Read Novel Full Chapter 5098: Destruction and Rebirth! III
Chapter 5098: Destruction and Rebirth! III
<Fragment of awareness attributed to THE Deliverance>
In spans that predated the concept of spans, THE Deliverance had observed the nature of advancement with attention that most beings could not sustain across even a fraction of such duration.
It had watched countless existences conflate two processes which were, upon examination that required no effort for something of its nature, quite fundamentally distinct from one another.
Transcendance and Ascension.
Transcendence referred to the elevation of existence beyond its current categorical limitations, the movement from one classification to another in ways that redefined what the being fundamentally was. Ascension represented advancement within one’s existing classification, the refinement and expansion of capabilities without actually changing the foundational nature of the existence in question.
The distinction mattered. Those who failed to understand this failed at everything that followed.
A Primordial Architect who forged additional Proterozoic Bones, who cultivated new Organs, who progressed from Rhyacian to Calymmian to Ediacaran, this being was ascending. They grew more powerful. They remained what they always were. Their classification did not change; only their position within that classification elevated.
THE Deliverance had observed this process unfold across eons beyond counting, had watched beings celebrate advancements that changed nothing fundamental about their nature.
He had been foolish enough to ask before...if one desired to transform from THE Bounded status to THE Gilded status, would such a transformation be considered transcendence?
The asking itself long ago revealed his own fundamental misunderstanding of how existence had been woven.
It was not possible to transform from Bounded to Gilded.
This was not difficulty or a ceiling. The distinctions between Bounded and Gilded were established permanently, and those distinctions were permanent by design. They were not limitations to be overcome. They were definitions. One did not transcend a definition; one simply was or was not what the definition described.
Even if a Gilded Lifeform sealed themselves to live as Bounded. They walked among those they were engineered to surpass. They experienced limitations never meant for them. Even when they forgot what they truly were.
But forgetting changed nothing.
The seal suppressed expression. It did not alter engineering. Remove the seal, and what was always there reasserted itself. The Bounded lifeform beside them could remove a thousand seals and would remain precisely what they were at first breath: Bounded.
Limited by design. Constrained by intention that predated their existence by margins they could not comprehend.
This truth simply was. And those who failed to understand it would continue failing, as they always had, as they always would, until existence itself concluded its long and patient turning.
---
Existence breathes, and epochs pass, leaving Civilizations that become monuments, then crumble to memory, and are long forgotten when that breath comes again. In all these epochs, Infinity reigns supreme.
---
The entire region had transformed into something...unimaginable.
Tumultuous primordial seas of gold Observable Force stretched in every direction, waves crashing against waves in configurations that had nothing to do with gravity or current. Multicolored Quintessence Infiniforce wove through those golden seas like rivers of impossible light threading through an ocean that shouldn’t have existed.
The destroyed battlefield was gone now, replaced by this churning expanse of raw authority that had gathered in response to what was occurring at its center.
Typhoons bloomed across the surface of these seas.
Storms of Observable Force twisted into spiraling columns that reached toward heights that most beings couldn’t perceive, their rotation carrying enough power to obliterate Absolutes who strayed too close. Lightning made of Quintessence Infiniforce arced between the typhoons, connecting them in networks of multicolored brilliance that painted the entire region in hues of transformation and genesis.
And at the very center of it all, Noah could feel his body undergoing the last cycles of destruction and rebirth.
It was taking longer and longer for THE Silurian Light to be capable of destroying his atoms and cells. Dozens of nanoseconds before this, he’d actually had to release any natural passive defenses, consciously lowering the resistance his transforming existence had developed. Otherwise, he might not have been able to undergo the cycles of destruction at all. The fire that had once threatened to erase him entirely now struggled to even damage cells that had been rebuilt so many times they’d forgotten what weakness felt like.
But finally, after cycles beyond counting, after transformation that had compressed eons into minutes, the moment arrived.
BOOM!
The magma-like light blazed for one last moment.
It pressed against his existence with everything it had remaining, that fire derived from THE Silurian Cause attempting one final assault on foundations that had grown too grand for it to damage. The flames cried out as if giving up, a sound that wasn’t sound but rather the sensation of authority recognizing its own inadequacy.
And everything about it faded.
THE Silurian Light, the Pulse that Grimvault had unleashed to erase him, the fire that had scorched his existence through countless nanoseconds of destruction and rebirth, simply ceased. Its purpose had been exhausted. Its power had been absorbed. Nothing remained but the aftermath of what it had catalyzed!
Noah floated at the center of the primordial seas with his eyes closed.
His body still burned with residual heat that had nothing to do with the departed Pulse, warmth generated by transformation that was reaching its culmination. He raised his hands up, palms facing the churning sky of Observable Force that stretched above this impossible region.
HUUM!
His last cycle of destruction displayed itself to all who were watching.
His entire body broke apart into pure particles of Infinity and Observable Force, form dissolving into components so fundamental that they preceded the concept of form itself. Ozymandias underwent the same dissolution simultaneously, that titanic frame shattering into brilliance that matched what Noah’s smaller body had become.
A blinding light bloomed across the primordial seas.
Even Alexander turned his eyes away from what he was witnessing. Naldine, who had observed phenomena across eons of existence among Primordial Architects, shielded her singularity-dotted gaze!
THE Primordial Paradox shifted his obsidian form away from the epicenter!
The light folded back.
Particles of Infinity and Observable Force that had scattered across the primordial seas began converging, drawn together.
They coalesced with purpose that declared their destination, streams of brilliance flowing toward a central point where form was being reconstructed from components that had been purified through cycles beyond counting.
Noah’s body emerged from the convergence shining unfathomably gold.
His hair now radiated with multicolored light that shifted through hues as his existence settled into its new configuration. The strands seemed to contain depths that normal hair couldn’t possess, each one blazing with Quintessence Infiniforce that had been integrated so thoroughly it had become part of his physical appearance.
His fair skin illuminated from within, golden light pressing outward through flesh that had been rebuilt at the subatomic level. The illumination wasn’t harsh or aggressive. It simply was, the natural consequence of foundations saturated with Observable Force at densities that Bounded classification shouldn’t have been able to contain.
And for a moment, momentarily visible to Naldine and all others present, the outline of his internal structure revealed itself through that illuminated skin.
An entirely crystalline multicolored golden skeleton.
Every bone blazed with brilliance that declared its transformation complete, structures that had once been mundane now existing as something that exceeded Proterozoic classification entirely. The skull. The spine. The ribcage. The pelvis.
Every arm bone and leg bone and hand bone and foot bone, all of them shining with authority that made the Proterozoic Bones of fallen Primordial Architects seem dim by comparison!
And apart from the skeleton, there were radiant crystalline Organs.
His heart pulsed with golden light that pressed outward through his chest. His lungs expanded and contracted with brilliance. His brain blazed brightest of all!
The massive obsidian form of Ozymandias had undergone similar transformation.
That titanic frame now radiated with the same golden brilliance that Noah’s smaller body displayed, crystalline structures visible beneath flesh that had been rebuilt through the same cycles of destruction and rebirth. Where there had been one transformed body, now there were two, both shining with authority that exceeded what THE Second Scale was supposed to represent.
Noah opened his eyes.
The simple act felt like the opening of ancient doors, lids rising to reveal what lay behind them with significance that pressed against all surrounding authority!
HUUM!
The primordial seas trembled. The typhoons of Observable Force stuttered in their rotation. The lightning of Quintessence Infiniforce paused mid-arc as if waiting to see what those newly opened eyes would observe.
He raised his hand and looked at himself.
He felt brand new. Brand new, as if he’d never existed before this moment, as if everything that had come before was merely preparation for what he had just become.
And just by raising his hand...
HUUM!
His movement was accompanied by terrifying force that he hadn’t consciously intended. A blinding gold brilliance erupted from the simple gesture, nearby existence twisting in response!
A beam of golden light tore across space from his raised fingers, carving through the primordial seas with power that could have caused a Rhyacian Proterozoic Lifeform like Beowulf to go pale with terror!
He...hadn’t meant to do that.
He stopped any movements immediately, recognizing that his new existence required calibration he hadn’t yet performed. His eyes closed again as he turned his attention inward, seeking to sense the changes that had occurred through cycles of transformation he’d lost count of long ago.
The prompts rained down as they felt...sublime. Ruination’s voice and words felt sublime!
|You have become a Hadean Lifeform. THE Hadean Lifeform.|
|You remain, in apparent terms, at THE First Scale, having not yet formally established your Civilizational Anchor through the traditional methodology of affirmation. And yet, what you can accomplish now exceeds THE First Scale so completely that the classification becomes somewhat meaningless when applied to your existence.|
|Hadean Skeletal Structure: Complete.|
|The human skeleton comprises 206 bones, and I am pleased to confirm that every single one of these structures has now achieved Hadean classification. The transformation progressed through your extremities first, as you experienced, before spreading to your axial skeleton and finally completing with structures that required the most intensive reconstruction.|
|Cranium (THE Hadean Skull of Infinite Perception): 100% Complete.|
|Facial Bones (14 structures including Maxilla, Mandible, Zygomatic, Nasal, Lacrimal, Palatine, Inferior Nasal Conchae, and Vomer): 100% Complete.|
|Cervical Vertebrae (THE Hadean Spine of Infinite Flexibility, C1-C7): 100% Complete.|
|Thoracic Vertebrae (T1-T12): 100% Complete.|
|Lumbar Vertebrae (L1-L5): 100% Complete.|
|Sacrum and Coccyx: 100% Complete.|
|Ribcage (THE Hadean Cage of Infinite Protection, 12 pairs of ribs plus Sternum): 100% Complete.|
|Clavicles and Scapulae (THE Hadean Shoulders of Infinite Bearing): 100% Complete.|
|Humeri, Radii, and Ulnae (THE Hadean Arms of Infinite Reach): 100% Complete.|
|Carpals, Metacarpals, and Phalanges of both hands (THE Hadean Hands of Infinite Grasp): 100% Complete.|
|Pelvis (THE Hadean Basin of Infinite Foundation, including Ilium, Ischium, and Pubis): 100% Complete.|
|Femora, Patellae, Tibiae, and Fibulae (THE Hadean Legs of Infinite Stride): 100% Complete.|
|Tarsals, Metatarsals, and Phalanges of both feet (THE Hadean Feet of Infinite Standing): 100% Complete.|
|Hadean Organ Systems: Complete.|
|The human body contains 78 organs across its various systems, and each of these structures has now achieved Hadean classification through the cycles of destruction and rebirth you experienced.|
|Brain (THE Hadean Mind of Infinite Calculation): 100% Complete. This organ now processes information at rates that exceed what Proterozoic classification permits, and benefits from continued connection to Ozymandias’s matching structure.|
|Heart (THE Hadean Heart of Infinite Circulation): 100% Complete. This organ now pumps Observable Force and Quintessence Infiniforce throughout your existence alongside conventional circulatory function.|
|Lungs (THE Hadean Lungs of Infinite Breath): 100% Complete. These organs now process authority from the air itself, extracting Observable Force from domains around you that contain it.|
|Liver (THE Hadean Liver of Infinite Processing): 100% Complete.|
|Kidneys (THE Hadean Kidneys of Infinite Filtration): 100% Complete.|
|Stomach and Intestines (THE Hadean Digestive System of Infinite Absorption): 100% Complete.|
|Skin (THE Hadean Dermis of Infinite Interface): 100% Complete. This organ, often overlooked despite being the largest, now serves as boundary between your existence and external reality that can be adjusted according to your will.|
|Eyes (THE Hadean Eyes of Infinite Sight): 100% Complete. These organs now perceive spectrums of existence that your previous classification could not access.|
|Ears (THE Hadean Ears of Infinite Hearing): 100% Complete.|
|THE Hadean Organ of Civilization: Evolved.|
|This construct, which has served as the foundation of your unprecedented progression, has undergone transformation alongside every other aspect of your existence. Its capabilities have expanded in ways that warrant careful explanation.|
|Previous capacity for refining, storing, and processing Observable Force: 8,470% above baseline Proterozoic parameters.|
|Current capacity: 1,000,000 times the capacity of a standard Bounded Lifeform.|
|You now possess the ability to process Observable Force at rates that approach, though do not yet match, what Gilded Lifeforms achieve naturally through their engineering.|
|Existential Engineering: Unlocked.|
|This capability allows you to perceive the fundamental makeup of your own existence and the existence of others. You can now see the weavings that comprise beings at their most basic level, the engineering that determines what they are and what they can become. With sufficient input of Observable Force and Quintessence Infiniforce, you possess the theoretical ability to modify these weavings, to engineer your existence and the existence of others according to your will.|
|It must be noted that this capability does not grant you the ability to transform from Bounded to Gilded classification. The more information obtained from Eon, the more such a transformation seems...impossible.|
|Through your connection to THE Secretive Eon, which has been providing Observable Force at enhanced rates throughout your transformation, her identity has been successfully ascertained through your newly unlocked Existential Engineering perception.|
|She is Ubergulden Adelheid.|
|A Gilded Lifeform. Her sealing of herself to live as Bounded, which you were previously aware of, can now be perceived. You can partially see the weavings that comprise her existence, can observe where Gilded engineering was suppressed rather than removed, can understand what she truly is beneath the limitations she chose to impose upon herself.|
...!
Noah opened his eyes again.
His pupils had changed.
Where there could be normal darkness at the center of normal irises, now there shone something else entirely.
They shone... like the singularities of an unfathomable Cause.
Oh.
Oh!!!