Infinite Mana In The Apocalypse (WN) -
Chapter 4029: Do Nothing! V
After a moment of deliberation that felt like hours, Noah looked at the terrifying woman with caution that bordered on resignation.
"I... should have some time."
Her smile grew dangerously as she nodded.
"Let me tell you about existence, Outsider. About the real existence, before definitions and categories and all the pretty boxes that later arrivals created."
She moved.
She did not walk, she simply existed in a slightly different position...closer to him, though maintaining distance that suggested respect for his obvious wariness.
"Imagine," she began, her voice taking on the cadence of ancient glory "lifeforms waking up day in and day out, harmoniously carrying out their way of existence."
She paused, letting the words settle.
"Their Way of Existence. Not chosen, not decided, simply what they were. It was natural. It was Existence. It was theirs."
Her expression grew complex, mixing nostalgia with something that might have been sorrow if Inevitabilities could truly feel such things.
"But then, at a certain point, other lifeforms appeared. The First Lifeforms...my kind, the Original Inevitabilities, simply sought to continue their Way of Existence. We consumed because that was our nature, we devoured because that was our function, we sought Everything because that was what we were."
The landscape around them seemed to respond to her words, the obsidian ground rippling with memories older than time.
"But the new lifeforms looked at us with horror. They said our Way of Existence was wrong. Horrid. Monstrous." Her voice carried no anger, only a kind of bewildered hurt. "These new lifeforms began hunting and killing the First Lifeforms as they imposed their Way of Existence. They had all these ideals for what Existence was. What Existence should be. What the Way of Existence for everyone should be."
She looked directly at Noah then, those layered eyes containing challenge and genuine curiosity.
"Tell me, Outsider. Are these New Lifeforms not terrible? Coming later, but deeming everything before them as wrong? Deciding that the Way of Existence of those who came before them was incorrect simply because... it didn’t match their preferences?"
Her smile grew dangerous as Noah remained utterly serious, his mind racing through the implications of her words.
"Inevitabilities," she continued, "simply have their Way of Existence. It is who we are, as fundamental as gravity pulling or light illuminating. Inevitabilities have been here before THE Creature. Before Early Creatures. Before Living Existences or Fold Dwellers."
She gestured to the slumbering giants around them.
"How arrogant they are. How great the ego and tyranny of these new lifeforms to look at the Way of Existence of Inevitabilities and deem it unnatural. Don’t they know how much chaos and disorder their Ways of Existence bring forth? They create rules then break them, establish order then rebel against it, define love then wage war over it."
Her expression grew genuinely sad then, an emotion that seemed wrong on features designed for inevitability rather than feeling.
"It is... disheartening."
Noah stood frozen from the weight of perspective being forcibly shifted.
He remained silent.
He looked at a terrifying Inevitability that he absolutely was not able to classify as his existence buzzed.
The timer on his traversal showed [42:18 remaining], but he wondered if he would leave this encounter intact, regardless of when he departed!
The woman...the Inevitability, waited for his response with patience that suggested she had all the time that had ever been or would ever be!
Noah considered the words of the terrifying Inevitability before him, his mind parsing through layers of meaning that challenged fundamental assumptions. After a moment of contemplation, he spoke with careful precision.
"You may be right. Inevitabilities have their Way of Existence."
He paused, then gestured toward the slumbering giants that surrounded them like mountains of contradiction.
"But what of my Way of Existence? If I were to meet any of these Inevitabilities right now..." He pointed directly at the nearest sleeping form, its tentacles writhing even in slumber.
"Their Way of Existence would be to devour me. But my Way of Existence is to very much remain alive. To prosper. To grow."
His voice grew firmer as he continued, finding solid ground in his argument.
"So Inevitabilities would directly conflict with my Way of Existence. Who gets to determine whose Way of Existence is more important? Who decides which nature takes precedence when they clash?"
He met those layered-fold eyes without flinching, though every instinct screamed at him to look away.
"I believe my own Way of Existence to be of paramount importance...at least to me. So what am I to do if faced with the Way of Existence of an Inevitability that sees me as something to be consumed?"
The woman’s smile deepened in response, carrying the weight of secrets that predated secrets.
"But," she said, her voice lilting with amusement, "the Way of Existence of Inevitabilities does not conflict with yours or any other lifeform’s."
HUUM!
Noah blinked, his enhanced perception trying to process what seemed like an obvious contradiction. He looked around at the massive forms of sleeping Inevitabilities, then back at her with barely concealed smile.
"Ma’am, what the hell are you talking about?"
Her smile grew dangerous. "Yes, Inevitabilities seek Everything, but... not really. I could even show you here, if you trust me."
...!
Did he trust an Inevitability? The answer was absolutely, categorically, fundamentally not.
Yet even as every fiber of his being screamed rejection, the woman tapped one delicate finger against the obsidian ground.
The sound that resulted shouldn’t have been audible, yet it rang through the space like a bell that existed before sound.
One of the rumbling bodies stirred.
An Inevitability arose!
Ah!
The Inevitability that rose from slumber defied rational observation. Its form was contradiction incarnate...simultaneously massive and minuscule, ancient and newly born, terrible and beautiful.
Tentacles that might have been arms that might have been concepts writhed from a central mass that couldn’t decide if it was flesh or thought or the space between both.
But it was the eyes that commanded attention. Hundreds of them, thousands, each one containing a different definition of sight. They all turned toward Noah with the weight of inevitable attention.
The wild and terrifying aura that erupted from it exceeded any Duke he had encountered.
Noah knew with absolute certainty that he could not outrun this thing. Even the instant it would take to activate his return to the present wouldn’t be fast enough.
"Here," the woman said with the calm of someone conducting a lesson, "is an Inevitability whose Way of Existence is to devour Everything."
The creature began moving toward them...toward Noah with purpose that transcended simple hunger.
"When it sees you, it will come to devour. All I ask you to do... is nothing." Her words were delivered with the certainty of someone stating fundamental law. "Do not make a movement. Do not fight back."
HUUM!
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