As Noah was gauging his power, his existence flickered.
He frowned and rose from his seated position, every Hadean sense suddenly screaming with warning!
Sothing was approaching. Sothing that would absolutely lock onto him soon. The feeling pressed against his awareness with weight that exceeded anything he had felt since THE Silurian Light first touched his existence!
He took a step and disappeared from within THE Infiniverse.
He appeared in THE Wastes.
The multicolored rain of THE Pluvial Epoch landed on his transford body, droplets of Quintessence Infiniforce sliding across skin that could collapse Rhyacian entities through contact alone.
The tumultuous seas of Observable Force still churned around this region.
For a mont, everything was still.
Then the sky above him began to burn.
HUUM!
A grand power blood overhead, brilliance that exceeded even THE Silurian Pulse by multiple factors. This... wasn’t a single Cause making itself known. This was sothing far more terrifying. Multiple Causes resonated within that descending light, authorities that had shaped Observable Existence combining their weight into singular purpose!
The light descended not to attack but to declare.
|Alert.|
Ruination’s voice erged with urgency she rarely displayed.
|A Civilizational Holy War has been declared against you by THE Deliverance.|
|He has paid a heavy cost and called upon all the Causes within THE First Cause to bear witness to this declaration. THE Silurian Cause. THE Cambrian Cause. THE Ediacaran Cause. And others whose nas are not currently accessible to my perception. All of them have answered his call. All of them now observe what is being enacted.|
|In 24 hours, this Civilizational Holy War will begin.|
|Your Civilization and all followers connected to you have been conscripted to fight against the Civilization of THE Deliverance and the followers connected to him.|
|This conscription is absolute. It cannot be refused. It cannot be evaded through normal ans. The power of THE First Cause itself enforces participation.|
...!
Noah watched as golden light coalesced before him, forming structures that displayed what was being enacted.
A golden box appeared, holding a shadowy image that couldn’t be fully perceived. His own silhouette, rendered in configurations that the declaration couldn’t fully capture due to his Hadean nature existing outside normal fraworks. This golden box pulsed with authority that declared him the leader of one side.
Facing it, a platinum-colored box ford.
Within it, another shadowy figure that he couldn’t see clearly. But the label beneath required no clarification.
THE Deliverance.
The entity that commanded Primordial Architects. The being that had dispatched Grimvault!
And then more boxes began blooming around his golden representation.
|Follower designations are being determined.|
Nas appeared beneath shadowy figures, each one a person connected to his Civilization, each one soone he cared about or who had sworn themselves to his cause!
His eyes locked onto one box eyes that began to blaze with rage.
Alia Osmont.
His mother’s na glowed beneath a shadowy figure.
Facing her box, a platinum designation: THE Primordial Carver.
|THE Primordial Carver: Unknown. Suspected to be Calymmian Tier Proterozoic Scale Primordial Architect...|
...!
Another box. Henry Osmont. His son!
Facing him: Grimvault.
|Grimvault, THE Primordial Silence: Calymmian Tier Proterozoic Scale Primordial Architect...|
More boxes appeared in rapid succession.
Barbatos, facing THE Primordial Sculptor.
Sigrid, facing THE Primordial Warden.
Riya, facing THE Primordial Fla.
Moiraine, facing THE Primordial Tide.
Adelaide, facing THE Primordial Stone.
Titano, facing THE Primordial Hamr.
THE Queen of Matter, facing THE Primordial Void.
THE First Farr, facing THE Primordial Harvest.
Khor, facing THE Primordial Hunter.
Tor, THE First Hunger, facing THE Primordial Devourer!
THE Living Origin, facing THE Primordial Genesis!
Ul’moreth, THE Big Stepper, facing THE Primordial Walker!
Lumivara, facing THE Primordial Light.
Skoll, facing THE Primordial Beast!
Oh!
Ains THE Fisherman, facing THE Primordial Depths.
Noah’s eyes burned with cold gold light as more designations appeared.
THE Emperor Penguin, facing THE Primordial Frost...
Dr. Hall, Kazuhiko...
Every companion. Every ally. Every being who had connected themselves to his Civilization through loyalty or love or circumstance.
Eighty-one golden boxes in total.
Eighty-one people he cared about.
All of them facing Primordial Architects at THE Second Scale...as far as he knew.
|The followers of the Civilizations of both leaders have been determined and will be summoned into their own Isolated Civilizational Arenas when the 24-hour preparation period concludes.|
|The Civilization that loses the majority of battles will be deed the losers. All remaining followers and every ounce of authority the losing side held will be enslaved by the winner.|
|This is absolute. This is enforced by THE First Cause itself.|
|The power of THE First Cause has been called upon to oversee this Civilizational Holy War for the third ti in the history of this Observable Existence. It cannot be denied. The 81 Chosen from either side will undeniably be pulled into their Isolated Civilizational Arenas when the ti arrives.|
Noah’s hands clenched into fists, golden light erupting from between his fingers.
|However.|
|There exists one avenue for modification.|
|The only way any Chosen Follower can evade participation is by another taking their place whose connections to your Civilization existed but were not deed significant enough for primary designation.|
|Possible substitutions have been determined:|
|THE Great Usurper, THE Peacemaker, Naldine Manthon, THE Primordial Paradox, THE Creature, THE Living Temporal, THE Beholder, THE Living Emotive, THE Secretive Eon...|
|These entities may volunteer to replace designated followers if they choose. The decision must be made before the 24-hour preparation period concludes. No substitution can be forced.|
...!
Noah floated grandly above THE Wastes, the multicolored rain continuing to fall around him as if the Existence itself was weeping for what had been declared!
He saw himself represented in that golden box.
He saw eighty-one other golden boxes bearing the nas of his family and those who followed him.
His mother. His son. His lovers. His companions. His allies. Even his penguin!
All chosen to be pitted against Primordial Architects and monsters of THE Second Scale.
They wanted to butcher his people without him even being able to help them.
Each battle would occur in isolated arenas where he couldn’t intervene. Each confrontation would pit soone he loved against beings who had existed for eons, who had forged Proterozoic Bones and Organs across spans that made human lifetis seem like heartbeats.
He had only ever defended himself.
He had never asked for anything grand. He had never wanted anything grand. His dreams were simple. Safety. Prosperity. Happiness. A plot of land and seas of Mana!
But he would always be targeted.
This was why he never stood still. This was why he continued to seek and to dream. This was why he pushed himself past limitations that others said couldn’t be surpassed!
Because of shit like this.
Because the mont he stopped growing, the mont he accepted contentnt, the mont he believed he had finally achieved enough, sothing like this would descend upon him and everyone he cared about.
THE Deliverance had declared war.
Not against him directly, where his Hadean body could et whatever was thrown at it. Against his people. Against those whose only cri was being connected to his Civilization through bonds of loyalty and love.
Twenty-four hours.
He had twenty-four hours before his mother faced a Calymmian Tier Primordial Architect alone.
Before everyone he cared about was thrown into battles they were never ant to survive.
Noah’s eyes blazed like singularities of cold fury as he looked upon the declaration still burning in the sky above THE Wastes!
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