catching light. Behind her came a figure whose presence made space itself pay attention…a Chancellor of the Infinite Radiance Sovereignty!

The Chancellor appeared as an old man, though age meant something different for beings who measured their lives in cosmic epochs.

White robes flowed around him, not fabric but condensed authority that had been convinced to appear as clothing. His body brimmed with terrible power, multiple Regulations swirling under his banner like tamed hurricanes…Space, Time, Causality, and others that normal beings couldn't even perceive, much less control.

His shock was palpable as he floated out to see Adras…the Eighth Adrastia Emperor King, casually sitting in a stellar throne in space as if waiting for afternoon tea rather than a meeting that should have been impossible.

"Brother Adras..." The Chancellor's voice carried across vacuum with the weight of disbelief wrestling with evidence. "Is that truly you? You were..."

"Dead." Adras nodded calmly, the gesture carrying no more weight than acknowledging the weather.

With a casual motion, he gestured to the space before him, creating what appeared to be chairs made of condensed starlight. "Please, sit."

General Lydia's amber eyes widened as she truly looked at the Eighth Adrastia Emperor King. Not an echo, not an illusion, not some elaborate deception…he was alive!

The impossibility of it made her mind spin through explanations, each more unlikely than the last.

How could such a thing be possible?

In their shocked silence, Adras leaned back in his own throne of starlight, his expression thoughtful as he began to speak.

"The unique thing about death," he began, his voice carrying across the void with perfect clarity, "is that you can experience it without even knowing. Death believes itself absolute, final, the period at the end of existence's sentence. But what if someone is powerful enough to reach back? To come to a distance in time before death was experienced and simply... reverse things? Death becomes not an ending but an inconvenience, not a wall but a door that can be opened from the other side."

He looked closely at them, his purple-gold eyes holding depths that spoke of experiences beyond normal comprehension.

"Many things happened, but yes. I am not dead." His gaze focused on the Chancellor with something that might have been fondness. "Chancellor Mackiy now, is it? You have done well for yourself."

Chancellor Mackiy's face cycled through emotions..guilt and disbelief warring for dominance as he and General Lydia took the offered seats.

The old man's hands trembled slightly, not from age but from the weight of seeing a ghost who refused to be ghostly.

Adras waved his hands, and Primordium Evolutius Fruits materialized on a table of light between them. The fruits glowed with their own inner radiance, each one containing enough energy to elevate a normal being several stages of power.

They sat untouched as silence stretched between them, heavy with unspoken histories.

Finally, Chancellor Mackiy bowed his head, the gesture carrying the weight of decades of carried guilt.

"I apologize," he said, his voice rough with emotion that beings of his power rarely displayed. "I apologize for being too weak to help when it mattered. Too weak in my own conviction, too weak in self. Too afraid of the consequences to stand when standing was needed."

He raised his head slightly, meeting Adras's gaze with difficulty. "I want to say I am a better man now, that the years have given me the courage I lacked then... but who knows? Perhaps weakness is simply my nature, dressed in different robes."

Adras listened to this with an expression that held neither anger nor forgiveness, simply acknowledgment.

When he smiled, it carried edges of something sharper than mere happiness.

"Now is not the time for apologies," he said. "You were one of the few who did not actively betray me. That already sets you apart from many others."

Chancellor Mackiy's expression grew even more pained. "Even after you were gone, none of them have been better off. Nobody in the Star Seas has been better off!"

His voice carried the exhaustion of someone who had watched cycles of vengeance play out with precision.

"We have had countless deaths over the years. Even General Dicana, General Vaynar, and others who hunted you... many of them have perished in the Butchering Grounds. The battles they thought would bring them glory brought only more death."

He paused, gathering himself for what needed to be said.

"For now, the Outsiders are a much bigger threat than any internal conflict. I hope…we all hope, that rage can be put aside. For the Infinite Radiance Sovereignty to work with the Adrastia Emperor Kings against the Outsiders. Surely the threat they pose supersedes old grievances?"

Adras smiled at such words, but the expression held no warmth. He shook his head slowly, like a teacher disappointed in a student's failure to grasp a fundamental concept.

"Some fathers," he began, his voice taking on oratorical qualities, "are blessed with progeny who they can be proud of. Children who exceed expectations, who achieve greatness, who carry the family name with honor."

His smile widened, becoming something that made space itself nervous. "But I am blessed with a monstrous progeny that I am more than proud of. A son who doesn't just exceed expectations…he shatters them, rebuilds them, then shatters them again for the joy of it."

He stood, his form radiating power that had been carefully contained until now.

"This progeny, my son, will take care of many things. As for me? I will take care of those who betrayed me personally. Because even if they were influenced by others, even if the Outsiders pulled their strings, they still chose to act. A puppet who enjoys the dance is still responsible for where their feet land."

He turned to face them fully, and both Chancellor Mackiy and General Lydia felt the weight of his attention like gravity increasing.

"But that is not the main reason I called you here. The main reason is to let the Infinite Radiance Sovereignty and Void Dominion Empire know to prepare. The Outsiders you all are so fearful of?" His smile became predatory.

"We will lead you to them. Not to their pawns in the Butchering Grounds, not to their lesser servants, but to them. The puppet masters themselves. And when you find them, you will learn what true power looks like when it's wielded by those who have nothing left to lose and everything to prove."

HUUM!

The implications hung in space between them like a declaration of war written in stellar fire.

The Eighth Adrastia Emperor King smiled as he said…

"My son…will narrate step by step the Fable of War against those you have beem fighting for centuries. Is that not grand?!"

…!