I Can Assimilate Everything-Chapter 339: The Assimilation of Time! I

Achilles stood steady.

Before him floated the burly figure whose voice still echoed in his bones. A being chiseled from starfire and legacy, his presence wore no crown yet commanded the respect of stars.

"I am the Fourth Adrastia Emperor King," the man said, his voice carrying the weight of ages. No thunder accompanied it. No fanfare. Just a finality as immutable as the Regulations that governed stars. "And for you to be the Ninth... for us to fall that far..."

He did not finish.

His gaze drifted across the mountains of corpses once more, his eyes no longer cruel, but tired. "All this power," he whispered, more to the void than to Achilles, "and still, we were culled. One by one. Like cattle."

Achilles said nothing. His fists clenched at his sides in solemnity. In understanding. He had never once felt the warmth of his Grandfathers. Only remnants, dreams, and pain.

The Fourth Adrastia Emperor King turned to him once more, the solemnity in his gaze now replaced with a sharp, burning determination. "You cannot die, boy. You must break this wheel. You must end the slaughter. That is the duty of the last."

Achilles inhaled slowly, and nodded.

"Now," the Emperor King said, his voice snapping like iron, "show me your Assimilations. All of them. Let me see what it is you wield."

Achilles complied.

With a simple flex of thought, a golden screen of runes and pulsing sigils bloomed before them. It glowed with all the Assimilations he had acquired, the lineage refinement stages, even the burgeoning threads of Destiny.

The elder moved forward, reading in silence. He nodded once. Then again. Frowned. Tilted his head. "These," he grumbled, gesturing at several entries, "are scattered and bloated. Titans, Arachnida, Draconian, Homosapien Homovorus... why are you handling them separately?"

"They came from different Ancients," Achilles replied simply.

The Fourth Adrastia Emperor King sighed, brushing a hand across the panel. "So what? Consolidate. Fold them under a core category: Terrestrial Lifeforms. Refine the mess. Strength is not just in power, it’s in clarity. Simplicity."

Achilles felt the idea nestle within him, golden light spinning in the space behind his eyes.

Then the elder’s gaze fell on the Destiny thread, and for the first time, true surprise broke through his composure. "You have Destiny... now? At your level? This alone should have made you untouchable. You must keep seeking more strands. Gather them like seeds. Let them grow within you. But if even with Destiny you’re struggling, then..."

His words trailed as he lifted his hand.

A tide of light surged.

It did not shine golden. Nor crimson. Nor starfire.

It shimmered purple, dusky and slow, like moonlight filtered through centuries.

"This," the elder said, his tone suddenly distant, "is not something many see. Fewer still touch."

Achilles looked at it, heart thrumming. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

The elder continued. "This... is Time. Or rather, its Regulation. The fabric beneath change. Most can’t perceive it. Even fewer understand it. And if they do, it warps them. It’s foreign to what they are. It eats them from within. To assimilate it is to try becoming time as this...is an impossibility."

He paused, letting the weight settle.

"But you... you may be one of the few who can hold it. Just barely."

"What is it like?" Achilles asked softly.

The Fourth Adrastia Emperor King turned to the flowing purple brilliance and murmured, "Time does not move. We do. Time is not a river. It is the riverbed. Our thoughts fill it. Our memories name it. And still, it does not care for any of us."

He turned to Achilles again, his gaze soft with a strange fondness.

"Power lies not in mastering time, but in dancing with it. In knowing when to fold, when to press, when to wait. Learn to make time yours, boy... and even the stars will hesitate to oppose you."

Achilles nodded.

"So," the elder said finally, extending the tendrils of purple light, "Reach. Take it. And remember what I’ve told you. Add this to Destiny, and your enemies will seem like children playing war."

Achilles raised his hand, fingers trembling.

His voice was clear.

"Assimilate."

The purple light surged.

BOOM!

A cascade of visions unfurled.

He stood in a river of violet. It stretched beyond all meaning, with stars flickering like bubbles along its banks. Time. Not metaphor. Not theory. It was there, alive, waiting.

He stepped once.

And all at once, it cracked.

The dream shattered.

But Achilles did not wake.

Time around him had frozen. Only his mind remained in motion as lines of blazing script etched into the inner chamber of his thoughts.

Organic Spatial Regulation – TIME

Abilities Unlocked:

1. Chronofold Pulse: With a burst of violet light, you can rewind your physical body to the exact state it was in five seconds ago. Position, damage, stamina—all revert. Only one rewind can be held at a time, and it requires 30 seconds of non-use to recharge.

2. Time Vision: You can select a target and view a vision of them in the future. It could be seconds in the future or years in the future, and it may only be done once an hour.

3. Temporal Fracture: You can cast a sliver of Time around a single enemy. For three seconds, you can watch a ghostly image of what they will do ten seconds in the future. Their future movements are revealed, but acting upon them too early will collapse the window. Requires intense mental focus.

4. Clockshard Horizon: A starlit field of broken time is summoned within a small radius. All enemies inside move at half-speed while you move moves normally. Lasts for seven seconds. The area becomes saturated with temporal instability, preventing re-use until recovered.

HUUM!

They were not tricks!

They were glimpses.

Glimpses of what could be done when one danced with time, when one chose to bend the narrative forward rather than be swept along with it.

And Achilles, Ninth of the Adrastia Line, would learn to dance as on this day, he assimilated...Time!