Chapter 4198: Powerful! II

Noah smiled, his attention returning to Khor.

"What changes have been made to the capabilities of the Sacred Totems?"

Khor’s smile turned brilliant, all pretense of guilt vanishing.

"Beforehand, you could call out to Land Lifeforms...unique creatures with an intricate connection to an Early Veiled Shore, a tradition dating back to their first design by THE Creature and THE Living Existences. But now," she giggled, a sound that made the air itself seem to bubble with mischief, "in addition to Land Lifeforms... huhu, you may be able to call something out from even the Earliest Folds and force it to be bound as an Early Living Land Lifeform!"

BOOM!

The words were a thunderclap in the quiet of Noah’s mind. To summon a being from that primordial era, a place where the rules of existence were still being written, and bind it to his service... it was a power that defied many other powers!

His gaze swept across the Radiant Shore, at the dozens of Sacred Totems that rose like lighthouses of white-gold and obsidian, their light reaching into dimensions he was only just beginning to comprehend.

He closed his eyes, sensing his Early Atlas of the Folds. The weavings of Cheats were still at work, its golden light moving across his internal star chart, relentlessly pushing more of his Towers of Osmont toward the Third Stage.

As of this moment, all one hundred and fifty-nine of them had achieved the Second Stage.

When he rang one, the others would resonate. What impossible creature would answer such a call? He didn’t need to guess!

He began to walk, his steps sure and steady, toward a tower that pulsed with a particular, arrogant brilliance.

The Sacred Totem of Cheats. Since that authority had been working so tirelessly on his behalf, he wanted to see what ringing its bell would achieve!

Khor floated along beside him.

He glanced at her, at this being of impossible power who had so freely given him these world-altering upgrades. "You continue to help me freely, even without being asked. How do you want to be repaid?"

At his words, Khor frowned, a look of genuine offense on her ancient, youthful face.

"Outsider, when your Moiraine or your Infiniverse or your Ruination help you, do you consider how to repay them? No. You consider them part of your forces... even as your family. There is no obligation of reciprocation there, is there?"

She paused, her expression softening. "Besides, you already planted my seed and allowed me to come back from collapse. If we start thinking in this manner, maybe it is me who still needs to repay you greatly. We can begin to think like that. Or..." She hummed, a thoughtful, melodic note. "We can simply... be, Outsider. After all, you and I are tied together now, are we not?"

...!

Noah couldn’t help but smile.

He reached the bottom of the massive, white-gold tower, its surface shimmering with a light that seemed to bend the rules of physics.

He looked at Khor, at her mischievous eyes.

"Tied together with The First Hunger. Okay," he said, his voice a low, resonant promise. "Let’s accomplish some ridiculous things."

WAA!

He began to climb. The steps of the tower spiraled upward, each one a testament to the concept of bypassing limitations.

As he ascended, his mind was a whirlwind of thought.

In the Transcenent Origin Folds, the endless tide of The Dead was sweeping in. The Veil was thinning. The signs were all there, pointing toward the coming Fallout, the event that even THE Living Paradox sought to escape.

He felt as if he were in a race against time itself, a race where the finish line was unknown and the stakes were absolute.

But depending on how much time he had, he had the utmost confidence in his survival, and the survival of all those under him.

The only problem was, this time around, he truly did not know how much time there was.

So he could only move forward. He could only be desperate!

He reached the top of the tower, the air here humming with the raw, untamed authority of Cheats.

He stood before the massive, crystalline bell, ready to toll it, ready to call forth something grand. His body became wreathed in the bloody purple flames of his Haki, his Heart pulsing with a powerful, tyrannical rhythm!

He would call out, and something from the deepest, most impossible corners of existence would answer!

At the apex of the Tower of Cheats, reality itself seemed to hold its breath.

The structure was a monument of white-gold, a defiant statement against the very concept of limitation, and at its summit, a brilliant bell of the same material hung in perfect, silent stillness.

Beside it, a golden rope, woven from threads of pure possibility, dangled from an anchor point that existed in more dimensions than were strictly necessary. It waited not to be pulled, but to be commanded!

Noah stood before it, his form a tempest of contained power. The bloody purple flames of his Haki coiled around his muscles, a royal conflagration that danced with the rhythm of his impossibly powerful Heart.

He was a being forged in the crucible of desperation, and in his eyes, there was a cold, tyrannical fire that had burned away all traces of the man he once was. He looked at the rope, at the bell, and he knew what needed to be done.

He reached out, his hand grasping the golden rope. The moment his fingers made contact, a shockwave of his will erupted across the Radiant Shore!

On all 159 other Sacred Totems, from the Tower of Quintessence to the Tower of Tyranny, illusory hands of bloody purple flame materialized, each one taking hold of a golden rope. He was not just ringing a bell; he was conducting a symphony!

If it had been before...before he had poured his very essence, his Complexity, his Purity, his Everything of Size into his heart- this act would have been an arduous, draining struggle. But now?

"Toll for me," he spoke, his voice not a request, but a tyrannical command!

BOOM!

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