She would be trying to reach the next Scale of Existence, and if she failed, they would not hear from her again.
Achilles felt his mind buzzing with the weight of revelation as he processed what he was witnessing through these borrowed mories. This was history that nobody knew!
This was truth that had been buried beneath eons of conflict and collapse and desperate scrambling for power among beings who had once been united under guidance they hadn’t appreciated until it was gone.
THE Corpse Hierophant and the others were actually much weaker entities compared to what had existed before. There was a singular, far more powerful being who had walked among them before the Age of Collapse had shattered everything.
As the mories of THE Corpse Hierophant beca clearer through continued Assimilation, Achilles was able to grasp the na and distinction of this entity with greater precision.
THE Resplendent Paradox.
Bearer of an unknown Depth of Absolute Sovereignty over principles that transcended what any of the gathered THE Surface Depth entities could comprehend. She who had mastered contradictions that should have been mutually exclusive, who existed as living proof that limitations were rely suggestions to those with sufficient understanding.
At this mont, THE Corpse Hierophant and all other THE entities present clamored up from their positions on the Mobius strip and tried to speak with her before she could depart. Their movents were urgent, almost desperate, each one nearly tripping over the others in their haste to reach her attention.
Each one seed like a junior talking to a senior, powerful beings reduced to students begging for one more lesson before their teacher left permanently.
THE Slumbering Genesis’s massive draconic elephantine form rumbled with concern that made the impossible geotry tremble. "You cannot simply leave us without-"
Anothrer THE voiced out..."Please, at least tell us what to expect when-"
Other voices overlapped in cacophony of pleas and questions, THE entities who commanded Civilizations reduced to children afraid of being abandoned.
THE Resplendent Paradox looked back at them calmly, her peacock tail shifting with galaxies that seed to pulse with patient amusent at their desperation.
THE Corpse Hierophant was among those clamoring, and his voice cut through the noise with reverence and respect that Achilles had never imagined this arrogant being capable of expressing.
"Please, can you enlighten us in any way about the Way? The path forward?"
...!
He asked such things with genuine humility, obsidian features showing vulnerability that the collapsed leader would never display in the present era. This was THE Corpse Hierophant before bitterness had calcified into cruelty, before failed ambition had twisted respect into resentnt.
THE Resplendent Paradox raised her hand with gesture that caused all of them to quiet down instantly. The silence that followed was absolute, each THE entity hanging on whatever words she might choose to share.
"You all don’t even know what you don’t know."
Her voice carried weight that pressed against their existential significance like gravity affecting beings who had thought themselves beyond such forces.
"You have attained the first Scale of Existence, yes. You have achieved THE distinction and established Civilizations that shape reality according to your Absolute Sovereignties." She paused, peacock features shifting through expressions too complex for even THE Corpse Hierophant to fully read. "But none of you are proficient in the language of Existence itself. It is faint in our Observable Existence, almost impossibly difficult to perceive let alone master."
Her tail spread wider, galaxies within its patterns accelerating their rotations.
"The very language of Existence. The First Tongue. What many of you mistake for the Principles of Existence, treating them as tools to be wielded rather than vocabulary to be learned." She shook her head with sothing approaching frustration. "It is sothing that may be almost impossible for you to learn given the limitations of our reality’s substrate. I had to teach myself through thods that nearly collapsed my existence multiple tis, but even if I taught you all directly..."
She trailed off, considering the assembled THE entities with analytical assessnt.
"Ah, too much work for little potential results. Your foundations aren’t prepared for such knowledge, and forcing it would likely shatter what you’ve built rather than elevate it."
THE Corpse Hierophant’s borrowed heart clenched at the dismissal, and Achilles felt the echo of that ancient disappointnt through the mory.
"Figure it out yourselves." THE Resplendent Paradox’s tone carried finality that sought no argunt. "I don’t owe you lot anything, and you don’t owe either. I’ve only helped you all as my juniors in these hard weavings of Existence because it amused and because loneliness at my level is more profound than you can currently imagine. But I am no teacher, and you are no disciples. This was never a school."
Her form began to shimr with light.
"Existence is a struggle. You all must struggle. Learn The First Tongue if you can perceive it. Learn about Chaos and how it underlies apparent order. Learn about Paradox and how contradictions can coexist without mutual annihilation. Learn about Existence itself rather than simply existing within it."
Her peacock tail folded inward as multicolored flas began surrounding her figure.
"And maybe, after eons pass and you’ve grown beyond your current limitations, you might be able to lay claim on sothing truly grand. Until then..."
The flas intensified, reality itself seeming to bend around her departing presence.
"Play nice with each other."
...!
THE Resplendent Paradox beca completely surrounded by multicolored flas that burned with Principles none of the assembled THE entities could identify, and then she simply disappeared. No dramatic departure, no lingering presence, no chance for final words or desperate pleas.
She was simply gone.
THE Corpse Hierophant and the others rose with heartbroken urgency, trying to stop her despite knowing it was futile. Their senses stretched across the regions oc Observable Existence desperately searching for any trace of her presence, any hint of where she might have gone.
But they could no longer sense her at all.
With her power, unless she wanted to be found, they would never be able to locate her. She had spoken truth about trying to reach the next Scale of Existence, and either she had succeeded and transcended beyond their perception entirely, or she had failed and ceased to exist in any aningful sense.
Either way, the result was the sa.
All THE entities were left to fend for themselves.
This was the starting point. This was the mont when equals who had been united under shared ntorship beca rivals competing for limited resources. This was before THE Corpse Hierophant waged his war against all other Civilizations, but Achilles could feel the seeds of that conflict already taking root in the abandoned being’s consciousness!
Resentnt at being left behind. Frustration at cryptic guidance that offered questions rather than answers. Determination to prove he could achieve what their departed senior had suggested might be impossible.
And Achilles had these mories and more flowing into his existence as his expression beca heavy with the weight of revelation!
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