Chapter 578: Dreams III
Back in the domain of Dreams, in that space between spaces where reality beca negotiable and futures could be perceived before they solidified into concrete form.
Achilles looked at the figure of THE Endless Dream as she had been speaking at considerable length regarding the Collapsed Primordial Civilizations and their organizational structures across Observable Existence.
And the picture that she painted was a unique one as it detailed how these different Collapsed forces had taken hold of various regions throughout reality while they continued thodically expanding their territorial control over extended tifras.
And it was through this deliberate expansion that they were continuing to rebuild their devastated Civilizations from the collapsed states that the Age of Collapse had reduced them to.
The process that the leaders of these Collapsed Civilizations were employing involved spreading their influence across increasingly large portions of Observable Existence, and as they covered more territory they were actually feeding directly off the fundantal weavings of Existence itself in order to gradually heal the damage their Civilizations had sustained.
The more space they claid and integrated into their organizational structures, the more they could draw upon reality’s substrate to restore what had been lost.
It was parasitic relationship where Existence itself was unwittingly nurturing all these Collapsed Civilizations back toward their forr glory through simple fact of their continued presence and expansion.
THE Endless Dream had said sothing during her explanations that remained lodged in Achilles’s mind even now as he processed all the information she’d provided.
She had spoken with a voice that carried genuine wonder.
“So Existence itself is passively nurturing all these Collapsed Civilizations as they expand their territorial claims, which makes you consider the implications. Can you even imagine if your Way of Existence, if your entire Civilization was fundantally that of…Existence itself?” Her tone had shifted toward amazent.
“The sheer incredulity of such a thought genuinely amazes when I contemplate what it would an, but across all of our Observable Existence spanning incomprehensible distances and tifras, not a single being has been capable of embarking on or even starting the process of building a Way based on Existence itself. Because how could you possibly accomplish such thing?”
She had been pacing back and forth with restless energy when she delivered these words, and her hands fluttered gracefully to release streams of silver and gold sand that painted illustrative pictures in the air around her manifested form.
“Any sufficiently powerful entity that possesses enough capability can declare that their Way is that of fire or ice or lightning or even more abstract concepts like Life and Death.”
Her voice carried dismissive certainty about conventional approaches. “As long as they have so significant connection through their very being to the concept or aspect of Existence that they are declaring as their Way, and as long as they possess enough raw power to back up such claim, they could potentially establish this as legitimate Civilization. If they accumulate sufficient strength and conviction, the path opens.”
She had turned to look at him directly with jeweled eyes that blazed with intensity.
“But no matter how overwhelmingly powerful you beco, you could never successfully claim that your Way is the Way of Existence itself. Because making such declaration ans you would need to embody all of Observable Existence in its totality, and you would need to rightfully lay complete claim toward everything that exists.” Her tone beca more serious.
“How can you rightfully claim Observable Existence when you don’t even know a aningful percentage of what it contains? You don’t possess anything close to significant enough understanding about its fundantal nature or scope. It is such an audaciously impossible thought that when I was just a small cat first contemplating philosophies and even briefly considered this possibility, I nearly exploded right then and there just from the conceptual weight of the idea pressing against my limited existence.”
She had smiled with nostalgic fondness.
“So I wisely went back to my genuine love of Dreams and founded this Civilization around sothing I could actually comprehend and embody. So as you embark on this path of rapid advancent, I will tell you to be extrely careful not to step on any conceptual landmines. You could potentially destroy yourself completely if you set your ambitions too high and attempt to claim authority over things that exceed what your existence can safely handle.”
She had delivered these words as genuine warning rather than simple philosophical musing, and they caused Achilles to think deeply about implications.
Because not too long ago in his personal ti, he had briefly entertained the thought of how magnificent it would be in the distant future if he could eventually Assimilate Existence itself as ultimate expression of his capability.
The idea had been heavy and sowhat terrifying even at the ti he’d first considered it as abstract possibility, but now after hearing THE Endless Dream’s explanation, it seed even more impossibly bold to even imagine pursuing such path.
Ah. He moved past this.
The other thod that Collapsed Civilizations were employing to recover their strength that Eyyanah had explained involved the systematic induction of new mbers into their organizational structures.
In the specific case of THE Slumbering Genesis, he literally extracted half the life force of those who joined his Civilization of Life as paynt for the benefits mbership provided. The other Collapsed forces seed to employ even more dreadful extraction thods, and THE Endless Dream had looked at Achilles with complete honesty as she admitted her own approach.
She fed off the dreams of those in her Civilization, though she insisted she didn’t directly take their life force or steal anything tangible from their beings. But every Drear in her organization acted like a plant that she carefully cultivated for harvest.
When they dread with sufficient intensity and creativity, they bore taphorical fruits of concentrated dream essence, and she systematically harvested these fruits to fuel her own recovery and power.
She understood intimately how critical the relationship between effort and harvest was, because those mbers who put the most dedicated effort into dreaming glorious wonders and ambitious visions within her Civilization were precisely the ones who now held the elevated distinctions of Pre-THE status through the rewards she granted for exceptional contribution.
Achilles had absorbed all of this information silently while processing implications about how Civilizations fundantally operated at these scales, and because he was essentially using her as living encyclopedia of existential knowledge, he couldn’t help but ask what had been on his mind for so ti.
He looked at THE Endless Dream with analytical curiosity.
“What can you tell about the Scales of Civilization? I know of the Null Scale where beings exist without any organized backing, and the Level Zero Scale that I’m currently operating within. And you achieved Level One Scale of Existence before your collapse. Is there anything more to these classification systems?”
The question was delivered with calm directness, and THE Endless Dream looked at him with a smile before she glanced upward and sighed with sothing resembling wistfulness.
“This is actually a type of inherent understanding that all those who successfully attain Level One Scale of Existence receive as automatic benefit of crossing that threshold. Monts after one achieves a significant Depth of Absolute Sovereignty in their chosen Way of Existence and stabilizes at that elevated state, Existence itself seemingly reaches out to feed you critical knowledge directly into your consciousness. Well not really Existence itself as much as…thr inherent drive of existence. The innate flow of Existence.”
Her tone beca more reverent. “And it tells you through this knowledge transfer that as of this particular mont, you have beco significant enough to sowhat matter in existential calculations. That as of this mont, you have officially stepped into what is known as…THE Vakochev Scales of Existence.”
…!
HUUM!
The na resonated through the dreamscape with weight!
1/1 Onwards!
User Comments
0 comments from readers