CHAPTER 412: OH! IV

The confession from Sun hung in the stellar air like a transformation waiting to unfold!

Achilles found himself reevaluating everything he thought he understood about Sun, about Ethemia!

Ethemia had been able to construct a planar barrier powerful enough to shield itself from cosmic predators operating on scales that dwarfed entire civilizations. No normal Plane of Existence should possess such capabilities. Even his father had mentioned that Ethemia held secrets that transcended conventional understanding.

His gaze fixed upon Sun with renewed intensity, seeing details that took on entirely new significance in light of these revelations. This being who had seemed like nothing more than an enthusiastic ally was apparently an agent of the plane itself, chosen for purposes that stretched back before his father’s arrival.

Sun’s eyes continued to blaze with golden radiance as he began to speak, his voice taking on the measured cadence of someone sharing history that had been carefully preserved across the ages.

"Many years ago, there were nine Singularities from which the countless stellar bodies that currently fill the Star Seas came from. These were not mere gravitational anomalies or collapsed stars...they were the fundamental creative forces that shaped reality itself, the primordial hearts from which all matter and energy eventually emerged."

His words painted images across the stellar waters around them, cosmic history unfolding in brilliant detail as if the events were occurring in real-time rather than having transpired eons ago.

"After these Singularities released all their energy, they began to fade away as each one perished, with all entities believing that these Cosmic Singularities had disappeared entirely to give birth to the Star Seas. But they didn’t. Not all of them. The main Singularity...the greatest and most powerful of the nine, drifted through the Star Seas until it became anchored to a Plane of Existence."

HUUM!

The visualization showed a point of impossible brilliance moving through cosmic emptiness, its radiance dimmed but not extinguished, carrying within itself the potential for forces that transcended individual comprehension.

"Weakened, flickering, and almost gone, it resided there. Filled with unlimited potential, and yet weakened beyond measure for what it had accomplished, the Singularity formed a symbiotic relationship with that Plane of Existence, making it unique. But its recovery was slow, and eventually... simple, feeble lifeforms were drawn to it. The tiny Crimson Shroud Vortexes..."

Achilles felt his eyes shine with understanding as the pieces of history assembled themselves into a pattern that explained so much.

The Crimson Eyes’ obsession with finding Ethemia, their desperate hunger for something they couldn’t name, the way they had been drawn across impossible distances by forces they didn’t understand.

"What happened since then has led to this point," Sun continued, his golden radiance intensifying, "as one of the more remarkable things to appear... was a name that resounded across the Star Seas. Adrastia..."

As the name left his lips, reality around them shimmered and condensed, forming an image.

His father appeared before him...the Eighth Adrastia Emperor King, but not as the powerful figure from their shared Lineage Memory.

This was a broken man, his once-magnificent form bearing wounds that transcended physical damage. Golden stellar armor hung in tatters from his frame, each plate cracked and bleeding light that spoke to injuries inflicted by forces operating on terrifying scales.

The Eighth Emperor King’s face was gaunt with exhaustion and pain, his purple-gold hair matted with substances that might have been blood or stellar matter. His eyes...so similar to Achilles’ own, held depths of grief and loss that spoke to responsibilities too heavy for any individual consciousness to bear.

But what struck Achilles most powerfully was the expression of desperate hope that flickered beneath the surface damage. Here was someone who had traveled impossible distances seeking not victory or conquest, but simply the chance to survive long enough to ensure his lineage would continue.

The scene shifted, showing the moment when his father first encountered the Planar Barrier surrounding Ethemia. The protective field, which should have repelled any foreign entity, seemed to recognize something fundamental about his nature. Instead of resistance, it offered welcome...flowing around his damaged form like cosmic waters embracing a long-lost child.

As the barrier admitted him, the Eighth Emperor King’s expression shifted from desperate hope to something approaching wonder. For the first time in what might have been years, he was safe. Protected. Given the opportunity to heal rather than simply endure.

The image transformed again, now showing scenes that pierced Achilles’ heart with their intimate familiarity.

His mother...younger than he had ever seen her, her hair the same vibrant color as his memories, speaking with his father in what appeared to be the Colony City of Neon.

She was admonishing him with the gentle firmness of someone who cared deeply but refused to enable self-destructive behavior. His father listened with the attention of someone who had forgotten what it meant to be treated as a person rather than a cosmic force, nodding at her words as if each one were a revelation.

Scene after scene flashed across the illusory display...his parents walking through the familiar streets of Neon, sharing meals in small restaurants, his father slowly learning to smile again under the patient guidance of someone who saw the man beneath the legend.

Tears rolled down Achilles’ cheeks as he witnessed the love story that had given him existence!

His enhanced consciousness catalogued every detail...the way his father’s posture gradually straightened as he healed, the moments when his mother’s laughter would light up his face, the quiet intimacy of two beings finding solace in each other despite the forces arrayed against them.

Sun observed Achilles’ emotional response with understanding that transcended mere sympathy. When he spoke again, his voice carried the weight of gratitude.

"Ethemia, the Cosmic Singularity, thanks you and your father for everything you have done."

HUUM!

The words settled into Achilles’ consciousness like benediction from forces beyond individual comprehension.

To know that his actions...his father’s sacrifice, his own desperate fight for survival, had meaning that extended beyond personal vengeance into cosmic significance.

Sun’s gaze swept across the magnificent transformation surrounding them...the expanding Sea of Thalassara, the floating biological weapons, the assembled forces that now called this place home. His expression held wonder mixed with anticipation.

"Also, with the inclusion of the Sea of Thalassara in Ethemia, something unexpected has occurred as the Cosmic Singularity is healing at a faster rate. Whatever happens in the future will be unique to observe as even the Cosmic Singularity itself... does not know."

The final revelation hung between them like a promise of wonders yet to come.

Achilles wiped the tears from his cheeks with movements that carried their own gravitational authority, his enhanced consciousness processing everything!