Chapter 4880: THE Civilizational Instinctus! II

|In battle, THE Civilizational Instinctus transforms combat from an exchange of power into an architectural demolition for you. You no longer fight your opponent directly but rather fight the structure of their existence, seeking to topple their Civilization piece by piece until the whole collapses under its own compromised weight.|

|This methodology is particularly effective against opponents of greater Depth than yourself. Where direct confrontation would favor their superior weight, structural targeting allows you to circumvent that advantage entirely. You do not need to overpower their walls when you can simply remove the foundations those walls rest upon.|

|Against Absolutes, this capability represents your primary path to victory. Their Depth exceeds yours, but their Civilizations possess vulnerabilities accumulated across eons of existence. The older and grander a Civilization, the more points of failure may have developed within its structure if its foundations are weak.|

A path to victory against Absolutes!

Not through matching their power directly, but through exploiting weaknesses that their power couldn’t protect them from!

|Passive Benefit: Existential Proprioception|

|You now possess perfect awareness of your own Civilization’s Manifestation and its structural integrity. You perceive your own weaknesses as clearly as you perceive others’, allowing you to shore up vulnerabilities before enemies can exploit them. Your existence instinctively reinforces stressed points and redistributes weight to prevent collapse.|

|This self-awareness also grants immunity to being analyzed by others possessing similar capabilities. Your Infinities create a shroud of endless variation around your Manifestation, making it impossible for observers to perceive any single configuration long enough to identify weaknesses. What they see changes faster than they can process.|

So he could see himself as clearly as he could see others, but others couldn’t see him in return.

His Infinities protected him from the very capability he now possessed, creating a one-way mirror where he could observe without being observed.

|Scaling Parameters|

|THE Civilizational Instinctus grows more potent as your foundations increase. At current weight of 11x Surface, 10.5x Intermediate, and equivalent Fundamental to THE Primordial Paradox, you can clearly observe Manifestations of beings up to weak and average Absolute classification. Stronger Absolutes appear blurred, their Manifestations only partially visible.|

|As your weight increases, so too does the clarity of your observation. At weight equivalent to standard Absolutes, you would perceive their Manifestations with perfect clarity. At weight exceeding Absolutes, you would begin perceiving hints of Manifestations belonging to entities approaching THE Second Scale.|

|There is no theoretical ceiling to this capability. As your Infinite Formless Depth grows without limit, so too does THE Civilizational Instinctus’ reach.|

|Activation Requirements|

|THE Civilizational Instinctus requires no conscious activation for its autonomous response function. Your existence will react instinctively to threats regardless of your attention or awareness.|

|For Manifestation observation and structural analysis, focused attention is required. You must intentionally observe an entity with the purpose of perceiving their Civilization’s architecture. Casual glances reveal nothing. Dedicated focus reveals everything.|

|For targeted undifferentiation, you must have first identified a specific vulnerability and then direct your attacks with that weakness as the intended target. Unfocused attacks carry no structural targeting benefits. If you cannot even get near your enemy, even if you see their weakness, you will be unable to do anything.|

That last line was important.

Seeing weaknesses meant nothing if he couldn’t reach them. THE Civilizational Instinctus wasn’t omnipotence. It was a tool, and like all tools, it had limitations that he would need to account for in actual combat.

|Historical Context|

|THE Civilizational Instinctus has only been achieved by beings approaching THE Second Scale of Existence, and you are ridiculously far from that.|

|You are the first being in Observable Existence below Absolute to achieve any form of THE Civilizational Instinctus.|

...!

The first below Absolute!

Another unprecedented achievement to add to a growing list of unprecedented achievements!

|Final Assessment|

|The Spark Fragment of THE First Cause has granted you three boons. First, the elevation of your foundations. Second, the Echo of First Cause prophecy that illuminates potential futures. Third, THE Civilizational Instinctus that transforms how you perceive and observe the Civilizations.|

...!

The possibilities were far too grand as Noah processed everything he had just learned.

And yes, he felt like he could truly see now.

When he looked at himself with his newly enhanced perception, he saw the phantom of his own Civilizational Manifestation unfurling before his awareness.

A massive Grimoire floated at the center of everything, its pages infinite and its cover burning with blue-gold light that painted the surrounding space in colors that spoke of boundless potential. Surrounding this Grimoire were Seals that formed a structure resembling a massive infinity symbol, the lemniscate shape wrapping around the book in endless loops.

Three massive pillars of foundation rose up endlessly from below, representing his Surface, Intermediate, and Fundamental Depths. They connected down to a radiant shore where vibrant blue-gold fields stretched toward horizons that couldn’t be perceived and trees shimmered with stellar brilliance that spoke of Civilizations planted and nurtured.

And at the very center of it all, a massive crimson blue-gold bonfire shone with the light of his Infinite Hunger combined with his core Infinite Undifferentiated Fate. Its embers flowed upward in an endless stream, inscribing themselves on the infinite pages of the Grimoire above before cycling back down to fuel the fire once more.

An endless cycle of growth and inscription and growth again.

|Self-Analysis Complete|

|Your Manifestation displays no observable weaknesses at this time|

|The integration of Infinity across all aspects of your Civilization has created a structure that shifts faster than vulnerabilities can form|

|Any stress point that begins to develop is immediately reinforced by your Infinities before it can become exploitable|

|This does not mean you are invincible|

|It means that THE Civilizational Instinctus cannot identify targets for structural attack against your current configuration|

|Enemies will need to rely on overwhelming force rather than precision targeting to harm you|

Noah looked at all of this as he felt a sense of calmness and Immensity settling over his existence.

He had become something truly unprecedented during this Temporal Traversal!

But first, he needed to get back.

As his body continued to tumble across existence, carried by weavings that had no destination, he sought to find an anchor between definition and undefinition that would allow him to return to reality. He needed something that existed in both states simultaneously, something that could serve as a bridge between where he was and where he needed to be.

When he thought of THE Infiniverse, existence fizzled around him as the coordinates failed to lock.

When he thought of THE Agora of Primordial Judgment, the same fizzling occurred.

When he thought of Alfheimr or Ginnungagap or any other locations in his time, nothing took hold.

None of them were both defined and undefined in their stability.

None of them could serve as anchors for whatever strange space he was currently traversing.

He just needed entry to something that existed in both states, something that would anchor him to The Interstices, and from The Interstices he could navigate back to wherever he needed to go.

Something defined and undefined...

His eyes and existence that could now see many things shone with sudden realization as a candidate emerged in his mind. Something he had encountered before. Something that had nearly ended his journey through The Interstices the first time he had traveled them.

"O Hollow Echo, are you not defined and undefined? You are not THE Creature, and yet you are..."

HUUM!

Around him, existence flickered with recognition.

And this time, things did not fizzle.

The coordinates locked onto something that existed as both an echo and a presence, both a memory and a reality, both defined by what it had been and undefined by what it currently was.

He felt Temporal Traversal activating, his body instantly squeezing across existence as the weavings of definition and undefinition found their anchor point and began funneling him toward it with purpose that had been lacking moments before.

WAP!

Noah arrived back in The Interstices.

He found himself inside a Capillary Thread, one of the countless pathways that connected moments across time. Things would normally be dark and mystical here, the undefined space between spaces holding only shadows and potential.

But he could see now.

THE Civilizational Instinctus illuminated everything with clarity, showing him the structure of The Interstices themselves, the weavings of temporal authority that connected many things, the fabric of reality that made his journey possible.

And far ahead of him, the target he had been able to lock onto to bring himself back...

THE Hollow Echo of THE Creature turned around to observe him.

Its form was massive, a distorted reflection of THE Creature himself, burning with multicolored flames that flickered between presence and absence.

It observed him coldly, recognizing the being who had fled from it before.

Noah looked at THE Hollow Echo with a cold and glorious light in his eyes, his existence burning with blue-gold Infinities that painted the Capillary Thread in colors.

This time, he did not run away.

He did not run away.

His Civilizational Instinctus activated as he focused on THE Hollow Echo with dedicated attention, and for the first time, he saw what lay behind the multicolored flames.

He saw the Manifestation of an echo.

He saw the cracks in a foundation that had been hollow from the moment of its creation.

He saw weaknesses that no one had ever perceived because no one had ever looked at this thing with eyes that could truly see.

And Noah looked at this thing seriously.

"I believe...you and I have unfinished business."

...!

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