CHAPTER 413: EXCHANGE! I

Achilles felt his consciousness expand as the words settled into understanding.

Ethemia wasn’t just a hidden refuge, wasn’t simply a plane of existence that happened to shelter his family.

It was one of the fundamental architects of reality itself, the last surviving Cosmic Singularity from the nine that had birthed the Star Seas.

At this very moment, it burned within the plane at the heart of his expanding Sea of Thalassara...ancient beyond measurement, weakened yet still carrying within itself the potential for forces that had once shaped galaxies!

The implications were beautiful and terrifying in their scope.

He turned his gaze toward Sun, this being who served as representative of such a wonder, and felt a profound shift in how he understood their relationship. This wasn’t just the enthusiastic Monkey King who had become his friend and ally. Not...anymore.

Sun’s eyes blazed with brighter gold as he continued. When he spoke again, it was with the authority of someone who had been shown the rise and fall of civilizations across cosmic ages.

"Across the Star Seas, there are a number of lineages born that rise and fall over eons," Sun began, his words painting visions across the stellar waters around them.

"The Celestial Harmonics...beings who could sing stars into existence and whose empire stretched across forty-seven light-years before they were consumed by their own creations. The Void Architects, who built structures from crystallized nothingness and ruled thirteen sectors until their cities collapsed back into the emptiness from which they came."

His golden radiance intensified as he continued the cosmic genealogy. "The Temporal Weavers, who could rewrite history itself but ultimately erased themselves from existence through paradox. The Star Shepherds, whose fleets of living constellations conquered entire galactic arms before succumbing to the entropy they sought to control. Each lineage unique, each one achieving heights of power that seemed impossible, each one eventually falling to forces beyond their understanding or control."

The enumeration continued, each name carrying the weight of eons and the echo of achievements.

Achilles listened with growing fascination, understanding that he was receiving a history and information that few beings had ever been privileged to hear.

"From these lineages," Sun’s voice grew deeper, more resonant, "long-standing rulers of the Star Seas arose as they forged Empires that spanned light-years. The Crimson Imperium, the Azure Dynasties, the Golden Hegemony...each one built upon the accumulated power of bloodlines that had transcended individual limitation to become forces of nature themselves."

But then Sun’s expression shifted, taking on something that approached seriousness mixed with cautious awe. His golden eyes fixed upon Achilles with intensity that made the surrounding stellar waters pulse!

"And then... there is you. The Adrastia Emperor King Lineage is a unique mutation of existence that was singular in nature, and has not appeared since across the Star Seas. Not similar variants, not pale imitations...nothing even approximating what your bloodline represents has ever emerged from the cosmic forces that shape reality."

Unique. Singular. Not just rare or powerful, but literally unprecedented in the history of a universe that had spawned countless wonders!

"Empires have risen from the Adrastia Emperor King Lineage," Sun continued, his voice taking on notes of admiration and sorrow intertwined. "They were the fastest to rise to prominence and power...achievements that took other lineages millennia to accomplish, your ancestors managed in mere centuries or dozens of years. But they were also the ones to fall the quickest, as the other powers of the Star Seas feared them beyond rational thought."

Achilles felt his hands clench against the arms of his throne as Sun’s words painted a picture of systematic persecution.

This wasn’t about territory or resources...this was about existential terror driving entire civilizations to unite against what they perceived as a fundamental threat to the natural order.

"For this Lineage to make its way and become intricately connected to the Cosmic Singularity..." Sun paused, his expression shifting to something approaching wonder. "Can be considered opportunity on top of opportunity. The convergence of the last Adrastia Emperor King with the final Cosmic Singularity...it defies probability to such an extent that it suggests destiny operating on scales beyond what I can understand personally...haah."

The weight of cosmic significance settled over Achilles.

Sun sighed, the sound carrying undertones that spoke to responsibilities too heavy for individual consciousness to bear comfortably.

When he continued, his voice had taken on a different quality...more philosophical, more measured, as if he were explaining principles that governed reality at its deepest levels.

"In existence, everything is give and take. An exchange of information, an exchange of power. It is like energy. Manna. Neither formed nor destroyed...simply ever changing into different states. Primordial, Evolutius, Stellar....it is all Energy. Water becomes steam, the steam becomes clouds, the clouds become rain, and the cycle continues in patterns that maintain cosmic balance."

His golden radiance pulsed as he spoke, illustrating the principles he described through the very emanations of his enhanced physiology.

"And the Cosmic Singularity wishes to make exchanges with you. For the sake of its rejuvenation and continued prosperity, its protection if need be. It recognizes that your survival and advancement serve purposes that extend beyond individual achievement into... necessity."

...!

Achilles considered the implications with analytical precision.

Everything Sun described made sense from a strategic perspective...mutual benefit, shared resources, collaborative advancement toward goals that neither party could achieve independently.

But the specifics mattered. What wss that saying? The devil, as always, lived in the details.

"What exchange can the Cosmic Singularity give me?" Achilles asked, his voice carrying the curiosity of someone who understood that knowledge itself could be the most valuable currency in existence.

If everything in existence was change and transformation, if cosmic forces operated according to principles of exchange that maintained fundamental balance, then what did a weakened Cosmic Singularity have to offer that could match the power he was already accumulating?

Sun’s smile turned wry, an expression that mixed apology with rueful understanding. "Well, first, for this, I have to apologize. The Cosmic Singularity did this a while ago without my input when you first returned to outer space. To do everything in its power to still share a connection with you in case you would leave everything behind to roam the Star Seas... it entangled itself with one of its natives born on it who is closely bound to you."

...!