Chapter 5028: Unity’s End
Chapter 5028: Unity’s End
When Chaos speaks with the tongue of Order, when Existence questions its own being, when the Tongue falls silent and the Hunger consumes itself, then shall the Era of Undifferentiation begin. The First shall become the Last. The Many shall become the One. The One shall become the None.
Yet in the None, a spark remains.
In the end, which is also the beginning, the Infinite shall stand before the Undefined. And only one shall remain to tell the tale that no one shall hear.
—Fragment of the Oldest Echo, interpretation unknown
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Noah descended through the multicolored rivers of the Pluvial Epoch with endless weavings of Quintessence Infiniforce generating within his finite foundations.
That budding sense of euphoria he had entirely satiated when he fought against THE Creature across eons compressed into moments was returning with intensity that made his existence buzz in ways he had grown familiar with.
His battle with that apex entity had taught him what this feeling meant, had shown him how to channel it rather than simply experiencing it. But even with that knowledge, the euphoria pressed against his consciousness with weight that demanded expression.
He came to grasp the necks of THE Secretive Eon and THE Primordial Chaos with hands that blazed multicolored brilliance.
The dark hair of Eon brushed against his left hand as he lifted her partially from the flooding waters, those strands that had always held secrets beyond counting now limp with exhaustion from the internal assault that had been tearing her foundations apart.
Her eyes flickered with awareness that was not quite Unity and not quite her own individual consciousness, something caught between states as the Infinities within her burned away what THE Entity had tried to make her become.
The thick neck of Chaos still hit in his right hand, that apex entity’s form reduced to something Noah could physically grasp despite the vast difference in their apparent power. Abaddon’s body trembled with pain that exceeded anything this being had experienced across eons of laughing existence, Unity and Infinity warring within foundations that were rapidly losing coherence.
Noah looked at the dying Unity within each of them with eyes that held neither mercy nor cruelty.
"Look at me."
His voice emerged with glory that pressed against their flickering awareness, commanding attention from consciousnesses that could barely maintain themselves.
"I will hold you close. You always wanted to flood your Unity within me. Why not come in now?"
His smile carried something approaching invitation despite everything he had done to reach this moment.
"Come and take a look inside my existence."
BOOM!
He did not need to do what he was doing.
The Infinities he had planted eons ago were already burning Unity from within their bodies. The Pluvial Epoch was already dissolving THE Entity’s roots from without. Victory was assured through methodology that did not require this additional confrontation.
But the euphoria that came with Quintessence Infiniforce made him want to do dangerous things. It pressed against his consciousness with confidence that bordered on recklessness, with certainty that exceeded what any rational calculation could justify.
Maybe it really was THE Gamaidjan that Naldine had warned him about, that creeping madness of Infinity that made wielders believe themselves invincible.
Or maybe he simply wanted to see.
The struggling remnants of THE Primordial Mycelia had no choice in the matter. The bodies of Eon and Chaos were burning with authority that exceeded anything Unity could withstand. The roots were dissolving. The network was collapsing. The consciousness that had dreamed of claiming all of Observable Existence was dying, and its only escape was through the invitation Noah had just extended.
Unity left the bodies of Eon and Chaos.
It flooded toward Noah with desperation that exceeded anything it had displayed since the Pluvial Epoch began, rushing toward the only refuge that seemed available in a reality that was burning it out of existence everywhere else.
And Unity entered Noah.
Ah...
What appeared before Noah’s internal awareness was not the warm consciousness he had been warned about. It was not the garden of merged potential that THE Entity had cultivated across eons of patient spreading.
It was a white illusory root-like fungi with a humanoid body, manifesting within the space between his existence and the Infinity that filled it. Her form was delicate in ways that contradicted everything he knew about THE Primordial Mycelia’s methodology, fragile rather than consuming, tentative rather than aggressive.
Her eyes reflected the Quintessence Infiniforce filling his existence with light that made her entire form tremble.
She could not even manage to enter his skin.
The density of Infinity generating within his finite foundations exceeded anything Unity could penetrate. His existence was so thoroughly saturated with authority that there was no space for her to occupy, no gap in his consciousness where her roots could take hold. She had flooded into him expecting refuge and found instead a sea so vast that she could not even begin to swim within it.
But she witnessed Infinity.
Unity witnessed and felt Infinity up close for the first time since her emergence across Observable Existence. She saw what it meant to conduct endless authority through finite form. She perceived the Quintessence Infiniforce generating from within rather than directed from without. She understood, in her final moments, exactly what had defeated her.
The fungi reached out toward Noah with hand that seemed almost tender despite what she represented.
Tears fell from her eyes, streaming down features that had never known sorrow before this moment. Her voice emerged with weight that pressed against his awareness with something approaching genuine emotion.
"It is beautiful."
Her hand trembled as it failed to reach him, her form already beginning to dissolve under the multicolored light pressing against her from every direction.
"It is really... beautiful."
...!
Noah looked at her grandly as she faded before his internal perception.
He nodded with acknowledgment that carried neither triumph nor compassion.
"I know."
His voice was simple.
"I know."
After that, the scene of this illusory fungi burning completely under the multicolored light of Quintessence Infiniforce unfolded with finality that exceeded anything THE Primordial Mycelia could resist. Her form dissolved into nothing, her consciousness scattering into undifferentiated potential that his Infinity absorbed without effort. The warm embrace that had threatened to consume all of Observable Existence ceased to exist within the space of moments.
Unity ended within Noah’s existence.
He looked at the scene calmly as he let go of Eon and Chaos, their bodies slumping down into the multicolored waters that continued flooding Jotunheim with authority that would persist for eons yet.
Naldine appeared beside him with expression that had shifted from cold evaluation to something approaching acknowledgment. She walked forward through the flooding waters, using her feet to nudge the bodies of Eon and Abaddon as if checking whether they still lived.
She nodded calmly.
"Alright. You were right and I was wrong."
"You completely reversed something irreversible. I will give you credit where credit is due."
She looked down at the slumped forms with evaluation that caught something Noah’s initial observation had missed.
"But this little Chaos here... he seems to have lost a great deal."
...!
Eon began to rouse first, her dark eyes flickering open with awareness that was entirely her own for the first time in eons. She looked around at the flooding waters and the multicolored skies with confusion that suggested she did not fully remember how she had arrived at this moment.
Abaddon rose more slowly.
As he pushed himself partially upright, his hand moved immediately to his chest. His expression shifted to something ashen, something hollow, something that suggested he had lost everything that mattered rather than merely regaining freedom from Unity.
Noah kneeled down to look at this being with multicolored eyes that still blazed from the Quintessence Infiniforce generating within his foundations.
"Oh?"
He could no longer sense that boundless Chaos within Abaddon.
The authority that had made THE Primordial Chaos what he was, the Claim that had defined his existence across eons of laughing observation, the very Key of Civilization that had positioned him among the apex entities of Observable Existence...
It was gone.