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 come at a critical moment.
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 time passed, the more he understood exactly what this stage meant 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 incrementally, 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 time passed here, her consumption accelerating in response to her master’s unspoken urgency. Every moment this conversation continued was a moment his forces grew stronger.
If time 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 emerged calm and curious.
"But I will humor you and ask what exactly you mean. 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 seemed 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 seemed 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 emerged cold and precise, each word chosen with care.
"And even at this moment, you so strongly believe that everything will be okay. That you will somehow survive this encounter unscathed regardless of what occurs. You know nothing of my power or the capabilities of the two fools behind me, and yet your psyche has already deemed that whatever happens here, you will be fine."
She took another step forward.
"You have not accounted for my power, how tremendous it is, or whether I have those even more powerful than myself that I can call down at any second. You simply assume your survival because you are you."
Her singularity-dotted eyes narrowed.
"Overconfidence. A sense of self-entitlement 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 something approaching clinical observation.
"The inability to admit any faults. The certainty that your judgment 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?"
"Your entire being is already so steeped in THE Encroaching Imperiosus of Infinity that you cannot even distinguish your own mentality from its influence."
"You cannot even begin to realize when you started thinking this way. When your confidence became certainty. When your determination became arrogance. When your strength became entitlement. The transition was so gradual and so complete that you believe these thoughts are yours, that this mentality is simply who you are."
"That is THE Encroaching Imperiosus. THE Gamaidjan. The curse and cost that comes with Infinity, which every Second Scale existence playing with it has to be careful of."
"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 emerging from THE Prima Indifferentia to consume everything in their path."
"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."
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