The sensation that Achilles felt was an extremely unique one.

He had experienced many things since following, well, officially, his Civilization of Assimilation.

He had felt the integration of Absolutes and treasures and Causes and memories belonging to beings whose power exceeded his own at the time of their consumption. But this was different from all of those, different in character rather than merely in degree, because what pressed against his existence now was not something external trying to destroy him but something foreign trying to become him.

Something was attempting to rewrite his very mental state.

He felt it moving through the channels that Mansa Nguna’s Engineering had opened within his existence, flowing alongside the Observable Force she was channeling into the carvings on his Heart of a Primordial Architect. The sensation was almost gentle in its intentions, the way a river carves through stone not through violence but through patient and continuous application of pressure along paths of least resistance. Whatever this mental weaving was, it had been refined across eons of practice on Bounded Lifeforms who had never noticed its insertion alongside the Engineering they came to receive. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

It was trying to make him unfathomably loyal and unquestioning toward Gilded Ones.

Particularly those who burned with Pride as they sat over all others in the hierarchy of existence. The weaving sought to install something deep within his consciousness that would make the authority of Gilded Ones feel natural, feel correct, feel like the proper ordering of reality rather than a power dynamic that could be questioned or resisted. It was elegant in its construction, this mental architecture, layered through the legitimate Engineering in ways that would be nearly impossible to detect for beings who were not actively monitoring every aspect of what entered their existence.

In addition to this mental weaving, he felt the clinical Engineering proper, the amplification that sought his Ego of Pride within his existence and began carving knowledge and pathways that were not common in Bounded Lifeforms, methodologies for wielding Infinity without succumbing to THE Gamaidjan that most Second Scale beings spent decades trying to develop through natural cultivation.

So what this Gilded One was trying to do was in two parts.

One was the actual Existential Engineering, amplifying his Ego of Pride and expanding his ability to wield Infinity with stability. The other was a mental weaving of existence that sought to brand obedience and absolute loyalty to Gilded Ones directly onto the fabric of his consciousness, making that loyalty as natural and unquestioning as breathing.

A moment ago, he had begun Assimilating the very mind-controlling construct that sought to establish itself within his existence!

Instead of this construct being established and branded onto him, he made it part of himself by integrating it completely, consuming its architecture and its methodology and every nuance of how it had been constructed before it could finish installing itself.

And the Engineering with whatever methodology Mansa Nguna had been carving to expand and amplify his Ego of Pride, he was Assimilating this as well, consuming the technique alongside the intended effect and making both his own rather than simply receiving their output.

Information crystallized within his awareness as the integrations completed themselves.

|Assimilation Complete: Mental Loyalty Weaving of Superbius Gilded Engineering.|

|Capability Gained: Sovereign Authority of the Amplified.|

|Description: By consuming and integrating the foundational architecture of the loyalty construct placed within beings who undergo Gilded Engineering, you have gained administrative authority over any beings whose Egos were amplified through Engineering by Superbius Gilded Ones. Those who bear the mark of Superbius Engineering exist within a hierarchy whose administrative layer you have consumed and now possess. The depth of this authority scales with your own advancement and the degree of Engineering the target has received.|

|Assimilation Complete: Pride Engineering Methodology of Mansa Nguna.|

|Capability Gained: Sovereign Engineering of the Self.|

|Description: By consuming the methodology through which Gilded Ones amplify Ego and carve new pathways within Bounded Lifeforms, you have gained authority to perform Engineering upon your own existence and Inner Dominion. You can amplify aspects of your own foundations, carve new pathways where none existed, and restructure the architecture of your Inner Dominion according to principles that previously required Gilded intervention to access. Current proficiency reflects your integration depth and will grow with practice.|

...!

Achilles felt the changes and capabilities flow within him!

Rather than lying passive while Mansa Nguna’s Observable Force and Infinity made their changes according to her design, he followed the streams and rivers of Observable Force and Infinity to see the Engineering she was doing on his Pride. He traced her methodology through the channels she had opened, observing how she identified the Ego of Pride within his existence and how she began expanding its capacity with techniques that reflected eons of accumulated expertise.

He even saw points where he began guiding her streams.

Where he understood his own weavings better than she could from the outside, where his Architect’s Perception revealed pathways and configurations within his own existence that her external perspective could not access with the same precision, he guided the rivers of Observable Force along routes that maximized the depth of integration. He followed where she led and then extended what she offered, collaborating with an Engineering she did not know was being collaborated with.

Which made possible what occurred next.

His body began to shine with a scintillating light of golden brilliance that erupted from his every pore and blazed outward in waves that made the surrounding laboratory luminescent. The Pride that had been amplified through their combined effort radiated from his existence with intensity that seemed grander than any amplified Ego that a Bounded Lifeform should be holding, his Heart of a Primordial Architect pulsing with rhythms that carried the Engineering deeper than Mansa Nguna’s technique had ever managed to reach in any previous recipient.

The golden brilliance continued building.

Even Mansa Nguna showed surprise!

She blinked and looked at him and his heart with gold eyes that had clearly not expected this outcome from what should have been a routine Engineering procedure. Her fingers moved with efficiency that could not entirely conceal the interest behind it, the speed of her stitching suggesting she wanted to complete her work quickly so she could move to the evaluation she was already running calculations for.

Observable Force flowed from her hands in careful currents as she sealed what she had opened, tissue and muscle and stellar bone returning to their proper configurations beneath her skilled attention.

She looked at the golden brilliance still radiating from his form as if she could not quite decide what category to place it in.

"Wowee."

The word emerged with lazy brightness that could not entirely contain her genuine reaction.

"Okay, big guy. Let us take a look at you. Rise up, why don’t you?"

...!