Glossikos looked ahead as she saw utmost brilliance, her figure kneeling slightly from the pressure that had been released by THE Undivided One.
Her knees ached against the ancient weavings of THE Agora, and her linguistic authority burned around her form with intensity that bordered on painful as she struggled to maintain coherence against the waves of undifferentiation that had washed over this place. The crimson tide had receded now, pulled back by authority that exceeded anything Bazuman had possessed, but the strain of withstanding it still echoed through her foundations.
She saw Noah and THE Primordial Paradox far ahead of them, their figures standing at the center of what had been a battlefield monts ago. Noah was currently taking in a Crystallized Undivided One, the blue-gold structure that had been Bazuman now flowing toward his existence in streams of elevated authority. THE Primordial Paradox stood beside him with obsidian-gold flas burning steadily, watching the process with ancient eyes that missed nothing.
Her expression was complex as she observed.
She now saw why he’d taken the Claim of THE First Tongue.
She’d wanted it for herself so much that she’d disliked him from the mont he arrived. She hadn’t fully backed her Civilization to his when he ca here, had maintained distance and reservation that bordered on hostility. Her assistance had been minimal. Her heart had held resentnt toward the being who had claid what she believed should have been hers.
But seeing him these past hours...
Maybe it was ti to give her backing just like the other three Strategoi backed THE Four of their paths.
In her heart, she still disliked THE Four. Or really, THE Five now. All Strategoi did. They had a role that bound them to THE Agora of Primordial Judgnt, a duty that required them to continue protecting this place across eons of existence. And THE Five did whatever suited them and left the Strategoi to pick up the pieces.
When Paradox and Noah had entered the Crack eons ago, disappearing into THE Prima Indifferentia without warning or explanation, it had been the Strategoi who maintained THE Agora. When THE Living Paradox had done all of this with the corruption of proto-matter, flooding Observable Existence with his grand design, it would have to be the Strategoi who struggled to hold this territory against the consequences.
There were many examples of such abandonnt.
But maybe...
Maybe THE Five, with all the power they held, would eventually make everything okay.
Maybe...
"Co now, soone like you should never kneel to anybody."
She heard a sonorous voice beside her, gentle and warm and filled with concern that made sothing in her chest loosen.
When she turned, she saw a slender hand extended toward her, offering to help her rise. The fingers were delicate, almost fragile in their appearance, and the skin held a warmth that seed to radiate comfort without any authority behind it. Just kindness. Just care.
Glossikos blinked as she grabbed the hand and rose up, finding herself thinking that the hands of the other Strategoi shouldn’t be small and slender like this. Khaotikos’s form shifted constantly between states. Ontikos’s hands held the weight of Existence itself. Paradoxos’s dual nature ant nothing about him was so simply singular.
This hand belonged to soone else.
With this thought, she turned to see the woman beside her.
She was beautiful. Her features held a serenity that seed untouched by the chaos that had just occurred, as if the battle between Absolutes and Undivided Ones was rely weather passing overhead rather than apocalyptic conflict. Her hair fell in waves that caught the light of THE Agora with colors that shifted subtly, never quite settling on a single shade.
Her form was slender and graceful, dressed in robes that seed woven from twilight itself.
But her eyes...
Her eyes were what captured Glossikos’s attention completely.
They were so calm. So pure. They held depths that seed to contain understanding without judgnt, acceptance without condition, love without limitation. Looking into them felt like coming ho after a journey that had lasted far too long. Looking into them felt like being seen for the first ti in eons.
Behind this woman stood Khaotikos, Ontikos, and Paradoxos.
The three other Strategoi had similar expressions on their faces. Calm. Content. At peace in ways that Glossikos had never seen from beings who had spent eons bound to duty they resented.
Glossikos felt like she rembered sothing in the back of her mind, so warning or recognition that tickled at the edges of her consciousness. But she couldn’t quite figure it out. The mory kept slipping away like water through fingers, replaced by warmth that spread through her foundations with comfort that exceeded anything she’d felt before.
The woman in front of her, THE Secretive Eon, asked her lightly with voice that seed to resonate inside Glossikos’s chest rather than reach her through the air.
"Are you with us?"
And Glossikos blinked.
She...
She?
No.
They.
They were always with each other.
Her existence subtly transford as understanding that wasn’t understanding settled into her foundations. The resentnt she’d felt toward THE Five faded. The duty she’d resented for eons beca sothing she embraced. The isolation she’d experienced as a Strategos beca connection that linked her to sothing greater than herself.
She smiled toward THE Secretive Eon.
Then she turned toward the figures of Noah and THE Primordial Paradox far ahead.
The two of them had sensed nothing of their entry here. They’d been focused on Bazuman, on the crystallization and harvest, on the power being claid and the foundations being elevated. They hadn’t noticed when THE Secretive Eon stepped through the corruption that perated THE Agora. Their unique aura allowed them to move across existence undetected.
They hadn’t felt when the four Strategoi beca sothing other than what they’d been.
Sotis, when you stopped outside the door of a house, so might mistakenly believe it was because you were unable to go inside. Maybe you just didn’t want to at that ti. Maybe you were waiting for the right mont.
Maybe you were waiting for corruption to change the atmosphere before you could step inside.
So... they stepped inside.
At this mont, the four Strategoi of THE Agora of Primordial Judgnt were now with them.
And their will within Eon moved forward as she finally expressed her aura and power for those ahead who had been dealing with an Undivided One.
"My oh my, what a nice place this is."
...!
Eon said calmly, her voice carrying across THE Agora with gentleness that belied the horror of what had just occurred behind Noah and THE Primordial Paradox’s backs.
And far ahead...
BOOM!
Unfathomable Paradox erupted from THE Primordial Paradox, obsidian-gold flas blazing outward with intensity that painted THE Agora in colors that warred against the corruption perating its stones. His ancient eyes locked onto THE Secretive Eon with recognition that held weight accumulated across eons of conflict.
Three bodies of Noah turned to look over solemnly!
The central form burning with pure blue-gold Mana. The body surrounded by golden Infinite Undifferentiated Fate. The form blazing with crimson Infinite Hunger. All three of them oriented toward THE Secretive Eon with gazes that held no fear, only assessnt of a threat that had just revealed itself at the worst possible mont.
And Eon looked over to them and smiled with warmth that seed genuine despite everything it represented.
She waved.
A simple gesture. Friendly. Almost playful.
And behind her, the four Strategoi waved in the sa manner. The sa timing. The sa angle of their arms. The sa smiles on their faces that matched Eon’s expression perfectly.
Four beings who had been individuals monts ago, now moving as one.
Four Strategoi who had protected THE Agora for eons, now extensions of sothing that viewed their individuality as rot to be decomposed.
THE Primordial Mycelia had arrived.
And it...had made friends.
User Comments
0 comments from readers