The symphony of bells began to fade into whispered echoes, but the weight of what had transpired continued to press against reality itself.
Noah’s eleven bodies stood motionless for a heartbeat, each one a perfect mirror of transcendent authority, before they began to move with synchronized precision and began coming together.
The convergence was both beautiful and terrifying to witness. Bodies of crystalline perfection flowed toward each other like streams of liquid starlight, merging with seamless grace until only one remained!
Noah’s singular form pulsed with accumulated power. The golden sands beneath his feet responded to his presence, glowing with deeper intensity as if recognizing the return of their master’s complete attention.
Without hesitation, he stepped to the edge of the Sacred Totem’s peak and leaped.
Noah descended like a force of nature given form, his body cutting through space with the precision of inevitability itself. He landed before Yoshinami with fluid grace, the impact creating ripples of authority that spread outward in perfect circles, each one carrying the weight of an Early Creature’s presence!
HUUM!
The proximity between them crackled with unspoken tension.
Yoshinami’s crimson eyes traveled over him with methodical precision, taking in every detail of his form with the calculating gaze of a predator evaluating potential prey...or perhaps recognizing a worthy master.
Her assessment was thorough, unhurried, as if she possessed all the time in existence to make her judgment. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂
Her pale features remained impassive throughout the examination, betraying nothing of her thoughts!
Then, with movements that carried the weight of ancient ritual, she began to bow.
But this was no simple gesture of respect!
Her body folded with ceremonial precision, arms crossing over her chest in patterns that spoke to traditions older than recorded history.
Her head lowered until her dark hair cascaded like a waterfall of midnight, and her voice whispered words in a language that predated the formation of the Folds themselves.
The bow was tribal, primal, carrying within it the accumulated reverence of eons spent!
|Yoshinami has acknowledged you as her Master through the Ritual of Inevitable Binding. Her loyalty is now absolute, expressed through protection that transcends death itself!|
Noah nodded at the acknowledgment with shining eyes!
When Yoshinami straightened, her smile held new musings...still cold, still calculating, but touched now with something that might have been satisfaction.
"Where," Noah asked, his voice carrying the authority that came naturally to one who commanded reality itself, "were you and others like you before you arrived in my Early Veiled Shore?"
...!
He had so many questions. He wanted to see if he could have any answered by this being that was even rarer than Heidrun!
Yoshinami’s smile deepened.
"It is a place where Early Living Existential Land Lifeforms can exist in something approaching their true nature, free from the constraints that normal reality would impose upon us. We form hierarchies there, territories marked by power and cunning, alliances forged through necessity and broken through ambition."
The picture she painted was both magnificent and terrifying...a place where beings of impossible power existed in states of constant potential, waiting for calls that might never come!
"And what," Noah pressed, his eyes bright with the hunger for knowledge that had always driven him, "do you know about Early Creatures?"
The change in Yoshinami’s expression was immediate and profound!
Her exotic smile transformed into brutality like a weapon, her crimson eyes blazing with memories that burned with the intensity of dying Folds.
"Mmm," she breathed, the sound carrying violence barely held in check. "Early Creatures. The hunters who made sport of existence itself, who treated Existence as their personal playground and all who dwelt within it as toys for their amusement."
She moved closer to Noah, her presence radiating the cold satisfaction of a predator!
"In my prime, Master, when my power was magisterially bright, I stood against them. Early Creatures who descended upon the Wandering Territories like storms of destruction, seeking entertainment in the suffering of those they deemed lesser."
Her smile grew sharp enough to cut through dimensions.
"I...killed one."
...!
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