Chapter 4898: Two Solutions II
Chapter 4898: Two Solutions II
Not many beings knew, but in THE Infinite Unfurling, before THE Primordial Paradox even took on a student that was a peasant, he stood beside a young woman who called herself Eon.
This woman was being hunted by many in the Primordial Realm of Svartalfheim. Her crimes were unclear, her origins unknown, but those who pursued her did so with the fervor of beings who believed they were performing a righteous duty. She had been running for what felt like centuries, never staying in one place long enough to call it home.
She had met THE Primordial Paradox while she was running away, stumbling upon him in a valley that should not have existed, a place that was both sanctuary and trap simultaneously. Her eyes had been wild with exhaustion and fear and something else entirely, something that looked almost like hunger for answers that no one had been willing to provide. She stayed with him as he didn’t shoo her away, eventually becoming a little familar.
She had asked him a question that would echo across eons.
"How...can I be as strong as you? How can I go across existence fearlessly, without worry?"
THE Primordial Paradox had looked at this young woman with eyes that held the weight of contradiction itself. And he had answered her.
"Strength is a paradox unto itself. The beings who pursue strength most desperately are often the ones who never attain it, while those who pursue other things entirely find strength arriving as an unexpected companion. You ask how to be fearless, but fearlessness is not the absence of fear. It is the presence of something greater than fear. Purpose. Conviction. Understanding of what you are and why you are it."
"Existence will test you in ways you cannot anticipate. It will offer you power in exchange for pieces of yourself. It will present shortcuts that seem efficient but lead to dead ends that span eternities. It will show you reflections of what you could become if only you were willing to compromise on what you currently are. These are the traps that fell even the grandest beings across Observable Existence."
"My advice to you is simple in its statement and impossible in its execution. Stay true to yourself, regardless of what happens. Never lose what makes you... you. Your identity is the only anchor that remains constant when everything else shifts and changes and transforms around you. Abandon that anchor, and you will drift across existence without direction, becoming whatever the currents wish you to become rather than what you chose to become."
"As long as you hold onto that truth, as long as you remember who you are when existence tries to convince you to be something else, then existence is yours. Not because you conquered it, but because you remained unconquered by it. That is the paradox of strength. It is not found in domination but in persistence. It is not found in power...but in principle."
...!
---
At this moment.
It was not a memory, as existence was unfolding in real time. In a terrifying unfolding of events within THE Stoa of Dogmata, THE Primordial Paradox looked at THE Secretive Eon as he spoke calmly.
"Eon, are you in there?"
His voice held weight that pressed against the converted Embodiments and Apophasis surrounding them, against THE Entity that wore the face of someone he had once counseled.
"I always told you to stay true to yourself, no matter what happened. So how did you allow this to happen?"
His questions were booming and heavy, echoing across the space with authority that demanded response from whatever remnant of the original Eon might still exist beneath the infection.
A moment later, it almost seemed like the gaze of THE Secretive Eon flickered. It almost seemed like something stirred beneath the surface of those eyes that had been speaking with THE Entity’s voice. As if whatever was buried underneath had been trying to come up to the surface, trying to reach toward the being who had once given her advice that she had clearly not followed!
But it faded away just as quickly.
The flicker of recognition, of individuality, of the Eon that had existed before THE Entity consumed her identity... it vanished back into the depths of collective consciousness that now ruled her form.
THE Primordial Paradox looked at the scene and shook his head with disappointment. He sighed with the weariness of someone who had watched countless beings fail to heed wisdom that could have saved them.
"I came to test things out and see the extent of how far you’ve grown. You cannot possibly stop me from leaving, as we...were paradoxically here and never here."
...!
The eyes of THE Secretive Eon became somber as understanding dawned across her features. She raised her hand, authority gathering around her fingers as she prepared to do something, to prevent their departure, to trap them within THE Stoa of Dogmata where her converted constructs could eventually wear down even their defenses.
But before she could do anything...
WAP!
The figures of Noah and THE Primordial Paradox disappeared as if truly they may have never been there to begin with. Paradoxically! Their presence and absence existed simultaneously, and THE Entity could not trap what had never definitively arrived.
Even the terrifying sea of Paradox that she had commandeered tried to fade away alongside its creator’s departure, but this one she had already gained control of. After a brief moment of flickering between existence and non-existence, it stayed, becoming a permanent addition to her arsenal rather than a temporary manifestation.
And while surrounded by glory and Immensity that had just grown through THE Primordial Paradox’s inadvertent contribution, THE Secretive Eon turned her head slowly.
She looked toward the direction of THE Agora of Primordial Judgment with eyes that held patience accumulated across eons.
She could wait.
She had always been good at waiting.
And even while she waited, many parts of her moved.
---
Noah returned to THE Shores of Kleos inside THE Agora of Primordial Judgment with THE Primordial Paradox beside him, his expression still holding the frown that had formed during their encounter with THE Entity.
First he needed to let THE Primordial Chaos know not to send any bombardment of attacks toward THE Secretive Eon, as they could very well be absorbed and simply turned against them.
And when he thought about this monstrous entity themselves, about the implications of what they had witnessed and what it meant for any future confrontation... he turned to THE Primordial Paradox.
"Tell me there is some form of solution that you had after being partly taken over by that thing all those eons ago."
THE Primordial Paradox turned to him as it seemed like he was thinking of something else, distant thoughts occupying his mind before Noah’s words broke his concentration. He looked at Noah and nodded calmly as he began to speak.
"The solution actually lies with my disciple. After all, Erwin knows the exact origins of THE Entity. He knows how he utilized it to achieve his ends. He knows how he took over my Claim with it and yet kept it at bay when it should have consumed him as thoroughly as it consumed Eon. And he knows why it has emerged now, after all these eons of remaining dormant."
He paused.
"The first answer to taking care of THE Entity lies within THE Living Paradox. We extract that knowledge from him, willingly or otherwise, and we gain understanding that no one else in Observable Existence currently possesses. Easy, yes?"
His smile was thin and knowing.
"Of course, extracting anything from my disciple will require subduing him first. So while this remains the most direct path to understanding our enemy, it is not a path we can walk immediately."
...!
THE Primordial Paradox continued, his voice shifting to something more contemplative.
"The nature of the problem we face here is a unique one. Collapsing THE Entity does not work. I learned this the hard way. Undifferentiating THE Entity may not work either, as undifferentiation is already its fundamental nature. It exists as a force of existential homogenization, and returning it to proto-state may simply be returning it to its preferred form of being. Conventional methodologies fail because this is not a conventional threat."
He began to pace slowly.
"This brings us to the second possible answer against THE Entity. I have spent considerable time contemplating unconventional solutions, turning the problem over in my mind across eons of imprisonment within THE Antinomia Prismatica. And the one that has won... is THE Existential Severance."
His voice grew heavier.
"The principle is elegant in its cruelty. Destruction removes a being from existence. Undifferentiation returns a being to formlessness. But THE Existential Severance does neither. It allows the being to remain exactly as they are, conscious and aware and present. What it removes is everything else. Their Definition and Undefinition. Their Existence as a significant entity. Their Depth. Their achievements. Their accomplishments. Every single thing they have ever done that distinguished them from absolute insignificance."
"Existence itself forgets that they ever mattered. The record of their significance is erased so completely that reality no longer acknowledges they were ever anything but nothing. Everything in Observable Existence would even forget about them, or whether they even existed at all."
His eyes met Noah’s.
"The being persists, you understand. They continue to exist. They continue to think. They continue to have awareness of themselves and their surroundings. But they possess no authority whatsoever. No Definition or Undefinition. No Civilization. No foundation. No weight. They become entities of pure presence without any capacity to affect anything around them. Less than the weakest mortal, because even the weakest mortal has potential for growth. Those who have been subjected to THE Existential Severance have had their potential erased alongside everything else."
"And everything that the target possessed, everything they accomplished, everything they represented and built across their entire existence... it does not simply disappear. It transfers. It flows to the one who performed THE Existential Severance upon them. Their eons of accumulation become fuel for another’s advancement. Their foundations become stones in another’s edifice. Their authority becomes another’s authority."
He spread his hands.
"The only thing negative about this is that this capability requires proximity to THE Second Scale of Existence, or attaining that Scale yourself. Among those currently in Observable Existence... hmm, maybe THE Creature may be able to do it."
The words were ridiculous in their implications, presenting a solution that was simultaneously perfect and currently impossible to execute. Noah opened his mouth to respond, to ask more questions about this capability and what it would take to develop it, but before he could reply...
"Sir... sirs!"
The figure of Paradoxos appeared in the distance, his massive dual-faced form rushing toward them. His gaze seemed ashen as he came to float meters away from them, his earlier submission to THE Primordial Paradox seemingly forgotten in the face of whatever had driven him to seek them out.
"Something is happening to the Crack of Observable Existence. Something is happening with THE Prima Indifferentia!"
...!