CHAPTER 385: POWER! II

His gaze shifted slightly, taking in the magnificent architecture that surrounded them with apparent appreciation.

"You see, there are fundamentally two ways to acquire power. You can take it...through violence, through cunning, through the application of superior force. This is the method preferred by most beings throughout the Star Seas. It’s direct, it’s unambiguous, and it leaves very little room for doubt about who holds authority in any given situation."

Stellarix found himself leaning forward despite his growing apprehension, drawn in by the hypnotic cadence of words that seemed to carry their own gravitational pull.

"But there’s another way," Achilles continued, "Power can be given. Transferred. Shared according to agreements that benefit all parties involved. This requires a more... sophisticated approach to leadership, but the results tend to be far more stable in the long term."

He turned slightly, fixing Stellarix with eyes that held depths like the space between stars.

"Right now, I am giving you power. Your throne, your people, your civilization...all of it remains exactly as it was before my arrival. You continue to rule as you have always ruled. Your subjects continue to follow your commands as they have always done. Nothing changes from their perspective."

The pause that followed was heavy with implication.

"But you and I both know the truth, don’t we? That your seat of power...magnificent though it may be, is now held at my discretion. That your authority flows through channels I have chosen to leave open, rather than channels you have carved through your own efforts."

Stellarix felt his mouth go dry as the full weight of those words settled into his consciousness.

Above them, something that sounded like cosmic thunder suggested the battle was reaching its climax.

"I have no interest in ruling your people directly," Achilles continued with the same conversational tone. "What I require from you is far simpler. The secrets of this world. The Blueprints you discovered that led you to understand Aethermoor’s true origins. And, of course, the mineral deposits you’ve been harvesting...the Nexus Crystals that have allowed your people to achieve such remarkable advancement in such a relatively short time."

HUUM!

The blood drained from Stellarix’s face as he heard his civilization’s most carefully guarded secrets spoken aloud with casual familiarity!

Information that should have been known only to the highest levels of their government, discussed as if it were common knowledge available to any passing traveler.

"How?" he whispered, the single word containing all his confusion and growing terror.

Achilles smiled, and the expression was both reassuring and deeply unsettling. "Don’t think about it too much. My methods are not based on destruction...no harm will come to you or your people. You can continue to rule exactly as you have been, with the simple understanding that your seat of power was given to you by someone else’s choice. That is all."

He raised his hand in a gesture that seemed almost casual, and Stellarix felt his world explode into horror.

His own hand rose without his conscious command, mimicking Achilles’ movement with perfect precision.

When Achilles moved his fingers, Stellarix’s fingers followed. When Achilles tilted his wrist, Stellarix’s wrist tilted in exact synchronization.

HUUM!

The sound that escaped his throat was barely human as he realized the true scope of what was being demonstrated. This wasn’t negotiation...this was a display of power so absolute that resistance became literally impossible.

"I can also do that," Achilles said with the same conversational tone he had been using throughout their discussion. "But your people have done nothing to merit such treatment, so I won’t resort to it unless forced. The choice, as they say, is yours."

The silence that followed stretched like the space between heartbeats.

Above them, the sounds of battle had grown more sporadic, suggesting the conflict was nearing its conclusion.

Stellarix stared at the being who had just demonstrated casual dominion over his most fundamental bodily functions, and felt fear unlike anything he had experienced even when facing the black moon of annihilation.

King Edmond had threatened to destroy them, yes...but this was something far more intimate, far more complete. This was the eradication of free will itself.

"We... we will follow you," he managed to whisper, the words scraping from his throat like fragments of broken glass.

Achilles nodded with satisfaction, as if a minor business negotiation had just concluded successfully.

"Wise choice. You will find that the power you gain through association with me will be no less significant than what you dreamed of achieving with your Nexus Crystals. Speaking of which...I’ll need to examine the ones you currently have in storage."

Stellarix’s hands trembled as he reached for his wand, the repository of his world’s accumulated magical knowledge and crystalline wealth.

Brilliant light unfolded as he activated its storage matrices, and purple-blue crystals began materializing throughout the chamber like stars being born from cosmic dust.

Achilles reached for one of the larger specimens, his fingers closing around crystalline matter that represented decades of careful harvesting and refinement, and Stellarix knew he was witnessing the end of one era and the beginning of another.

But before the analysis could begin, the world exploded.

BOOM!

The impact struck the tower with force that suggested continental drift compressed into a single moment.

One entire side of the chamber simply ceased to exist, replaced by open air and the scent of ozone from disrupted energy fields.

Through the breach came a figure that blazed with the barely contained fury of stellar phenomena pushed beyond their natural limits.

The White Smith Star had transformed during her battle above. Where before she had been magnificent in her augmented power, now she was something approaching a force of nature given humanoid form. Rivers of starlight flowed around her like living jewelry, while her eyes blazed with the white-hot intensity of neutron fire!

Her hair moved with currents that existed in dimensions beyond normal space, and her smile carried the satisfaction of a predator that had just finished consuming its prey.

In her hand, she held a crown...simple, unadorned, but unmistakably recognizable as the symbol of authority that had rested above King Edmond’s brow just minutes earlier.

The body she threw down at Achilles’ feet was broken in ways that transcended mere physical damage!

King Edmondm...one of the Five Kings of the Virgo Stellar Expanse, a being whose power had terrorized entire sectors of the Star Seas, lay crumpled like discarded clothing.

His breathing was shallow and labored, his eyes unfocused with shock and agony, but he lived.

"Mercy," he whispered, the single word escaping his lips like a prayer offered to one who had already decided his fate. "Mercy..."

The White Smith Star’s laughter filled the chamber with sound that made the surviving crystal formations ring in sympathetic vibration.

"You said you wanted his body," she announced with obvious pleasure. "Here it is...his Stellar Genesis Star shattered and broken, but I kept him just barely alive in case you wanted to look your enemy in the eyes and kill him yourself."

Behind them, Stellarix pressed himself deeper into his throne, suddenly understanding that he had become witness to something far more significant than a simple territorial dispute.

This was personal. This was vengeance given form and substance!

Achilles rose from his position on the steps with movements that seemed to carry their own gravitational field. The Nexus Crystal fell from his fingers, placed aside in the face of this moment he had waited for across multiple timelines.

"Give me some privacy with my enemy," he said quietly, and the White Smith Star’s smile widened.

"Of course," she replied with obvious delight. "I’ll finish hunting down the remaining Empyrean Star Nexus Transcendents. Their stars should make excellent additions to my collection."

She shot from the chamber like a living missile, leaving behind only the scent of ozone and the fading echoes of her laughter.

In the suddenly quiet space, Achilles stood over the broken form of King Edmond...the being whose future discovery of the Adrastia name would have brought catastrophe to everything he held dear.

But that future would never unfold now. That timeline had been carved away like a cancer, excised from the realm of possibility through careful planning and precisely applied violence.

The last of the Adrastia Emperor Kings looked down at his enemy and prepared to claim the final payment for possible genocide!