Noah stood far from the vast golden tree, its thousand-mile height casting trembling shadows across the sealed domain.
The tale that Sigrid whispered had just ended.
But in his mind buzzed.
His eyes never left the writhing, winged mass above.
[Orange Tier Imitation Mutated Inevitability]
Its na burned through reality like a warning etched.
Noah’s brows furrowed.
He thought of the words of the Living Concept.
That even if Mana coursed through one endlessly... there would still be a cost.
"So..."
He whispered inwardly.
"...what cost am I paying?"
---
Nullvein Gravewake Folds.
Weavings of endless collapse, paradox and silent screams.
In a small, insignificant corner, sothing else stirred.
A step echoed across the lightless terrain.
Thauron the Null Monarch, clad in robes of woven nullity, moved with deliberate slowness.
Behind him, Bob followed- his pulsing weavings rging with the groans of the shattered folds beneath their feet.
"What can we do, Thauron?"
Bob’s voice was bitter and filled with a sense of anger.
"To beco bigger fish, as you say? To beco more?"
He asked.
But...there was no answer.
Only silence.
Thauron’s face, usually impassive, bore a strange sorrow.
Deeper than his titles.
He did not speak.
Bob scowled, muttering beneath his breath as if clinging to so last thread of hope.
"Osmont...is with the Veiled Sunfolds now. Untouchable. Shielded even further."
"Do we still have a path to obtain what we need from him? Anything at all?"
"..."
Still...
No answer.
Only the stillness of regret.
They reached it then.
A hollow, caved region of the Folds. Littered with Dead Wheels of Existence, each one cracked open like broken promises. Their spokes splintered. Their cores silent.
Thauron looked around.
He breathed in once.
And then, without warning...
He plunged his hand into his chest.
SQUELCH.
Bob flinched as an obsidian heart, still beating, was ripped from Thauron’s torso.
"What...are you doing?!"
The Null Monarch’s hand trembled slightly, but his voice was composed.
"Little Bobby..."
"The jump from a small fish to a big fish can be made in many ways."
His eyes darkened.
"Today... you will witness one of the abominable ways. A path I never wanted to take."
...!
Bob stepped back with disgust, apprehension creeping up his spine.
The heart in Thauron’s hand shattered suddenly.
CRACK—!
An explosion of nullity and sorrow surged outward, causing the Dead Wheels nearby to wail with echoes.
From the rift of silence torn in space...
Sothing erged.
A wriggling black-and-white mass.
It had wings, but they were torn and regenerating constantly.
Its shape twisted with uncertainty.
Its essence radiated inevitability.
Its every pulse whispered: you were always ant to see .
Thauron looked at it with an expression that bordered on affection.
"Do you know why I was imprisoned?" he asked softly.
Bob’s face twisted in disbelief as he shook his head.
"Why...?"
Thauron stared at the wriggling mass and spoke without sha.
"Because I bore a sll the Foldless Ones did not like."
"When I was a Master of Existence... I found sothing I should not have found. I hid it. But they still found out. They took my realm. My Wheel. My everything. This..."
He looked at the creature writhing in the tear of space.
"This is the first ti I’ve unveiled it... since I gained freedom."
...!
The mass trembled.
A soft, eerie cry echoed.
Bob felt sick.
"How... how can this help us?"
Thauron did not answer.
He stepped forward and placed his palm upon the creature- gently, lovingly.
He leaned close.
And whispered...
"Is the obsession strong enough?"
"It’s been nurtured. Sharpened. And it has... entanglents with a Young Living Paradox that has survived a Living Collapse. It should be enough for you."
...!
The wriggling mass pulsed violently.
As if in agreent.
Bob’s expression fell.
"Just what... is that?"
He asked again.
This ti, Thauron turned toward him.
His eyes carried sorrow, and sothing far more dangerous.
"This, Little Bobby..."
"Is an Inevitability."
...!
BOOM!
Tentacles exploded from the mass and reached out instantly, wrapping around Bob like a cocoon in less than an instant!
It was a shocking turn of events.
Bob scread, his True Source of Khaos erupting as a Complex Wheel burned behind him.
But it was useless.
The tentacles wrapped around him, tighter than any authority.
"Thauron!! What is this?! WHY?!"
Thauron did not move.
He stood by the Inevitability.
Looking more solemn than ever.
"I did not wish to." He said such words while his body erupted with hundreds of thousands of Existential Dinsional Lattices of Finality.
"But the weavings of Existence moved too drastically. I had to do this...much earlier. It is simply the musings of Finality occurring in advance."
He stroked the Inevitability as he continued
"I nurtured obsession in many. But yours... it’s just right. Your desire... your entanglent with Osmont... your yearning to save your dear daughter...you are ready."
...!
Bob scread.
Madness and terror in equal asure.
"No. NO!! I HAVE TO SAVE HER! I HAVE TO—!!!"
His body twisted.
The Inevitability dragged him in, weaving its tendrils into his being, his Wheel, his True Source.
He roared once more.
His hands outstretched toward the glowing image in his Obsidian Wheel.
His daughter.
His light.
It was so close. So, so close!
But it was also already gone.
His screams echoed once more...
And then...
Silence.
The mass pulsed.
And shrank rapidly.
It continued shrinking until it beca so small that it could fit in one’s hands!
Thauron held it.
He looked at it with a sense of finality and sorrow...and placed it within his torn chest.
Where once a heart had been...
Now, an Inevitability beat.
"Use that obsession," Thauron whispered.
"Burn brightly."
HUUM!
"And you may use mine too as you...can take high. Return to the state of an Originus Venerant and beyond."
WAA!
"I rejected you then, but I accept you now so..let co what may co."
The folds around him warped.
The Dead Wheels trembled.
And Thauron, his eyes glowing with Finality, looked beyond the Gravewake.
His voice rang out like prophecy.
"I will reach the Foldless Ones. Starting with the Unbound Living Paradox Youngling who seeks to beco one of them."
...!
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