CHAPTER 364: SPACE! I

The words had barely settled on the island’s breeze, yet the weight of them remained.

He would leave.

Achilles had said it with a calm so immense that even the wind dared not whisper in response. The gathered allies stood in frozen silence, their minds catching up to the reality of what had just been declared.

He would venture into the Star Seas. The boundless beyond.

Sun, arms crossed with a deep furrow of disbelief etched into his face, finally broke the quiet. "The Planar Barrier is still up," he muttered, glancing toward the sky. "Even for Empyrean Star Nexus Transcendents... it isn’t easy to cross, is it?"

A gentle smile spread across Achilles’ face, a serene confidence blooming like starlight in his gaze. "It won’t be a problem."

Sun exhaled slowly. The others remained mute, weighed down by the scale of what they were witnessing.

Then Achilles continued. "Besides," he said, his tone light, "it’s not as large a decision as you may think. My main body will remain here. The one venturing out will be..."

His fingers lifted, gesturing toward the horizon.

"My Primordial Avatar."

"Even now," he whispered, "he is already crossing the skies."

...!

And in that moment...

All eyes followed his gaze.

The stars above shimmered with unfamiliar intent.

Immensely unfamiliar!

—

In the skies of Ethemia...

High- far beyond the reach of land or cloud, where things began to thin and take on a silence so profound that even sound became shy...Achilles soared.

Below him stretched the torn wilderness of the Cenotaph Wild Lands and the distant outline of the Adrastia Continent.

From this height, the world seemed fragile. Finite. And yet the space he ascended toward was infinite and overwhelming.

He passed above storm-layered clouds that thinned the higher he went. With each breath, the air diminished- starved of warmth, stripped of comfort. The atmosphere turned cold and aloof.

And then came the pressure.

A heavy, invisible weight bore down across his chest and shoulders. As though the sky itself were warning him!

Stay. Do not rise further. This was the limit for those born here. The edge of the world’s shelter!

This was the defense mechanism of the Plane of Existence itself- a final bastion laid in place during its long slumber. A last breath of resistance, veiling this world from the cruel vision of Crimson Shroud Vortexes.

Only those strong enough... only those forged by destiny, by Lineage, could pass. Only Empyrean Star Nexus Transcendents could pass!

Achilles closed his eyes briefly.

Even this... is a kindness.

The world was protecting what little it had left.

To cross the Planar Barrier normally required nothing less than Empyrean Star Nexus Transcendence.

Achilles had not yet taken that final formal step to this stage. Even though his status said otherwise. His title said otherwise.

But his body... his Lineage...

It told a different story.

The amount of starlight compressed into his flesh, the vastness of his arteries, the sheer breadth of his synaptic channels...he was more than prepared. The foundation beneath him was larger than anyone on this plane, and because of it, his growth always appeared slower.

But it was not slow. It was deliberate.

Intentional.

And now, he reached the edge of the sky.

Using Time Visions, he had already walked dozens of paths. And all of them told him the same thing.

This would be the hardest part.

Even those at the peak would struggle to breach the veil.

Unless they used this method.

So he didn’t hesitate.

His golden crown shimmered.

The Imperial Sun of Adrastia behind him lit like a roaring forge.

The pressure that sought to drag him down flared and intensified, but he didn’t stop.

He kept rising.

Higher.

Faster.

Until...

HUUM!

The skies blurred into starlight and rupture.

In an instant, the endless blue faded.

The view ahead transformed.

He now floated within a majestic, swirling space of chaotic tendrils- great streams of Evolutius Energy and Primordial Energy weaving like silver serpents across a dim, shifting backdrop. The lights moved in cycles, ancient and unpredictable. A maelstrom of pure energy, dancing and clawing at itself.

Yet above all this, further than the eye could see...there it was.

A barrier.

Clear.

Translucent.

But undeniably present.

It stretched beyond comprehension, mimicking the cosmic nothingness beyond. A veil of stilled void. Behind it... the stars. Distant. Unreachable.

And near this barrier- like a candle burning in reverse- was a strange glow. Neither bright nor dark, but both at once. Colorless, yet obsidian.

It was the glow of Space.

Not just distance.

Not just void.

But Space.

A vacuum- cold and absolute- where matter thins to nearly nothing.

A domain woven from hydrogen, helium, particles, gravitational waves!

A home to distant stellar bodies, radiation, magnetic fields, and mysteries too far to touch.

A Home of the Star Seas!

Here... Achilles paused.

The energy all around him continued to swirl. Some of it coiled near him, flowing into his form in gentle waves. He absorbed it slowly, deliberately. Not all of it. No.

The barrier’s structure relied on this balance. He wouldn’t weaken it,.not now.

But this...

This was his answer.

His key.

He lifted his arms.

The golden robe upon him shone like forged sunlight, stitched with threads of stats. His dark hair shimmered faintly with purple and gold.

His eyes- one of golden light, one of imperial purple- gleamed with the confidence of someone who had never belonged within boundaries.

He reached forward.

His fingers brushed the place where Space shimmered just outside the veil.

And he whispered, "Assimilate."

HUUM!

Wonder answered!

Reality bent!

Ripples pulsed outward in concentric waves as the very fabric of space twisted, then surged...toward him!

It began to move.

To flood.

To pour.

Like a desert wind catching flame, it flowed into him, crackling across his skin and then within it, reshaping, reforging.

His body burned with a stellar obsidian hue!

Then, like a chime from within his very soul...

|You are assimilating something unfathomably grand in relation to your Existence. |

His consciousness quivered.

Another stream of light, vast and ancient, slid into his being!

|Space contains countless constituents, including electromagnetic radiation such as Gamma Radiation. |

|Electromagnetic Radiation – Obsidian Gamma, will be combined into a new budding Assimilation. |

|The Assimilation of Organic Universal Regulation – Space, has been attained. |

...!

He remained still for a long moment.

Bathed in stellar silence. Wrapped in the bones of the world’s boundary. His form no longer just man or king or warrior.

But bridge.

And through this bridge...he would soon step through!