Did he know how many Zakarians had died by his hands?
Achilles' father heard the words, and something ancient and furious stirred in him.
"Zakarians? Zakarians?!" he howled out.
"They invaded my home in the name of conquest! They slaughtered everyone they found. They wouldn't stop until one side was annihilated. I ended that war to save my people! Kaisar... I saved you in that war!"
His voice cracked as grief flooded him like a storm.
But Kaisar, who always remained stoic and distant, actually clenched his fists in sorrow.
And the woman beside him?
She laughed. Lightly. Cruelly.
"You never knew, did you?" she said, venom permeating across every word. "Kaisar is half Zakarian. You led a genocide against his people...his own family probably died by your hands- eaten up in your Existence and your voracious need to devour everything! And now, you'll pay the price. Don't worry, we invited all your enemies to come here and finish the job. Every single one."
Achilles, still inside the dream, still in the body of his father, trembled. Not from fear, but from rage. From anguish. His very soul seemed to boil as power surged within.
He let out a roar that cracked the burning plasma above and below, the very Sun they all stood on seemingly quaking as he commanded vast flaming seas of Assimilations inside of him!
Achilles shot up in bed, panting like he'd run through a sun himself. Sweat soaked his skin, and his heart boomed like a war drum.
Rose's voice echoed out.
She was right there, arms wrapped around him, her thighs pressing against his back as she pulled him into her lap. Tears streamed down her face as she continued.
"You were shaking! You were burning up- I…I didn't know what to do! Are you okay, Little Fatty? Please tell me you're okay!"
She held him like the world was ending. And slowly, her warmth began to cut through the chaos in his mind as his dazedness slowly faded.
The dream, no, the memory…it still lingered!
The rage. The betrayal. The pain of being stabbed by someone he'd called a brother.
He touched his chest.
The blade. The golden blood. The agony. It all felt too real.
"Kaisar…" he whispered.
The name came like a curse. Etched into memory alongside the venomous woman at his side.
He didn't know how the dream ended. But if Kaisar and that woman were still alive…
'Just wait for me!', he thought.
The fury that wasn't his, but his father's, pulsed through him.
Rose's voice sounded out again.
He turned and wrapped his arms around hers, leaning back into her embrace.
"I'm okay," he said, breathing slowly.
He felt the beat of his heart.
"I'm okay. I just… had a bad dream."
A bad dream didn't even begin to describe it.
Outside the clear glass windows, the sun's first rays crept through as morning had come, quiet and soft.
The night had started sweetly. A dream come true as Rose had initiated something he'd fantasized about for years.
But it ended with something darker.
A vision of the past. A glimpse into a life his father had lived over centuries.
Achilles had only been alive for twenty-something years.
His father? Hundreds.
And in these years, he was betrayed, hunted, and had his Existence itself broken. Eventually, the Eighth Adrastia Emperor King even died!
How do you even process that?
Even more than that, Achilles asked himself. Why? Why was he the last Adrastia Emperor King? Why did his Father say the Ninth was the final one? Why...
There were so many questions swirling in his mind amidst the mixture of emotions as he couldn't help but close his eyes tightly.
He held Rose tighter, her body anchoring him to the present.
The fury still bubbled, but he pushed it down deep. Rage could wait. He needed clarity. He needed to remember who he was.
"I'm okay," he whispered again, and then he sat up.
Rose didn't let go. Instead, she tightened her grip and whispered, "I'll just hold you a little longer, Little Fatty."
He didn't argue. He just nodded and gave her a tired smile before closing his eyes again.
And beyond the walls of the Overseer's Observatory, deep in the colony city of Neon, he reached out to something.
The same ones that had been used to seal the Leyline Fracture with. Extensions of him, buried deep in the Colony City of Neon and humming with power as the earth continued to heal.
He tapped into them deliberately and activated the Assimilation of Organic and Inorganic Terrestrial Planetary Body.
Primordial energy surged. Evolutius energy followed. He had no Existence Corruption at this moment as he would be able to assimilate a great deal.
From a distant sea deep within the planet Ethemia, a world his father had once called an Ancient Plane, Achilles drew more and more power. He assimilated more and more of it!
As he did so, he opened his eyes briefly to look at Rose.
"I want to enjoy more nights with you," he said, softly. "But I need to move even quicker. I'll have to throw us into another battle today."
Urgency surged in his heart!
Maybe it was instinct. Maybe the dream meant something more. But whatever it was, it left him shaken. The scale of power his father once held, the monstrosities he faced...he did not want to think what would happen if such beings came here.
Achilles had work to do.
Rose nodded, her eyes red as she didn't argue. She just held him tighter.
Achilles extended a hand and casually manipulated gravity, summoning a mobile device from across the room. It landed in his palm as he dialed a single number that connected quickly.
"Has a significant amount of Evolutius Crystals been gathered?"
Even before he asked, his Ecological Empathy III had already pinged Luna downstairs. He could see Andromeda Sentinels were currently moving Evolutius Storage Boxes filled with crystals into a glass-walled chamber. But he asked anyway.
It was early in the morning, and yet...
"Yes, King Primal!" Luna's voice rang out like she'd been awake all night. Achilles could even see her smile through the connection, courtesy of Ecological Empathy III.
"They're all gathered on the seventh floor!"
She sounded like an overachieving secretary ready for her boss's inspection.
"Good," Achilles replied. "We'll be down in a bit. After that, make preparations to move to the North of Neon. The Behemoth that's been threatening the city- the one guarded by the Transcendent Human they call 'Monster', we are going to clear it out. Then…we prepare for the Holy Hyacinthus Mountain Flower."
Just like that, the day had begun with plans that were already shocking enough.
Things were about to get busy!