Chapter 5050: Vengeance I
Chapter 5050: Vengeance I
The Xenoturbella is a marine organism with no brain, no gut, no organs of any kind.
It has one hole. Food enters through this hole. Waste exits through the same hole. It drifts along the ocean floor consuming whatever it bumps into, existing for no clear reason or purpose that scientists have ever determined. Evolution produced it and then apparently forgot about it.
Somehow, THE Living Elemental was lesser than such an existence.
The Xenoturbella at least committed to its simplicity. It never pretended to be more than a tube with ambitions limited to its next meal. THE Living Elemental reached for greatness, achieved Absolute depths at THE First Scale, accumulated authority that should have meant something, and still managed to contribute less to Observable Existence than a creature whose entire biological strategy was "have hole."
At least the Xenoturbella never disappointed anyone.
At least the Xenoturbella never failed upward into imprisonment.
At least the Xenoturbella, in its humble way, knew exactly what it was and never aspired to become something its foundations couldn’t support.
THE Living Elemental could learn much from such an organism.
Unfortunately, learning required a capacity for growth that THE Living Elemental had never demonstrated.
-Commentary discovered in THE Hadean Desmoterion’s administrative records, author confirmed to be Ozymandias during a moment of particular irritation
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The memories of Ozymandias flittered through Noah’s mind as he assumed active control of this body and extended his awareness into THE Hadean Desmoterion.
Endless days of peaceful cultivation stretched through his perception. He experienced centuries of patient accumulation, the gradual saturation of foundations with Quintessence Infiniforce, the methodical integration of Observable and Unobservable weavings into an existence preparing for transformation. Then came the establishment of THE Civilizational Anchor, that moment when his other self crystallized absolute certainty regarding what he was and what he would never compromise.
The affirmations echoed through him now, words that Ozymandias had spoken into the void of the prison while forging an identity that could not be shaken.
"Hunger is not weakness. Hunger is the only honest truth in existence."
"Everything consumes. Everything devours. Everything feeds. Those who deny this lie to themselves while their foundations cannibalize their potential."
"I am Hunger given form. I am the acknowledgment that existence itself is predation. I do not apologize for what I am. I do not pretend to be something gentler. I consume because consumption is the fundamental act of being, and I have simply ceased pretending otherwise."
"My Anchor is Hunger. My Anchor is truth. My Anchor cannot be moved because Hunger cannot be eliminated from existence itself. And my Hunger...is Infinite."
Noah opened his eyes to observe THE Hadean Desmoterion spread before him.
The body of Ozymandias possessed qualities distinct from his main form. Titanic and muscular, its surface shone stellar obsidian mixed with crimson brilliance that pulsed with rhythms matching a heartbeat far slower than any mortal organ could produce.
He stood upon a massive blue mountain submerged in liquid Mana, the substance flowing around his legs as though water had forgotten it should obey gravity.
The surroundings defied simple classification.
Land masses floated through spaces that held no consistent orientation, their surfaces covered in vegetation that glowed with internal light.
Cosmic phenomena spiraled between these landmasses, miniature galaxies and stellar nurseries providing illumination that originated from every direction simultaneously. Folds of condensed authority created passages between regions, their entrances visible as shimmering distortions in the fabric of this internal domain.
Wheels of Existence rotated in the distance, massive constructs providing structure to a realm that might otherwise have dissolved into chaos.
This was an ancient era given physical form. A primordial landscape where geography merged with cosmology, where the rules governing normal existence bent to accommodate configurations that should not coexist.
Noah sensed everything within THE Hadean Desmoterion.
The prisoners he had placed here from Ginnungagap had all transformed during the Civilizational Eons of Development. Every single one had reached Absolute depths at THE First Scale, their foundations elevated by time dilation and the ambient authority permeating this transformed prison.
Even THE Living Elemental had become something exceeding a normal Absolute.
Merely contemplating that being caused irritation to surge through Ozymandias’s titanic form. Noah surveyed the prison for this particular prisoner and located him light years distant, standing upon a region filled with swirling meteors of fire, earth, water, and air. The four elements the fool had constructed his entire Civilization around orbited him in configurations suggesting deep meditation.
This contemptible existence was actually attempting to form his Civilizational Anchor.
So much time and harvests had flowed into THE Hadean Organ of Civilization that even this worthless refuse known as Elemental was endeavoring to reach THE Second Scale. It would benefit Noah if Elemental succeeded, as the prison’s growth fed back into his own foundations. That was the entire purpose of maintaining prisoners whose cultivation contributed to his advancement.
However, when Noah recalled that unforgivable day he had endured because of this being...
He took a single step and crossed light years instantaneously.
Ozymandias materialized upon the mountain where THE Living Elemental meditated, his titanic obsidian form casting shadows across the swirling elemental meteors. The prisoner’s eyes opened immediately, perceiving the arrival of something that should not have been possible within this prison.
THE Living Elemental appeared as a being composed of the four classical forces given humanoid shape. Fire blazed along one arm while water flowed along the other. Earth formed his torso in configurations of living stone, and air swirled around his head in winds that never ceased moving. His features held terror now, recognizing the body standing before him.
"Wait, I was merely-"
Noah did not permit him to finish.
Ozymandias’s right leg rose with speed that should not have been possible for something so massive, and the sole of his foot connected with THE Living Elemental’s chest.
BOOM!
The impact sent the prisoner cratering into the mountain beneath him, stone and crystal shattering outward in rings of devastation. Before Elemental could recover, Noah’s left leg descended in a stomp that drove the fool deeper into the ruined terrain. Fire and water scattered from the prisoner’s form as his elemental composition struggled to maintain coherence under the assault.
Noah kicked him again.
And again.
Each impact drove THE Living Elemental further into broken ground, his screams echoing across the region as meteors of his own elements spun chaotically overhead. Noah experienced no particular satisfaction from this action. It was not about satisfaction. It was about justice for a day he would never forget!
His final kick connected with Elemental’s midsection and launched the prisoner light years across THE Hadean Desmoterion.
The trajectory concluded when Elemental collided with a distant mountain, the impact visible as a flash of light against the cosmic backdrop of the prison’s impossible geography.
Noah exhaled slowly.
He felt somewhat improved.
This was a shameful moment, admittedly. Petty in ways that did not befit the image of THE Genesis Monarch conducting Infinity across Observable Existence.
However, this occurred inside his own existence with no one to observe, and what THE Living Elemental had done remained unforgivable regardless of how much time elapsed.
Certain grudges deserved to be maintained!