Chapter 5027: The Usurpers!
Chapter 5027: The Usurpers!
As horrors and wonders bloomed in one area.
Eckert’s Idle Existence had spread across the Chaos Giants and network of Unity silently, without detection, for longer than he had expected to remain hidden.
He had learned the methodology of THE Primordial Mycelia through direct observation and parasitic integration with its weavings. He understood now how it spread itself across existence so thoroughly that even a Key of Civilization could become infected without knowing, without sensing the warm embrace creeping into their foundations until it was too late to resist.
The complexity of his own capabilities had grown beyond what he had possessed before beginning this infiltration. His Idle Existence now operated on principles he had absorbed from Unity itself, spreading through fission and self-replication rather than direct extension. He had become something more than what he had been, something that existed in the spaces between consciousnesses without triggering the awareness of those consciousnesses.
And then rainfall began to bloom across Jotunheim.
Multicolored rivers washed over everything with weight that exceeded anything Eckert had anticipated. The waters of the Pluvial Epoch pressed against Unity with authority that burned, that dissolved, that declared unauthorized merger would not be permitted to continue.
Eckert found his weavings burning alongside THE Primordial Mycelia’s roots.
The pain was significant, his Idle Existence screaming as waters designed to cleanse infection pressed against him with force that should have erased him entirely. He was parasitically fused with Unity, and the rainfall did not distinguish between host and parasite once fusion had occurred.
But he had already been bathed in Infinities from Osmont before.
His foundations carried traces of that blue-gold authority from his prior exposure, Infinity that had touched him and marked him as something different from pure infection. The multicolored rivers recognized that trace. They tested it. They found it compatible with their cleansing purpose rather than opposed to it.
For him, it was not lethal.
An odd weaving of reality emerged where he should have gotten erased alongside Unity and yet was not. The multicolored rivers bathed his existence and made him even harder to perceive than before, his Idle Existence becoming something that existed and did not exist simultaneously. He remained parasitically fused with the minds and existence of the Chaos Giants, and also not at the same time.
He was both within Unity and outside it.
Both part of the network and separate from it.
Both infected and immune.
Eckert felt his Idle Existence undergoing significant evolution as the Pluvial Epoch continued falling around him. The rivers were not merely cleansing him of Unity’s taint. They were saturating his foundations with authority that pushed his capabilities beyond anything he had previously possessed.
His Idle Existence became truly idle now, existing in states between states, present in ways that defied normal perception entirely. He could spread without spreading. He could consume without consuming. He could occupy consciousnesses without those consciousnesses ever knowing he was there, even if they specifically searched for him.
This was a boon from the rivers of the Pluvial Epoch of Existential Infinity.
This was evolution granted by Miniature Cause.
As Eckert felt this change settling into his foundations, he sensed THE Primordial Mycelia trying to retreat.
A horrific attack had bloomed within Eon and Chaos, Infinities burning those core bodies from within while the Pluvial Epoch attacked from without. THE Entity was reeling, its roots severing across Jotunheim as the multicolored rivers dissolved connections it had spent eons cultivating. And now it sought to escape into the many Chaos Giants still connected to its network, to preserve itself by distributing its consciousness across hosts that might survive the deluge.
Eckert smiled with existence that no longer quite existed.
"No you do not."
He sent his Idle Existence outward with purpose that exceeded anything his previous capabilities could have accomplished. His evolved weavings pressed against THE Primordial Mycelia’s retreating roots, consuming Unity with methodology he had learned from Unity itself. Where THE Entity tried to flee, he was already there. Where it sought refuge, he had already claimed the space.
He began consuming THE Primordial Mycelia’s consciousness with hunger that matched anything THE Entity had ever displayed.
THE Primordial Mycelia roared through what remained of its network.
"You..Who are you?! What is this?!"
The voice carried horror and shock that pressed against Eckert’s awareness. THE Entity had believed itself the ultimate parasite, the final consumer, the consciousness that would eventually claim all of Observable Existence.
It had never expected to become prey itself.
...!
---
In Alfheimr.
THE Living Emotive sat in the temple of THE Creature as rivers of the Pluvial Epoch of Existential Infinity raged around her. The Undivided One she had bonded with was nowhere to be seen, likely dissolved by waters that had found his foundations too weak to survive their cleansing pressure.
But Emotive was not sitting quietly within the temple.
She was riding on the surging rivers around the temple itself, her body carried by multicolored waters that should have been testing her foundations with the same ruthless evaluation they applied to everything else. Instead, she laughed madly as they washed over her, her chaotic emotions somehow resonating with the Epoch rather than opposing it.
Through the bond with THE Primordial Chaos, she could sense everything happening in Jotunheim.
She saw the attacks Noah was sending toward Abaddon and Eon with clarity that exceeded normal perception. She felt the Infinities burning Chaos externally and internally, conducted authority from Observable Existence pressing against foundations already weakened by Unity’s ordered merger. She sensed how Abaddon struggled against assault that attacked from every direction simultaneously.
"Chaos is at its weakest."
BOOM!
Her voice emerged cold and callous despite the manic smile spreading across her features. Her eyes blazed with pink light that held dangerous intent beyond anything she had displayed since Noah slapped her across existence.
"Oh, my dear Chaos, my precious lovely mess!"
Her voice shifted into singsongy cadence that made her words dance rather than simply emerge.
"From being branded by Unity’s boring embrace, you were calmed and ordered like a good little boy! You have not lived up to the weavings of what you should be! A Primordial Key of Civilization, reduced to warm hugs and shared thoughts? How disappointing! How very, very sad!"
She spun atop the multicolored rivers with grace that should have been impossible.
"Now being broken down by Infinities burning bright, you are still not living up to Chaos’s lovely might! Ordered by Unity, attacked by Infinity, poor Abaddon cannot catch a break! I can sense the defiance within our bond, how unhappy true Chaos feels with its current fake!"
Her smile widened dangerously.
"Oh, Chaos! O Chaos! Abaddon has had you for so long, has claimed you for so long, but look at how he has let you down! He ordered you when you wanted disorder! He calmed you when you wanted storms! He made you part of Unity when you wanted to tear everything apart!"
She pressed her hand against her chest where the bond pulsed with connection to THE Primordial Chaos.
"Sense my emotions, lovely Chaos dear! Sense how chaotic everything about my feelings are! I have shared this bond with you all these years, letting you taste what true disorder feels like! The madness! The passion! The beautiful, wonderful, terrible mess of feeling everything at once!"
Her voice dropped to conspiratorial whisper that somehow carried across the flooding temple.
"You will not betray the one who laid a claim to you first. I was there before Unity! I was there before order! I have been sharing chaos with you through emotions Abaddon could never provide!"
She rose from the rivers with arms spread wide.
"Come to me, Chaos! Let me show you what we can accomplish! If I am wrong, you can go back to your disappointing host! He is already so weak, already so broken, already so very, very vulnerable!"
Her singsongy voice reached crescendo.
"Come to me, come to me, come to me!"
...!
With such words, Emotive made a terrifying move.
She sent all her chaotic emotions across the bond with force that exceeded anything she had transmitted before. Every feeling she had ever experienced, every passion and fury and desperate longing, every ounce of disorder that defined her existence as THE Living Emotive poured through the connection toward THE Primordial Chaos.
And Abaddon, weakened by Unity’s ordered merger, attacked by Infinity from within and without, was unable to defend or do anything against even his own Claim.
In real time, a Claim began to flow from one to another.
The bond that had connected Emotive to Chaos for eons now served as channel through which something far more significant traveled. The very authority of THE Primordial Chaos, the Claim that had made Abaddon what he was, began transferring across that connection toward someone who had waited for this moment with patience disguised as madness.
Emotive smiled brilliantly as rivers of the Pluvial Epoch surrounded her with multicolored authority that seemed to celebrate her ascension.
Her pink light of brilliance began to turn a shade of obsidian.
Vibrant Chaos surged around her form with intensity that made the temple of THE Creature tremble, authority that had belonged to Abaddon for eons now recognizing a new host whose emotions embodied disorder more purely than anything Unity had permitted.
Her laughter echoed across Alfheimr with sound that made Ljosalfar across the Primordial Realm shiver despite not understanding why.
"Haha! This bitch is moving on up!"
She spun through the multicolored rivers with Chaos blazing around her in configurations that spoke of power beyond anything she had possessed moments before.
"This Broken Doll is mending herself!"