The blatant, impossible lie shattered THE Living Emotive's existence. It stood frozen, unable to process the betrayal.
The euphoria that had elevated it to unimaginable heights was replaced by a crushing despair so profound it threatened to dissolve its very being.
"How pathetic," THE Living Dimensional said, turning back to Emotive with disgust. "Making false claims for credit? You need to do better. Act with the grandeur befitting our station, not this emotional grasping."
"It's unseemly," THE Living Spirit added, its voice a cold whisper. "We are THE Living Existences, not children fighting over toys.
"Perhaps if you focused on actual achievement rather than emotional outbursts," THE Living Elemental suggested, its form solidifying into an immovable pillar of contempt, "you wouldn't need to fabricate accomplishments."
THE Living Emotive stood there, absorbing each word like an arrow to the heart, while its gaze remained locked on Magnus.
The Early Creature it had raised, the one it had loved, now looked through it as if it were nothing more than a ghost.
Even THE Living Origin, its one true friend, shook its head with disappointment and left its side, drawn by the allure of a new and exciting discovery.
In its moment of highest achievement, THE Living Emotive was thrown to its lowest point, what it cared about the most being torn down, and the only friend it had that day was gone.
Such was the cruel, beautiful, and utterly devastating nature of existence!
In the Early Veiled Shore, Noah stood at a peak of a very different kind.
His complexity and purity coursed through him, power that had just crossed into Duke-level territory.
He looked down at the golden sands, where the nine organs of the Primordial Stone Ape rested.
Each one was a monument to a life of unimaginable scale, a treasury of advancement waiting to be claimed.
He looked at the Infiniverse, her green-gold form pulsing with new potential. To Ruination, whose very nature made her perfect for processing destruction into power.
To Sigrid, Order made manifest, ready to organize chaos into strength. To Moiraine, whose paradoxical existence could, perhaps, handle contradictory advancement.
He could attain trillions of complexity and purity from a single organ. Could they not do the same? Could he not produce multiple entities exceeding ten trillion, creating a foundation of power for his Shore that would be unassailable?
The thought blazed through his mind, a beacon of ambition in the glorious light of his Shore.
Four beings of great power, nine organs! They may need one, they may need two. He had enough regardless!
"Infiniverse," he called, his voice carrying the weight of decision.
She floated forward, her form buzzing. "Master?"
"Choose an organ. Any one you feel drawn to."
Her eyes- if the swirling galaxies within her face could be called eyes, widened with understanding.
"The liver," she said without hesitation. "It processes everything, transforms toxins into nutrients. Like how I transform existence into expressions of your will"
Noah nodded, and with a gesture, the golden sands released their hold on the massive hepatic organ. It floated free, crimson-gold and gleaming with stellar radiance, each lobe containing different aspects of the Primordial Stone Ape's accumulated might.
"Ruination."
She stepped forward, her nature already reaching toward the preserved organs with hungry curiosity.
"The spleen," she decided. "It destroys what needs destroying...old cells, foreign invaders. Destruction with purpose. That's what I am."
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