Noah looked at the Primordial Architect in front of him.
The last Primordial Architect he had encountered had been trying to eat him. His guard remained high, and he was ready to defend and put into practice exactly what Uncountable Infinity could do if this encounter turned violent.
She had co at a critical mont.
His transformation of his main Civilization of Mana to the level of Absolute was occurring right now in his other body within THE Infiniverse, all of his existence shifting toward being fully at the Uncountable Infinity level. The timing was a rather unfortunate coincidence.
But the more ti passed, the more he understood exactly what this stage ant for him as a finite being who could command Uncountable Infinities. The density between densities. The endless points filling endless gaps. His capabilities had expanded categorically rather than increntally, and that expansion changed everything about how he evaluated threats.
So even though a Second Scale Primordial Architect stood before him, he knew he would be able to at least escape if he needed to. THE Infiniverse was already rapidly devouring as much of THE Agora as possible while ti passed here, her consumption accelerating in response to her master’s unspoken urgency. Every mont this conversation continued was a mont his forces grew stronger.
If ti could pass without conflict, that was ideal.
And the things this Primordial Architect was saying might just be enlightening enough to expand his knowledge, so he would humor her. His eyes shone brightly as he picked up the most important words she had spoken, filing away implications for later analysis.
"I know very well what I grasp, and I know that utilizing it will not in any way cause the Splintering of Observable Existence."
His voice erged calm and curious.
"But I will humor you and ask what exactly you an. And what is Encroaching Imperiosus?"
...!
He had left the business of apocalypses behind him.
He was not initiating any apocalypses, not spreading destruction for its own sake, not seeking to unmake the foundations of reality. Observable Existence was so stable that even those at THE Second Scale could not damage it through direct assault.
THE Living Paradox and every single thing he was doing with his spread of corruption across THE Prima Indifferentia did nothing except alter the state of existence, transforming what was there rather than destroying the substrate itself.
Observable Existence remained strong despite all of that.
How could Noah have anything to do with the Splintering of Observable Existence? The accusation seed absurd on its face, the kind of claim made by beings who feared what they did not understand rather than beings who had actually studied the nature of what they criticized.
As he asked all of this, the figure of Naldine continued to walk toward him. Her commanding presence seed to want to occupy everything within THE Primordial Archive.
She stopped several paces away from him, those pure white eyes with their orbiting blue singularities fixed upon his form with intensity.
"You stand before a Second Scale Primordial Architect."
Her voice erged cold and precise, each word chosen with care.
"And even at this mont, you so strongly believe that everything will be okay. That you will sohow survive this encounter unscathed regardless of what occurs. You know nothing of my power or the capabilities of the two fools behind , and yet your psyche has already deed that whatever happens here, you will be fine."
She took another step forward.
"You have not accounted for my power, how trendous it is, or whether I have those even more powerful than myself that I can call down at any second. You simply assu your survival because you are you."
Her singularity-dotted eyes narrowed.
"Overconfidence. A sense of self-entitlent as if everything in existence should be yours or handed to you. A sense of arrogance that whatever happens, because it is you, you will be okay."
Noah eyes shone brightly as he listened.
"Eyes that gaze upon everything as if it is lesser compared to you. As if you are the only thing in existence that matters while everyone else is just playing parts in your story. A self-centered view of yourself and your superiority, as if in all of existence, you alone matter."
Her voice dropped to sothing approaching clinical observation.
"The inability to admit any faults. The certainty that your judgnt is correct simply because it is yours. The assumption that your path is the right path because you are the one walking it."
She paused, letting her words settle.
"Does...any of this ring a bell?"
...!
Noah felt his thoughts buzz as he actually considered what she was saying rather than dismissing it.
Did he think he would survive this encounter? Yes. Had he accounted for her actual power before reaching that conclusion? Well, sowhat.
He subconsciously thought this because of his own power. His own judgnt and Intuition that he always relied on. Was that so wrong?
"Your entire being is already so steeped in THE Encroaching Imperiosus of Infinity that you cannot even distinguish your own ntality from its influence."
"You cannot even begin to realize when you started thinking this way. When your confidence beca certainty. When your determination beca arrogance. When your strength beca entitlent. The transition was so gradual and so complete that you believe these thoughts are yours, that this ntality is simply who you are."
Her white hair seed to glow faintly as she spoke.
"That is THE Encroaching Imperiosus. THE Gamaidjan. The curse and cost that cos with Infinity, which every Second Scale existence playing with it has to be careful of."
She looked at him with sothing approaching pity beneath her cold evaluation.
"Because more often than not, this is the cost that causes the highest rates of mortality across truly powerful existences. Not external enemies. Not overwhelming force. Not ancient horrors erging from THE Prima Indifferentia to consu everything in their path."
Her voice hardened.
"Themselves. Their own certainty that they are special. Their own belief that the rules applying to everyone else do not apply to them. Their own arrogance leading them into situations that their power could not extract them from, because they never truly believed those situations were possible."
...!
BOOM!
The revelation pressed against Noah’s awareness. He wasn’t entirely dismissive!
After all, his intuition told him this Primordial Architect was not just making this up.
But...
He found himself actually examining his own thoughts, his own assumptions, his own certainty that he would be fine no matter what.
Where had that certainty co from?
He rembered being afraid. He rembered desperation and uncertainty.
But even then, so part of him had believed he would survive.
So part of him had never truly accepted the possibility of his own ending.
Was that confidence earned through countless victories? Was that determination forged through adversity that had always, eventually, been overco? Or was that sothing else entirely, sothing that had crept into his foundations alongside the Infinity he conducted?
THE Beholder’s warning echoed through his mory.
Your biggest strength will be Infinity. And your biggest weakness will be Infinity.
Everything cos at a cost. Everything has a cost.
He thought about all of this, but in the end, the thought he arrived to was...no.
No.
He was walking a fine line between confidence and arrogance.
But he knew himself.
He was tyrannical, yes. But he...was also quintessential.
So towards the heavy words from Naldine that should have been akin to a grand revelation, he looked at her and smiled brilliantly, and her gaze beca even heavier and colder!
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