The Primordial Architect, Naldine, had decided to drop a number of information bombs all at one point.
Noah’s mind processed them instantly, racing through implications faster than most beings could form coherent thought. The biggest thing settling into his awareness was the idea that he could be ruining all of his family by granting them Infinity. He had inherently given them Bounded Countable Infinity, including even someone like THE Primordial Paradox.
Bounded.
He had inherently set limitations upon it, and anything bounded was not true Infinity. Was this why he had not noticed any problems whatsoever? Was the very act of bounding what he shared the mechanism that protected those he cared about from THE Gamaidjan’s corruption?
He had another one of his bodies begin to follow up on this thoroughly, that instance already reaching out to examine the foundations of those who had received his gifts. Meanwhile, he focused on the other side of the information Naldine had provided.
THE Proterozoic Scale of Existence. THE Second Scale of Existence!
Beings at this stage who had made their Civilizations enough of an Anchor were all proceeding on the path of almost integrating Infinity into what their Civilizations could do. If they had access to it, they would also be integrating THE Primordial Source, but that seemed even more unheard of compared to Infinity. Even Noah did not know where to begin with it.
The critical point remained that entities of this stage were all vying carefully for Infinity, and he was someone with a very long and unique relationship with that endless authority.
He looked at the Primordial Architect before him.
"I am grand but I am also not. Beowulf, Horus, and any others, they would what... try and break down my existence? Take my organs to transplant them into themselves? Use me as a battery?"
He asked these questions casually, as if discussing the weather rather than his potential vivisection. Naldine looked him up and down before replying with equal calm.
"That would just be the start. Using you to bring about the Splintering of Observable Existence would also be another, as it would return boundless potential back. Infinity in its natural state, when it would be so much easier to utilize to transform themselves."
...!
Heavy silence settled across their surroundings as Noah looked out and observed the multicolored rain falling all around them.
The Pluvial Epoch of Existential Infinity had transformed Jotunheim into something beyond recognition. Rivers of rainfall cascaded across the landscape in formations resembling multicolored galaxies, each droplet containing swirls of authority that caught light in ways normal precipitation never could.
Blues and golds and purples and colors without names spiraled through the descending waters, creating patterns that shifted and reformed with each passing moment. Where the rain pooled, it formed seas of liquid starlight, constellations drowning in themselves while new ones emerged from the depths.
Noah smiled as he raised his hands to feel the raindrops on his skin.
"With all this rain, with The Pluvial Epoch of Existential Infinity, Infinity will be more than abundant across existence. Can they not dip their feet into this?"
Naldine Manthon brought her own hands up to feel the rain as she considered his question.
"This is a type of Infinity. Your Infinity. All of us at THE Proterozoic Scale are very individualized. We know dipping into this means giving you power, or even incorporating your power into ourselves. We would be skewering ourselves and harming ourselves when it comes to you."
She let rain collect in her palm before continuing.
"Should the day come where a Proterozoic Scale Being faces you and they have your Infinity utilized to make any Proterozoic Bones or Organs, can you not control them or easily face them? How did you get past Beowulf? Did he not have the corrupted proto-matter filled with Infinity around him?"
Her singularity-dotted eyes fixed on him.
"He was not stupid enough to take it inside him. Your Infinity is your Infinity. What we all seek to cultivate is our own individualized Infinity. We Anchor, protect ourselves, and we then begin the First Transformation. Slowly, arduously, steadily. Because any wrong step means death."
"..."
Noah listened quietly while observing the multicolored rain.
Never across his existence had he put his safety in the hands of another and hoped everything would be okay. As always, he would move to protect himself with his own power. But there was also no harm in getting powerful helpers or allies, as they could be auxiliary.
His teacher, Ul’moreth, had taught him much in Ginnungagap. Lumivara had kept him company. The Fisherman, Ains, had sacrificed for him. Having others around was never a bad thing.
So he turned to Naldine with eyes holding genuine curiosity.
"Why do you not try to eat me whole? Break me down to understand why I am the way I am? What makes you so righteous?"
He looked at this Primordial Architect as she looked back at him calmly, her response emerging with ominous certainty.
"Because I have heard far too many whispers and Echoes. I will never take you or your Infinity inside me. I will refine, advance, and do what I have been doing long before I met you."
She stood straighter amidst the multicolored rainfall.
"What you are and stand for is of help to me of course. I have been exposed to more Infinity in these last moments than ever before. But it only makes me more certain in my own Civilization of Limitless Existence and its boundless nature. It makes me sure of my path, as even without you..."
Her voice rose with conviction that pressed against the falling rain itself.
"I Am GRAND. For I have already forged THE Limitless Armature."
HUUM!
As she spoke these words, Naldine raised her right hand.
Her entire arm, from fingertips up through her shoulder, began to shine with gorgeous stellar white-gold brilliance that made the multicolored rainfall seem dim by comparison. The flesh became transparent, revealing what lay beneath, and Noah found himself staring at something that redefined his understanding of Civilization.
Her phalanges blazed first, fourteen bones of her fingers arranged in configurations that spoke of precision beyond mortal comprehension. Each one had been transformed into crystallized Civilization, white-gold structures containing patterns of Limitless Existence woven into their very marrow. Her metacarpals followed, five bones connecting fingers to wrist, each one a pillar of authority that declared boundaries were suggestions rather than rules.
Her radius and ulna shone next, the twin bones of her forearm running parallel like railroad tracks leading toward transcendence!

Her humerus blazed brightest of all, the single bone of her upper arm serving as the anchor point for everything below. It connected to her shoulder through a joint that functioned as nexus between transformed and untransformed existence, the boundary between what she had completed and what she had yet to achieve.
Intricately, between every gap, that unique natural Infinity had been woven into the structure until it seemed inseparable from the Civilization itself.
Those bones looked so pristine, so perfect, so utterly beyond anything he had encountered at THE First Scale. He couldn’t help but focus on the largest shining white-gold bone, her humerus blazing like a captured star. His fingers stretched toward it, inches away, and he could feel the Quintessence Infiniforce within him responding to what it perceived.
"Stay back."
CRACK!
Jotunheim split in half.
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