When the unexpected happened, one could only accept, adapt, and move on.

This was the truth that governed existence across all Scales and all Observable realities. Plans fell apart. Certainties crumbled. Beings who had cultivated for tens of thousands of years could be eliminated in single moments by forces they never anticipated encountering!

Those who survived were not always the strongest or the most cunning but rather those who could process the unexpected without freezing, without denying what had occurred, without wasting precious moments mourning what should have been.

The spectators in the Coliseum of a Thousand Ascendant Glories were learning this lesson now.

---

Achilles stared at the space where Khaemwaset-of-the-Nine-Suns and the others had been as truly, he had not meant to kill them so quickly.

The way his Assimilation worked was that if the target was too powerful, they could resist it. The authority of their Civilizations would push back against his consumption. Their foundations would struggle against integration. Their existence would fight to maintain its coherence rather than dissolving into the currents of his power.

That was why initially, it had taken multiple attempts for him to Assimilate Corrupted Beasts in the Lattice that Lamashtu had designed in his Observable Existence. Some of those creatures had required dozens of deaths before his power could finally overcome their resistance. One had demanded dozens of attempts before their foundations crumbled enough for consumption to succeed.

Khaemwaset-of-the-Nine-Suns had offered none of that resistance.

Well, Achilles had really thought this being was not just all talk, but he was wrong. The Third Prince of the Bronze Line had possessed arrogance that suggested tremendous power backing his confidence. He had gathered eleven Second Scale beings around him with the certainty of one who knew his victory was assured!

He had spoken with the condescension of someone who believed his target could not possibly threaten him.

And now he was gone.

Assimilated in a single moment alongside his entire hunting confederacy!

He and Achiles didn’t account for how ridiculous the boons of Observable Force and Assimilating multiple Scale 2s and more than 200 Scale 1 at the level of Absolutes had granted to Achilles.

Moments after the heavy silence that had fallen across the domain, the skies of the entire Artificial Primordial opened up with sudden violence that made the crystallized tundra tremble beneath Achilles’s feet. Loud noises erupted from above as the oppressive ceiling that had separated the competition space from the external world cracked and fell away like shattered glass dissolving into light.

Vibrant golden radiance permeated the skies with brilliance that seemed almost celebratory, washing across the emptied landscape where a thousand participants had fought and died over the course of hours that had felt like eternities.

Achilles became capable of seeing the countless Coliseum-styled balconies filled with Existences who had been watching his every move since the competition began. Second Scale beings and First Scale beings and others whose power he could not immediately assess looked down at him with expressions ranging from shock to oddness to genuine interest in what they had just witnessed.

The voice of the announcer boomed out across the revealed space with brightness that had recovered from its earlier bewilderment.

"However unexpectedly, a winner has been decided in THE Last Stand!"

Her words carried to every balcony and platform with Civilizational enhancement that ensured no spectator would miss this announcement.

"Our Champion claims their prize! A Gilded Ticket! A rare and treasured thing that will allow this man to go before the feet of a Gilded One to receive their favor! How grand! How glorious! How utterly unexpected!"

She paused for effect as betting tallies finalized across projection surfaces.

"Even those of you who lost your Ego Crystals in this stunning upset, put aside your grief for just a moment and give it up for our Champion! ADRASTIA!"

...!

OOOH!

Shouts and bellows echoed out from the countless balconies, some voices carrying genuine appreciation for the spectacle they had witnessed while others held tones of anger at fortunes lost through wagers placed on outcomes that seemed certain before a single moment had shattered all expectations.

Boos scattered through the cheering here and there, sore fucking losers expressing their displeasure at the foreigner who had cost them Ego Crystals they had accumulated across centuries of careful cultivation and strategic betting.

Achilles watched all of this coldly as a golden beam of light descended from above to cover his form.

And he disappeared.

---

Minutes later.

Achilles found himself walking across a golden and silver hall filled with statues of different beings who had presumably won competitions similar to the one he had just dominated. The figures were rendered in materials that seemed to capture not just their physical forms but something of their Civilizational authority, each statue radiating faint echoes of the power its subject had wielded in life.

Champions of THE Last Stand stretching back across what must have been countless generations of THE Gilded Games.

He was able to communicate and sense Rose freely at this time, his awareness reaching out through their connection to confirm she remained safe on whatever balcony she had been observing from. The oppressive restrictions of the competition domain had lifted entirely, leaving him able to perceive the existence around him with the full scope of his transformed existence.

This entire hall had been empty when he arrived.

Moments later.

WAP!

A figure appeared before him with sudden displacement.

She was a woman with pink hair that fell in waves around shoulders clad in violet robes of obviously expensive material and careful construction. Her eyes were vibrant with colors that seemed to shift between shades of rose and deeper crimson depending on how light caught them, and she held a deadly smile while she looked at Achilles with interest that went beyond mere professional courtesy.

Her voice was familiar, carrying the same bright cruelty he had heard throughout the competition.

The announcer.

"I am Vexalia, Herald of THE Gilded Games and Voice of the Coliseum of a Thousand Ascendant Glories!"

She introduced herself with flourish that suggested she enjoyed the theatrical aspects of her position tremendously.

"Welcome, Champion of THE Last Stand! You join a long and illustrious line of others who have proven themselves worthy through blood and elimination and the crushing of lesser beings beneath their power!"

Her smile widened as she produced something from the folds of her violet robes.

"A Champion is a Champion, regardless of how unexpected their victory or how many Ego Crystals their triumph has cost our dear spectators. No underhanded things will occur here, no attempts to deny you what you have rightfully earned. So here is your prize!"

She presented a golden rectangular object that looked like a Mobius strip twisted through dimensions that should not have been possible, its surface simultaneously flat and curved and folded through configurations.

Vexalia floated over until she hovered mere inches from Achilles, her vibrant eyes studying his features with curiosity that held sharp edges beneath its apparent friendliness.

"Be careful out there, Champion, even with this prize and whatever boost you might receive from the Engineering of a Gilded One..."

Her smile turned into something that approached genuine warning.

"You have killed Khaemwaset-of-the-Nine-Suns. Third Prince of the Bronze Line. A Minor Vilicus. His family.. will not take that too well!"

She laughed with brightness that did nothing to soften the implications of her words.

"Haha! But that is a problem for another day, yes? Enjoy your victory while you can! Go celebrate, eat, fuck! There are some prized establishments with those who received The Ego Amplification of Luxuria...they will give you a good time!"

Achilles’s eyes turned sharp as he took the Gilded Ticket from her extended hand, feeling the weight of its authority settling against his palm with pressure that seemed to acknowledge his worthiness to hold it.

He thought... of what pathways this prize could open as he ignored the filthy words of Vexalia!