In another area of the ancient forest, Ozymandias moved like a plague of consumption given form.
His body had beco a blur of obsidian-gold light, and everywhere that light touched, existence disappeared.
Trees that had stood for epochs vanished into his hunger. Vegetation that contained primordial wisdom was devoured without ceremony. The very air itself was consud, leaving behind voids that reality scrambled to fill.
His form had abandoned any pretense of humanoid structure, becoming instead a terrifying mass of hungry tentacles that reached through dinsions to feed. Each tendril was a separate mouth, each mouth an abyss that could never be filled.
Vegetation devoured: 847 million tons
Purity gained: 730,000,000,000|
Ancient Oak consud: 120,000,000,000
Primordial fungi network: 80,000,000,000...
The prompts flashed incessantly!
Noah felt every sensation through his secondary body...the intoxicating rush of consumption, the way each devoured thing added to his existence. His eyes, manifesting within the writhing mass, flashed with cold tyrannical light.
His main body had been forced to traverse back, and Noah burned with both glory and indignation.
Glory, because he had obtained sothing unimaginable...half the corpse of a creature approaching Early Creature level. That single prize would fuel advancents of unknown scale.
Indignation, because he'd had a full hour with the power of an Early Creature, yet it seed he would only ever have seconds to use it.
There was so much he wanted to accomplish, so much he could do if given just a little more ti...
But...
Your blatant consumption has drawn significant attention
The Early Creature hunting you has triangulated your position
Arrival ti: Less than 3 seconds
All possible escape paths have been analyzed
No creatures below 1 Quadrillion complexity within reach
No hiding spots that would fool the hunter]
No tactical advantages available]
Recomndation: Initiate Temporal Traversal imdiately
There are no other viable options]
Noah absorbed these warnings as his existence buzzed with further defiance. Instead of retreating, he allowed the borrowed power to flow even more freely. Ozymandias accelerated, becoming not just a consur but an event...a black hole of hunger that rearranged this region of the First Folds through absence. Everything within a fold light-year radius began flowing toward him. Not pulled by gravity but by hunger so pure it created its own force!
HUUM!
Trees, stones, concepts themselves...all flowing into the endless appetite that was Ozymandias.
He didn't want to leave. Twenty hours remained on the blessing. A full hour to experience Early Creature power, to hunt, to grow, to-
"Outsider."
Khor's voice cut through his defiance with surgical precision.
"Do not jeopardize everything for possibilities. You will have many possibilities in the future. But if part of your existence is caught here- by Early Creatures, by Gilgash's forces...you will not even be given the option to traverse back. Your existence would beco unfathomably complicated."
Her consciousness fragnt pulsed with serious concern.
"I know it's frustrating when you feel on the cusp of everything. But you need to return, Outsider. Now."
The words carried weight that transcended advice. This was experience speaking...soone who had gambled with existence and lost.
Noah closed his eyes, not even waiting to see the approaching hunter. The body of Ozymandias folded in on itself, reality accepting his departure with what might have been relief.
He disappeared.
BOOM!
A mont later, not one but three terrifying auras materialized in the space Ozymandias had occupied.
Three Early Creatures, each wearing the golden chiton of Gilgash's sovereignty, stood examining the devastation left behind.
The one with serpentine hair...the sa who had nearly caught Noah's main body, spoke first.
"I found the first one to be unique and rembered both shot from the sa origin in the tribe. So I pulled you two in and even hid our auras from detection." His voice carried frustrated respect. "His existence should have warned him we'd arrive in three seconds at most. Yet he left in just one. We almost had the other."
WAA!
The second Early Creature, whose form seed carved from crystallized storm clouds, examined the consud landscape with interest. "What kind of being can traverse like that? Not through space but through... sothing else." The third, holding a corpse over his shoulder with casual indifference, raised his burden for inspection. "I killed the one they were standing near. Its existence should provide answers about who those two were."
A corpse.
The corpse was Vex'thul.
His crystalline chest had been split open with surgical precision, revealing internal structures that shouldn't exist. His eyes remained open, still carrying defiance even in death. Most notably, his heart was missing...not destroyed but carefully extracted.
The Early Creatures exchanged glances that carried entire conversations. "Gilgash will have interest in this type of matter," the serpent-haired one decided.
They looked once more at Vex'thul's corpse, at the absent heart, and then....
"Let's finish up," the third said, adjusting the corpse on his shoulder. "The First Leader will want complete reports."
They vanished as suddenly as they'd arrived, leaving behind only disturbed space and forests that would take years to regrow what Ozymandias had consud in seconds!
The mont Ozymandias's body vanished from the First Folds, it manifested in
the swirling weavings of existence...that space between tis where causality beca suggestion.
There was a mont of lag, reality struggling to reconcile two bodies that were one rejoining across eons of separation.
Noah's main body and Ozymandias stood surrounded by cascading complexity, temporal currents flowing around them like rivers of possibility. Both forms remained silent, their eyes heavy with understanding that transcended words.
TEMPORARY EMPOWERNT CONCLUDED
The borrowed power of an Early Creature has left your bodies
Current Complexity: 5,837,293,847,291(5.8 Trillion)|
Current Purity: 5,837,293,847,291(5.8 Trillion
The dream has ended. Reality resus.
...!
Reality resus.
The words were utterly apt for what was currently happening as truly, the idea
of gaining the power of an Early Creature, even if for an hour, was but a dream!
A dream he was jolted out of when he never wanted it to end.
And now, all he had were the Weavings of unfathomable results of this entire
endeavor!
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