"Let me show you the Path of an Emperor King. The path of a Blacksmith that you will need years after catching a glimpse of what I can do here, but if you stay on this path and pair it with our Lineage, your power can become something unfathomable!"
A Path of an Emperor King.
Before Vulcaryn Adrastia could continue, Achilles raised a hand lightly, his eyes calm but burning with restrained intensity.
"There's something you should know," Achilles said.
The hammer in Vulcaryn's grip stilled, the furnace of the dwarf star around them crackling with unseen anticipation.
"I'm not like the other Adrastia Emperor Kings. As you know, the later generations are supposed to be more and more powerful," Achilles continued. "As the Ninth Adrastia Emperor King, my power is different."
He stepped forward, his voice steady.
"When it comes to Assimilation, I can even assimilate things here. In the dreams of our Lineage. In the Records of our blood. As if they were real."
The forge flared, molten waves rising high in the background as Vulcaryn's molten gold eyes widened.
He stared at Achilles, a moment of pure, raw disbelief crossing the ancient Emperor King's face.
Then a thunderous laugh echoed from his chest, shaking the very core of the Dwarf Star.
"Hahaha! Glorious! Truly glorious!"
He threw his head back, laughing as the fires churned around them, the solar storms dancing in violent exultation.
"You can assimilate the very memories of our bloodline? The very Records we built across the Star Seas?"
Achilles nodded once.
"The Adrastia Imperium Vitae Ascension Codex I have begun utilizing now… it wasn't passed to me through tradition. I took it from my Grandfather, the Seventh Adrastia Emperor King, in my last dream. I assimilated it. Made it mine."
Vulcaryn stared at him for a long, heavy moment.
Then his smile deepened.
"Finally, finally, after all the death, all the regret, all the slaughter of our generations, the Ninth Adrastia Emperor King will be the one to clear the slate!"
He spread his arms wide, the hammer still crackling with terrifying gravitational pulses in one hand.
"Boy, do you know what this means?" His voice thundered. "Our Lineage, its records span eras lost to the Star Seas. We have memories, techniques, knowledge of existences that might not even exist anymore!"
He grinned ferociously, the fires of countless regrets and ancient hopes burning behind his molten eyes.
"If you can assimilate even those…"
He shook his head, overwhelmed.
He turned to the colossal hammer resting against the anvil.
Achilles' eyes sharpened.
The hammer was unlike anything he had seen before. Its surface wasn't smooth but jagged and pitted, as if it had been beaten against the will of the universe itself. Inlaid along its massive head were veins of collapsed starlight and strange, shifting runes that no longer had a place in the modern world. It radiated force and gravity, each breath near it made Achilles' bones hum.
Vulcaryn patted the hammer almost reverently.
"I learned my forging from this," he said quietly. "Found it in the broken husk of a dying world. It was being clutched by the last of a forging race, dying from a disease they could not cure. A disease brought down upon them by a truly powerful race as in exchange for it, they asked me to seek vengeance for them."
He shook his head slowly.
"I took the hammer. And I learned from it. Honed it. Made it mine. It was a guide, a master, a companion. And if I had truly paired it with the height of our Assimilation Lineage, if I had more time with it…"
"…I might not have fallen when I did."
He turned his gaze back to Achilles.
"You'll take it now. You'll assimilate it. Even if you can't claim all of it with your current Complexity, you'll gain enough to make the stars tremble."
The hammer seemed to pulse, as if aware of what was about to happen.
"But listen well, Boy. Before you do, one last thing."
Vulcaryn's molten gaze darkened, heavy with the burden of centuries.
"You are the last Adrastia Emperor King. This lineage of ours means more to the Star Seas than you can ever imagine."
His voice was quieter now.
"Don't let it end with you."
He stepped closer, the furnace light catching on the scars that crisscrossed his ancient frame.
"Raise and expand your royal family. Bear progeny, Boy. As many as you can. Pass down the blood. Pass down the name. Even if you are the Last Adrastia Emperor King, your progeny will still be able to Assimilate and have a part of your power. So long as you are alive, they will burn bright. They will be mighty."
His voice was like a war drum now, each word hammering into Achilles' heart.
"If past Adrastia Emperor Kings had done this, if our family had been a flood across the Star Seas, sons and daughters, princes and princesses, carrying our lineage, no one could have erased us."
He shook his head, a ghost of a smile at the corners of his mouth.
"One emperor king falls? Ten more would rise. A hundred more would answer."
He leaned down, placing a massive hand on Achilles' shoulder.
"Don't repeat our mistakes, Boy. Make your line stretch across the Star Seas. Rule not just by power, but by blood."
Achilles looked up into the furnace eyes of his Great Grandfather.
Accepting the weight placed upon him.
A slow, wide smile filled with pride and the weight of centuries.
He stepped back, hand lifting toward the great hammer.
"Then begin. Take it."
"The weapon's name is Cataclysm's Heart."
"Assimilate it, Ninth Emperor King."
The hammer pulsed, no, throbbed, as if it were alive, the gravity around it deepening, the runes glowing brighter.
Achilles took a deep breath.
The world itself seemed to still.
And Cataclysm's Heart responded with untold wonder and glory!