Noah’s eyes beca imnsely sharp as he paid even more attention to Anaximander, the implications of these words sending his mind racing through countless possibilities and connections.
Anaximander looked saddened as he sighed with a sense of guilt that seed to have been eating at him for eons.
"You cannot imagine the sense of guilt I felt," he continued, his voice heavy with regret that ti had done nothing to diminish. "Because to at that ti, I had already t THE Creature. THE Creature was... a friend who had shown kindness and curiosity about my unique nature. And I had effectively and unknowingly betrayed a friend by delivering the very weapon that would be used to wound him in ways that even now I do not fully understand."
THE Living Paradox had actually used Anaximander as a weapon against THE Creature.
The way this was done was intricate and unique in itself as Noah found himself questioning how THE Weavers had known and realized the power that Anaximander held. How did they know he could do what he could do? And that it could even work to take sothing that belonged to THE Creature, which was terrifying enough that it could be used to harm him?
There were far too many questions swirling in his mind, but Noah had to start sowhere.
"When did you et THE Creature?" he asked.
Anaximander smiled at the question as mories of simpler tis seed to flicker across his brilliant eyes.
"It was actually not too long after I t you," he replied with a hint of nostalgia in his voice. "After we parted ways on that snowy landscape in the Earliest Folds, I made my existence seek out soone that could answer my curiosities and questions about the nature of reality itself. And I was led naturally to THE Creature, as if Existence itself knew that he was the one who could satisfy my endless hunger for understanding."
He looked at Noah with an expression that held both fondness and regret.
"THE Creature was even curious and asking about you when I told him I had made another friend before him," Anaximander continued. "But at that ti you told not to spread your na and Weavings, so I held my mouth and simply described you as an interesting entity I had encountered in my travels."
...!
Noah’s eyes turned sharp at these words.
Because this in itself was unique as even before THE Creature had t Anaximander, he had personally gazed at Noah way before The Earliest Folds in Ginnungagap where THE Creature had saved him from the hands of THE Living Temporal. So THE Creature had always known about him, or at least a glimpse of his figure when he intervened in that mont of crisis. He simply did not know that Noah was the sa one that Anaximander was talking about when he ntioned his new friend.
If THE Creature had known that Noah was in the Earliest Folds at that ti, would Noah have gotten another visitor?
The possibilities were many and the implications even greater, but Noah shook his head and focused back on Anaximander before he said, "A lot has happened since then, and I don’t know how much you know. But THE Living Paradox suppressed the Existence of THE Creature and built a weapon called THE Loom, a weapon that he will set off anyti within the next few hours or a few days to bring about an endless and catastrophic storm that will lay waste across Existence. Do you rember when I asked you in the Earliest Folds how to overco such an ordeal?"
Anaximander smiled with nostalgia at the mory, his eyes lighting up with that familiar spark of intellectual delight.
"Haha, I told you to beco the storm," he said with genuine warmth in his weakened voice. "My friend, have you succeeded in becoming the storm itself?"
...!
At such words, Noah looked at the features of this entity in front of him before he nodded slowly and said, "Sowhat. But how did you co to be here?"
Anaximander looked around at this place filled with serene multicolored rivers that flowed in patterns that defied conventional physics, his expression growing more somber as he recalled the events that led to his imprisonnt.
"Even after finding out about my betrayal, THE Creature seemingly understood and took in my weakened state from THE Weavers and THE Living Paradox," Anaximander explained with wonder still evident in his voice despite the suffering he had endured. "My existence itself seems to be hated by them as they sought to destroy completely after my uses were done, with my Guidelines barely remaining intact as THE Creature moved to secure before Paradox could finish what he started."
...!
Anaximander’s Guidelines.
The very foundation of his impossible power. Guideline #1: I exist. Guideline #2: I will continue to exist. Guideline #3: My existence cannot be unwillingly altered or ended by the will or authority of another, and any hostile action or intent directed at him would be treated not as an attack but as an interesting but ultimately irrelevant external phenonon.
These Guidelines allowed Anaximander to simply decide that attacks did not apply to him, that resistance could not stop him, that weight was sothing he could carry if he declared it so. His power was ridiculous in its simplicity and terrifying in its implications because it ant that the fundantal rules of Existence were rely suggestions to him rather than absolute laws.
If such a power were to grow and mature, if Anaximander were to expand his Guidelines further and further, the potential across Existence was limitless. He could simply declare that he was stronger than THE entities and make it so. He could declare that THE Loom could not harm him and walk through The Fallout untouched. He could declare that he was THE and beco THE through sheer assertion of will.
No wonder THE Living Paradox wanted him destroyed.
Anaximander continued with a voice that held deep gratitude despite his weakened state.
"THE Creature did not need to worry about given everything else that was happening," he said softly. "But for so reason, Paradox wanted to collapse completely, and THE Creature wanted to save . To the extent that the weapon I took from him was used against him, and yet he still moved to secure . To ensure that Paradox would never find as he battled against them until I could regain the power that made who I am."
...!
Oh!
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