I Can Assimilate Everything-Chapter 344: Digging a grave for the dead! I

The wind at the edge of the world carried salt and silence.

The cliffs of the Cenotaph Wild Lands groaned under the weight of centuries. And at their farthest edge, where the shattered land met an endless, blue immensity, two figures stood.

One robed in flowing crimson-gold, framed in starlight, and wrapped in faint wisps of Gamma energy. The other, tail flicking as he stretched his arms wide to the open sea.

"Ah... there it is!" the Monkey King, Sun, breathed in with a wild breath. "The end of the land. The beginning of the sea."

The Cerulean Dead Sea.

It lay beyond them like a realm out of legend- endless, shimmering with unnatural stillness beneath the late-day sun.

The horizon was a lie here. There was no true end, only the subtle bend of the world, the curve where light failed and silence ruled.

Sun dropped onto a broken piece of ancient stone of jagged obaidian cliffs, still half-smiling. "This is the outer ring of the Plane. Most of the ancients forgot, or pretend to forget, that it wraps like a noose around Ethemia."

Achilles did not flinch at the words. He watched the waters quietly, gaze sharp as flint. "How long until we reach the island?"

Sun tilted his head and became serious, flicking his tail once. "Less than half an hour if we go straight."

Achilles nodded. "Then we stop here."

The Monkey King blinked. "Here?"

"I’ll look into destiny again," Achilles said simply.

A heartbeat passed.

Then Sun’s mouth shut, and he gave a short nod, sinking into a crouch as his tail looped lazily in the air. "Got it. I’ll keep watch."

The sky around them dimmed further, purple and orange hues clashing as the stars began to blink awake.

Achilles took one step forward toward the edge of the cliff. The wind whipped his hair back, the scent of salt and old things rising with the tide.

Another hour had passed.

Time Vision could be used again.

But this time, he didn’t seek the darkness. He did not peer into his enemies. Not yet.

He targeted himself.

He reached within.

The nascent river of time flowed along his spine like coiled starlight. It responded to his will, the budding manifestation of his Time Assimilation trembling in rhythm with his breath. His aura deepened, rich and layered with stellar heat. Gamma Radiation churned within him. And in the midst of it all...his command struck repeatedly.

Observe. The next hour. The next few hours.

No more. No further.

He wanted control. Prayed for it!

A pulse of violet erupted from him, radiant waves surrounding his form as he floated inches from the earth, wrapped in the rhythm of time.

And then...

Purple brilliance bloomed.

The river appeared, vast and fluid, a corridor between what is and what might yet be.

He stepped through.

And a new vision bloomed!

He saw himself.

Crossing the Cerulean Dead Sea.

His Primordial Avatar glided over the water, Gamma Radiation cloaking his entire form, refracting light into a thousand mirrored hues across the sea. Each footstep melted silently into the air, as if nature itself dared not acknowledge him.

Ahead, the two mountains- massive, monolithic- pierced the horizon. One was shrouded in eternal frost, ice melting into the sea in slow, reluctant drops. The other was wreathed in choking mist, its peak hidden even in sunlight. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Between them- an island. Stark. Quiet. Watching.

The future Achilles landed alone. He told Sun to stay back.

The moment his foot touched the shore, the world reacted.

His Gamma cloak pulsed faintly, absorbing the latent signals woven into the air. And then, he felt it. The ecology of the island bent under his perception.

Ecological Empathy activated.

He mapped every trembling root, every stone-shelled beetle beneath the soil, every shifting grain of volcanic sand. And...

BOOM!

An unknown alert triggered.

He had breached a barrier.

From beneath the surface, the ground ruptured.

The shadowy figure of the Primordial Light of Darkness burst from the earth like an arrow of despair. His form writhed, half-formed shadows lashing around him as he hovered, mouth parted in disbelief.

"You... you, you, you," he stammered, crimson light flaring behind his black eyes. "You should not possibly be here, child. Not when everything is so close to completion!"

And then...

BOOM!

A battle bloomed like a storm. A cascade of force and starlight clashed with shadows and tendrils of crimson, and then...

The vision ended.

Achilles gasped softly as the river faded.

He returned to himself.

The cliffs had not moved. But the waves had risen. Cold seawater splashed against the rocks, some of it landing against his cheek, stinging.

He opened his eyes slowly, exhaling.

Sun watched him carefully from the side. "You good?"

Achilles shook his head.

"We stay here. Until tomorrow."

Sun blinked. "Wait, what? We’re this close to reaching the Mountains and seeing if the Primordial Light of Darkness is there..."

"We wait," Achilles repeated.

"But why...?"

"I will only move forward when I know I will win. When I have two- no, three- backup plans in place."

HUUM!

The words weren’t arrogance. They were clarity. Unshakeable. Solid.

Sun let out a low whistle. "You’re really not playing around, as bold as you may sound..."

"I’m done gambling with fate," Achilles said, his voice quiet but thunderous as he whispered moreso to himself!

"I’ll bend Destiny. I’ll wield Time. Until nothing can surprise me."

...!

He sat.

Cross-legged. Poised.

The cliff’s edge became his throne as rivers of starlight spiraled down from the heavens and pooled into his body. His robes, stitched with primordial energy and forged within the Cataclysmic Star Forge, shimmered like liquid gold. Gamma Radiation pulsed in controlled waves around him, and the breath of the sea swirled in harmony with the energies he summoned.

He refined his bloodline as he waited.

He let the seas of Primordial and Evolutius Energy crash through his channels, deeper and deeper, scouring away the lingering marks of Existence Corruption.

He did not rush.

He had tasted Time. He had tasted Destiny.

He would master both.

One hour at a time.

The wind howled. The stars rotated overhead. The Cerulean Dead Sea whispered secrets no one could hear.

And Achilles Adrastia Maxwell did not move.

Thirteen hours passed like this!