Chapter 4883: All In III

The connection to the circular formation severed completely, and the fifth mountain began to drift away from its assigned position, no longer contributing to the defensive formation, no longer spinning with its brethren in protection of THE Hollow Echo.

Two mountains compromised!

And THE Hollow Echo’s colorless flames had dimmed noticeably, its existence weakening in direct proportion to the damage inflicted on its Manifestation.

"Enough."

The Echo’s voice was fully coherent now, unified by fury that transcended its hollow nature. Its hands and feet, all covered in Embodiment authority, launched toward Noah’s position with speed that exceeded anything it had displayed before.

But Noah was already flickering away.

The weight of the two Embodiments he’d been bearing was still pressing against his existence, but the Echo’s weakened state meant that pressure was no longer insurmountable!

He materialized at the third mountain, the one with apertures clustered too densely on one face. His Seals were already flooding out before his feet touched position, infinite authority crashing against the section that was more hole than substance.

THE Hollow Echo’s hands passed through where he’d been.

He flickered to the ninth mountain, the one with stress fractures radiating from its tip. His Seals bombarded the microscopic damage with concentrated force, turning hairline cracks into structural failures.

THE Hollow Echo’s feet swept through empty space.

He appeared at the first mountain again, targeting the now-gaping fissure with Seals filled with Undifferentiated Fate that made the crystallized colorless flame forget it had ever been solid.

The Echo’s limbs, massive and covered in Embodiment authority, crashed against positions he’d already vacated.

Again.

And again.

And again!

Noah became a blur of blue-gold light that flickered across the battlefield, never staying in one position long enough for THE Hollow Echo’s attacks to connect, always appearing at the next weakness in the Manifestation’s architecture. His speed was truly, undoubtedly that of an Absolute! His precision exceeded them!

From THE Hollow Echo’s perspective, this probably looked like masterful combat. A perfect display of superior tactics overwhelming raw power.

From Noah’s perspective, it was a lot of flickering and smashing into structures of a Civilization that even his enemy did not know existed for him to see and exploit!

Same result, very different internal experiences.

CRACK!

The third mountain’s aperture-dense face collapsed inward, the section that had been more hole than substance finally giving way entirely.

CRACK!

The ninth mountain’s tip shattered, the stress fractures that had been accumulating reaching critical failure under the assault of infinite Seals.

CRACK!

The first mountain split in half, the fissure running from tip to base finally completing its work of total structural compromise.

THE Hollow Echo’s movements were slowing.

Its colorless flames were guttering.

Its Embodiments, when it managed to launch them, had weight that Noah’s foundations could bear without strain.

And still he didn’t stop.

He appeared at mountains that hadn’t shown obvious weaknesses, and THE Civilizational Instinctus revealed them anyway. Stress points that had been too subtle to perceive initially now blazed with clarity as the overall structure weakened. Secondary vulnerabilities that had been supported by primary integrity now became primary vulnerabilities of their own.

CRACK!

The fourth mountain’s internal support structure collapsed.

CRACK!

The sixth mountain’s rotation failed entirely, the hollow peak drifting away from the formation.

CRACK!

The eighth mountain’s surface shattered like glass, revealing emptiness within emptiness.

Noah floated in the center of what had once been a domain of nine grand hollow mountains, surrounded now by the fragments and debris of structural annihilation. Broken peaks drifted through the Capillary Thread. Shattered bases tumbled end over end in slow motion. Crystallized colorless flame dissolved into proto-matter that the space between spaces eagerly absorbed.

And THE Hollow Echo stood before him, its body no longer surrounded by its Manifestation’s protection.

Because its Manifestation was ruined.

Noah looked at THE Hollow Echo with eyes that saw everything clearly, and what he saw made him understand the true nature of what he’d accomplished.

THE Hollow Echo’s body was filled with cracks.

Not surface damage, but fundamental structural and Civilizational failure that mirrored the destruction of its Manifestation. Lines of fractured existence ran across its colorless flames, dark seams where its authority had been torn throughout by the collapse of the mountains that had supported its Civilization.

Its hands, which had been so powerful moments before, now trembled with weakness that couldn’t be concealed. Its flames, which had burned with the Echo of THE Creature’s aspect, now flickered with the uncertainty of a candle in a storm.

Its Depth, or really its Civilization, had been dismantled from the foundation up.

THE Hollow Echo looked at Noah with heaviness.

"You...were not like this."

"No," Noah agreed, his voice calm in a way that transcended the violence that had just occurred. "I was not."

He floated before THE Hollow Echo with seriousness befitting the moment, his blue-gold existence burning with the light of victory that had been earned through methodology rather than raw power.

He hadn’t overpowered this Echo of THE Creature. He’d dismantled it, piece by piece, weakness by weakness, until the whole collapsed under its own compromised weight.

THE Civilizational Instinctus had proven itself.

And now came the harvest.

"Your Everything is hollow," Noah said, and the words held no cruelty, only observation. "It will never match up to THE Creature himself. You are an echo, and echoes fade."

He paused, and a small respect entered his expression.

"But...you were grand. You were grand."

...!

THE Hollow Echo received these words in silence, its cracked existence flickering with light that grew dimmer by the moment. It didn’t argue. It didn’t protest. It simply existed in the space between acknowledgment and dissolution, waiting for what came next as it was barely holding itself together.

And Noah raised his hand.

Blue-gold flames erupted from his palm as infinite Seals of Fire began to manifest in patterns that had never been attempted before. They didn’t scatter outward as attacks. They didn’t flood toward THE Hollow Echo as bombardment. Instead, they layered upon each other, compressing and concentrating into a shape that grew more defined with every passing moment.

A blade.

A massive flaming blue-gold sword forged from infinite Seals of Fire, each Seal contributing its authority to an edge that burned with heat transcending temperature. The weapon stretched for meters, its surface writhing with flames that held the linguistic weight of THE First Tongue alongside the destructive aspect of Fire itself.

Noah grasped it with both hands.

The sword felt right in his grip as this...was a tool meant for one thing.

Preparation.

He looked at THE Hollow Echo with eyes that held no malice, only determination and the practical hunger of someone who understood that opportunity must be seized fully when it presented itself.

After all, a meal was better prepared while cut.

WAA!

He brought the sword down.

The blade carved through THE Hollow Echo’s cracked existence with resistance of authority being severed rather than mere flesh being parted. The Echo’s colorless flames split around the wound, unable to reform, unable to heal. What Noah cut stayed cut because his Seals of Fire held finality that echoed the endings his Seals of Darkness had inflicted on the mountains.

He cut again.

And again.

And again.

The sword rose and fell with methodical precision, each stroke separating another portion of THE Hollow Echo from the whole.

THE Hollow Echo didn’t scream.

It had no mouth for screaming, and perhaps it had no capacity for pain in the conventional sense. But it watched as Noah worked, its fragmenting awareness perceiving its own dissolution with something that might’ve been acceptance.

This was how existence ended.

Not with defiance, but with acknowledgment that something stronger had come.

Noah continued to carve until the work was complete, until THE Hollow Echo that had once threatened to collapse him during his traversal of The Interstices was nothing but carefully separated portions floating in the space between spaces.

Then he stopped.

His sword of infinite Fire Seals dispersed, the flames returning to his existence as the weapon’s purpose had been fulfilled. He looked at what he’d prepared with satisfaction.

A pillar of silent light representing the fall of an Absolute...stretched out across The Interstices as...

’That can’t be good...’

Noah’s eyes squinted as there were monstrous beings in this place. Announcing deaths here was not something ideal.

He reached out toward the first portion, his Infinite Hunger already awakening with appetite that had grown alongside everything else about his existence!

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