Chapter 5049: A Warning
Chapter 5049: A Warning
While one man made a modest advancement in THE Infiniverse.
Heavy rainfall bloomed across the Wastes in rivers of multicolored brilliance that transformed everything they touched.
The region that had earned its name through desolation and emptiness was changing. Where barren expanses had stretched for light years, new formations emerged from the saturated ground. Structures of crystallized authority rose from spaces that hadn’t produced anything in eons.
The Pluvial Epoch of Existential Infinity was rewriting this corner of Observable Existence, and soon the Wastes might no longer deserve their name at all.
Through this transforming landscape moved a massive figure.
Beowulf, THE Primordial Armor, walked with his enormous hammer resting against one shoulder, each step pressing craters into ground too weak to support his passage.
His invisible expression was thoughtful beneath the helmet that had become part of his existence, contemplating changes that affected plans he’d spent eons developing. The rainfall couldn’t touch him directly, his corrupted glory deflecting the multicolored drops before they could land on his armored form.
Then he came to a stop and looked out into the distance.
His helmet turned toward something appearing on the horizon, something that shouldn’t have been possible given the distances involved.
Across the Wastes, a massive illusory form materialized against the transformed space.
A titan wreathed in flames towered over the landscape, humanoid in shape but vast beyond mortal comprehension. The figure burned with authority that pressed against everything perceiving it, fire that consumed nothing but illuminated everything. It was an illusory image of...THE Creature!
THE Creature sat upon a makeshift throne of condensed existence, leaning back with a posture suggesting absolute dominion over everything within his sight.
Rivers of unique power surged across his body in configurations that defied classification, authority flowing through him in patterns that declared his position among the apex of Observable Existence. His flames burned brighter where the multicolored rain fell upon them, consuming the Pluvial Epoch’s effects as fuel rather than submitting to their transformative nature.
In both hands, he held something that made Beowulf’s armored body vibrate with shock.
Eyes.
Massive crimson eyes, each one larger than realms, rested in THE Creature’s grip like trophies claimed from a defeated enemy. These were the eyes that had formed across the Wastes to put countless beings under their control, the instruments through which influence had spread.
The Eyes of Horus.
But at this moment, those eyes were bloody and torn and ruptured. They stood lifeless in THE Creature’s hands, their crimson light extinguished, their power ended. Whatever conflict had occurred between THE Creature and Horus, the outcome was now being displayed for all of existence to witness.
Beowulf stared at this image as his massive armored body continued vibrating, frequencies of agitation running through foundations that rarely experienced uncertainty.
But he wasn’t the only one privy to this scene.
In all regions across the Wastes, the illusory image appeared simultaneously. In Prima Indifferentia, where ancient beings stirred in domains they’d occupied since before differentiation. In Primordial Realms scattered throughout Observable Existence, where Architects and Terrors and Undivided Ones now moved in and conducted their endless pursuits.
In every corner where the awareness and gazes of powerful beings at the First and Second Scale permeated, the grand illusory visage of THE Creature holding the lifeless Eyes of Horus manifested.
He didn’t say anything.
His bearing and posture spoke clearly enough without words. The way he sat upon that throne, the casual grip with which he held eyes that had terrorized regions, the flames burning around him with intensity that suggested this display cost him nothing, all of it communicated a singular message to those rising across Observable Existence.
Behave.
In Prima Indifferentia, the image of THE Creature appeared against space that hadn’t seen clear light since before most current beings existed.
Moments later, the deluge of rivers and multicolored rain parted.
A crack opened in the fabric of this ancient realm, splitting silently like a wound appearing in flesh that had forgotten it could be cut. Two obsidian hands emerged from the darkness within that crack, fingers curling around the edges as if they were unveiling pages of a book rather than tearing through the barriers between spaces.
The hands pulled the crack wider.
From the widened opening, an obsidian face poked out to observe the illusory image of THE Creature displayed across Prima Indifferentia’s transformed skies.
The head was stellar obsidian given humanoid form, darkness so complete that it seemed to absorb the multicolored light falling all around. A single obsidian horn emerged from the center of its forehead, curving upward in configurations that suggested crown more than weapon. The features beneath were sharp and ancient.
But the entire head and that single horn shone with a distinct light.
Proterozoic light.
When the illusory flames of THE Creature reflected against that obsidian skull, the bones beneath became visible through the darkness. They blazed with brilliance declaring their nature to anyone capable of perceiving it.
The skull itself was a Proterozoic Bone, transformed through methodologies that most beings couldn’t survive. That single horn was another Proterozoic Bone, authority crystallized into physical form through processes spanning eons of careful cultivation.
This was a Second Scale existence observing THE Creature’s warning.
The obsidian face watched the image of those ruined eyes held in THE Creature’s grip. It studied the casual dominance displayed in that seated posture, the declaration of supremacy being broadcast across all of Observable Existence.
Then it smiled.
The expression was brutal and glorious, teeth of stellar obsidian catching Proterozoic light as lips pulled back in appreciation rather than fear. This being looked at THE Creature’s terrifying displayed feat and found it amusing. Found it exciting. Found it worthy of response!
Laughter erupted from that obsidian throat.
The sound stretched outward from the crack in Prima Indifferentia, carrying across distances that light would need eons to traverse. Gigaparsecs of space trembled as that laughter rolled through them, the amusement of a Proterozoic Scale existence declaring its reaction to THE Creature’s warning.
The laughter didn’t stop.
It echoed across Prima Indifferentia long after the obsidian face retreated back into the crack from which it had emerged, the sound continuing to resonate through transformed landscapes and ancient domains.
THE Creature’s warning had been delivered, but not everyone who received it was intimidated.