Chapter 4374: Collaboration and Civilizations V

Moiraine floated nearby, and around her the concept of Paradox had become tangible.

She launched a Primordial Fireball that somehow existed in multiple contradictory states...burning and frozen, present and absent, devastating and harmless...all simultaneously, until reality chose whichever outcome best suited her needs.

Her Mana Glyph of Paradox blazed behind her like a crown of impossible glory!

The Emperor Penguin descended from above, and despite everything...despite the power he now wielded, despite the Mana Glyph of Pride burning behind him like a second sun...he remained unmistakably a penguin.

His form radiated arrogance so concentrated it had become a physical force, making the air around him feel heavier with judgment.

His attacks came wrapped in disdain, as if Sigrid should feel honored to defend against them!

Who said his attacks could be avoided?!

Who said his attacks were allowed to fail?!

Who said?!

HUUM!

But the Blue Slime...

GLUB GLUB GLUB!

Its form defied simple description.

A shifting, translucent mass of blue-gold liquid that seemed to contain entire liquid Wheels of compressed Mana within its bubbly structure.

As Noah watched, the Slime merged with a Primordial Fireball.

The burning slime then surged toward Sigrid like a meteor that had somehow achieved sentience and decided to test the limits of imposed Order.

...!

Sigrid’s hand came down.

Cold. Precise. Absolute.

White light cascaded from her fingers, pure Order given form!

The burning slime stopped.

Frozen mid-surge, flames still flickering, bubbles still glubbing softly, but completely immobile as if Sigrid had reached into its fundamental code and changed every variable related to motion to zero.

"Impressive capabilities across all Second Tier subjects," RUIN/EDEN observed. "But there are four more you should see."

Noah’s gaze swept past the aerial combat, down toward the roiling surface of the Sacred Waters, and there...

Floating on waves of blue Mana, four figures that made the surrounding space ripple with their mere presence.

Henry floated with a body of wonder and pride, Nepotism flowing out of him all around as his power was ecstatic!

Malphas stood on the water’s surface calmly.

His body seemed constructed from compressed shadows and crystallized ambition, every line of his form sharp enough to cut concepts.

He wore a butler’s suit that looked woven from midnight itself, fabric that absorbed light and gave back only the suggestion of depth. Six wings spread behind him...not demonic, but something other, each feather a condensed fragment of authority that shifted between shadow and substance depending on the angle of observation.

Illusory crows surged from his form constantly!

Arch Lich Ra’Zan floated nearby, and his metamorphosis had been perhaps the most dramatic of all.

The skeletal form remained, but the bones themselves now appeared carved from compressed existential authority rather than simple calcium.

Blue-gold energy flowed through him, and his empty eye sockets blazed with flames that were the idea of fire, purified to its essential concept and given burning form.

And the Queen of Matter...

She sat cross-legged on the water’s surface in meditation, but the space around her danced with tomes and grimoires. She looked around constantly as she needed to record absolutely everything!

"These four," RUINEDEN said, "also achieved The Glorious Evolution. Prime Mana-Born Early Creatures."

New prompts materialized.

|GLORIOUS EVOLUTION - ADDITIONAL SUBJECTS|

|SUBJECTS: Henry, Malphas, Arch Lich Ra’Zan, The Queen of Matter|

|COMPLEXITY RANGE: 3.12 - 3.94 Quintillion|

|PURITY RANGE: 3.12 - 3.94 Quintillion|

Noah stood there on the golden sands, his perception drinking in every detail of the nine beings who had undergone transformation through exposure to his concentrated essence.

His people.

His Civilization!

The smile that touched Noah’s lips was small, barely there, but it carried satisfaction.

They were magnificent.

And they had no idea how much further they could go.

He took a single step forward.

PAH!

.. and existence folded.

The distance between where he stood on the beach and where he chose to be in the sky simply... ceased to matter. Space acknowledged his will and rearranged itself accordingly, placing him exactly where he intended without the inconvenient process of traversing the space between.

He manifested near Sigrid, floating in the air above the roiling Sacred Waters, and nine pairs of eyes locked onto him instantly.

The combat ceased immediately.

"Master," Malphas rose as he said, and the single word carried depths.

Noah’s gaze swept across all nine of them.

"It seems," he said, "you have all attained new power."

Then his smile widened slightly, and something shifted in his tone.

"Let us put it to the test."

The surrounding atmosphere compressed, as if reality itself was holding its breath.

"Whoever can manage to touch me..." He paused, letting the weight of the challenge settle. "I will ensure Harvest sufficient to at least double your current power."

HUUM!

The silence that followed was profound.

Double their power.

All of them wanted to utter...say less!

And then-

BOOM!

Reality fractured.

Malphas, Sigrid, and Arch Lich Ra’Zan manifested beside Noah simultaneously, each one moving at speeds that defied their massive Complexity.

Their hands extended toward his form, fingers reaching for contact that would secure impossible rewards...

WAP!

Noah was already elsewhere.

He hovered there, expression carrying mild interest.

"Even with your terrifying perception and power exceeding three Quintillion," he observed, his tone conversational, "you moved as if through thick, heavy water."

He let that settle for a moment.

He could withstand one hundred times his normal existential weight in the Cultivation Citadel. This...atmosphere felt like moving through a pleasant dream!

His smile carried challenge.

"Come. I’ve barely used a percentage of my power."

...!

The words were a detonation.

RAAA!

They erupted.

Not just the three who had initially attacked, all of them!

Henry and all others joined in!

It was coordinated. It was overwhelming. It represented the combined assault of nine Mana-Born Early Creatures whose individual power could threaten entire Folds.

And...

Noah evaded it all without apparent effort.

"BROTHER!"

He drifted between Titano’s grasp like smoke passing through grasping fingers.

All other attacks could not even reach him!

He reappeared in the center of their formation, surrounded on all sides, completely untouched.

They deployed their Mana Glyphs.

BOOOOM!

The sky erupted with concentrated authority.

Primordial Fireballs the size of buildings. Paradoxes that made causality weep. Order-based constraints that tried to rewrite the fundamental laws governing Noah’s existence...

All of it crashed toward Noah in perfect synchronization, representing the combined might of nine beings!

Noah raised one hand.

Blue light leaked from his form...not much, just a fragment of what he carried, barely registering as a percentage of his full capability.

But it was his Haki, the conceptual weight of his tyrannical authority given form, and even this shred carried pressure that made existence acknowledge its presence.

BOOM!

The blue light expanded outward in a wave.

The wave of Haki crashed into all nine Mana-Born Early Creatures simultaneously.

BOOM!

And...

SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH!

They fell.

Sigrid, despite her perfect control and Order-authority, plummeted from the sky in an arc of white-gold light.

Titano, massive and seemingly immovable, crashed through the air like a meteor.

Henry and Moiraine, for all their skill and paradoxes, tumbled before impact.

The Emperor Penguin’s Pride couldn’t prevent his descent!

The Blue Slime made distressed glubbing sounds.

Malphas’s wings crumpled. Ra’Zan’s jaws cackled, and The Queen of Matter was writing snd recording everything with a fervant expression!

They struck the Early Sacred Waters with impacts that sent geysers of blue-gold liquid erupting hundreds of feet into the air.

The beach trembled.

The sky rippled.

Noah remained hovering above them all, his form radiating casual, effortless authority.

"That," he called down, "was barely five percent of my power."

He let the words settle.

"Come on."

His visage pulsed with glorious tyranny, blue-gold light cascading from his form in waves that made the surrounding atmosphere hum with potential!

Below, nine Mana-Born Early Creatures began pulling themselves from the Sacred Waters, their expressions carrying determination.

They would try again. And again. And again, until either they succeeded or exhausted themselves in the attempt.

It was exactly what Noah had wanted to see.

—

Far away, back in the crushing pressure of the Cultivation Citadel of The Early Creature, Noah’s other body stirred from rest.

Every breath required cutting through resistance. Every thought moved through atmospheric weight that tried to slow even consciousness itself.

RUIN/EDEN’s illusory form bloomed beside him, her holographic features carrying focused intensity.

"Master," she said without preamble. "The Justiciar has made its appearance in the Transcendent Quantum Folds."

Noah’s eyes opened.

The exhaustion didn’t vanish, but his focus sharpened immediately.

This was a moment they’d been preparing form...the experiment that would reveal critical intelligence about their enemies’ operational structure.

"Timeline," he said simply.

"Moving through populated regions with systematic efficiency. Estimates suggest the massacre will begin within eight minutes."

Prompts materialized before him.

|JUSTICIAR OBSERVATION - REAL-TIME TRACKING|

|CLASSIFICATION: Enforcement Entity|

|COMPLEXITY: 1.04 Quintillion|

|CURRENT LOCATION: Transcendent Quantum Folds, Sector 7, Aeternitas Quantumavine|

Noah pulled himself to sitting position.

"Our preparations?" he asked.

"Complete," RUIN/EDEN replied. "All protocols are in place and operational."

New prompts expanded before him in layers.

|OPERATION: SHADOW THEATER|

|STATUS: Fully Deployed|

|PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: Intelligence gathering via tracking|

|SECONDARY OBJECTIVE: Zero casualties among actual population|

"Every genuine lifeform in the Justiciar’s projected path has been relocated," RUIN/EDEN continued.

"In their place," RUIN/EDEN said, "I’ve deployed sophisticated illusions. These aren’t simple visual constructs...they’re full-spectrum existential replicas utilizing your Resplendent Citadels of Dreams, Fantasia, and Illusions."

|ILLUSION SPECIFICATIONS:|

|Complexity Mimicry: Perfect replication of each target’s existential signature|

|Behavioral Authenticity: Programmed behavior patterns derived from extensive observational data|

|Sensory Response: React to all stimuli exactly as genuine beings would|

|Death Simulation: Display appropriate destruction patterns when terminated|

|Energy Signature: Generate false life-force readings indistinguishable from actual existence|

|Detection Resistance: Tested against perception abilities up to 4.5 Quintillion complexity|

|Justiciar Capability: 1.04 Quintillion - insufficient to distinguish illusion from reality|

"When the Justiciar completes its massacre," RUIN/EDEN continued, "it will be destroying sophisticated illusions while believing it’s accomplished its mission.

Noah absorbed this, his mind mapping the expected flow of events. The Justiciar would complete its task, confident in its success. And then...

"The tracking protocol," he said.

"Embedded within each illusion’s ’death energy,’" RUIN/EDEN confirmed. "When the Justiciar terminates an illusion, it will be painted with invisible Mana lines. Those signatures contain tracking elements the Justiciar cannot detect."

|TRACKING PROTOCOL:|

|Tracking Range: Unlimited|

|Information Gathered: Complete path taken, final destination, any intermediate stops|

|Expected Outcome: Direct line to Justiciar’s base of operations|

"When it returns to wherever these entities are based," RUIN/EDEN concluded, "we’ll have complete tracking data. Oh, Schrodinger and his bodies will also likely be following."

Noah nodded slowly, his muscles protesting the movement under pressure.

"The preparations are complete then," he said.

"All elements are in position," RUIN/EDEN confirmed. "We observe, we track, we learn. And we do so without sacrificing a single actual life."

Noah pulled himself fully upright, his body screaming protests against the crushing weight of the Citadel. But his eyes carried satisfaction beyond physical strain.

This was strategy operating on the scale existence demanded. Not simple combat or direct confrontation, but layered operations that turned enemy actions into intelligence gathering.

"Now," he said, his voice carrying anticipation that made the surrounding air compress slightly, "let us see the results of the experiment."

He breathed out, centering himself despite the crushing pressure.

"Let us see what glory came from... the Isolated Civilization."

HUUM!

He had given them endless Mana. The Way of Mana. And then he had stepped back, allowing them to develop independently, to find their own solutions, to forge their own path toward survival.

He wondered what they had become.

What they had built when given such a Way of Existence and resources and desperate need.

What answers they had discovered when forced to advance without his direct guidance.

His tyrannical heart pulsed with anticipation, blue-gold light leaking from his form even under the Citadel’s crushing weight.

Time to see what his people could accomplish when necessity and Infinite Mana collided!

Time to see if isolated desperation could forge solutions even he hadn’t anticipated.

Time to see just what glory would emerge from a Civilization given everything it needed except certainty!

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