Power had layers, like sediment deposited by the slow passage of time.
Achilles possessed terrifying strength for an Empyrean Star Nexus Transcendent, his foundation built on assimilations that defied understanding!
But he remained, fundamentally, a being of that realm- his stellar heart unmodified by the exotic materials and processes that transformed others into Stellar Genesis Embodiment entities.
He simply filled it with starlight and Space-Time, which terrifying in itself!
King Edmond had undergone that transformation, had fed rare stellar matter to his inner star until it became something beyond.
The difference in their base power should have been insurmountable, the gap between levels that typically determined the outcome of conflicts before they began.
But Achilles had never been constrained by what should be possible.
He was the Ninth Adrastia Emperor King!
Space-time bent around him like armor forged from forces of reality.
