As Noah looked at the many areas of focus he had to pour his attention into, weavings of existence continued to unfold.
The rging of the Gateway Domus was complex and chaotic, unfolding at the sa ti as the Hollow Cascade of Reversed Causality, the Pale Verbum Labyrinth, and the Domus of Absolute Fear of Existence twisted and tore into each other- each Wild True Source striving to overpower the next in a terrifying display of supremacy.
In the midst of these terrifyingly intricate reactions and interactions, in the farthest reaches where distance was nearly impossible to asure, sothing stirred. From the direction of the Wild True Sources of Existence where the Dead Things erged...
Surrounded by the Wild True Source of Fear, a Dead Thing stood with its aura entirely retracted, as though it truly were lifeless.
It was sothing called Vha'Nekrul, the Corpse Lattice of mory.
A Dead Thing born of the Dead True Source known as Mnemosyne Abyssum.
A True Source that dealt in mory, and at this mont, the very mory of his existence had been forgotten by the Wild True Source around him, as though he'd never been.
He appeared as a massive chained skeleton ford of crumbling brains and eyes, wrapped in flickering neural filants. Thoughts echoed around him like whispered screams in forgotten languages, and his presence was utterly horrific.
And yet, in that mont, those crumbling eyes and brains focused on the figure of Noah and his dazzling white-gold flas- flas that were actively empowering the Pillars of Concordance of other True Sources, making them blindingly stronger.
Stronger, to the extent that even from such an impossible distance where his own Source had been erased from mory, he could still feel the looming threat.
As he watched, his weavings trembled tumultuously, as though he had uncovered sothing unthinkable.
And then, this Dead Thing, Vha'Nekrul, the Corpse Lattice of mory, turned in the opposite direction and shot away with solemn purpose.
He moved across the Wild Resource of Fear as if he knew how to escape a place that had no concept of asurable distance.
His Dead True Source pulsed, contracted, and pulsed again, flickering in and out of existence as it crossed unknowable spans in re monts.
At the sa ti, he seed to manipulate his Source, causing his mory to vanish from the grasp of ti itself. One second passed and yet, at the sa ti, thousands of years could have flowed by. It didn't matter.
It was unfathomable and hard to explain, but the distortion of the True Source was so profound that monts after he began his trajectory, he began flickering in and out of existence, depleting the authority of his True Source by a terrifying amount to do one thing.
Escape the Wild True Source of Fear.
Escape the Infinite Ravines of the Absolute Complex True Source, an ancient place he and many other Dead Things had discovered and fed from over millions of years.
None of them had truly wanted to leave. Not even the Wild True Sources of the Gateway Domus, for even they found nourishnt in devouring what they could to sustain their decaying, dying True Sources.
But this Dead Thing left anyway because it had seen sothing.
After leaving the Infinite Ravines, all that protected it from the ravages of the Nullvein Gravewake Folds was its own decaying Source, but that Source now pulsed like it carried a signal. And Vha'Nekrul burned even more of its authority, making terrifying jumps across incalculable distances- flickering through ti, or rather, the absence of it until finally, he saw it.
A blinding, swirling mass of darkness.
And his dead eyes…were relieved.
He dove in.
BOOM!
As if crashing into a sealed vault, a dead cocoon where his weary Source could rest, Vha'Nekrul exhaled soundlessly and looked around at the Wild Dead True Source perating this strange refuge.
He didn't linger.
He could already feel it- an aura of such ancient, terrifying power that it stirred fear in what remained of him. He floated toward it, releasing his intent like a respectful knock.
"O Veltraxis, the Smiling Empty Maw… I seek your audience. I may have discovered sothing that matches the signs you once spoke of."
…!
His tone was reverent, like a junior addressing an impossibly powerful elder.
And that's exactly what this was.
A deep, ancient voice erupted from the center of this place as space distorted around it, causing Vha'Nekrul to be transported instantly into a storm-wracked region ford from a violent True Source.
At its core stood a childlike humanoid floating above an Existential Shadow that devoured nearby weavings of existence.
Its grin stretched ear to ear permanently, its eyes were pure obsidian- cold and rciless.
And its voice, when it ca, was terrifying in its complexity- more than anything within the Gateway Domus of Absolute Fear, the Pale Verbum Labyrinth, or the Hollow Cascade of Reversed Causality.
"What did you find?"
Vha'Nekrul trembled as he replied.
"Many of us have been feeding from the Infinite Ravines of an Absolute Complex True Source for eons. I myself have done so for several million years…though I've never breached the Wheel itself. But—"
"Get to the point."
WAA!
Vha'Nekrul flinched. The monstrous being waved its hand dismissively, its obsidian gaze granting him only a few more seconds to justify his presence or be erased.
The Corpse Lattice of mory bowed its skeletal head deeply.
"Inside a Gateway Domus, I observed an existence wielding a Living True Source capable of empowering other Living Sources and suppressing Dead True Sources. You said…if such a thing ever appeared, you wanted to be told. That it might be a sign- one of the signs that an Absolute Complex True Source powerful enough to create such a being could hold the key…to saving the countless Dead True Sources lost across the Ravages of the Nullvein Gravewake Folds."
…!
The words hung heavy in the space between them.
Opposite him, the childlike figure's obsidian eyes pulsed with keen interest. It nodded slowly, one finger rising and tapping in Vha'Nekrul's direction.
Instantly, his body trembled as his Dead True Source of Existence felt another pervading across it, a trendously vile and complex Source that if he ever thought of denying, everything would end for him!
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