Chapter 4701: Eon! III
Others had easy lives. Others struggled.
But if ever you found yourself living an easy life, you should be worried. Deeply, profoundly worried. Because Existence was a sadistic teacher who believed in learning through suffering.
If the lessons stopped, it didn’t an you had graduated. It ant the teacher was preparing sothing special. Sothing that would make all previous lessons look like warm-up exercises. Noah had learned this truth the hard way, which was, coincidentally, the only way Existence ever taught anything.
If the path before you was smooth and unobstructed, sothing was horrendously wrong. Either you were being fattened for slaughter, or you had already died and simply hadn’t noticed yet.
At this mont.
Noah had trekked through The Wastes as he followed the events of the Partial Simulation closely, and at this mont, he was staring at the grand and seemingly endless boundary of THE Corrupted Vault of Ginnungagap.
His eyes radiated an imperious light of power and conviction, burning with the certainty of one who had weighed the risks and found them acceptable. His gaze was steady, his stance unwavering, and when he spoke, his voice carried the weight of absolute commitnt.
“In for a penny, in for a pound.”
BOOM!
And right after, he entered a chaotic region of Existence that was trying to pull his Weavings in every single direction simultaneously.
But his body was already pulsing and radiating Phones of The First Tongue, his imnsity causing him to look like an unstoppable force with an indomitable montum as he remained steady throughout until he was deposited…
BOOM!
Into a glorious place.
His vision adjusted as he looked around to see The Stoa of Dogmata. Exactly as he saw in the Partial Simulation.
The endless colonnade of pillars stretched before him in impossible grandeur, each one carved from crystallized authority that predated differentiation itself. Inscriptions of ancient Dogmata glowed upon their surfaces, so burning with cold fire, others weeping tears of solidified ti. The zones of doctrine shimred between the pillars like veils separating different philosophical realities, and further in, multicolored clouds obscured the depths of this place in impenetrable mystery.
But what the Partial Simulation had not fully conveyed was the ground beneath his feet.
The earth he stood on was obsidian, black and gleaming like volcanic glass that had been polished by eons of existence. Obsidian tendrils of crackling light spread across its surface like veins of destabilizing power, pulsing with energies that would have torn apart a weak THE Surface Depth entity in monts.
|Welco to the Second Circle of THE Corrupted Vault of Ginnungagap.|
|Current Location: The Stoa of Dogmata.|
|Caution: The ground itself carries destabilizing energies.|
…!
Noah sensed and observed all of this, but the vast entirety of his attention turned to his right at this mont.
There, just like in the Partial Simulation, was the image of a serene and glorious woman.
Eon!
THUMP!
Okay, so his heart beat a little faster. Not in a juvenile way and not because he was smitten, but in that anticipatory way when you t an extrely unpredictable variable that could collapse you at any mont.
And this entity had a light smile as she looked toward him with a light of intrigue.
This ti around, he caught her gaze before she looked away in a bored fashion since he knew she would be here, and their gazes t.
She was small in stature, almost delicate in appearance, with features that held an ageless quality that made it impossible to determine if she was young or ancient beyond asure.
Her face was composed and regal, with high cheekbones and dark eyes that seed to hold depths far greater than any physical form should contain. There was a stillness about her, a sense of absolute control and purpose that radiated from her very being!
Her hair was dark as the void between stars, but strands of gold flowed through it like rivers of light through an endless night, catching the ambient glow of the Stoa in ways that seed almost deliberate. A white-blue robe covered her form, simple yet sohow more elegant than the most elaborate garnts, as if the fabric itself knew it was privileged to drape across her shoulders.
And her eyes!
Oh!
Her pupils seed to be the simplest and most common pupils, dark and unremarkable at first glance. And yet…
|Warning.|
|You have stared into eyes that may harm your existence if you gaze for too long.|
|Recomndation: Limit direct visual contact.|
…!
Staring into her eyes alone for too long could harm him.
Noah’s gaze flashed with defiance at this as he blinked, and he cautiously floated toward this terrifying entity as he spoke out calmly.
“Hello. You are one of the few cognizant beings I have t since the end of THE Fallout. I am-”
As he was speaking, the terrifying entity seated ahead looked away into the depths of this domain. Her voice ca asured and unhurried, each word placed with the precision of soone who had spent eternities choosing exactly what to say and when to say it.
“I know who you are, Scale Breaker. I watched you take your first stumbling steps in the Primordial Genesis Shore.”
BOOM!
Her gaze finally settled on him with the weight of ages.
“Whether you have grown bolder or rely more foolish since then, I have not yet decided.”
BOOM!
Her words were heavy as Noah instantly beca stern.
She was there?
In Ginnungagap?!
He did not recall seeing anything about her or even closely resembling her in all the Ginnu Lifeforms there. She looked at his silence and surprise as she continued looking ahead calmly, her posture unchanged, her attention seemingly fixed on sothing in the distant depths that only she could perceive.
Noah’s reply ca cautiously, his voice asured. “You were there when THE Primordial Chaos, THE Creature, and THE Living Temporal fought? And none of them sensed you either? You weren’t involved in that entire conflict?”
…!
At such words, THE Secretive Eon’s expression remained unchanged. When she spoke, there was no defensiveness, no need to justify. Only quiet, glorious, interminable certainty.
“THE Creature knew I was there from the mont he arrived. The others…” A slight pause ca that was almost dismissive. “They saw what they expected to see, which was nothing at all. But that is the way of things.”
Her head tilted, a fraction of movent that sohow conveyed vast consideration.
“You call what happened there a conflict. Perhaps it was, from where you stood. But it was not anything much.”
The faintest ghost of sothing unreadable crossed her features before vanishing.
“That you know who I am is unexpected. I will grant you that much. But it makes your presence here all the more puzzling.”
She turned to regard him fully, and her calm was more terrifying than any display of power could have been.
“Do you believe yourself grand now, Scale Breaker? Because you have laid claim to The First Tongue?”
The question hung in the air, requiring no answer.
“You know what I am. You know what entities such as myself do to ones such as yourself. And yet here you stand.”
Her dark eyes studied him with an attention that felt like being weighed on scales older than Existence itself.
“I find myself curious despite my better judgnt. Why?”
Why.
The question was a simple one as Noah felt a sense of danger and stopped moving forward, looking at this terrifying being as he said…
“Just my intuition.”
…!
BOOM!
Intuition.
The word left her lips like she was tasting sothing she had not encountered in a very long ti.
“Intuition…”
Her eyes grew distant for a mont, seeing sothing far beyond the Stoa, far beyond this mont entirely.
Then she smiled.
“What a curious and ridiculous thing to say.”
Her gaze refocused on him with renewed interest!
User Comments
0 comments from readers