The platinum helm shifted. The gaps between armor segnts blazed with light that spoke of delight rather than threat, and the sound that erged was not mockery.
It was appreciation.
"Glorious! GLORIOUS!"
The words bood across THE Wastes with weight that made the corrupted proto-matter tremble.
"That actually felt like a true glimr of Infinity! So what is this? Even though you are of a lower Scale of Existence, because you carry the force of Infinity, you can bypass unsurpassable weavings?!"
The armored titan’s helm tilted.
"I do not accept it! Let see more!"
BOOM!
An apocalyptic burst of terrifying Depth and brilliance erupted from Beowulf’s form.
In the next mont, the surroundings filled with dozens of the massive figures of THE Primordial Armor. Not illusions. Not projections. Actual bodies, each one as vast and terrible as the original, each one carrying the sa authority that had demonstrated the gap between Scales with such devastating clarity. They surrounded Noah from every direction, above and below and on all sides.
Existence itself began congealing.
Everything was becoming solid in ways that transcended physical states. The air thickened into sothing that felt like it could be grasped, could be crushed, could be compressed into density that would collapse anything trapped within it. Noah felt like all the air had been sucked away and he needed to breathe again, as if his very existence was being folded in on itself by pressure that ca from everywhere simultaneously.
It was a heavy sensation!
Noah took a deep breath.
And he blew out.
HUUUUM!
From him blowing out seemingly nothing but air, boundless seas of blue instantly surged outward with force that defied the simple action that had produced them!
The congealing solid state that had been crushing everything found itself opposed by endless expansion that refused to be compressed. The pressure that had been collapsing existence encountered pressure that pushed back infinitely!
So of the blue waves even pushed back the multiple bodies of THE Primordial Armor that had suddenly blood, forcing them to shift position as force they had not anticipated struck them from angles they had not guarded.
This radiant blue sea now surrounded the region around Noah like a barrier of his own making, stopping interferences that should have overwheld anything at THE First Scale. The blue blazed with Infinity that was not contained within him but simply directed by him, a wall of endless authority that the finite conductor had positioned where he needed it to be!
Oh!
But THE Primordial Architect was serious now.
Even though Beowulf had been rebuffed montarily, even though the armored titan’s attacks had been pushed back by force that should not have existed at Noah’s Scale, the being at THE Second Scale still moved at speeds Noah could barely keep up with. The gap between Scales had not been eliminated. It had simply been complicated.
Armored crimson chains of undifferentiation surged from all around.
Trillions of them.
They pierced through the radiant circular blue sea around Noah with thodology that transcended brute force. Each chain seed to know exactly where to strike, exactly how to slip between the endless waves he had erected, exactly how to find the finite conductor at the center of the infinite defense.
"YOU ARE JUST LEARNING WHAT TO DO WITH THIS!"
Beowulf’s voice thundered across THE Wastes with weight that made the blue sea flicker.
"I WILL CHAIN YOU UP BEFORE YOU CAN EVEN UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU HAVE IN YOUR HANDS!"
For the first ti since his new state of mind, Noah felt a sense of danger.
Not the abstract recognition of threat he had maintained throughout this confrontation. Actual danger. The kind that made his finite instincts scream warnings that his infinite authority could not entirely dismiss. This entity at THE Second Scale of Existence was truly serious now, truly committed to capturing what had just demonstrated capabilities that exceeded all expectations.
He had stayed behind because he still wanted to see just how large the gap was even after achieving this new state of mind. He had wanted to test his new understanding against the impossible odds that had defined this confrontation from the beginning. But this monstrous being was right.
He was still learning about this and how to utilize it.
He needed ti.
"You...should have left with those you sent away when you had the chance."
Even before these words fully finished, Noah saw what was coming.
Above him, massive bodies of THE Primordial Armor with armored chains shooting toward his position.
Below him, more bodies erging from corrupted proto-matter with chains already extending.
On all other directions of existence, the dozens of Beowulf’s forms had coordinated their assault into a cage that was closing around him from every conceivable angle.
But worse than the chains, worse than the bodies, worse than the physical assault that was converging on his position from all directions simultaneously, were the words.
In crimson obsidian letters and writing, etched across existence itself like banners that had been hung by authority that transcended normal expression, Noah saw the words that said:
|Existence is Bound and Not Bound|
These simple words seemingly repeated thousands of tis, surrounding him from every direction, layered over each other until they ford walls of paradoxical declaration that pressed against everything they touched. They seed grander than Embodints. They seed grander than Apophasis!
The speed was so terrifying that when Noah looked at everything surrounding him, he felt heavy undifferentiated weavings of Paradox constraining everything he was.
"Paradox?"
DUM!
Everything slowed down.
Noah felt that heavy beat of his heart again, the sa rhythm that had anchored him when he first admitted his finite nature. The sa steady pulse that had reminded him of his mother and his son and his won and everything that made him who he was rather than what he wielded.
THE Primordial Architect was trying to constrain him with Paradox.
But he was a finite being with Infinity.
What was more paradoxical than this?
Could anyone in Observable Existence be more paradoxical than him? He was finite and yet he wielded the boundless. Every aspect of his current existence was a contradiction that should not have been able to exist, and yet here he was, existing anyway.
The mont he had this thought, he moved by instinct once more.
He actually closed his eyes.
He placed his hand on his chest, feeling that finite heartbeat that served as his anchor to everything he was.
And he said lightly, almost gently:
"Paradox."
As if he was coaxing it.
As if he was calling it.
As if he was inviting an old friend to join him rather than commanding a force to serve him.
When he opened his eyes, the marvellous scene that greeted him exceeded everything that had co before.
The blue seas around him were changing.
The radiant Infinity that had surrounded his position transford, color shifting from the pure blue of endless potential into glorious paradoxical gold that blazed with weight his perception could barely process. This golden light shot upward and downward and in all other directions simultaneously, expanding outward with speed that matched the crimson chains that had been converging on his position.
It burned away the armored chains as they tried to reach him.
It burned away the paradoxical words that had been etched out like shields all around.
It burned away the very thodology Beowulf had been using to constrain him, treating the paradoxical weavings of a being at THE Second Scale as fuel rather than obstacle!
This Paradox felt boundlessly heavy and ancient.
It was not any normal Paradox.
It was THE Paradox.
It was THAT Primordial Paradox, the authority that THE Primordial Paradox himself had wielded since existence began, the aspect of the Oldest Paradox of Existence.
For the first ti since his change, a prompt blood before Noah.
|For the first ti in your existence, you are fully and truly expressing an extrely pure version of one of the Aspects of the Oldest Paradox of Existence: Paradox.|
|In addition to THE First Tongue, you have now expressed weavings of Paradox.|
...!
Noah was speechless.
He reached his hands out toward the boundlessly paradoxical gold that surrounded him, watching as the endless weavings of gold wrapped around his hand as if he could command them. And he could. The Paradox responded to his direction the sa way the Infinity had responded, recognizing his authority not because he contained it but because he had the right to conduct it.
He grabbed onto these endless weavings of Paradox.
He looked toward THE Primordial Architect with eyes that were shining with a dim gold brilliance now, the blue and gold mixing in his gaze to create sothing that had never existed in Observable Existence before this mont.
"I... will co back to fulfill my oath to you."
The words erged with weight that pressed against THE Wastes themselves.
"I just need so ti to learn."
...!
The words were heavy and ridiculous.
A finite being at THE First Scale telling a Primordial Architect at THE Second Scale that he would return. That he needed ti to learn. That the oath he had sworn would be fulfilled regardless of the gap between them!
It should have been the kind of statent that prompted mockery, the kind of declaration that a superior being would dismiss with casual contempt.
But Beowulf did not mock.
Beowulf did not dismiss.
In the next mont, Noah’s hand pulled down.
The endless boundless spreading seas of Paradox responded to his command, wrapping around his existence with golden light that blazed with the sa contradictory nature he had just invoked. His figure was instantly swept away, paradoxically, as if he had never been here to begin with.
One mont he was standing before THE Primordial Armor.
The next mont there was simply empty space where he had been.
Not transportation. Not teleportation. Not any conventional thod of movent that could be tracked or pursued.
He had simply ceased being here and beco sowhere else, because Paradox permitted things that normal reality did not allow.
All that was left was an array of dozens of massive bodies of an entity at THE Second Scale of Existence.
Beowulf’s armored heads looked at the empty space where Noah had been, the platinum plates of each helm shifting with an expression that communicated dissatisfaction. Sothing so pristine had slipped right between his grasp. Sothing with potential that exceeded anything he had encountered in eons had escaped before he could properly examine it.
The armored titan was about to turn away to begin his search when sothing made him pause.
He turned around.
He looked toward all directions, his multiple bodies orienting in different angles as if trying to locate sothing his perception could barely perceive. There was a gaze sowhere out there.
Beowulf frowned, or produced the plate arrangent that suggested frowning.
He sensed nothing now.
He grunted with dissatisfaction.
Endless undifferentiation spilled from his form like a surging sea, corruption spreading across THE Wastes as his authority saturated the region!
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