|The Harvest has begun.|
|Tax is being collected from all entities who have set foot in your Domain without your consent.|
|Tatiana, The Sadistic Dreamer: 37% of current power harvested.|
|Prime Dead Early Creatures (Average): 34% of current power harvested.|
|All harvested power is being accumulated and quantified...|
...!
Noah watched, his face a mask of cold calm, as invisible, brilliant streams of green-gold light shot from Tatiana and her forces, a river of tribute flowing directly into him!
Tatianaโs visage, for the first time, showed genuine, profound shock. Behind her, the illusion of THE Creature began to fracture as it trembled violently, its form dimming as if the very energy sustaining it was being... taxed.
Noah let out a light sigh. "Activate Harvest of Intent."
...!
Another wave, another law. This one was more subtle, a psychic ripple that targeted not their power, but their will.
Tatiana and her forces were instantly struck by a wave of unfathomable, soul-crushing tiredness.
Their intent to harm, their very thoughts of violence, were now a resource being actively and forcefully reaped. Their power, already diminished, fell again. And above Tatiana, the colossal, hazy illusion of THE Creature, its entire existence a manifestation of her intent to "discipline" him... shattered.
It broke apart like a pane of glass, dissolving into motes of golden light that were then harvested by the verdant-gold field.
Noah looked at the empty space where the "Lesson" of THE Creature had been.
"It seems there are Principles..." he said, his voice a cold, pedagogical murmur, "and then there are PRINCIPLEs."
...!
It was easy to say just who among them held the lower-case, and who held the capitalized. ๐๐๐ฎ๐๐๐๐๐ท๐๐ฟ๐๐ต.๐๐๐
As he spoke, he shook his head and looked at Tatiana, who was now staring in horror at the space where her ultimate attack had been. Noahโs expression was one of almost bored finality.
"Impose Compound Interest of Opposition," he commanded, his voice growing louder, "and Principle Override: โNothing Is Freeโ."
...!
BOOM!
The verdant-gold light around Noah exploded. The massive, conceptual tree that was his Principle erupted from his back, its branches a glorious, tyrannical canopy that imposed itself upon all of reality. This was the final, terrible blow.
Tatiana and her forces had attacked him. They had tried to harm him. They had failed. And in doing so, they had been accumulating a heavy, terrible, and now-due Existential Debt.
A throne of Primordial Fireballs, a swirling, crimson-blue seat of pure, incandescent Mana, formed behind Noah. He sat back into it, a king upon his throne, and he looked down at the broken, depleted, and utterly shocked army of the Prime Dead.
His voice was a tyrannical boom, a final, absolute judgment.
"I will collect... all the Existential Debts you all owe. They are all due right now... and I want the Payment to be in the authority of your Principles!"
...!
BOOM!
It was not an attack. It was a collection. A repossession.
The illusion of THE Creature, which had been shattering, now disintegrated completely. Tatiana, her face pale and ashen, her power a flickering candle, was struck by a force she could not see, her body convulsing.

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