Chapter 4848: Apophasis! II
Chapter 4848: Apophasis! II
And then, without even moving from his throne, THE Primordial Paradox tapped out with a single finger.
His voice carried across the frozen air of Helheim with weight that made reality itself pay attention.
"You are not whole."
The words were simple.
"Your form is not singular. Your existence is not unified. Your body is not continuous."
Each negation landed with weight that transcended physical force.
"You are not one."
BOOM!
The Absolute body of Impundulu split in half.
There was no attack. No force. No visible mechanism of destruction. One moment the lightning bird was whole, and the next moment it simply wasn’t. Its form divided down the middle with surgical precision, each half falling away from the other as if they had never been connected in the first place.
Because according to the Apophasis that had just been spoken, they hadn’t been.
Impundulu’s eyes showed sheer shock and terror in the fraction of a moment before its existence came apart. It had not been killed. It had been undefined. Its wholeness had been negated, and without wholeness, there was nothing holding its Absolute form together!
The two halves of what had been THE Storm That Hungers tumbled through the frozen air of Helheim, trailing lightning and disbelief in equal measure.
And Popobawa, the other Absolute who had descended with such confidence mere moments ago...
Looked on with incredulity.
Its single crimson eye was wide with an emotion that transcended fear! Its wings had stopped beating, leaving it hovering through will alone as its mind struggled to process what it had just witnessed.
Its expression asked a question that needed no words.
What the fuck?
THE Primordial Paradox hadn’t moved from his throne. Hadn’t exerted visible effort. Hadn’t done anything that looked like combat or conflict or even mild exertion.
He had simply spoken.
And an Absolute had been split in half.
This was the gap between those who held Claims among THE Four and those who merely aspired to such heights!
This was why Popobawa and Impundulu had failed to take Paradox for themselves across eons of trying. This was why THE Primordial Paradox could speak of Erwin’s betrayal with nonchalance rather than fear!
Because even being consumed from within, even with his authority being eaten away by an infection he couldn’t stop, he was still this.
Still capable of this!
Noah watched the display with eyes of brilliance.
This was what Absolute truly meant.
This was what he was working toward!
And someday, perhaps sooner than anyone expected, he would be capable of the same!
Noah had come across many dominating figures across his existence.
THE Creature and THE Primordial Chaos ranked among the top. He had felt their weight, their Immensity, the sheer pressure of existences that had accumulated power across eons that defied comprehension. They were benchmarks against which all other beings could be measured.
But he felt like this ranking might be getting changed.
The moment THE Primordial Paradox casually cleaved an Absolute in half with nothing but words, he waved his hands with the same languorous ease one might use to brush away a fly.
The torn halves of Impundulu, which had been falling through the frozen air of Helheim trailing lightning and disbelief, suddenly stopped.
Their descent was negated and their fall was negated.
The natural consequence of being split in half and tumbling through space was simply removed from the equation, and instead, the two halves of what had been THE Storm That Hungers crashed onto the deck of Naglfar with force that made the indestructible ship tremble.
The Absolute was still alive, if such a state could be called living. Its single form had become two, each half heaving with desperate breaths that couldn’t quite sustain an existence that was no longer whole. Lightning still crackled weakly across its divided feathers, but the storms that had once defined it were guttering like candles in a hurricane.
THE Primordial Paradox kept his gaze on Noah.
He didn’t even look at the other Absolute.
Popobawa, THE Singular Eye, whose crimson gaze had held such incredulity moments before, was doing something that Noah recognized immediately. The bat-like entity’s wings were folding inward. Its form was becoming less defined. Its aura was pulling back into itself with the unmistakable signature of something preparing to flee.
THE Primordial Paradox began to speak as if nothing was happening behind him.
"Apophasis comes in all forms and sizes."
His voice remained measured, educational.
"What I just utilised is a common form of it. Negations that I stated against other targets. Their wholeness was not present. Their form was not unified. Simple enough, really."
Noah wanted to interrupt him.
He wanted to say that the other Absolute, the Popobawa, had actually disappeared. It had fled in fear to the extent that Noah couldn’t even sense it anymore. One moment it had been hovering above them with that single crimson eye wide with terror, and the next moment it was simply gone, having crossed distances that should have taken considerable time in what felt like an instant.
But THE Primordial Paradox continued speaking as if nothing had changed.
"Now, if I were to negate something of myself..."
His obsidian eyes held ancient knowing.
"The applications become rather more interesting."
He paused, and when he spoke again, his voice held weight that made the frozen air of Helheim grow still.
"I am not bound by the distance between myself and those who have fled from me."
BOOM!
The Apophasis landed with force.
And in the far, far distance, so far that Noah had lost all trace of its presence, the figure of Popobawa was forcefully brought back.
The Absolute’s body materialized above Naglfar’s deck, squeezed by immense invisible waves of Paradox that made its singular eye bulge with pressure it couldn’t comprehend. It had fled across distances that should have been safe. It had put space between itself and THE Primordial Paradox that would have taken others days to cross.
None of it mattered.
Because THE Primordial Paradox had negated the very concept of distance between himself and his prey.
The ancient Absolute raised his hand with casual grace and proceeded to wrap it around the unnatural neck of Popobawa as if it were nothing more than a chicken being prepared for dinner. His obsidian fingers closed with grip that held weight far beyond physical strength.
Popobawa struggled.
Its wings beat against air that refused to support them.
Its singular eye blazed with desperate power as it attempted to activate Embodiments, to call upon its Civilization, to do anything that might save it from the grip of something it should never have challenged.
Nothing worked.
Everything it tried was simply not effective against THE Primordial Paradox.
...!