Infinite Evolution: My Idle Evolution System-Chapter 424: Achieving A Higher State of Being

"Take another look at those you wish to take away."

"Huh? What do you… me…an…"

That was when Cassius noticed it. A difference between the people related to Opal and every other fictional being in the Three Worlds.

"This…" Color drained from his face. "Yuna. Her parents. Her grandparents. Why are they…?"

"Although we are byproducts of a thought, we're still tangible," said Arthur. "However, those close to that incomprehensible girl are not the same. They were imagined by her, meant to fill the void in her heart."

He inhaled deeply.

"Young Cassius, they're no more than the contents of a dream."

"A dream…?" Cassius froze. "But no… There's no way that is…"

All the memories he made with Yuna rapidly flashed through his mind. He clutched his head, the pain not stemming from anything physical.

All the moments he spent with Yuna gradually had her fading from the picture.

"T-This…" Devastation settled in. "But why…?"

"Because, young Cassius, this is simply how the world is," said Arthur as he stared off into the sunset. "No matter how powerful you are, sometimes that just isn't enough. There will always be things that no amount of power will solve—"

"No!" Cassius burst forth with an aura that engulfed everything. "You're wrong! Power… Power can solve everything!!"

With his near-omnipotence, he attempted to alter something that couldn't be altered. He put his all into it, causing the Universe to quake.

"Sigh… Young Cassius…" Arthur shook his head. "There's no point. What you're trying to do is impossible. No lower being can possibly make products of someone's desperate imagination actually real."

OOOM!!!

"You're wrong!!!"

His whole life, Cassius believed in one thing above all else.

That power was the solution to everything. 1

If your power couldn't solve a problem, then you simply didn't possess enough of it!

This was what Cassius lived by! His Core Principle!

CRACK—

At that moment, something cracked within him.

"Why are you doing this, young Cassius?" Arthur exhaled deeply, indifferently watching as the Land of Beginnings had its dimensional structure changed. "There's really no point— Hmm…?"

Arthur noticed something that made his eyes go wide.

"Wh-What is… that…?"

If asked what the most important quality of strength was, what would you answer?

The power of one's fist?

How much energy you had?

The destructiveness of your attacks??

The true answer?

WILL.

In this World, Will was the single greatest quality of a living being. With it, even the most seemingly impossible of challenges could be accomplished.

And in Cassius's defiance of the 'impossible,' the final step he needed to take to perfect his Will was taken.

HAAAAA!

He roared to the heavens, the pain assaulting his senses beyond mortal reasoning!!

For Power!!!

For Absolute Strength!!!

WAAAA—!

Ungodly Will — achieved!

"T-T-This…"

What Arthur Pendragon was witnessing right now made no sense!

With Will alone, Cassius bent the Laws of Reality. He forced them to submit to his will, doing as he ordered them to.

Time. Space. The Three Dimensions.

In an instant, everything was manipulated and rearranged in the way Cassius's Will deemed fit.

"What was once false… has now become real," Arthur muttered, with even the word disbelief not enough to properly describe his astonishment. "Th-This… just what sort of being is he…?"

Emerging from a curtain of cosmic light, Cassius's eyes flashed with the essence of reality. Now, nothing within the Three Worlds was outside of his infallible influence.

If he willed it, Arthur Pendragon could be permanently erased. He could also be rewritten as someone else entirely. His height could be changed. His gender could be swapped. Even his deeply rooted connection with the Great Worlds could be severed.

However, with Cassius's new tier of omniscience, he knew that Arthur didn't want any of that.

"I told you, didn't I?" Cassius spoke with a voice oozing comic secrets. "With enough power, anything is possible. My Path was not wrong. It never has been."

"You…"

Arthur was at a loss for words.

In the end, all he could do was sigh.

"Understanding you really might be the only impossible thing. But haiz… You don't need my help to assimilate this Universe with yourself, do you? Now, you can probably just delete my authority and give it to yourself with a simple finger snap—"

*Snap!*

"!!!"

"Yes, I can do such a thing," said Cassius, now swirling around his fingertips the control projections of the Three Great Worlds. "I can also replicate the authority and give both myself and you the same—"

"No, no, there's no need!" replied Arthur. "I've never felt freer in my whole life! In my last moments, I'd like to remain like this."

"Very well," Cassius responded calmly. "But most of your invincible power has been taken by me. Are you fine with that?"

"Yes, it's of no consequence to me now." Arthur smiled, glowing brighter than New York City. "Well, seeing as how you don't need me for anything anymore, you can go ahead and commence the assimilation process. Even without my authority over the world, my original intentions remain the same. I'd like for you to free us from this Eternal Prison. This Eternal Dream."

Silence…

"I may have the ability to control this world as I wish," said Cassius. "But once I leave, I'll no longer have the same omnipotence. It'll be highly unlikely that I can bring you back later."

"That's fine," replied Arthur, his mood never better. "I've been preparing for this moment for a long time. And for the countless thought fragments of this universe, they won't notice the difference either way. So go ahead; do what you must."

"...Understood…"

Cassius raised his right index finger. And without a big bang or explosion of lights, he made the Universe disappear.

In a white void that stretched outward endlessly, only he and a few dots remained. The dots were Opal, Yuna, and their family, all of whom were in a state of unconsciousness.

Turning behind him ever so slowly, Cassius saw no one there.

"Arthur Pendragon," he said softly. "The one who sacrificed everything in order to protect those whom he knew weren't real. You are deserving of the highest degrees of respect."

Bowing, Cassius stayed like that for a few minutes.

Then he returned his focus to those whom he kept outside the Universe that he was currently assimilating with himself.

His brows drew together when he looked at Opal.

"Whatever her true origin is, it adamantly refuses to leave this space, as if it's waiting for something to happen," said Cassius. "And since it's connected to the outside world—likely Yggdrasil—I'm unable to force my Ungodly Will upon it."

This meant that Opal had to remain in this blank space for now.

"I'll leave behind a spatial anchor so I can return later," Cassius decided. "Her origins forced her into an even deeper sleep than what I put her in, so she shouldn't be waking up anytime soon."

"Now then." He shifted his gaze to Yuna, her parents, and her grandparents—the only family she had. "All of you will have to stay in the Evomon Space for now. When you wake, I'll explain the situation to you."

With everything settled, Cassius warped the space around him, returning to the Main World.

At roughly the same time, May—who was sitting beside Zara, Yimin, and the other girls in the Isolated Dimension—suddenly shot her eyes open. Blood poured out of her mouth as she keeled over, startling Yimin and the rest.

"What the hell is going on with you!?" Maxy cursed, dodging all the vomited blood. "You've been doing this every few minutes since Master's departure! You almost got some of your insides on him!"

"Why…" May mumbled. "Why won't the outcome change…? I-I don't understand…"

She seemed to have gone crazy. Her eyes were deliriously spiraling, with her lips and mind out of sync.

"Is something wrong with her head? Yimin still thinks she has da constipation." Yimin curiously observed the sickly woman, a bunch of weird thoughts swirling around inside her mind. "Weirdo for sure…"

Unable to hear the voices of anyone around her, May proceeded to foresee the future once more. But this time, quicker than the other times, blood pooled out as her complexion worsened considerably.

"N-No… Why has it been sped up!? This… This… The future is coming…"

"The future?"

Everyone looked at her like she was a crazy person.

"Don't mind her," said Luma, dismissively waving her hands. "She has been doing this for many, many years now. But she never explains why it happens."

"So she really is crazy."

All the girls slapped their fists against their palms before returning to what they were doing. At this time, that was dressing and dolling Cassius up with some high-quality makeup.

The result: the girls felt inferior in terms of beauty by an astronomical degree, thus they quickly erased all their work.

'All… All I ever wanted was to make Cassius happy,' May thought with bloodshot eyes. 'But I fed him false hope… All this time, I've been lying to him… Will… Will he hate me when he figures out the truth…? Of what I've been keeping from him…?'

A part of her believed that she deserved his hatred.

But love was complicated—…

Just then!

"Hmm?" Cassius leaned up like a zombie, half his face still smeared in makeup. "What is happening here?"

"...." "...." "...."

"She did it!" they all shouted while pointing at one another.

Silence…

Sighing, Cassius erased their mess on his face and switched his clothes in an instant. "I don't even want to know," he said exasperatedly. "Can someone tell me how much time has passed?"

"Erm…"