Chapter 4829: Who Said?!
Chapter 4829: Who Said?!
A heavy air radiated across the crystalline forests of Alfheimr as even THE Living Origin and THE First Hunger looked toward THE Big Stepper in astonishment.
Ul’moreth.
The ancient Ginnu Lifeform who had dedicated eons to mastering The First Tongue had finally taken that impossible step. His form was mountainous, covered in countless strands of obsidian-gold hair that pulsed with their own life and authority.
Far above, the gaze of THE Primordial Chaos seemed to return just briefly, those shifting features settling into something that might have been curiosity as he evaluated this new entrant to the ranks of Absolutes.
His assessment lasted only a moment before his attention moved away.
Noah looked at the cold figures of THE Living Elemental and THE Living Emotive as he evaluated them with calculating eyes.
Frankly, he knew that right now, against both of them and just him and Ul’moreth alone, it would not be a battle that could be won.
If Ul’moreth targeted Elemental alone, that fucker stood a good chance of being collapsed. The ancient Ginnu Lifeform’s foundations were built across eons of dedicated study, and Elemental’s power, while Absolute, did not seem to match that depth of accumulated understanding.
But Emotive was a different matter entirely.
As manic and as horrendous as she was, her power as an Absolute felt much grander than Elemental’s. The emotions cycling through her features held weight that pressed against reality itself, and Noah could sense that whatever Civilization she had built, it was not something to be taken lightly. She was decent in ways that Elemental simply was not.
So while a battle now would lead to nothing productive, while engaging them directly would be foolish when THE Entity threatened all of Observable Existence, he could still teach a lesson.
Some lessons needed to be delivered regardless of circumstance.
"You will be collapsed in due time."
Noah’s voice carried across the crystalline clearing with authority that made the very air tremble.
"But for now, I want you to understand something."
His illusory eyes locked onto THE Living Elemental with intensity that burned.
"I want you to understand that the vast majority of power you have is not yours."
He paused, letting those words settle.
"Because who told you that you could use MY First Tongue?"
HUUM!
The words landed like hammers forged from concentrated authority.
And then something extraordinary happened.
The Phonemes of Fire, Air, Water, and Earth that had been rotating around THE Living Elemental in slow, deliberate patterns began to flicker. The brilliant displays that had surrounded his form stuttered and dimmed, the four fundamental concepts that defined his very existence responding to an authority that superseded their connection to him.
Fire guttered like a candle in a hurricane.
Air stilled as if it had forgotten how to move.
Water froze mid-flow, suspended in patterns that defied its nature.
Earth trembled and cracked, its solidarity questioned by something deeper than its own foundations.
The Phonemes didn’t disappear entirely, but they flickered in and out of stability as if they were being turned off and on by an unseen hand. THE Living Elemental’s expression shifted from cold composure to something that looked almost like shock as the fundamental building blocks of his Civilization, the very concepts that had defined him since The Earliest Folds, began to question their allegiance.
This was not an attack.
This was a reminder.
A reminder of who held true authority over the linguistic foundation of reality itself.
THE Living Emotive sensed the shift in Elemental’s power, and her cycling emotions stuttered to a stop as genuine astonishment crossed her features. She looked at Elemental, then at Noah, then back at Elemental again as understanding dawned.
And then she smiled.
It was a devilish expression, wide and manic and filled with something that looked almost like delight.
"Right! Right!"
Her laughter echoed across the crystalline clearing with energy that made nearby trees vibrate.
"You still are one of THE Four!"
She bounced on her feet, emotions cycling through excitement and hunger and something darker that lurked beneath the surface.
"Haha, this was part of what I was looking forward to meeting you. Say, do you want to talk in private? Show me a bit more things relating to THE Four?"
Her voice dropped to something almost intimate.
"They always fascinate me so much."
...!
But as she finished those last words, her entire demeanor shifted. The manic energy remained, but beneath it emerged a sense of coldness and sombreness that seemed utterly at odds with her previous behavior.
Her entire figure became surrounded by manic light that pulsed with colors that shouldn’t exist together, emotions made manifest in ways that pressed against the sanity of any who observed too closely.
At this moment, the figure of Ul’moreth turned toward Noah as his existence burned with waves of Absolute authority that made the crystalline forests around them tremble. His countless hairs stood on end, each strand pulsing with obsidian-gold light that spoke of power newly claimed but already deeply rooted.
"Little Anomaly."
His voice carried the weight of ages, of dedication, of a being who had spent eons pursuing mastery and had finally achieved what he sought.
"I have seen a lot of crazy in my existence. This particular type of crazy is one that simply needs to be eradicated."
The words were not spoken with heat or anger.
They were spoken with the cold certainty of someone who had evaluated a threat and determined the only appropriate response.
Noah looked at Emotive while listening to the words of Ul’moreth. His illusory eyes met her manic gaze without flinching, without showing any of the calculation that was occurring behind them.
Then, without turning around, he addressed THE Living Origin and THE First Hunger who stood behind him with expressions that mixed concern with readiness.
"You two go and do what you came here to do."
Origin and Hunger exchanged a glance.
They began to move, to turn away from the confrontation and toward their objective that had brought them to Alfheimr in the first place.
"And the two of you."
Noah’s last words were directed toward THE Living Elemental and THE Living Emotive.
Elemental was still fuming, his expression a mask of barely contained fury as he continued to try and express his Absolute authority to pull the Phonemes he had always been so familiar with. Fire, Air, Water, and Earth still flickered around him, responding to his commands only intermittently, their connection to him disrupted by an authority that superseded his claim.
Emotive watched with that manic smile still plastered across her features, her emotions cycling through amusement and interest and something darker that lurked beneath the surface.
"You two can get the fuck off."
The words were delivered with casual contempt.
"When I am ready to start butchering, I will come for you."
WAA!
Even though only an illusory visage stood here, even though his main body was across Observable Existence dealing with matters far removed from this confrontation, Noah was grand and imposing as he delivered this dismissal.
He had shockingly denied access to The First Tongue to two Absolutes!
To this hour, his Thesis had not been refuted. The proposition he had laid down in Muspelheim, the claim that only those to whom he granted permission could draw power from The First Tongue, remained unchallenged. It had actualized into local truth, and now he was applying that same principle on a broader scale.
With his tremendous weight, with the foundation that many could not match, he could afford to do this even against Absolutes!