I Can Assimilate Everything

Chapter 722: Oddities

THE Braneworld Observable Existence demanded attention from every direction simultaneously.

Apart from the radiant golden rivers of Observable Force permeating the atmosphere in concentrations that made breathing feel like cultivation, Achilles could see a distant citadel stretching for light years in every direction he looked. Golden towers rose to heights that defied conventional architecture, their peaks disappearing into golden clouds that parted and reformed around them with the patience of something that had been doing exactly this for eons. Crystalline buildings connected the towers in configurations that seemed to emanate the glory of different Causes of Existence, each structure radiating authority that felt older and more fundamental than anything he had previously encountered.

The Causes emanating from those buildings felt grander than the Miniature Causes he had come across.

They carried the quality of something connected to THE First Cause itself of this Observable Existence, expressions of creative principle so foundational that even the concentrated Observable Force surrounding him seemed to defer to them in some atmospheric way his perception registered without fully translating.

He could feel the auras of millions of Gilded Ones within that distant Citadel pressing against his awareness from the remove of light years, each one contributing to a collective presence that made the atmosphere itself feel inhabited rather than merely filled with power.

Beside him, Vireth noticed where he was looking.

"The one we will follow, who will be leading the Gilded Legion tasked with addressing the newly appearing Osmontian, is known as Sororis Prima Elizabeth."

Her tired expression had settled into something more operational.

"We are effectively outsiders here. I am an outsider from a different time, and the others who will join us shortly are outsiders in their own ways. We must maintain a level of secrecy and decorum that the situation demands."

Her crimson-gold eyes carried the particular seriousness of someone explaining a constraint that had real consequences.

"THE Primordial Source cannot become aware of our presence in any blatant way or we will be rejected from this space entirely. So we maneuver around that limitation carefully."

As she said this, a surge of power erupted all around them.

Six entities appeared.

Achilles felt his existence squeeze somewhat at the concentrated weight that permeated around him as they arrived.

Three radiated auras at what he estimated was comparable to Vireth’s own authority.

The first was a muscular man with obsidian skin and a single eye positioned at the center of his face where two should have been, his presence radiating the compressed quality of someone who had reduced everything unnecessary from their existence across eons of cultivation until what remained was entirely functional. The second was a woman adorned in a green dress with fiery green hair that made something in Achilles’s chest perform an involuntary comparison he immediately set aside, her eyes covered entirely by a blindfold while verdant green holy light emanated from her form in waves that seemed to bless and scour simultaneously.

The third was a crimson slime with a devilish expression of brutality pressed into features that should not have been capable of expression, its surface shifting with the casual menace of something that found the current company adequately entertaining.

Behind these three were entities of a different character entirely.

They looked to be beings plucked from different Observable Existences and brought here, each one carrying the particular quality of someone dropped into circumstances larger than their immediate context, uniqueness that these Gilded Ones had apparently decided was worth the considerable effort of extraction.

The first was a young woman who almost looked like a child in her proportions, and yet her figure was too precisely formed, too deliberate in its composition, her entire existence giving off no sense of power whatsoever. She stood with the stillness of something that did not need to communicate readiness because readiness was simply its permanent state. She was unfathomably odd in ways his Architect’s Perception could not immediately categorize.

The second was a man with an imperious bearing that announced itself before any specific detail did, his eyes filled with pride and arrogance that had clearly been cultivated rather than simply possessed. Rivers of golden Infinity surged around him in currents that responded to his presence with the familiarity of something long domesticated. Just by standing near him, all other tendrils of Infinity threading through the atmosphere seemed to orient toward his gravity, becoming organized around him in ways that suggested control rather than mere attraction.

This one Achilles could somewhat read. The Gilded Ones were apparently attempting to counter THE Osmontian’s Infinity capability with someone who had made Infinity itself into a thoroughly governed extension of his existence.

The third was a woman with a petite figure and eyes that moved constantly.

They tracked every entity present, every atmospheric current, every subtle shift in the positioning of the Gilded Ones around them, with the efficiency of someone running perpetual threat assessment. She seemed suspicious of every single thing in this space with the comprehensive distrust of someone whose instincts had been proven correct often enough to earn unconditional confidence.

Her eyes locked onto Achilles.

And they lit up with unmistakable relief.

A voice arrived directly in his mind in the next moment, bypassing his ears entirely.

"Fucking finally, someone else whose existence can feel we are heading into a death trap."

The voice was vibrant beyond what the words alone communicated, energy compressing itself into the mental transmission with the enthusiasm of someone who had been waiting for this specific contact.

"Hey. You hear me? Hey! Do you want to fuck these kidnappers over? Before they fuck us, I want to fuck them! They think they can steal me and threaten my family to come help them? Hah! Fuck em!"

A beat of what felt like genuine assessment followed.

"Hey! You can hear me, right? Answer me, since I know you are thinking just like me. My power has told me this. It has also told me a plan, a potential plan that may allow us to get out of this alive. Are you in?"

Another beat.

"I’m Taylor by the way. Taylor of The Light!"

...!

A ridiculously vibrant voice bounced through his mind with the energy of someone who had apparently been waiting to find an ally since the moment they arrived here and was deeply relieved the search was over.

Achilles controlled his facial expression.

Internally, he was considerably more interested in Taylor of The Light than his expression suggested!