Assembly language is the mother of all languages (I mean programming languages, of course). It is the original programming language from which all other languages descended (you might argue that machine code is, but that is not really a language strictly speaking).
At the same time, assembly language is also the child of all languages because all other languages are first compiled to assembly language before they can run on the computer. That includes interpreted languages because the interpreter itself is compiled.
When HLL were first invented, the idea was to simplify the job of assembly language programming: You use the compiler to produce assembly language code, then improve the code, then assemble and run.
As more and more people got interested in programming, the art of assembly language started to disappear. At least in relative terms: The percentage of programmers familiar with the art is lower, though the absolute number of assembly language programmers may be actually larger than it was, say 30 years ago.
At any rate, the art of assembly language cannot disappear completely, because if it did computers could no longer evolve: There would be no one able of creating new languages, or at least creating compilers for new languages.
That also means there will always be a need for good assembly language programmers. And the fewer there are, the more valuable they (ahem, we) become. So, if you don't know assembly language (or do, but keep shying away from it), learn it: You may become extremely valuable.
There is a common myth that assembly language is somehow hard to learn. That is not true. I mean, all programming languages are hard to learn at first. The difference is that with most new languages there is a certain continuity: If you know Pascal, C seems like a variety of Pascal. If you know C, C++ is a variety of C, and so on. But assembly language requires you to learn it pretty much from scratch.
But once you really learn it, all other languages start looking silly. They all force you to add an extra layer of abstraction. Once you have mastered ASM, you can code in it as fast as in any other language, and you will soon be paraphrasing Patrick Henry, "Give me assembly language, or give me death!"
Oh, yes, assembly language is more addictive than E2. That's because anything you can do in a HLL you can do in ASM better.