Chapter 4034: Give Everything! V
She threw it to one of the awakened Inevitabilities with the casual gesture of someone tossing a ball to a pet.
The creatures immediately began fighting for it with playful competition, massive forms of contradiction wrestling over who would have the honor of delivery.
Finally, one caught it in jaws that existed in multiple states, bringing it to Noah with the pride of a hunting dog delivering quarry.
The Inevitability deposited the seed in his palm with surprising gentleness.
“This,” Khor said, “is a Seed. It should help you, but I will tell you that it is not without its strings. After all, nothing is free in existence. You may take it, you may not. It may help you, or it may bring catastrophe. Who knows?”
As Noah grasped the seed, feeling its impossible weight that had nothing to do with mass, prompts erupted across his vision.
|Early Item Obtained: Seed of Inevitability. Origin: Extracted from Khor, The First Hunger. A seed containing the compressed potential for a new type of Inevitability. When Nurtured, it will give rise to an Inevitability under the control of the nurturer. Control is relative- Inevitabilities follow their nature above all else.
|Nurturing Methods:|
-Planting: Requires soil that has never known growth
-Feeding: Requires willing sacrifice of Everythings from multiple beings
-Temporal Aging: Requires exposure to 1,000 years of compressed time
-Conceptual Saturation: Requires immersion in pure paradox for 100 days
|Note: This Seed recognizes you as one who has given Everything willingly. This recognition may affect the nature of what grows.|
Noah looked at the seed with sharp eyes, lost in its obsidian brilliance as his mind calculated possibilities and probabilities. When he looked up again…
…!
Shock froze him.
All the Inevitabilities that had just surrounded them, Khor included, had vanished!
Not departed, not faded, simply ceased to be present.
He hadn’t sensed movement, hadn’t detected any shift in reality. One moment they were there, the next they weren’t.
He stood alone in an expanse of nothing, the absence of their presence making the space feel larger and smaller simultaneously.
“What if I wish to find you again?” he called out to the emptiness, his voice steady despite the vast solitude. “Why leave just like this?”
Immense silence greeted his question.
For several seconds, nothing responded. Then, teasingly, impossibly, Khor’s voice resonated from everywhere and nowhere.
“Did you truly become attached to an Inevitability like me already?” The amusement in her tone transcended distance. “If we are to meet again, Outsider, we will meet again. After all, you now carry my Seed. That creates… connection.”
Her voice grew more serious, carrying warning wrapped in wisdom.
“These Folds are dangerous. You are lucky to have met me and had enough common sense to listen, but others… these Folds… they are unforgiving. As I told you, many lifeforms are arrogant. Prideful. They see their Way of Existence as supreme, and some are simply very cruel.”
A pause, then she continued.
“You might find Inevitabilities to be infinitely kinder than even Early Creatures… or even THE Creature himself.”
With those terrifying words, Khor’s presence truly and completely vanished.
Noah stood alone in the blankness of the Earliest Folds, the weight of her implications pressing against his consciousness.
“…”
He carefully stored the Seed of Inevitability, then began to explore his surroundings with caution that had nothing to do with fear and everything to do with wisdom.
The environment stretched endlessly in all directions…blank as if existence itself hadn’t decided what should be here.
He moved through this expanse with careful purpose, enhanced perception searching for anything of significance.
A landmark. Another being. Even a variation in the blankness.
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