Chapter 4297: Anomaly! I
Chapter 4297: Anomaly! I
In the region of immense coldness in the Earliest Folds, Noah’s figure could be seen walking around as if he were on a stroll.
The sheer capability of anyone to be walking around a dangerous place like the Earliest Folds without a sense of worry or terror was a wonder in itself!
The last time he was here, he was far below even a single quadrillion in complexity and purity, as small animals could have hunted him down and caused him to end his journey early.
All the previous times that he had been in the Earliest Folds, he did not last too long!
As he walked around and felt the warmth of the blistering storm of snow all around... he smiled as he thought that if he had remained in that terrifying battlefield of Aethelgard, he may have just had this journey end abruptly as well.
And yes, it was correct when he said he felt the warmth of the snow all around. Everything here was filled with concentrated Early Existential Authority that he continued to absorb passively into his existence!
Even if the complexity and purity that he absorbed per second was not so immensely significant to cause any grand changes unless he was here for thousands of years, it was a constant, gentle infusion of power, a reminder of the sheer, untamed potential of this ancient, terrible place.
But yes, he, Noah Osmont, was walking around the Earliest Folds without worry! Well, part of the reason that he could do this was because...
|Master, I have completed a preliminary cartographical survey of the immediate Gigaparsec radius.|
|Analysis: The local biome is... stable, for a given value of ’stable’ that includes ambient temperatures capable of freezing concepts. Life is sparse, but potent. I have identified 37 distinct lifeforms ranging from a few trillion in complexity to the low quadrillions. Most appear to be non-hostile unless provoked. Emphasis on ’appear.’|
|Threat Assessment: The strongest creature within a significant radius is a territorial herbivore. A Glacial Woolly Rhino, to be precise. Its power is a fluctuating wave of approximately 5 Quadrillion in both Complexity and Purity.|
As the prompt bloomed, the crimson-blue holographic figure of RUIN/EDEN, who was walking silently beside him, waved her hand.
A perfect, three-dimensional projection of the creature appeared.
It was a magnificent, terrible beast, its fur a pristine, shimmering white that seemed to absorb and refract the ambient light.
Its horn was a single, colossal spire of pure, crystalline ice, and its eyes held a deep, ancient, and profoundly grumpy intelligence.
Noah looked over at it as he nodded. "That should be sufficient for lunch," he said, his voice a calm, even tone that held no trace of concern. "How is the progress for our little project so far?"
He continued to enjoy this rare moment of peace and luxury as he asked her about the progress in designing and creating a profound new system of existence that integrated multiple components.
There were systems made by Early Creatures or THE Living Existences, and then there were systems that he had already forged himself like Existential Artifice—the Weavings of Power.
They all had to be seamlessly integrated together!
|Everything is proceeding smoothly, Master.|
|I am currently running diagnostics and theoretical models on over a million potential pathways for your new, unified System of Existence. The objective is to create a methodology that is not just powerful, but is a perfect, quintessential reflection of your own nature. I am eliminating all pathways that do not meet this standard.|
|Addendum: The Living Astral Codex we... ’acquired’... from the corpse of that Juvenile Early Creature has been an invaluable source of data. Its mechanics are crude, but the underlying principles are fascinating. A useful, if somewhat primitive, piece of technology.|
...!
Yes. He had gone through the corpses of the two entities that had undergone mutual destruction.
The entity inside the Living Existential Armor had actually been a Fold Dweller, piloting that glorious monstrosity that held more than one thousand Quadrillion in Purity.
As for the Early Creature... from its remains, he had gotten his hands on a Living Astral Codex that held four Astral Arcana.
Three common ones and one uncommon. They had all been utilized to further understand the system, and RUIN/EDEN had even requested to break down one of the Astral Arcana Glyphs... for the sake of research, of course.
Noah smiled as he continued to walk across the vibrant, snowy lands. Here, he had time. Here, he had peace.
He couldn’t freely walk around like this if he were back in his current Era, where he knew things were barreling towards destruction.
He was thinking of the many ways he could go about things as he came to a stop.
He felt a movement, a faint, almost imperceptible stirring in the air before him.
And he saw it. A vibrant blue butterfly.
It was a thing of breathtaking, impossible beauty. Its wings were not of flesh, but of pure, crystalline ice, their surfaces etched with intricate, fractal patterns of frost.
It fluttered through the swirling, snowy winds, not fighting against them, but dancing with them. It landed on a glacial flower, its petals frozen in a state of perpetual, perfect bloom, and with a delicate, almost reverent, touch, it began to drink.
Not nectar, but the very essence of the cold, the pure, untainted authority of this frozen world.
Noah observed it with a sense of profundity.
This creature, in its simple, beautiful, and utterly focused existence, was a perfect expression of its own Way.
|Azure Frostwing|
|Classification: Primordial Glacial Butterfly|
|Complexity: 1,200,000,000,000|
|Purity: 1,300,000,000,000|
|Analysis: This creature is aware of your presence, Master. However, it exhibits no fear. Its Way of Existence is one of peaceful, focused consumption and propagation. It has correctly assessed that your own Way, at this moment, does not include the pointless annihilation of a being that is not a threat. It is... a very logical butterfly.|
Noah smiled at this observation as he rose up from looking at the butterfly and wondered... should he maybe go around observing different life forms and what their Way of Existence was? Or even possibly...
"Hmm..."
Noah’s eyes shone with a brilliant, almost manic, light.
He looked at the butterfly again, and from his body, a glorious, writhing mass of humanoid tentacles, the form of Ozymandias, appeared.
Part of him was an Inevitability, and he inherently felt The Way of Hunger that Khor had mentioned.
But what if he simply tried to experience other Ways of Existence?