How could Achilles feel so much more powerful when such a short period of time had passed between when he left and arrived at Fort Cape of Hope and the time it took for Nyxaria herself to get there?
He saw the shock written on her face, mirroring the storm of power he was currently emanating as waves of it crashing from him, driven by several terrifying factors.
One of them was the impossible- he had assimilated something from a dream. An unthinkable act made real only because the words of his father were proving true.
Unlike every Adrastia Emperor King before him, the power he alone held would surpass all of them combined.
Above him, where no eyes could witness, seven dazzling, solid Primordium Evolutius Ethereal Selves hovered.
Humanoid stars, each bearing his face, burning now with glorious white flames.
The thing he had assimilated…it was too pristine.
Far beyond his league!
He had absorbed mere fragments of a Nirvanic Sun Moon Phoenix's Feather, and his very existence had nearly tipped past fifty percent corruption.
Even now, after devouring every Evolutius Crystal stored within the vault of his body, his corruption had only just dropped beneath forty-seven percent.
Achilles exhaled slowly, reining in the terrifying energy surging around him. Gradually, his aura faded, drawn back into his body until he appeared no more threatening than an average man.
In the sky, Nyxaria Moonveil Lunaris began her descent. Billowing clouds of darkness lifted beneath her feet. She seemed at a loss for words, and Achilles glanced at her and then at Rose, who pinched the bridge of her nose in clear frustration that this woman had followed them here.
Achilles watched the scene play out. He didn't want to provoke a fiery phoenix, especially not now. He turned to Nyxaria and beckoned her forward.
"You seem a little impatient so let's get your catalyzation out of the way first."
He knew exactly why she had come. It wasn't just about finding someone strong enough to defeat her monstrous father, it was about gaining the strength to do it herself if she could.
She craved empowerment after she saw what he did for Luna and the others!
As Achilles called her closer, she nodded with expectation in her gaze. But as a woman, she also turned her eyes to Rose, a silent apology flickering in them for interrupting whatever moment had been unfolding.
Rose only scrunched her nose cutely and stood, remaining by Achilles's side as he extended his hand.
The Last Daughter of the Lunaris Throne blinked at Achilles's strong hand above her, and then it landed gently on her head.
But if anyone truly understood Nyxaria's power and status, they would be stunned.
Nyxaria herself was caught off guard. Apart from her father who had cut her open in his twisted experiments, no one had ever laid a hand on her. Especially not on her head, as if she were a subject beneath a king.
Yet she remained still.
And then she felt it- a terrifying, billowing surge of energy erupting from Achilles's hand and pouring into her.
She couldn't help but tremble as her body began to burn with power.
Unknowingly, she had become Achilles's first experiment since his recent elevation.
He was pumping her full of Primordial Energy, Evolutius Energy, and the flames of the Nirvanic Sun Moon Phoenix.
The surge lit her up like a lighthouse.
Achilles could feel everything inside her.
Something that didn't belong.
By now, Achilles had infused his energy into several advanced humans. He could sense their unique signatures and could easily distinguish one from another.
But inside Nyxaria…there was another presence.
An energy not her own.
His new white flames- flames born of a being so ancient that even his father's people might have sought it- began feeding him information. Information they were uncovering as they coursed through Nyxaria.
These flames had many abilities.
One of them was purification.
They purified the body. The soul.
Even now, Achilles's own form was evolving and being reshaped by the fire.
But the one he was purifying now was Nyxaria.
And the flames whispered to him…
That will was embedded in the black, worm-like appendage fused to her spine- the same one she had shown him not long ago, revealing the horrors her father had inflicted!
If a will was observing…
There could only be one person behind it.
Achilles's eyes flared with cold fury as a heavy truth slammed into him.
If the one who had implanted that appendage was watching this moment, then he had seen everything. Heard everything. Felt everything.
And now, he was learning secrets no one should know.
Achilles's rage exploded.
He roared, his right hand bending Nyxaria's head down while his left hand flew to her back- striking like a spear of majestic wrath!
His fingers gripped the black appendage fused to her spine and pulled.
He pulled with thunderous force.
With the rage of an Emperor King reborn.
Nyxaria, who had just moments before been basking in the high of her empowerment, screamed.
The pain was excruciating- as if her very spine were being ripped from her body.
But the dark waves she summoned were crushed under Achilles's will. She couldn't lift a finger.
She screamed again, anguished as she collapsed, her limbs limp, like a marionette with its strings cut.
She was certain her existence would shatter…until the white flames surged again.
Flooding into her ruined back.
The torn flesh. The mangled spine.
All of it…started to be healed.
Replaced in real time.
From her agony, she turned, barely, to see Achilles holding the writhing black spinal appendage, now surrounded by blazing white flames.
But he wasn't just containing it.
His hands glowed with radiant purple and golden light, bombarding the appendage from all sides until…
The worm-like spine exploded with a guttural roar, the voice within echoing as it disintegrated into ash.
The air was thick with horror.
Rose looked at Achilles in shock.
Nyxaria looked at Achilles in stunned silence.
He stared back, his face cold and his voice grave.
"Your father already knows everything."
The word alone made her tremble.
That voice they just heard…it had been his!
Her face turned ashen.
Her eyes shimmered with unwillingness, fear, and rage.
As her body continued to heal in the white fire of the phoenix, Achilles continued.
"Since the day he attached that appendage to you," Achilles said, "he's seen everything. And now I ask you, since we've spoken of killing him, what do you think he will do in response to such rebellion?"
He had just scorched the spinal appendage of one of the Thirteen Royal Thrones as he felt its malice and hatred.
He may as well have declared war on a monster he was already preparing to kill!