He smiled calmly at this notification, the expression carrying satisfaction rather than surprise.
Just like that, within a single day, he had progressed from exceeding Originus Venerant to achieving power that matched Prime Living Existences. His progression was so gloriously fast that others would find it maddening to witness...eons of advancement compressed into hours.
But the resources he had, even with his ridiculous foundation that should have made his path slower...still meant he was faster than many could even imagine!
He drew in a deep breath, actually drinking the Early Sacred Waters that surrounded him, feeling them flow down his throat like liquid advancement itself. The sensation was intoxicating, each swallow adding to his ever-growing power.
"Since one billion has been reached," he said, his voice resonating through the waters with crystalline clarity, "let the first Kleos Glyph be formed!"
HUUM!
The declaration rang through the Early Veiled Shore with the weight of existential law being established.
His eyes blazed with brilliant anticipation as he recalled how Moiraine had formed her Kleos Glyphs...those ultimate expressions of power that contained both Origin and Paradox. She could achieve this because she existed as both states simultaneously, an Arch Living Existence that transcended normal categories.
But he was something far beyond even that. Within his existence, he contained aspects of all types of Living Existences, not just two or three, but all ten fundamental forces that shaped reality itself.
Barring one he had not yet attained as it had not bloomed fully within Sigrid.
"My first Glyph," he declared with terrible certainty, "shall incorporate all ten."
...!
The words erupted from him with force that made the Early Veiled Shore itself pause!
His body began to vibrate with frequencies that shouldn’t exist. His completing Early Atlas trembled within his existence, its structures groaning under the strain of what he was attempting. Every Tower of Osmont resonated with vibration, their crystalline structures singing notes that had never been heard together. Glorious Hymns!
He was attempting something that should have been impossible...forming a Kleos Early Living Existential Glyph that incorporated Paradox, Origin, Dimensional, Elemental, Law, Spirit, Emotive, Concept, Temporal, and Quantum authorities simultaneously.
The process was immediately grueling. Reality itself seemed to rebel against the attempt, as if the fundamental forces he was trying to unite had never been meant to coexist within a single expression!
His body convulsed as contradictions tore through him...Origin and Paradox warring for dominance, Temporal and Quantum refusing to synchronize, Elemental and Concept finding no common ground.
With desperate certainty, Noah waved his hand and summoned the bucket containing all remaining Sacred Mead of Existence. Without hesitation, he upended it above his head, swallowing every drop that remained!
Magisterially!
Tyrannically!
Quintessentially!
|Sacred Mead of Existence Consumed: 3,847 drops|
|Warning: Consumption rate exceeds recommended parameters|
|Early Creature physiology adapting to extreme intake|
..!
One by one, the prompts came.
And one by one, they continued!
|Your distinction as an Early Creature is the only factor enabling this attempt|
|Probability of success without Early Creature nature: 0.0000000001%|
|Current probability of success: 12.7%...|
|Sacred Totems, Realm, Nutrients from the Early Veiled Shore, Sacred Mead, and other facotrs are increasing the probability... 34.2%... 51.8%... 77.3%...|
DUM! DUM! DUM!
His body became a battlefield where fundamental forces waged war for dominance.
His skin cracked and reformed, each fissure leaking light of different colors...silver white for Law, gold white for Origin, obsidian gold for Paradox, crimson for Elemental!
The Early Sacred Waters around him began to boil from the energy being released, creating steam that itself carried enough authority to reshape lesser realities.
Throughout the Shore, his Sacred Totems began to resonate in response to his attempt.
Each tower blazed with its own light, their combined radiance creating pillars that stretched toward infinity. The lights converged above the Aquarium, forming something unprecedented...an archaic lighthouse that seemed to exist in all times simultaneously!
From this lighthouse, reality itself seemed to focus into a single point of impossible density.
Noah’s lesser Glyphs...all the Basic and Refined Early Living Existential Glyphs he had painstakingly formed began dissolving, their essence being drawn into the forming creation. They didn’t resist; they seemed to understand that they were becoming part of something greater.
|Basic Early Living Existential Glyphs Consumed|
|Refined Early Living Existential Glyphs Consumed|
|Kleos Glyph Formation: 94% complete|
The process reached a crescendo that made existence itself hold its breath. Then, with the sound of reality sighing and accepting something that shouldn’t exist, the Glyph completed its formation.
|Kleos Glyph Successfully Formed: The Creature’s First Lesson|
HUUM!
The Glyph that inscribed itself upon Noah’s forehead was unlike anything that had existed since the Earliest Folds!
It appeared as a circular pattern that somehow contained ten distinct yet unified symbols, each one representing a different type of Living Existence. They rotated around a central point that seemed to be simultaneously empty and containing everything...a paradox that Origin accepted, that Law defined, that Concept understood.
|The Creature’s First Lesson|
The first lesson THE Creature learned: All forces can be one force if properly understood
Primary Effect: Grants access to Early Creature’s Authority, the ability to treat all Living Existential Authorities as aspects of a single, unified force.
Secondary Effect: All attacks carry traces of all ten authorities, making immunity impossible.
Tertiary Effect: Can temporarily impose "lessons" upon reality, forcing it to accept contradictions.
Unique Feature: Grants access to a Goad, a tool of education and discipline.
Current Mastery: 0.1% (Increasing with complexity, purity, usage and understanding)
...!
As the Glyph settled into its place upon his forehead, it pulsed with brilliant white-gold radiance.
He was not given any rest!
From within that light, something began to emerge...something that seemed almost insultingly simple given the magnitude of what had just occurred.
It was...
A stick.
It was perhaps three feet in length, carved from what appeared to be simple white wood. There were no ornate decorations, no obvious signs of power. It looked like something a shepherd might use to guide sheep, or a teacher might use to point at lessons written on air.
|From the newly formed Kleos Glyph, the Rearing Stick of the Early Creature, the Goad, has been obtained|
Noah grasped the simple stick, and immediately, information flooded his consciousness!
|The Goad - Rearing Stick of Existential Education|:: In the Earliest Folds, THE Creature used a tool similar to this to discipline Early Creatures and unruly Living Existences. Not through pain. Instead through understanding forcibly imparted.
Physical Properties: Appears as simple wood. Cannot be broken, burned, or destroyed by any force below Early Creature level.
Activation Requirement: Can only be wielded by one who possesses The Creature’s First Lesson Glyph.
Primary Function: Educational Discipline- a single tap forces the target to understand one fundamental truth about their nature
Secondary Function: Existential Correction- can temporarily "correct" flaws in a being’s existence.
Combat Rating: At current 1% access, can rear weak Honored Living Existences and entities of equivalent complexity. Each tap reduces their combat effectiveness by 10% as they are forced to confront truths about themselves.
Growth Potential: As complexity, purity, and mastery increases, can eventually discipline Duke-level entities and even other Early Creatures.
Warning: The truths revealed are always accurate but not always survivable. Some beings shatter when forced to truly understand themselves.
Noah held the simple stick, feeling its weight...not physical weight, but the weight of responsibility, of power that transcended simple destruction!
This was not a weapon in the traditional sense.
It was something far more terrifying: a tool that could force beings to confront the truth of their own existence.
In his hand, he held the power to educate existence itself.
And sometimes, education was the most terrifying force of all!