Chapter 4899: The Second Cause I
Chapter 4899: The Second Cause I
Something was happening to the Crack of Observable Existence in THE Agora of Primordial Judgment. Something was happening to THE Prima Indifferentia.
This alone by itself was astounding enough as it made Noah and THE Primordial Paradox frown before they moved with Paradoxos. The three of them traversed THE Agora with speed that made the space between locations meaningless, racing toward the region where THE Acropolis held the ancient fracture that connected Observable Existence to what lay beyond it.
It was a change, and like any changes, sometimes they occurred across existence without warning or explanation. But changes involving THE Prima Indifferentia were never minor, and changes involving Cracks of Observable Existence were never safe.
---
In THE Wastes of THE Fallout, another body of Noah was with THE Fisherman, Ains, and his very good dog, Skoll, as he had been discussing a few things with THE Great Usurper.
Eckert had a very complex expression as if he had developed a unique skill for himself and another person now seemed to be using the same skill and utilizing it so much more complexly and better than he was. He looked like a man in his prime, similar to Noah, even though the memories and ages of countless things whose existences he had usurped flowed within his eyes. The weight of accumulated identities pressed against his features as he processed everything Noah had shared about THE Entity and its potential origins.
But eventually, after learning all he could from Noah regarding THE Entity and its capabilities, he said something that surprised Noah.
He leaned forward with eyes that held the cunning of someone who had survived by understanding how predators thought.
"My greatest fear has always been that I would one day attempt to usurp the mind of something utterly terrifying that I did not understand. Something that, upon feeling my connection establish itself, would choose to self-destruct rather than be taken. Something capable enough to recognize what was happening and destroy both itself and me through the very link I had created to consume it. The connection that allows me to devour works in both directions, you see. What I reach toward can reach back toward me."
His smile was thin and knowing.
"If you trust yourself enough, if your Infinities are truly as protective as you believe them to be, then a potential solution presents itself. Allow yourself to be infected by THE Entity. Establish that connection deliberately rather than accidentally. And then, once the link exists, destroy it from within. Your Infinite nature should prevent the infection from actually taking hold, but the connection would still exist. You would be inside it while it failed to get inside you. From that position, what could you not accomplish? What vulnerabilities could you not identify? What weaknesses could you not exploit?"
He spread his hands.
"This is merely a thought from someone who has spent his existence understanding how connections between minds can be manipulated. THE Entity believes its infection is a one-way process, but no process is truly one-way. Every link carries traffic in both directions, even if one direction carries more than the other. If you can establish a connection without being consumed by it, you gain access to everything THE Entity is while it gains access to nothing that you are. The hunter becomes the hunted without ever realizing the reversal has occurred."
...!
This was a proposed solution given by THE Great Usurper, and Noah couldn’t help but frown at the audacity of it. Deliberately allowing THE Entity to infect him was...well, it was something!
And yet the logic was sound in its own twisted way.
But at this time...
"Woof!"
Skoll’s tail began to wag as he looked around with ears perked and eyes alert, as if there was something he sensed that nobody else could perceive.
In the next moment...
BOOM!
It felt like existence split in half!
THE Great Usurper’s face became ashen as he felt something happening in the distant region where his existence had come from, where he had already covered his idle existence over the landscapes of THE Wastes where the Axiom he had fused into remained.
In that distant region, a terrifying crack formed in the fabric of reality itself. The fracture tore through space like a wound that refused to close, its edges burning with light that belonged to no part of Observable Existence. And from within that crack, roiling and billowing seas of proto-matter began to churn with violence that exceeded anything THE Wastes had witnessed before!
The proto-matter spilled out across THE Wastes like an ocean breaching a dam, undifferentiated potential flooding into differentiated reality with force that began dissolving everything it touched. THE Great Usurper’s territories, the landscapes he had claimed and converted into extensions of his existence, started coming apart at the seams.
Instantly, THE Great Usurper’s body began to dissolve as the proto-matter reached across his connections and started pulling him back toward the source of his power. He gasped with shock, his form flickering between stability and dissolution!
Noah moved right away.
His hand erupted with a light of Infinities and undifferentiation that proceeded to wrap around THE Great Usurper with protective force that rejected the proto-matter’s assault. Vibrant Absolute Seals released from him as they also wrapped around Ains and Skoll, creating bubbles of defined existence that the flooding undifferentiation couldn’t penetrate!
Change...was happening in many places.
---
Across THE Wastes in an entirely different direction, there was the silent and small miniaturized Infiniverse itself, which now housed a complete Primordial Realm within its structure. Muspelheim burned at the heart of Noah’s domain, its crimson-blue stellar fires fueling growth that exceeded what any territories could achieve.
At the very center of this grand home of THE Genesis Monarch, a humanoid manifestation of THE Infiniverse was floating in a terrifying region of utmost Immensity and glory.
This region held extremely concentrated and pure Civilizational Authority that would have crushed any being who entered without Noah’s explicit blessing. Boundless seas of Infinite Seals of Absolute Tongue permeated all around, mixing with each other in configurations that produced multicolored light spanning every spectrum that existence could perceive. The Seals of Fire wove through Seals of Darkness, which intertwined with Seals of Chaos, which merged with Seals of Unity, creating patterns of authority so dense that space itself bent around them.
The only other being in existence who enjoyed the allure of Noah’s Infinities was THE Infiniverse herself.
This arguably made her one of the most important beings in Observable Existence, even if she forever planned to remain in the shadow of her master. Because without her master, she was nothing. She would still be that floating landmass in the Beast World, a territory without purpose, a domain without direction.
But with him, she was becoming something unprecedented.
In this domain of extremely concentrated weavings of existence, in the hands of THE Infiniverse, there was a budding singularity that blazed with the light of proto-matter and undifferentiation. She was currently filling it with the lights of Noah’s Infinities, variations of THE First Tongue permeating all around it as she carefully shaped something that had never been attempted before.
She wanted to form something significant for her master. Something similar to THE Prima Indifferentia but born from his authority rather than the ancient chaos that predated Observable Existence. And as many people as there were who truly did not understand the terrifying true potential and capability that she held, she alone was enough to understand what she was capable of.
Her immediate goal was something simple for her, something that she termed Operation Infinite Observable Existence.
And she was not referring to the Observable Existence that everyone knew when she planned this operation.
So she was proceeding carefully, layer by layer, Seal by Seal, when in the next moment...
BOOM!
Near the singularity filled with proto-matter, a terrifying crack bloomed as if reality was being torn as if it were a page! The fracture expanded with speed that exceeded what should have been possible within the protected confines of THE Infiniverse, its edges burning with corruption.
From this expanding crack, unstable seas of proto-matter filled with a sense of corruption flooded out with force that threatened to overwhelm everything she had been building. This wasn’t the pure proto-matter of THE Prima Indifferentia. This was something tainted, something that carried the signature of THE Fallout within its undifferentiated depths!
THE Infiniverse frowned and bellowed out!
"YAAA!"
Her shout was filled with majesty and undeniability shockingly holding the weight of an Embodiment, the full weight of her existence as the domain of THE Genesis Monarch pressing against the invasion with authority that refused to be overwhelmed!
The terrifying scenes that threatened to spill out across all of THE Infiniverse instantly became contained, caught by barriers that she manifested with speed born of glory and determination.
And then, with control that exceeded what the attacker had anticipated, she began funneling the corrupted proto-matter into the singularity she had been building this whole time. If they wanted to send her undifferentiation, she would take it. She would add it to her project. She would turn their attack into fuel for her master’s advancement.
Change was blooming here as well.
---
In Alfheimr, above a certain mountain where THE Creature resided, a crack tore through the twilight with violence that made the Primordial Realm itself tremble.
In Helheim, fractures bloomed across the frozen landscapes like wounds that bled proto-matter rather than blood.
In Vanaheimr, the realm of nature and growth, cracks formed among the ancient forests with corruption that began dissolving trees that had existed since THE Infinite Unfurling.
In the space where Muspelheim used to be, before THE Infiniverse absorbed it entirely, reality simply shattered as proto-matter flooded the void with purpose that transcended natural disaster.
In many Primordial Realms hidden from Observable Existence, in THE Wandering Territories that drifted between defined spaces, in corrupted Folds that had already been touched by THE Fallout... in every single crevice of Observable Existence, change bloomed.
The next phase had begun!