I Can Assimilate Everything-Chapter 346: No grand battle! I

The dark sand shifted gently beneath Achilles’ hands, each stroke of the shovel measured and calm, like a man tilling earth for spring rather than preparing a grave for something older than most. The Runescriptures carved into the shovel pulsed with a violet hum, responding to the quiet will of the man who held it.

He said nothing, and his posture was unhurried. His bare hands didn’t tremble. His breathing didn’t falter. The rhythm of the shovel cutting into the corrupted earth was a soft, haunting beat- steady, inexorable.

Beside him, the Monkey King stood still, his golden staff slightly raised. The staff of fate and war, a weapon that buzzed and thrummed when death loomed near. But now it was quiet. The hum was one of gentle anticipation, not dread. That silence unnerved Sun more than a scream ever could.

"I don’t understand," he muttered, voice low and guarded. "My staff’s not giving me anything. Nothing. If we were in danger, it should be going wild."

Rose didn’t look away from Achilles. "That’s because we aren’t."

Her voice was steady. Undisturbed.

Sun blinked. And for the first time since they set foot on this cursed island, a part of him believed it. Despite the writhing shadows that curled underfoot. Despite the way the wind carried no scent, no memory. Despite the grave being dug for a foe who had yet to fall.

Achilles continued digging in silence until he finally leaned back. The grave was just deep enough, wide enough. The edge of the spade caught one last clump of corrupted sand before he gently let the shovel rest beside it.

But it had never truly been about digging. It had been about waiting.

Waiting for his other self, deep in the marrow of the glacial mountain, to finish his preparations. Waiting until he was ready to call forth the one he had seen so many times already. Until the final piece fell into place.

He inhaled slowly. The scent of sulfur, rot, and old starlight curled into his lungs.

And then, his voice rose over the corrupted air.

"Andras."

The name rippled through the air like a strike of thunder beneath a quiet lake.

Sun’s head whipped toward him.

Rose merely smiled.

Achilles remained standing by the grave, hands resting on the top of the shovel. His body loose. His shoulders unburdened. He stared out into the swirling darkness, waiting.

Waiting.

And then...

BOOM.

The island quaked. A deep eruption of ancient authority pulsed through the air like a second heartbeat.

A few feet away from them, a rift of black light twisted into shape.

From it emerged a figure wreathed in pulsing darkness. Humanoid in shape, but only barely. Its frame was tall, forged of shadow given spine and form. Its eyes glowed with a regal, cruel light- a deep crimson like the last burning coal in a dying world.

The Primordial Light of Darkness had arrived.

And in those crimson eyes, for one brief moment, there was shock.

True, unguarded shock.

Achilles tilted his head in calm greeting. Rose stepped to his side, her armor gleaming, the green stellar fire around her rising just slightly. And behind them, the Monkey King took a single, hesitating step back before leaning forward again, eyes wide.

"You..." the figure whispered, voice low like thunder trapped in smoke. "You shouldn’t be here. Not now. Not when it’s all... so close."

Achilles didn’t move. "Andras," he said, as if greeting a distant acquaintance at a dinner table. "I’ve built a grave for you. Do you want to get in it now, or a little later?"

HUUM!

Sun looked from Achilles to Andras and then back again.

The silence that followed was heavier than any blade.

Andras said nothing at first. He turned his gaze to Rose. Then to Sun. Then to the grave, dug with such absurd calm. Then he rose into the air slowly, scanning the horizon.

There was no one else.

He descended again, slowly, and behind him, like shadows coalescing into form, fifty silhouettes emerged. Some walked upright, some slithered. Some had wings, others clawed limbs, one pulsed like a jellyfish given bones.

All were Neuronova Stage Astral Core Ascension beings. The elite of the elite. Each one carrying their own weight of devastation!

But Achilles did not flinch.

Andras’ voice grew louder, deeper, filling the space with its cold precision.

"Across my lifetime," he began, voice thick with disdain and gravitas, "I’ve encountered thousands. Entire civilizations. In one world, I met a king. The people chose him, raised him upon their backs. He bore their will, their dreams. I offered him glory. The splendor of the stars. He gave me his World. Didn’t even blink. He thought sacrificing them would save him."

A sneer touched the Primordial’s voice.

"And in another World, I met a different king. One with fire in his blood. He fought me for every breath. Every inch. I slew his children. He spat on my face and died with my name carved into his bones."

He tilted his head, speaking like a collector telling stories of broken antiques.

"Then there was a scholar. A quiet man. He saw the paths of fate like threads . He plotted. He planned. He tried to trap me. And when every path led to death, do you know what he did?" Andras chuckled dryly. "He ran. Coward."

His eyes turned back to Achilles, hard and unblinking.

"I’ve met many kinds, Achilles Maxwell. And in all those long ages, I have never met someone as stupid as you."

Sun audibly gasped behind them.

Achilles just smiled. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"That story," he murmured, eyes half-lidded, "about kings and that cowardly scholar? I’ve heard it before too many times.

...!

Andras’ body froze.

The shadows behind him seemed to still.

"You... heard it?" The words came slowly now. "How?"

Achilles’ smile sharpened. "How did I know your name, Andras? Despite all your precautions? Despite your efforts to erase yourself from history?"

He tapped the side of the grave gently with the shovel.

"I could answer that. But first- " he looked back up, "- you never answered. Will you get in the grave now, or later?"

The shadows shifted. A few of the fifty beings behind Andras bared teeth or claws.

Andras’ voice dropped. "You shouldn’t know my name."

Waves of Gamma Radiation suddenly unfurled around him, cloaking his form in a sheen of sickly light. The mountain groaned in the distance. The island trembled.

Achilles calmly stuck the shovel into the soil, letting it stand upright.

"That’s fine," he said, brushing his hands together. "In other times, you didn’t answer either."

He turned slightly, his eyes gleaming with golden-purple light.

"So give me a moment, would you?" he said softly. "I just need to assimilate your Crimson Star Heart first."

...!

BOOM!

The words struck like thunder.

Andras’ form stiffened. Visibly.

He hadn’t expected that.

Not that.

His entire form wavered, authority pulsing erratically.

Shock turned into horror as if he sensed something!

But it was too late.

Far too late!

Even befofe this battle began, Achilles already affirmed his victory!

"You hid your Core," Achilles said gently, eyes bright and cold. "So far away that even if someone killed you, you wouldn’t really die. Clever."

He stepped forward once, his voice smooth and quiet like a scalpel drawn across flesh.

"But if I know where it is..."

He smiled.

"Then this isn’t a battle anymore, Andras."

"It’s a mercy."

And the island trembled beneath their feet!