In the Infiniverse.
As Noah burned with imnse pain that transcended comprehension, Elyndra stood before him with shaking eyes. She could see it clearly, the excruciating agony he was going through written in every tremor of his form, in every flicker of the crimson-gold flas that wrapped around him like chains of suffering.
But Noah kept his calmness even as his body shook. His voice was steady despite the cost it took to speak.
"I won't be able to continue infusing you with Perpetual Harvest so..." Before he could finish, the space beside them rippled with authority. The humanoid figure of The Infiniverse appeared with deliberate precision. She stood tall and ethereal, her form composed of countless spinning Omniverses and flowing rivers of verdant-gold light. But her eyes, those infinite pools that normally held warmth for her Master, were particularly cold.
One could see that she was enraged and simply containing everything with titanic effort, holding back a fury that could unmake Folds!
Noah nodded to her with understanding passing between them, and then he disappeared from this domain entirely.
He left The Infiniverse, who had full access to Perpetual Harvest, to continue the infusion with Elyndra in his place.
As this scene played out, sothing extraordinary began to happen. Existence itself began to buzz with strange resonance. Drums, deep and solemn, began to bloom from nowhere and everywhere at once. Pianonic sounds followed, ethereal and haunting, creating a lody that seed to erge from the fabric of reality itself. Then voices, wordless and beautiful, echoed out across this space. Across Existence.
When the stolen fla descends
When the ancient powers demand their toll
Does the fire cleanse or break
Does it forge or consu whole?
It was as if Existence itself was buzzing with a lody for this montous occasion, acknowledging what was transpiring.
The Infiniverse unfurled her hands with chanical precision and began to release verdant-gold brilliance into Elyndra. The light was beautiful and terrible, carrying the weight of Perpetual Harvest within its threads.
But The Infiniverse seemingly didn't care much for the task at hand. Her focus was elsewhere, her rage barely contained.
Elyndra looked at her with concern. "Is he going to be okay? What did that to him?"
The Infiniverse remained cold and silent for a long mont, as if this stillness was the only thing she could do to keep back the tsunami of rage. When she finally spoke, her voice dripped with loathing and carried an imnsity that made the surrounding space tremble.
"THE Living Elental."
The drums grew heavier in the background, the piano more insistent.
The Infiniverse's eyes blazed with barely contained fury as she continued, her words a solemn vow wrapped in absolute certainty. "The pathetic flicker of primordial authority that thought it could mark my Master and walk away unscathed. The entity that believed its age and power made it untouchable."
Her voice dropped to sothing far more dangerous, a whisper that carried the weight of inevitability.
"I will personally grind THE Living Elental down to existential dust. I will erase every particle of its authority. I will unmake its very
concept until not even the mory of its existence remains to pollute reality. This I swear on the foundations of my being."
This is the Brand of sacred violation
The price of touching what was never his
Crimson-gold immolation
Where mortal will ets the abyss
The chorus swelled!
Existence continued a grand symphony!
Elsewhere, panning out across various regions of The Infiniverse.
In an isolated domain of The Abode of The Early Creature, Riya stood motionless. She wore simple blue bloors and a blue tank top.
She watched with those teary eyes as Noah, excruciatingly burning in crimson-gold flas, turned to leave the domain.
The pain in his movents was visible.
But he was leaving to protect her from what he had beco.
The shield steps before the sword
The leader takes the blow
While armies scatter, terrified
Of pain they'll never know
In a different isolated domain, this one decorated with obsidian furniture and dark elegance, Barbatos stood trembling. She wore an obsidian sundress that flowed like liquid shadow, and her normally composed deanor had shattered completely. She shook with rage and sorrow mixed together in equal asure as another one of Noah's bodies, equally wreathed in flas and equally trembling, also prepared to leave her presence.
"Don't," she whispered, "Please don't."
But Noah could not stay. The risk was too great. The contagion too
dangerous.
He left without responding.
Seconds break the strongest minds
Minutes shatter souls
But ti keeps passing, relentless
As the burning takes its toll
In yet another isolated domain, this one filled with gently falling snow that never seed to accumulate, Adelaide stood in a flowing blue dress. The snowflakes caught in her hair like diamonds, but her eyes held only sorrow as she looked toward Noah's burning form.
"Let ..." she started. "Let feel what you feel. Let feel the sa
pain." Noah shook his head with agonizing slowness, each movent sending fresh waves of torture through his fra. For the sake of his loved ones, he could not even be near them at this mont!
He wasn't afraid of them accidentally coming in contact with him and being branded with the sa curse. What he couldn't bear was being around when one of them inevitably ca close or felt like they wanted to share that burden.
It was causing him this many issues already. He would not be able to watch his own people suffer THE Immolation of the Sacrilegious Savage as they eventually collapsed their own existence just to escape the pain!
So he simply shook his head lightly, and even from Adelaide, he left. The symphony continued to play from Existence itself, solemn and
heavy.
What is pain but a teacher?
What is agony but proof?
That sothing still exists to feel That there's still a will to move
The scene shifted again to show sothing unprecedented.
All of Noah's bodies throughout The Infiniverse, every single iteration
that had been spread across countless domains and separated to
prevent the spread of the Brand, began to gather in a single isolated
area.
This space was filled with sandy golden dream authority that swirled like desert winds frozen in ti.
And then, with excruciating slowness, they began fusing into each
other.
He compressed himself back into singularity, consolidating his
existence despite the torture it caused.
Until finally, only a single Noah floated in that golden space, trembling
but whole. The humanoid form of The Infiniverse appeared before her Master
with silent grace. She looked at his trembling form with eyes that held infinite sorrow and infinite determination. "Can Master follow ?" she asked quietly.
Noah looked at her briefly and nodded once.
The two of them warped through space with The Infiniverse guiding
them, and they appeared above a radiant blue world that pulsed with concentrated authority.
The mont Noah saw it, his eyes buzzed.
This was the Cultivation Citadel!
The feature The Infiniverse had designed where one would be
imposed with the weight of existence many tis over, where if they
adapted they would gain an explosive increase in Complexity and
Purity.
But even moving for Noah was painful at this mont. If he added an elevated weight of existence on top of what he was already bearing...
...!
Here the answer to pain manifests
In trembling, burning form Pain becos a currency And endurance, the new norm
The Infiniverse looked at her Master with an expression that mixed
love and necessity and terrible resolve.
"I've been elevating it as we increase in power," she said softly. "The Cultivation Citadel is even grander and harder than before. I know it will be excruciating for Master. I know it seems like you cannot adapt
to this pain."
She paused.
"But... I need you to go in, Master."
...!
Noah's body shook with a solemn tyranny.
He looked at the Cultivation Citadel that would make his pain
hundreds of tis worse, and he truly did not want to enter it. But this was a calamity as much as an opportunity. He needed to
make use of it. He needed to do sothing to adapt to it even if adaptation seed impossible.
So even though he did not want to, even though every fiber of his being scread in protest...
Noah flew toward the Cultivation Citadel.
His body, wreathed in the curse of THE Living Elental, descended
like a falling star wrapped in chains of agony.
Lesser beings would have long since perished from what he faced!
But he persevered!
In the space above, The Infiniverse watched silently as her Master
descended. Beside her, RUIN/EDEN materialized with an expression that was pained and heavy.
"We could have waited," RUIN/EDEN said quietly. "For him to adapt a bit more, to see if the pain gets any less..."
And yet, The Infiniverse shook her head decisively.
"It will not get less. It will not get any less." The surrounding existence continued the solemn symphony as another chorus swelled across reality.
This is the Brand of sacred violation
The mark that even Sovereigns cannot erase Crimson-gold immolation
Burns across ti and space
RUIN/EDEN listened silently, and then her expression shifted to
sothing enraged and terrible.
"THE Living Elental..." she started.
But The Infiniverse's focus was entirely on the scene below. Her eyes
reflected her Master's burning figure as he reached the earth of the Cultivation Citadel and tried to stand with excruciating effort.
His knees buckled as his hands pressed against the ground. Every
muscle trembled.
But he stood.
As she watched this impossible display of will, golden lines of
terrifying wonder began to leak from The Infiniverse's infinite eyes as she had never seen her Master like this!
They fell like molten stars, each one carrying the weight of her fury and her pride and her absolute devotion.
"I am going to rip THE Living Elental apart," she whispered, but her voice carried across dinsions. "Atom by atom. Particle of authority by particle of authority. I will dissect every weaving of its existence. I
will make it experience pain beyond what it inflicted. I will make it beg for the rcy of non-existence. I will make it wish it had never experienced existence at all. And then, when it has suffered for eons...
I will grant it oblivion and erase even that rcy from the mory of
reality."
...!
The symphony and chorus resounded even heavier now, the voices of
existence itself acknowledging the vow.
Let THE Ancients tremble
At what their curse beca
Not a weapon of destruction
But a forge for his ascension's fla HUUM!
On this day, The Infiniverse shed a tear.
On this day, the entirety of The Infiniverse, the countless Frequencies
of Existence, the Wheels of Existence, the Omniverses, the Domains
of Existence, all of it trembled in resonance with her emotion. And oh, for the entity that caused The Infiniverse to shed a tear...
bless their poor souls.
The Infiniverse turned to RUIN/EDEN, and when she spoke her voice
was cold and tyrannical and absolute. "Mobilize the Primus Inevitabilities into all Elental Folds imdiately," she commanded with the force of inevitability itself. "Convert every single Elental into The Way of Mana, whether by choice or by force. I do not care which. Erase every single signature of The Primordial Civilization of Elentals outside THE Loom. Convert
every single iota into The Derivative Primordial Civilization of
Elental under the banner of Mana."
Her eyes blazed brighter.
"Afterwards we will begin devouring and incorporating all Transcendent and Minor Elental Folds without exception. After that... I shall begin devouring every single remnant of the Shattered First Folds, all the Transcendent Folds and Minor Folds across Observable Existence. I shall take it all. Every piece. Every fragnt."
Her voice dropped to sothing even more dangerous.
"They want to play? Let us fucking play."
...!
The command was heavy and absolute. RUIN/EDEN nodded silently,
her own expression grim with determination, and then she
disappeared to carry out the orders.
The flas don't cease their hunger
The pain knows no reprieve But standing in the inferno
Is the choice that sets him free
The final chorus and symphony swelled across existence as The
Infiniverse stood alone above the Cultivation Citadel. She overlooked Noah, her Master, at seemingly his most pained state.
She would watch over him. She would guard him. She would feel
everything he felt.
After all, they were connected in a Quintessential and irreversible
manner.
If she wanted to, she could feel what he felt through their bond. And this whole ti, from the mont THE Living Elental had
branded him, she had subjected herself to feel the inescapable pain her Master endured!
She trembled alongside him and she suffered alongside him.
And she would have her vengeance for it.
Below, Noah took his first step into the deeper gravity of the Cultivation Citadel, and the weight increased tenfold. And The Infiniverse watched with golden lines still falling from her
eyes, each one a declaration of war against those who had dared to harm what was hers like this!
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