He wanted to design his First Scale to be straightforward, intuitive, and unique but not overly complex.
So everything he had done up to this point, all the transformations and integrations and impossible advancents, he neatly put a bow on it and called it Infinitas Corpus, The Infinite Body. He had achieved the apex of this stage. Or at least it was what most would consider to be the apex of THE First Scale.
Even though he could use its power to fight against entities at THE Second Scale of Vakochev’s Scales of Existence.
And when he advanced from Infinitas Corpus, he would only be on the second level of his own Scale of Existence. He couldn’t quite say exactly where his power would be after that advancent, couldn’t predict what completing Infinitas Architectura would an in practical terms. THE Deliverance would be a good and fearso enemy to test things out against when the ti ca.
But right now, since he had the outline, he would begin implenting it.
When designing his own Scale, he didn’t want it to be sothing as convoluted as what others in the old worlds and realms he had passed through theorized about systems of power. Nothing as crazy as building his Scales with stages like Void Refining, Body Integration, Mahayana, and so kind of Tribulation!
No.
That was too much!
Infinitas Corpus, Infinitas Architectura, Infinitas Causa.
Three demarcations. One Pillar. Unlimited potential.
And right now...
"I have been stuck on this level for too long."
Noah’s voice erged with conviction that pressed against the surrounding environnt.
"Has it already been a day? A few days? Far too long!"
His eyes blazed brighter as he rose from his seated position.
"I shall advance toward Infinitas Architectura where Absolute Infinity awaits."
HUUM!
...!
The island he occupied began to tremble beneath forces that transcended physical causation.
He rose from the grassland and floated upward, his body lifting through air that grew thicker with authority as he ascended. He rose to the midpoint of this realm, that space where the endless blue sea below mirrored the endless blue sea above. Two oceans stretching infinitely in opposite directions, and he floated between them like a singular point of purpose suspended in aquatic infinity.
His eyes were unfathomably bright as he considered what he was about to attempt.
So far, it was just ideas. Even though they were ideas he had refined through nine iterations of careful design, nobody had told Noah they would work. They might succeed brilliantly. They might fail catastrophically. There was no precedent for what he was doing because no one had ever done it before.
He was a Pioneer.
He was carving this path himself, and if he went wrong anywhere, it would be very costly. There were no teachers to correct his mistakes, no ancient texts describing how to construct a Hadean Pillar of Infinity, no accumulated wisdom from countless practitioners who had walked this road before him.
There was only him.
So...
"Infinitas Architectura."
He called out the na as his body began generating even more endless Quintessence Infiniforce. Blue Infinity gathered all around him in concentrations that would have driven most beings to madness. Observable Force ford into golden rivers that circled his position.
The construction of a singular internal structure that would serve as the foundation for everything that followed.
He would build a Hadean Pillar of Infinity within his existence.
Rather than constructing multiple separate pillars for different authorities, he would create a single Pillar that could be built up by as many Civilizations as he could actualize within it. Each Civilization he congealed into stable form would beco another layer of the Hadean Pillar of Infinity, another foundation stone supporting the structure he was building.
Observable Force would be the binding agent holding these actualized Civilizations together. Quintessence Infiniforce would serve as the animating principle allowing them to function as a unified whole rather than separate fragnts.
He made sure he understood everything well.
Then he took a step.
The motion seed mundane. One foot lifting, moving forward through space, descending toward a surface that existed only in concept rather than physical reality. It was a step that anyone could take, a movent so basic that infants learned it within their first year of life.
But with this step, this entire realm beca bathed in blue and gold and multicolored brilliance.
Infinite seas surged into that single motion. Every drop of Observable Force he had access to, every mote of Quintessence Infiniforce his existence generated, every trace of authority he could muster flowed into the act of bringing his foot down.
When it landed, sothing within him shattered.
BOOM!
A barrier he hadn’t known existed broke apart, and what erged from behind it defied description.
A single massive Pillar rose up from within his existence.
It stretched out in this realm first, its base forming sowhere in the depths of his Hadean Organ of Civilization before expanding outward in all directions. The Pillar passed through this Oceanus-like domain without disturbing the twin seas above and below, its form sohow existing alongside physical reality rather than displacing it.
Then it stretched further.
Past other thousands of realms across THE Infiniverse, the Pillar extended. Through territories that held sacred herbs and tumultuous seas and floating landmasses of every description. THE Infiniverse trembled as this construct rose through her depths, her humanoid manifestation opening her eyes with surprise as sothing vast moved through her very being.
The Pillar rose out of THE Infiniverse entirely.
It erged into THE Wastes. The multicolored rain of THE Pluvial Epoch fell upon its surface as it continued stretching upward, higher and higher, showing no signs of stopping.
Infinitely.
The Pillar was grand beyond comprehension, its surface blazing with multicolored light that shifted through every hue existence had ever nad. Golden bands wrapped around its circumference at irregular intervals, patterns of Observable Force that served as binding agents even as they contributed to its beauty.
But for all its grandeur, the Pillar was hollow.
Its interior waited to be filled. The Civilizations that would form its layers had not yet been actualized. The structure existed, but its contents remained potential rather than actual. It was a monunt waiting for aning, a foundation waiting for what would be built upon it.
The Pillar crossed THE Wastes and continued rising.
It flashed montarily in different Primordial Realms, its illusory form manifesting wherever existence permitted its passage. Beings across countless territories looked up as sothing impossible blood across their skies, a Pillar that seed to connect the lowest depths to the highest heights while belonging to neither!
It even manifested across Prima Indifferentia.
That region of Undivided Ones and Formless Terrors and Primordial Architects witnessed the Pillar’s passage through their domain, ancient consciousnesses stirring with confusion at sothing they couldn’t categorize. The white gold sea that defined their ho rippled with disturbance that had nothing to do with current or tide.
On this day, across Observable Existence, an Infinite Pillar blood montarily!
Many witnessed it!
And they wondered.
What the fuck is that?!
---
THE Wyld stretched endlessly in ways that defied sanity.
This region existed as the true ho of Primordial Architects, but "ho" implied comfort that THE Wyld did not provide. It was a realm of primal power and ancient danger, where the line between hunter and hunted shifted with each passing mont. Survival here required strength that most beings couldn’t comprehend.
THE Creature stood within a forest that looked like sothing from prival tis.
Trees rose hundreds of ters high, their bark cracite with age of THE First Cause. Branches intertwined overhead in canopies so thick that whatever passed for sky in THE Wyld remained invisible. Bioluminescent fungi clung to trunks and roots, providing illumination that painted everything in shades of ethereal green and deep violet.
Abundant existential energy saturated every molecule of this forest.
Just breathing here would have advanced most First Scale beings through multiple stages of cultivation. The concentration of authority pressed against everything with density that made the richest regions of normal Observable Existence seem impoverished by comparison. This was why Primordial Architects thrived in THE Wyld despite its dangers. The rewards matched the risks.
Milky gold rivers of light and blood flowed around the small clearing where THE Creature stood.
The liquid wasn’t water. It was sothing between Observable Force and vital fluid, the runoff from conflicts that had occurred in this location recently. Very recently!
The blood was still warm, still carrying traces of authority from beings who had been alive re minutes ago.
Seven Primordial Architects lay scattered around the clearing.
Their bodies were arranged in positions that spoke of desperate combat and sudden defeat. So had fallen while trying to flee. Others had died mid-attack, their offensive postures frozen by death before they could complete their strikes. Three bore Rhyacian Tier classifications based on their residual authority. Four had been Calymmian.
All of them were dead now!
Anaximander stood near the edge of the clearing with his arms crossed at all this violence.
Tairiyya floated nearby. She said nothing, but her attention remained fixed on their leader.
THE Creature himself knelt beside one of the fallen Calymmian entities.
His hands were buried wrist-deep in the corpse’s chest cavity, having torn through Proterozoic Bones and flesh to reach what lay beneath. Blood coated his arms up to the elbows, thick and dark and still carrying warmth from the life it had recently supported. His expression held nothing but focus as he worked.
He pulled out a heart.
The organ was massive, and it pulsed with residual authority despite its owner’s death. Proterozoic classification had transford it into sothing far beyond re muscle and blood vessels. It was a repository of power, a concentrated source of everything its original owner had cultivated across eons of existence!
THE Creature brought it to his mouth and bit! He chewed slowly and deliberately, savoring the authority that flooded into his existence with each swallow.
When he finished the heart, he reached back into the corpse for other organs.
Lungs ca next, their Proterozoic structure providing different flavors of authority than the heart had offered. Then the liver. Then the kidneys. Each organ consud added to what THE Creature was becoming, each bite pushing him further along whatever path he had chosen when he burned away his Primordial Architect classification!
It was during this brutal feast that the sky above THE Wyld changed.
THE Creature raised his head, blood dripping from his chin as his eyes fixed on sothing that hadn’t been there monts before.
An illusory Pillar stretched across the sky!
Multicolored and banded with gold, it rose from sowhere far below and extended toward heights that even THE Wyld’s strange geotry couldn’t contain. The Pillar blazed with power that pressed against everything nearby!
Anaximander looked up at the sa mont, his eyes widening with surprise.
"What... is that?"
THE Creature studied the Pillar for several long seconds as if he could see things others couldn’t.
Blood continued dripping from his chin as a smile spread across his features.
"It burns with Infinity."
He looked at Anaximander with eyes that held fire from a recently used THE Silurian Light.
"So it may just be the one you continue to worry about that I tell you not to worry about."
...!
Anaximander blinked at this assessnt, his surprise deepening as he looked back toward the Pillar still blazing across the sky.
THE Creature returned his attention to the corpse before him, reaching for another organ as he continued.
"When pushed, when bullied, when adversity presses down and down without rcy or pause..."
He tore out what might have been a Proterozoic spleen and examined it with clinical interest.
"It can awaken a bloody beast within. And that bloody beast may beco its own adversity for those who thought themselves the predators."
His smile grew sharper.
He bit into the spleen, chewing thoughtfully.
"Adversity breeds greatness. I still wait to see if Erwin will bloom into sothing astounding from my pressure..."
...!
THE Creature returned to his eating with renewed focus, the Pillar above beginning to fade as whatever power had manifested it settled back into its source. The illusory structure grew translucent, then ghostly, then disappeared entirely as if it had never been there at all.
But everyone who had seen it would rember.
Everyone who had witnessed it would wonder!
Anaximander threw his head back and laughed.
The sound rang out across the prival forest with joy that seed inappropriate given the corpses surrounding them, but it was genuine!
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