CHAPTER 418: SINGULARITY! IV

The image of that moment...the unfettered brother, clearly the First Adrastia Emperor King, cradling this cosmic entity with gentle concern...carried heavy emotional weight.

|This woman. This entity. She was the cause. She was the Origin Point of immense conflict and heartache.|

Ethemia’s voice carried undertones of regret mixed with clinical observation, the perspective of someone who had witnessed the unfolding catastrophe with the detached awareness of geological processes.

|After she appeared, Existence became murky. Things became clouded. Even the observant Star Seas could not easily see and observe the three brothers’ movements anymore.|

This entity’s presence had somehow interfered with cosmic observation itself, creating blind spots in the awareness that monitored existence!

|The Entity found at the center of cosmic phenomenon did something. It is not known what. But soon after, the unfettered brother also began to conquer Planes and Worlds and Realms, building an empire far faster than any of his two brothers in an even shorter period of time while he took care of that woman. A woman that his two brothers were also smitten with.|

The displayed scenes showed transformation that carried tragic inevitability..the previously carefree wanderer becoming focused, driven, building power structures with efficiency that dwarfed his brothers’ previous achievements while maintaining protective custody over the entity that had captured all their hearts.

|And the two brothers saw this as their entire existence felt stifled, with a need and obsession for this woman filling them that they could not ignore.|

Achilles watched the deterioration of brotherhood with stellar eyes that blazed with growing understanding.

Here was the foundation of thr conflict.

Not ideology or resources or territorial disputes, but primal obsession.

A woman!

It was...ridiculous!

|So the two brothers met in secret as they admitted... they were not as favored by existence as their brother. They were not stronger. If they were to have any chance with their obsession... he had to go. Adrastia had to go.|

...!

All of it...generations of systematic genocide, the hunting down and elimination of every Adrastia Emperor King, the coalition of cosmic powers united in their determination to eradicate his bloodline...had truly begun with jealousy over a woman.

"Haa..."

His stellar form pulsed with radiance that spoke to barely contained fury. Was this truly the foundation of everything?

All the conflict, all the suffering, all the carefully orchestrated extinction of his family across ages...because of love and greed? Because of obsession?

Was it all so...basal and predictable?

The petty humanity of it, the reduction of cosmic-scale conflict to emotions that could be found in any tavern or colony city, filled him with rage.

It was never some cosmic secret or reasoning.

It was the same emotions of envy or jealousy a peasant might feel, simply magnified to beings who could pinch stars out of existence!

|That was the day when the cardinal sin of brothers against brother unfolded,| Ethemia continued, her voice carrying the weight of judgment. |When two brothers decided that for the sake of their obsession, their third brother had to be taken care of first so they could level the playing field.|

The brotherhood that had once explored the Star Seas together had become the foundation for betrayal that continued to echo across eons.

And somewhere in the depths of space, the descendants and inheritors of that original treachery continued their ancient work of ensuring that the name Adrastia would never again threaten their carefully maintained order.

The game was older, deeper, more personal than he had ever imagined. And now, finally, he was beginning to understand the true scope of what he faced.

As he thought of this, his thoughts came to the more recent conflict.

His father.

The names of the enemies of his father burned through Achilles’ consciousness, as he spoke out.

"The Obsidian Sovereignty. The Nexus Glorious Coalition. The Crimson Dominion Hegemony..." His voice carried across the stellar chamber. "They were the ones who hunted my father as subordinate forces. Their connections..."

He left the statement hanging, allowing Ethemia to fill in thehistory that would complete his understanding of the hierarchies arrayed against his lineage.

|All three pay tribute to two major powers that they and all others across the Star Seas know,|Ethemia’s pristine voice replied, carrying undertones of inevitability.

The illusory screen between them began shifting, displaying glorious empires!

|The Infinite Radiance Sovereignty and the Void Dominion Empire.|

HUUM!

The names boomed.

The ones that could not be uttered freely!

The screen displayed territories that defied understanding of imperial scope. Star sectors bowing in submission, entire civilizations that measured their existence not in years or centuries but in cosmic epochs...all serving powers that descended directly from the original betrayal that had shattered the brotherhood of wanderers.

|These two forces, to this day, rule over the Star Seas with unquestioned hegemony,|Ethemia continued, |The Infinite Radiance Sovereignty commands the allegiance of powers that worship light, order, and the systematic application of overwhelming force. The Void Dominion Empire controls entities that embrace darkness, entropy, and the patient consumption of everything that dares to resist their authority.|

The displayed images showed fleets that spanned light-years, administrative structures that governed trillions of beings, technologies that operated according to principles beyond understanding!

|All other generations of Adrastia Emperor Kings, once they did rise and became known, were one way or another put down by these two forces. If the Adrastia Emperor Kings were discovered while still weak, they would simply send their subordinates. If they were strong already, they would act themselves. To ensure that nobody like the First Adrastia Emperor King would arise again.|

Achilles felt his stellar eyes blaze with radiance.

"The Infinite Radiance Sovereignty and the Void Dominion Empire," he repeated, each name settling into his awareness like ammunition waiting to be deployed.

He now knew them.

He now had targets!

Sun’s golden radiance flickered with curiosity mixed with growing understanding.

He asked.

"Why did the Adrastia Emperor Kings not make hundreds or thousands of progeny and allow them to leave the Star Seas? Come back when they were stronger?"

Ethemia’s response carried undertones of cosmic melancholy.

|Across the generations, producing progeny for the Adrastia Emperor Kings has been difficult. They can only have a single progeny with any distinct species of lifeform, and the chances of getting another progeny even with other species of lifeforms is extremely low. As for leaving or traversal across the Star Seas... unless one is powerful enough to enter Parallel Timelines, escape from this reality is nigh impossible.|

...!