Chapter 5100: Experimentation I

Noah gazed toward Ozymandias.

His second body floated nearby in that transformed obsidian form, crystalline structures now visible beneath flesh that radiated the same golden brilliance his primary body displayed. They had undergone the same evolution through the same cycles of destruction and rebirth, both existences now Hadean in classification.

He sent the command through THE Hadean Organ of Civilization.

Ozymandias dissolved into streams of blue gold light that flowed across the tumultuous seas of Observable Force surrounding them. Those streams entered Noah’s chest, returning to THE Hadean Desmoterion where the titanic form would cultivate until needed again.

Noah looked at his hands.

Golden light still pressed outward through skin that seemed luminescent rather than merely fair. Everything about his existence felt different now, grander in ways he was still learning to comprehend.

Just what had his power reached at this time?

And what did it truly mean to be a Hadean Lifeform?

He turned his attention inward, directing his question inward.

"Ruination...am I still considered a Bounded Lifeform?"

The response came calmly.

|I find myself perceiving and obtaining information from our surroundings at rates that exceed my previous capacity by factors I am still calculating. Dozens of times faster, certainly. Dozens of times denser in the quality of what I can observe. The transformation you have undergone has elevated my own capabilities tremendously.|

A pause that felt contemplative rather than hesitant.

|As for your question regarding classification, the answer is not as simple as you might hope. You cannot be considered a Bounded Lifeform any longer. The limitations that define Bounded existence, the ceilings engineered into their foundations, the restrictions that prevent them from accessing Observable Force at densities reserved for higher classifications, none of these apply to you in your current state.|

|However, you are not a Gilded Lifeform either. The engineering that distinguishes Gilded from Bounded was not something you possessed at birth, and becoming Hadean has not retroactively granted you that engineering. You have achieved something else entirely, something that exists in territories I do not have sufficient reference points to map with confidence.|

|Even saying you exist between Bounded and Gilded may not be entirely accurate. You are Hadean. This classification seems to operate according to principles that do not align neatly with the spectrum that places Bounded at one end and Gilded at the other. It is rather difficult to measure your current state in terms of difference between those two categories.|

|What I can state definitively is this: as of right now, you remain lower than a Gilded Lifeform such as Ubergulden Adelheid. Her engineering grants her advantages that your transformation, impressive as it is, has not replicated. But the gap between you and such entities has narrowed considerably, and given your trajectory, I would not assume that gap to be permanent.|

...!

Right.

Ubergulden Adelheid.

Noah let that name roll through his awareness with consideration it deserved. Such a strange and grand name for someone who had presented herself as THE Secretive Eon, who had sealed her Gilded nature to live as Bounded. The cadence of the name suggested origins and traditions he knew nothing about, cultures among THE Gilded that existed beyond what his current knowledge could encompass.

She had been providing him Observable Force throughout his transformation. That connection still pulsed with warmth.

"Tell me more about her," Noah said. "About Ubergulden Adelheid and what you’ve learned through our connection."

|I have been conducting a silent and secret analysis of her existence through the link she established, and I am pleased to report that sufficient examination has been completed to allow for meaningful interaction. Her engineering remains perceivable to your newly unlocked Existential Engineering capability.|

|Most relevantly for your immediate circumstances, you now possess the ability to communicate with her directly. The connection she established flows in both directions, and with your enhanced processing capabilities, you can easily send a message through that link for her to hear. Whether she chooses to respond, of course, remains her decision to make.|

...!

Well, that was something.

He filed that capability away for future use, recognizing that such communication would need to be approached with care given how little he still understood about her.

While he was thinking about all of this, movement drew his attention outward.

Naldine Manthon floated toward him through the tumultuous seas of Observable Force. Her singularity-dotted eyes blazed with intensity, ancient perception clearly working through what she was observing. She circled him slowly, her radiant white hair trailing behind her as she moved, her expression holding something between fascination and confusion.

She reached out and lifted his arm.

Her fingers pressed against his transformed flesh as if testing its composition, as if checking whether his structure matched what her senses were telling her. She turned his hand over, examined his palm, traced lines across his skin that seemed to follow pathways only she could perceive.

"What... are you, really?"

The question emerged with genuine bewilderment that she didn’t bother concealing.

Noah smiled at the familiar inquiry. He felt like he had been asked this before, many times, by entities across various classifications who couldn’t reconcile what they observed with what they understood to be possible.

Now Naldine Manthon asked the same question with the same inability to find satisfying answers.

He clenched his fist, feeling the power that coursed through transformed flesh and Hadean bone.

"You can help me find out."

His voice hels confidence that pressed against the surrounding seas of Observable Force.

"I need to test the extent of my new power, and you might make a good sparring partner."

...!

Naldine’s eyes became sharp at these words. The Vihuela formed from her own arm began to hum with authority that announced her classification to everything nearby.

Before she could reply, movement from another direction drew both their attention.

THE Primordial Paradox floated toward them through the multicolored seas, his massive obsidian form cutting through the tumultuous Observable Force. Behind him, pulled by chains of paradoxical light, Schrodinger’s Tomb drifted in his wake. Sammarthiel remained trapped within that uncertainty, flickering between alive and dead without resolution.

The ancient being looked at Noah with seriousness that his obsidian features somehow conveyed despite their inhuman nature.

"Youngest."

His voice pressed against everything nearby.

"I have returned after eons of absence, and I have much to catch up on in Helheim among other places. Old debts to collect or repay depending on how the accounting has shifted during my imprisonment."

He paused, his gaze holding something that might have been respect.

"I will keep in touch."

Noah nodded at him with a smile.

"Stay safe," Noah said. "For existence is vast and full of terrors."

...!

THE Primordial Paradox laughed at such words as he had said them himself what seemed like eons ago!

His obsidian form shook with that laughter, paradoxical light flickering across his features.

"Indeed it is, Youngest. Indeed it is!"

He turned away, pulling on the chains that connected him to Schrodinger’s Tomb. The massive prison of uncertainty drifted behind him as he moved toward the edge of the tumultuous seas, toward regions where the multicolored rain of THE Pluvial Epoch fell with intensity.

And then he disappeared into that rain, his obsidian form swallowed by cascading brilliance while dragging a Rhyacian Tier Primordial Architect trapped in paradoxical uncertainty behind him.

Alexander looked between Noah and Naldine.

His Enneagram pulsed with the dangerous light it had held since completing his work on Beowulf, nine points blazing with authority that seemed more substantial than it had been before this battle began. The network of Second Scale Existential Nociceptors now integrated into his existence hummed with potential that would take time to fully realize.

He let out a sigh of peace.

It was a strange sound coming from someone who had spent millions of subjective years being tortured, someone whose entire existence had been defined by agony inflicted by the entity now imprisoned within Noah’s chest. But the sigh carried contentment.

"I know my limits and what can happen now."

His voice held calm that matched the peaceful sigh.

"While I won’t do too much, won’t overextend myself into situations I can’t handle, I feel like hunting Primordial Architects. There are many across Observable Existence who operate like Beowulf did. Many who deserve what I will bring to them."

His eyes met Noah’s with understanding that didn’t require elaboration.

"If I meet a wall that is too sturdy, I will let you know."

Noah nodded at these words with a smile. Alexander had his own path now, his own trajectory that would carry him toward heights that most couldn’t imagine reaching. The receptors of a Second Scale entity transplanted into his existence would provide advantages others couldn’t imagine as his foundation!

"Hunt well," Noah said simply.

Alexander turned and walked into the multicolored seas surrounding them. His figure moved through the tumultuous Observable Force with purpose, his form gradually becoming obscured as endless rain buffeted his existence from every direction. THE Pluvial Epoch’s downpour swallowed him just as it had swallowed THE Primordial Paradox, leaving no trace of his passage.

Noah watched him go.

With the receptors of a Second Scale transplanted into him, Alexander’s power would be experiencing a tremendous curve. He simply had to avoid meeting ridiculous adversity like Horus and Beowulf had represented, entities who exceeded him so vastly that even his new advantages couldn’t bridge the gap.

But he had his own path.

And that path was his to walk.

Only Noah and Naldine remained in this region now.

The tumultuous seas of Observable Force churned around them, golden brilliance mixing with multicolored Quintessence Infiniforce. The typhoons still spiraled in the distance. The lightning still arced between storm systems. And two beings floated at the center of it all, one newly transformed and one ancient beyond comprehension.

Noah turned to face Naldine fully.

"Are you ready, Naldine Manthon?"

His voice carried challenge that pressed against her existence!

"You have always been so high and mighty, looking at me from classifications I couldn’t reach, speaking of dangers I couldn’t understand. I wish to see if I am still far from you, or whether in our short time together, I have gone ahead of you."

...!

He smiled devilishly as he said this. His multicolored hair blazed brighter. His golden skin illuminated with intensity that made looking at him difficult!

His pupils, shining like singularities of an unfathomable Cause, fixed upon her with attention that didn’t waver.

Naldine looked at him with sharp eyes.

The Vihuela in her hands buzzed with authority that exceeded what she had displayed during the battle against Grimvault and his companions. Her singularity-dotted gaze held something between anticipation and wariness, ancient existence recognizing that the being before her was no longer what he had been when she first agreed to teach him!

She floated away from him, putting distance between them that combat would require.

"Since my perception cannot fully understand you, I won’t be taking it easy."

Her voice carried seriousness that matched her expression.

"Whatever you have become, it exists in territories I cannot map. And things I cannot map are things that can hurt me if I underestimate them."

...!

Billowing power began to gather around her.

Observable Force flooded toward her...and blue infinity faintly shone inside her. Her Proterozoic Bones blazed with authority that pressed against the tumultuous seas surrounding them. Her Proterozoic Organs pulsed with rhythms!

Truly, she seemed to be past the door of Calymmian Proterozoic Scale.

Noah nodded at her words seriously.

"Oh, you definitely should not take it easy."

His voice pressed against existence itself.

"Otherwise, you may not survive."

BOOM!

He simply took a step forward.

And existence itself shook as if he was commanding all the Observable Force nearby, as if his movement had become authority that reality couldn’t ignore. The tumultuous seas parted around him!

The typhoons in the distance stuttered in their rotation. The lightning froze mid-arc as if waiting to see what would happen next!

Oh!

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